Fruit

Steaming might seem a surprising way to start cooking a turkey, but the payoff is real: The extra step makes the bird extra-juicy, and cuts down on the overall cooking time.

This gorgeous dessert has just 5 ingredients and is super simple to make. Use a fine-mesh sieve to lightly dust the top with confectioners' sugar for an elegant finish.

This not-too-sweet loaf would also make amazing French toast.

Low-acid Meyer lemons make the citrus flavor of these bars especially vibrant.

Herbaceous and packed with fiber and protein, this grain salad is a keeper.

Indulgent raspberry cream cheese makes homemade brownies even better.

Toast the cornbread for a nice crisp texture.

Cinnamon and cherry give this tequila concoction a festive, wintry vibe.

Baking a batch of these classic Austrian sandwich cookies is a project—but totally worth it.

This dish is only as good as the crab it's made with; buy the freshest you can find.

This clubby Scotch drink was created at the old Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

This zesty combination makes a lively snack or tasty addition to salads and grain dishes any time of year.

Frozen corn and cranberries are the secret to these festive flapjacks.

This beautiful pastis — a sweet phyllo-wrapped pie that evolved in southwest France from the savory meat-filled _b'stilla_s of Morocco — makes an impressive holiday dessert.

The Pale Rider swaps out fruit for jalapeno and simply adds manzanilla, a small dose of cane syrup, and lime.

Feta, Kalamata olives, oregano, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice give this grilled-squash pizza its unmistakably Greek flavor. I use a panini press to grill the slices of yellow squash and zucchini because I love the look and slightly charred flavor this method produces. You can also cook the squash in the oven or on a grill or stove-top grill pan. Grilling the cut face of a lemon half in the same way gives it a beautiful appearance and tones down its acidity a bit.

In 2006, I packed up my gear and traveled to the Mall of America for the Food Network Pizza Champions Challenge. Over the course of a very grueling day, we competed for three Guinness World Records in front of a big audience and a panel of famous judges. I won two of the world-record rounds: Biggest Pizza Continuously Spinning for Two Minutes, and Most Consecutive Rolls Across the Shoulders in 30 Seconds. By comparison, round three, the cooking challenge, felt as easy as pie. Four of us gathered at our stations to get our marching orders: create a gourmet pizza in ten minutes using none of the top ten toppings—no pepperoni, no sausage, you get the idea. So, my instinct was to combine two of my favorite pizza worlds, California and Italy. I grabbed five totally traditional Italian ingredients: prosciutto, fig jam, Gorgonzola, Asiago, and balsamic vinegar. They're classic, but the thing is, you'd never find them on a pizza in Italy, at least not all together. But to us "why not?" Californians, the combination makes perfect sense as a pizza topping, and it made sense to the judges, too.

This popular Thai dish has been cooked regularly in our kitchen ever since we first tried it in Bangkok. The first time we made it at home, we stayed true to the original recipe by stir-frying rice noodles in a sweet and a slightly spicy sauce, but through the years, it has slowly transformed into something new. Instead of stir-frying rice noodles, we now simply peel a daikon radish (courgette/zucchini also works fine) into thin strips that we toss with carrot strands, tofu and fresh herbs and cover with a peanut butter and lime dressing. Even though we have changed both cooking method and ingredients, it still has that wonderful flavor combination of sweet, nutty, tangy and a little spicy and the experience is light, fresh and, in our opinion, even tastier.

Add this to baked goods like biscuits or use it to rim a cocktail glass.