Alcohol

Port and orange juice accent this cranberry and dried fig sauce.

Toss chopped endive, radicchio, fennel and roasted bell peppers with oil and vinegar for a pretty salad course. For the finale, offer poached pears drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with crushed toffee. Learn how to make your own ravioli with our hands-on streaming video demonstration.

Serve this flavorful roast with its rich mushroom gravy, the mashed potatoes here and sautéed carrots. A fruity Zinfandel would make a good wine choice.

Serve these pastries as the first course of a special-occasion supper — maybe with a bottle of chilled Champagne.

This dish can be made ahead and reheated.

The creamy tequila-orange filling contrasts perfectly with the tart cranberry topping.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Dried mixed salad herbs, found in the spice section of the supermarket, can substitute for herbes de Provence, the French seasoning.

"Mi Piaci, a local restaurant, serves a pasta entrée with wild mushrooms called Fusilli alla Boscaiola," says Karen Mungioli, of Dallas, Texas. "Its flavors reminded me of a dish I had in Italy recently. I’d love to try my hand at preparing this authentic-tasting recipe in my home kitchen."

This can be prepared one day ahead, making the seder day much easier. Serve steamed broccoli on the side.

Ella Brennan, who has been called the "queen of Creole cuisine," tasted her first bread pudding long ago. "It was my mother's," she says. "You never had anything like it." These days, people say the same thing about the bread pudding at Brennan's famous Commander's Palace restaurant in New Orleans. "Our bread pudding soufflé outsells all of our other desserts by ten to one, maybe a hundred to one," she says. "We see people swoon over it." Here's a new take on this hall-of-fame comfort dessert: a pumpkin bread pudding that is served cold, except for the sugar sprinkled on top and browned under the broiler just before the sensational dessert goes to the table.

This easy-to-make dish combines the sweetness of tomatoes with the briny essence of capers.

There's just a wee bit of the favorite Irish spirit in these treats.