Dairy

We prefer Nova salmon for this particular recipe because it's the mildest and least salty. Although Nova has become a general term for smoked salmon, it really describes the delicacy made from fish descended from wild Nova Scotia salmon.

You can find the Neufchâtel cheese called for here next to the cream cheese at your supermarket. Don't be alarmed by the holes in your coeur à la crème molds — they allow liquid to drain out of the bottom so the hearts will be firm enough to hold their shape.

Check your local farmers market or Chef's Garden (800-289-4644) for the geranium leaves or experiment with other leaves such as fresh basil or mint.

We tested this recipe using a charcoal grill and a gas grill and found that grilling the dough over charcoal required both direct and indirect heat, a process too involved for Quick Kitchen. We prefer supermarket mozzarella rather than fresh for this pizza because fresh mozzarella exudes too much liquid when cooked. If your pizza dough is frozen, allow 2 to 3 hours to let it thaw.

This creamy chilled soup will make you hope for an abundance of zucchini in your garden this year. Thin-sliced zucchini blossoms, available at produce markets and specialty foods shops, add a beautiful hint of color while lending texture to the soup's smoothness.

This healthful vegetarian dish would be perfect for a picnic. To speed prep time, use trimmed sugar snap peas with the strings removed (find them in the produce section of many supermarkets).

Alexis Watson of Irvine, California, writes: "You could say I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to cooking. Often I'll take a particular recipe and spend months perfecting it, as I've done with the Caesar salad here. My wife wanted an easy do-ahead dressing that was creamy but didn't use egg yolks. Now we make this salad several times a week, so it was certainly well worth the effort."

We all have memories either of great or terrible meatloaf meals from childhood. My mom's meatloaf is a fond food memory. It was always moist and juicy, with a touch of Italy from the tomatoes and pecorino Romano cheese. It also passed the test of any respectable meatloaf: it made good sandwiches the next day.

The little green chile makes an appearance in the burger and in its creamy ranch sauce. What to drink: Chateau Souverain 2002 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley ($22).

The Grilling Guru has a moral dilemma. To be strictly faithful to Louis' Lunch, he should tell you to top your hamburger with a liquid processed cheese, like Cheez Whiz. The Grilling Guru doesn't use Cheez Whiz himself, however, so he feels awkward about calling for it. So he's created a made-from-scratch cheese sauce that will satisfy the purist, while remaining faithful to the lurid orange cheese topping used by Louis'.

This recipe serves 4 as a main course after you set aside one third of the fish (see cooks' note, below) to make the capellini with salmon and lemon-dill-vodka sauce. Otherwise, it serves 6.

Food Editor: Shelley Wiseman
Father: John Wiseman, Somerset, England
When my father and stepmother moved from Mexico to England, my father started to help with the cooking. The first thing he learned to make was this Caesar salad.

To minimize untended grill time, bring the stuffing and reserved cheese to the grill along with the mushrooms.