Onion

With some warm corn bread, this chili is a meal in itself. You wouldn't know there was chocolate in the recipe, but it adds a subtle depth of flavor to the dish.

You'll need a big glass bowl or a trifle dish to show off the salad to its best advantage. An accompaniment to Chicken Chili Verde .

Called Dublin coddle, this traditional Irish dish is a quick main course.

Great with tortilla chips as a dip. Or try it as a vegetarian filling for burritos adding grated Monterey Jack cheese, too.

Tomato and Bread Soup

Michael McLaughlin, cookbook author, says, "Sweet potatoes are so versatile that it's a crime to fix them just one way every Thanksgiving. A long time ago, I decided to be flexible and creative with the sweet potatoes, and it has been a delicious ongoing investigation. This year, now that dried cranberries are a supermarket staple, I've zeroed in on this version. Not only is it a colorful addition to the holiday spread, but it also is cooked on top of the stove, freeing up some precious oven space."

The following is chef Robert Freitag's variation of a recipe by Joyce Goldstein, chef-owner of Square One, in San Francisco, until it closed in 1996. The chef likes to use king salmon when making this dish.

In 1991, the National Cancer Institute identified phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables; these compounds may be cancer fighters.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

To begin, offer a bowl of brine-cured green and black olives, another of marinated artichoke hearts, and some pâté and toast. The cassoulet needs only red wine and a loaf of good French bread as accompaniments. A pear or apple tart would add an appropriate French country flourish.

Adding lemon peel shortly before the rice has finished cooking gives it a bright flavor.

This is one of my mother's recipes and call me biased, but it's the best around. This is a vegetarian black bean soup, and one of the keys to its success is the quality of the olive oil: use the very best you can find. You can make the soup a day in advance and it will taste even better the next day. This is a no-fail recipe that I know you're going to enjoy.

If you're planning to use the leftovers to make the fried rice with pork and kale , reserve 3/4 cup of this sautéed kale.

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 4 1/2 hr

Active time: 35 min Start to finish: 45 min