Dairy

This upscale quiche is great for company. Read the section on blind-baking the crust a few times before you get started; it’s the trickiest part (but by no means hard). The only special equipment you’ll need is a 10 1/2-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Once you have one of these, you’ll use it for a hundred different things, so it’s a good investment.

Being a kid from South Carolina, I always had fresh biscuits growing up. This recipe is as close to my grandmother’s as I could get without having a spiritual adviser. They’re big, fat, and light as a cloud, just like I remember them. The peach and rosemary spoon fruit adds a little contemporary twist.

This is the old-school lasagna that you find in the Italian restaurants in Brooklyn. Fuggedaboudit! You can assemble the lasagna ahead of time … and it’s great for leftovers.

Avoid using a salad spinner to wash and dry the arugula—the leaves bruise easily. Instead, dunk them in a sink of cool water and lift them into a colander. Pat dry with a kitchen towel. Simple salt and pepper will form a crust on the steaks when you sear them. I don’t normally serve anything else with this warm steak salad except the rest of the bottle of Cabernet used in the vinaigrette recipe.

The flavor of peas and bacon takes me back to my childhood; that’s why I like this pasta dish so much. I feel like a little kid wolfing this down. It’s even good cold!

Long, slow baking in the convection oven produces a beautiful cake, one that has a silky texture. A bit of flour in the mixture makes the cake easier to cut. This makes a large cheesecake, ideal for a party. Top it with fresh berries in season or use one of the variations below.

This old-fashioned cake is bathed in an orange syrup when it is still hot from the oven.

This is just as easy to make as a cake mix, but twice as tasty.

A ribbon of cinnamon sugar and nuts runs through this coffee cake. This is irresistible served while still warm.

This will impress your guests when you want something extra special to serve for brunch on a summer morning during blueberry season. I sometimes make an extra cake just for backup and keep it well wrapped in a round metal tin in the freezer.

Biscuits have been an American favorite since the early 1800s. Anything so well known has as many variations as there are enthusiasts. My favorite recipe includes an egg for lightness. As expected, when they’re baked in the convection oven, they bake more quickly at a lower temperature.

This salad is wonderful served warm or at room temperature with French bread and a green salad.

This is a wonderful Greek-style one-dish meal or a side dish for a party. Roasting brings out the flavors of the vegetables. You can prepare all the vegetables except the potatoes ahead of time.

Tandoori Chicken is a classic northern Indian dish. The word “tandoori” comes from the Hindi word “tandoor,” a tall, cylindrical clay oven originally used in northern India to cook meat dishes and bread. Here, we use a tandoori spice mixture as a marinade for salmon. Traditionalists might balk, but when I’m in a hurry, I use a store-bought tandoori spice mixture. In the convection oven, the salmon cooks quickly and is moist and mildly fragrant. A minty cucumber-yogurt sauce adds an authentic flavor.

Roast a selection of seasonal vegetables right along with the chicken breasts to make a delicious meal. Turnips, carrots, onions, and potatoes are perfect for a winter evening.

My husband loves tortilla chips, but he won’t touch those little pieces left in the bottom of the bag, so I crush them with a rolling pin to make a coating for boneless chicken breasts. This family favorite can be easily expanded into a party meal. Ordinarily, I serve his with rice, and sometimes I like to add black beans, too.

This thick and creamy soup gains a rich flavor when the potatoes are roasted in a bit of bacon fat.

Cooking the onions for this hearty soup requires less tending in the convection oven than in a saucepan and the aroma is just as wonderful!

Baked in the convection oven, this soufflé rises high and is almost noncollapsible. However, you’d still better have the table set and be ready to eat when the soufflé is done because it won’t stay puffed forever!