6 gala recipes

Gala chicken breasts roll thin pounded breasts around an egg salad filling with chives, tarragon, and Dijon, then bake with a lemon-butter brush. Elegant make-ahead main.

No-bake apricot cheesecake on a toasted oat crust with brandy-laced cream cheese filling, folded with chopped apricots and whipped cream. Glazed with warm apricot preserves and brandy.

Raw vegan vegetable-nut pate with pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, cilantro, and grated vegetables. A no-cook plant-based spread served in bell pepper cups with crudites.

This is the basic recipe for cooking lentils or beans. Many southern and southwestern regional recipes call for cooked lentils or beans to be stirred gently into a dish near the end of cooking. Therefore, it may be a good idea ot make them a day ahead and have them ready when you begin the actual cooking.

Calas: traditional New Orleans rice fritters made from yeast-risen mashed rice dough with nutmeg, deep-fried golden and dusted with powdered sugar. A Creole street food with African roots dating to the 1700s.

Fa-la-la-la's are festive spritz-style cookies pressed into holiday shapes from a buttery shortening dough flavored with vanilla and almond extract. Christmas cookie classic.