Beverages

On the buffet table, put the ham and mustard sauce next to the Caraway-Dill Biscuits so that your guests can make their own little sandwiches. Prepare the sauce one day ahead.

Buttered potatoes accompany this simple, sophisticated dish at Gugelhof restaurant.

(Cacciucco) This seafood soup, called cacciucco (meaning "mixture"), is a specialty of Livorno, a fishing port that is Tuscany's second-largest city. It has been made for hundreds of years, and variations of it appear all along the Tuscan coast. Traditionally, at least five types of fish and shellfish are included (one for each "c" in the name). If you like, do as the Italians do, and place a slice of toasted bread in each bowl before ladling the soup over.

We thought we would update the popular Cosmopolitan by substituting Champagne for the usual lemon vodka. We garnished the drinks with skewers of sugar-coated fresh cranberries (thawed frozen ones will work just fine, too).

This recipe is an accompaniment for Pappardelle Bolognese .

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

China is the original home of the peach (a favorite fruit of its emperors), and pine nuts are grown in China and are used to garnish sweet fruit soups. The ginger-spiced peach sauce for this dessert can be prepared one day before serving.

Oeufs en Meurette Sauce meurette is one of the grand classics of French country cooking, a dark concentrated essence of red wine, stock, and vegetables. You would expect it to be paired with the equally powerful flavors of meat or poultry, but no — meurette is unique in accompanying fish, or poached eggs, as here. For extra flavor, I like to poach the eggs in the wine, which is then used for the sauce; they emerge an odd purple hue, but this is later concealed by the glossy brown sauce. For poaching, it's well worth looking for farm-fresh eggs as they hold their shape better than store-bought eggs. Oeufs en meurette is a favorite restaurant dish, not least because it can be prepared ahead and assembled to order. However, most regrettably, it is not a dish to make in a hurry. All the elements can be prepared in advance, but the full glory of oeufs en meurette is ruined by trying to cut corners. Wine for Cooking For six months in the year, we live in northern Burgundy, where the local pinot noirs are inexpensive and appropriately light for this dish. Equally good for meurette would be a pinot from the northern end of Oregon's Willamette Valley. Avoid the "blockbuster" type of heavy pinots that come from the hotter climes of California and Australia. Wine to Drink To do justice to the richly flavored sauce, let's move up to something grander. A premier cru red from one of the villages in Burgundy's Côte de Beaune would do nicely, as would one of the more refined pinots from California's Carneros district.

This Basque dish is essentially a fish pâté or pudding, called budíns in Spain.

This recipe was created to accompany <a></a>Turkey with Sherry Wine Vinegar Gravy .

This is a poetic version of the traditional Chinese almond milk gelatin dessert. Whipping the milk gives the top layer of this dessert the appearance of snow. Fat-free (skim) milk will create the most foam.

Tangy crème fraîche and a very grown-up rum-pineapple topping take cheesecake to an entirely new level. For best results, use Philadelphia-brand cream cheese.

Active time: 2 hr Start to finish: 3 1/2 hr (includes making stock)

A true coq au vin is made with the master of the farmyard, a rooster. If you can't find such a beast, use a good-size roasting chicken, and reduce the cooking time (cook it for about one hour, or until the meat is tender and cooked but not falling from the bone).

Gins that emphasize fruit botanicals, such as Tanqueray No. Ten, work best with this recipe. Active time: 25 minutes Start to finish: 1 day

Dark chocolate, light chocolate and coffee fillings alternate with nut meringue layers, and dark chocolate ganache covers the whole torte. This is an irresistible version of the traditional Parisian dessert.