Black Pepper

Charlie Palmer's Practical Guide to the New American Kitchen By Charlie Palmer A Man & His Meatballs The Hilarious but True Story of a Self-Taught Chef and Restaurateur By John LaFemina with Pam Manela Regan Books / 2006 / $27.95 "Hilarious" might be a stretch, but this memoir/cookbook will be surprisingly absorbing for anyone who's idly dreamed of starting a restaurant. John LaFemina tells an entertaining tale of New York entrepreneurship. A jeweler, he got into the restaurant business as an investor, then an owner and only then decided to master the art and science of cooking.

In his book The Cuisine of Jacques Maximim, edited and adapted by Caroline Conran, chef Jacques Maximim combines sauteed pears with eggs and a bit of cream to make a savory clafouti that is extraordinary. Pears in particular keep just enough of their inherent sweetness against the savory custard; it's almost like Yorkshire pudding squared, and it goes with any roast (and most other main courses). Apples can be substituted for the pears. Regina Schrambling wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times, which provided the recipe analysis.

Treat yourself and family with this colorful fall dinner. Salmon fillets are baked and topped with a black-olive-and-shallot sauce. It's served with black beans and orange carrots. The tastes and textures are a treat. Diane Goodman, Miami caterer and author of The Plated Heart, suggested this festive meal in a recent interview. It's full of flavor and fun and only takes a few minutes to make. The trick to cooking this salmon is to make sure the oven is at the right temperature before putting in the fish.

Acorn Squash with Red Onion and Currants Serves 8 2 medium acorn squash 1/4 cup vegetable oil salt and freshly ground pepper 4 tablespoons ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter 5 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar 2 medium red onions, thinly sliced 1 tablespoon paprika 2 pinches cayenne pepper 1/2 cup dried currants 1/3 cup honey 3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar Heat oven to 325 degrees. Wash the squash. Using a serrated knife, cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.

Lisa Lemanski from Easthampton, Mass., was looking for a recipe for chicken cooked with beer. Patricia Butrow from Baltimore sent in her recipe. It calls for a whole chicken cut up, but it could be made using any parts of the chicken you prefer. I made mine using breast pieces only. Start to finish, the recipe took about an hour to prepare, and the result was tasty and succulent. Butrow says she likes to pair the chicken with rice, steamed string beans, apple cider and toasted rye bread.

Rubs can rub a lazy cook the right way. There usually are ample ingredients in the pantry (after all, how much ground red pepper or cumin can a person go through in a decade?) and they add plenty of zip to meat and seafood. Here we're adding a rub to quick-cooking steak kebabs. You can tailor the rub to accommodate your heat quotient; use less of the chili and ground red pepper (or none at all) if you prefer a tamer kebab. Renee Enna writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe analysis.

This is the rub recipe that I developed after seven successive years of judging at the Memphis in May national barbecue contest. It's not authentically Southern because I'm no child of the South, but it has been called pretty doggoned good for a Yankee girl. We give oven instructions here (in case of inclement weather) but barbecue is usually cooked in a smoker or covered grill over indirect heat. It'll take about the same time. Consult your grill's instructions or visit a reliable outdoor-cooking Web site.

Although summer's official arrival is late June, Memorial Day is for many of us the unofficial beginning of the warm-weather season. I pull out my grill from the garage and collect my favorite summer recipes, including barbecued ribs, smoky chicken, fish and steaks cooked over an open fire, all manner of salads, cooling lemonades and iced teas, and juicy fruit pies. For this long holiday weekend, we've invited friends for a backyard supper. It didn't take me long to choose a menu. We'll begin with toasted pita triangles topped with guacamole and a sprinkle of bacon and continue with lemon and pepper grilled chicken served with a roasted potato salad and the season's first corn on the cob. A blueberry tart will bring the meal to a close.

My Italian-born mother instilled in me a love for many foods of her homeland, especially the fresh fruit and vegetables hard to find here in the States when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s. Chief among them was fennel. The crisp, slightly sweet, gently licorice-flavored vegetable was a favorite snack eaten raw. Nowadays I use it most often in cooking. Its aromatic properties and mellowed flavor when cooked are the basis of this dish. Added are other fragrant vegetables - leeks and onions - and white beans and chicken sausage for heft.

Kale is well-known in Maryland as a key ingredient in a St. Mary's County stuffed ham. "At Thanksgiving, our first priority, even over the turkey, is the stuffed ham," said Ray Raley of Ridge, at the southern tip of St. Mary's County. "It is our history. And it is always on the menu at the church dinner. "But outside of us, it is probably nonexistent. Stuffed ham ends at about Waldorf," he said. The ham itself is a hard-to-find cut of fresh pork called sweet pickled corned ham. If you don't have a butcher who can get one for you, Raley recommends buying a fresh ham and having it boned.