5 Ingredients or Fewer

If you can't find fresh sea scallops, use peeled large shrimp, leaving the tails on. Rice pilaf or orzo would be a good accompaniment.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Offer some fresh strawberries for dessert.

This fluffy Lady Baltimore cake is layered with toasted pecans, dried figs, raisins, and frosted in a thick, luscious Swiss meringue.

"I made this recipe in a cooking class I taught here in Vancouver, and the crowd was so pleased they gave me a standing ovation," says Sylvia Molnar of Vancouver, British Columbia. "It's a gorgeous dish that's even better served with lemon-scented rice or potatoes." Garnish with dill sprigs, if desired.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve buttered noodles, potato salad or rice pilaf alongside this entree.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Complete the main course with buttered sweet potato chunks (they can roast alongside the chicken) and sautéed Swiss chard. Serve purchased éclairs for dessert.

GELATO DI PESCA This recipe was sensational when we made it with ripe, flavorful peaches. If your peaches aren't great, try something similar, like nectarines.

These cookies are perfect with a cup of tea.

(Garlic Roast Beef) My husband's Aunt Enza has played an important role in my life as a born-again Tuscan. We often dine at her home on Sundays for a traditional family lunch. The main course is usually what Enza calls magro, which can actually mean meatless but in Enza's lexicon signifies merely a lean or fatless choice cut of beef, sliced thin, lightly sauced with meat juices, and topped with golden brown cloves of garlic. Because Italian home cooks in cities rarely had ovens until the postwar period, meats were often cooked on top of the stove, as is Enza's. It's faster than oven-roasting and a perfect technique for people who love rare "roast" beef.