Recipe Sifter

Pecan tarts with caramel sauce: flaky homemade pastry shells filled with a brown-butter pecan filling, baked golden, then drizzled with silky amber caramel. Individual holiday tartlets worth the effort.

Milk chocolate orange truffles with fresh orange zest, heavy cream ganache, and a chocolate dipping shell. The classic confection that tastes like a Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Cajun seafood dirty rice loaded with shrimp, lump crab, homemade shrimp stock, and the holy trinity. Spiced with cayenne and thyme for that real Louisiana bayou flavor.

Fettuccine with peas, ham, and mushrooms in a Parmesan cream sauce. A rich, one-skillet pasta dinner with browned mushrooms and sweet pops of green peas in every forkful.

Mixed berry cobbler with boysenberries, blueberries, and raspberries under a buttery cream biscuit topping. Baked until bubbling and golden, served warm with cream.

Easy Boston cream pie made the no-bake way: a split yellow cake layer sandwiched with silky vanilla pudding, then crowned with a glossy chocolate-cream topping spiked with almond extract.

[Note: Bobby Flay, chef of NYC's Mesa Grill, prepared this dessert for a Meals on Wheels benefit meal at the Frontera Grill in Chicago

Baked Brussels sprouts gratin with bacon, heavy cream, butter, and bread crumbs. Blanched sprouts and chopped bacon bake in cream until bubbly with a golden, crispy top.

Pan-sauteed chicken breasts with a quick raspberry vinegar cream sauce, green onions, and unsalted butter. An elegant 30-minute dinner with a tangy, silky pan sauce.

Paneed veal fried golden in seasoned bread crumbs served over fettuccine in a rich Parmesan cream sauce with cayenne. A Cajun-Italian restaurant classic made at home.

Ginger-almond florentines: thin, lacy caramel cookies with crystallized ginger, toasted almonds, and citrus zest, finished with a smooth chocolate coating on the flat side.

Three layers of deep chocolate cake get brushed with vanilla sugar glaze while hot, then stacked with mocha buttercream icing spiked with coffee and cocoa.

Intensely rich chocolate silk mousse cake baked in a water bath with a pound of semi-sweet chocolate and a glossy ganache glaze. Make up to 3 days ahead. Serves 8.

I have finally found it! Oh thank neptune, the perfect chocolate cake. It is fluffy, moist, deeply chocolatey, and the frosting is smooth and creamy as it should be. You will make a lot of new friends with this recipe.

Habanero chicken jerktoufee blends Cajun etouffee with Caribbean jerk spices. Chicken breast in a creamy roux-thickened sauce with tasso, habanero, and jalapeno, served over cornbread.

Judith Olney's chocolate buttermilk cake is a tender triple-layer cake built on tangy buttermilk, a generous hit of cocoa, a whisper of cinnamon, and a splash of coffee that sharpens the chocolate into something deep and grown-up.