Stew

Pre-marinated pork tenderloins can be found in the supermarket meat section. To round out the meal, add a romaine salad dressed with Dijon vinaigrette and a basket of warm cranberry-corn muffins; finish with wedges of apple pie and sharp cheddar cheese.

Offer seasoned tortilla chips alongside, as well as bagged lettuce tossed with ranch dressing. Try vanilla pudding topped with diced pineapple for dessert.

Boeuf bourguignon may be made 1 day ahead. Cool, uncovered, then chill, covered (it tastes even better made ahead because it gives the flavors time to develop). If making ahead, it's easier to remove fat from surface after chilling.

The following recipe calls for filé powder, a spice made from the dried, ground leaves of the sassafras tree. Although often added as a thickener to gumbos while they cook, filé powder can also serve purely as a seasoning. As in this recipe, it is then sprinkled over the gumbo at the penultimate moment.

Pair this with frosty glasses of lager.

Dill is the secret seasoning in this hearty stew. Serve it with lots of bread.

This traditional Indian dish is usually served with basmati rice or Indian bread.

"Last year my family spent the holidays on the Big Island of Hawaii," writes Jo Lucarz of Phoenix, Arizona. "One afternoon we ate lunch in Kamuela at the Parker Ranch Grill, where we had the best chili ever — and coming from a group of Arizona natives, that's saying a lot."

"Lidia's in Kansas City, Missouri, serves a rustic white bean and potato soup that would make a perfect meatless entrée for a winter evening," writes Deborah Johnson of Columbia, Missouri. "I order it every time I go there. Do you think chef Dan Swinney would part with his recipe?" Start this recipe a day ahead so that there's time for the beans to soak overnight.

Complete this meatless dinner with a salad of red leaf lettuce and sliced Asian pears. Pass a basket of warm pita bread. For dessert, top split bananas with brown sugar and coconut and broil until caramelized.

"This is a recipe I created on a snowy night when my family needed a little warming up," writes Rebecca Averill of Beverly, Massachusetts. "I combined the spices of India with the flavors of the Southwest, and added bulgur to give the chili a meaty texture. "

"I recently had lunch at Café Boulud here in New York," says Shelli Rafkin of New York, New York. "My entrée, blanquette de veau, had the most incredible sauce I've ever tasted. The whole dish, in fact, was sensational." In this variation on the classic stew, the veal and the vegetables are cooked separately and combined at the end, when they're topped with a rich white sauce.