Fruit

This cut of pork can be very lean, so take care not to overcook it or it will be dry. Ideally, it should still be a little pink in the center.

Kierin Baldwin's pie dough method is special in a couple of ways. First, she uses a combination of butter, which lends rich flavor, and shortening, which makes the flakiest crusts. The best of both worlds. Her technique of repeatedly flattening and stacking the dough coats the flour with fat, which helps make the crust tender.

Our dry brine is like a concentrated rub; massage citrus zest and peppercorns onto the skin and let it cure for a few hours before the bird hits the oven.

This side dish is equally good with steak, broiled fish, or seared lamb chops.

A splash of brandy—plus orange zest and juice—in the doughnut batter complements the fruity jam filling perfectly. Try it with any preserve, pastry cream, or sugar coating you like.

This zabaione (zabaglione) and lemongrass ice cream dessert is adapted from Chef Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. It is his unique take on a lemon tart, served upside down and smashed. According to Chef Bottura, "this dessert pokes fun at our daily striving for perfection and pristine beauty. I love the dynamics of a lemon tart but hate all the fuss—cream decorations and stubborn crusts. To get around all that nonsense, we purposefully crushed our tart. Of course, it isn’t just a one-liner but full of flavored experience from the most fragile crust to the peaks of tart, sour, sweet, cured, and candied lemon on the plate." This recipe makes 2 large tarts: You can make 2 and freeze 1 (keeping all elements separate in the freezer and assembling just before serving) or you can halve the ingredients.

Vegan Green beans, cashews, mint, carrot, cucumber, and lime shine through the pearly noodles in this pretty, uplifting dish. The noodles will seem undercooked at first, but they will soften as they absorb the marinade and the moisture from the other ingredients. If you cook them all the way, the finished dish will be mushy. • Rice noodles of various thickness can be purchased inexpensively in most Asian-themed grocery stores, some supermarkets, and online. Use medium-thin ones for this recipe. • You can freeze the unused coconut milk in an ice cube tray, then transfer the cubes to a heavy plastic zip-style bag for making this (or something else) in the future. Don't forget to label the bag. • This tastes best within a few hours of being assembled, so plan accordingly. • Make sure the cucumber is sweet.

Vegan The simplest saladitas in my repertoire are the ones that pair a single fruit with just one fresh herb. These are as flexible as they are easy. Extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lemon or lime juice, and salt and pepper are all optional. A small pile of Pickled Red Onions is always welcome on top. Make these shortly before serving.

This is a modern rendition of a nineteenth-century recipe that ultimately became the legendary duck a l'orange.

Tarte Tatin—Josh's all-time favorite dessert!—is a classic French upside-down apple tart that is prepared from start to finish in just one pan. It starts with sugar that cooks in the pan until it's caramelized, and then the apples are added and cooked until they are meltingly tender. The apple filling is then topped with pastry and the pan goes into the oven. The tarte is then inverted (to the delight of everyone watching) and served. While pie dough is the typical crust used for this tart, we've swapped in store-bought puff pastry for an easier preparation.

This sammie-side combo fulfills all your midday-meal needs.

This bright, creamy yogurt sauce is lightly flecked with herbs and is great for everything from drizzling over savory bowls of grains to spooning on top of fried rice, breakfast hash, or Buckwheat Crepes. Double the recipe for a larger group or to keep a little jar of the sauce in the refrigerator. It's season-less, really. Morning Notes: Depending on the kind of yogurt you use and how you prefer the consistency of this sauce, feel free to add a spoonful (or two) of cold water to thin it out.

Across the Middle East, cinnamon is used not only to highlight the flavor of sweets but also in savory dishes—as in this Moroccan-inspired carrot salad. I toss it here with slender Kamut berries, which contribute their distinct buttery chew. Vibrantly colorful and deliciously juicy, this salad steals the show on my holiday table. Try it also next to steak, grilled lamb, or a simple roast chicken.

My friend Keena lives less than a mile away and has a plum tree she can't keep up with. In early fall, she makes jam with as many plums as she can and sends me home with a big grocery bag full of them every time I see her. I'm not much of a canner, so I began sautéing them and using them as a topping for yogurt and porridge, and as a filling for these simple buckwheat crepes. While buckwheat groats have a pretty distinct flavor and can be a hard sell for many folks, buckwheat flour is commonly used and adored in both sweet and savory crepes. For this recipe, use oval-shaped Italian plums (or prune plums) if you can; they're nice and firm and lend themselves well to sautéing—or just plain snacking. Morning Notes: The crepe batter needs to rest for at least an hour, so plan accordingly or make the batter and refrigerate it overnight. If you go that route, the crepes cook best when the batter is at room temperature, so let it sit out for at least 30 minutes before cooking them.

China meets the Southwest in this unusual fusion salad. Glistening Chinese black rice—usually sold under the label Forbidden Black Rice—set off against bright orange segments and avocado's pale green gives the mixture striking visual appeal.

In many cultures dating as far back as the Middle Ages, crunchy, toothsome wheat berries have been sweetened and served for holiday celebrations. In Russia, poppy seeds, walnuts, and raisins are added for a dish called kutya. In Turkey, a similar dish is called kofyas, and in Greece it's known as koliva. The combination of wheat, honey, and dates has survived so long because it is heavenly. Serve small portions as it's quite filling.

In Milan, osso buco is traditionally served on a bed of creamy saffron risotto and topped with a pungent, colorful topping of garlic, lemon zest, parsley, and anchovies known as gremolata.

When we were first dating, we would stay up in bed for hours trying to come up with new interpretations of classic desserts. Bird chile and passion fruit pavlova; Stilton mousse with walnut Florentine; apple, currant, and Brie pot pie. But some classics we knew not to amp up with "bold flavors" because they were sacred. Such is the tarte bourdaloue. This was one of the first desserts Matt and I were both taught to make in our classical pastry training; it is the pride of any French patisserie worth its (artisinal) salt, and you will treat it with some goddamn respect! Traditionally, it's a buttery tart crust filled with poached pear and luxurious almond cream. However, no matter how mind blowing the tarte bourdaloue is, almost no one in this country knows what it is. French Matt Says: You uncultured American swine! So, in an effort to make this winning flavor combo a bit more popular this side of the pond, we broke tradition and messed with it a little to turn it into a cupcake¿I mean, what's more American than cupcakes? Besides bald eagles, of course, but then again, you can't eat those (yet)!

Who doesn¿t love the taste of chocolate and strawberries together? Try this Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Shake for more of the great combination.