For a Mexican dinner, I substitute tomato salsa and guacamole for the Mango Salsa. Sautéed sweet red peppers and onions make a delicious side dish.

Adapted from The Fondue Cookbook by Gina Steer (Whitecap Books).

Recipe courtesy of Lobel’s Meat Bible (Raincoast Books).

Surprise your taste buds with these tasty burgers.

This is a very yummy grilled flank steak recipe that I tried for the first time in Southern California. It’s a no-fail recipe that makes good use of a tough cut of beef. Serve with hot tortillas and salsa or with a side of grilled corn on the cob.

You can prepare the simple sauce a day in advance. Just heat before serving. When you're ready to serve it, arrange broccoli on a serving platter and top with chicken. Pour sauce over chicken and sprinkle with basil and green onion, if desired. Recipe courtesy of McCormick Canada.

If you have trouble finding some of the ingredients for this dish, there are some easy substitutions you can make, and you will still end up with the same delicious results. For the tamarind, make a paste out of lemon juice and dried dates, or use 1/2 cup cider vinegar mixed with 1 Tbsp sugar. For the galangal, use fresh ginger. For the lemon grass, use the rind of 4 small lemons.

Recipe adapted from Great Foods of the World -- Regional Italian, Mexican and Asian Cooking by Evan Kleiman, Susan Feninger, Mary Sue Milliken, Joyce Jue (Fog City Press).

Recipe adapted from Great Foods of the World -- Regional Italian, Mexican and Asian Cooking by Evan Kleiman, Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken and Joyce Jue (Fog City Press).

This is a quick and delicious appetizer courtesy of McCormick Canada. The shrimp can be replaced with large scallops. Serve with lemon or lime wedges. These are also delicious cold. Remember, if you're using wooden skewers to soak them in water 2 hours to prevent burning.

This is a great dish to make when chicken drumsticks are on sale. It’s hot but sweet all at the same time. You can turn up the heat by adding additional cayenne pepper. Serve with black beans and rice.

You can substitute any kind of meat in this recipe. Make the patties large enough to fit a hamburger bun, small enough to be bite-sized hors d'ouvres or shape them around a skewer as perfect picnic fare.

Recipe courtesy of Oster.

This recipe is comprised of five steps. The first four steps can each be made a day or two ahead. Don't feel daunted by the long list of ingredients and the many steps. The variety of chilies can be found at Mexican grocery stores as well as at Whole Foods stores. If worse comes to worst, don't sweat it. Use whatever chilies you can lay your hands on. Remember, by doing exactly that, the Mexicans created a handful of delicious mole variations.

Serve with roast meats and seafood.

Recipe courtesy of John Besh’s My New Orleans – The Cookbook. Serve over any kind of bird, venison or pork.

Recipe courtesy of Lobel’s Meat Bible (Raincoast Books).

You might think the local-produce season is long past, but potatoes and onions are at their peak this time of year. The following recipe is one I made for my son every wintry Saturday afternoon when he was young.

Pull out the slow cooker for this easy to prepare, but oh so tasty dish. Add your own favourite vegetables, and spice it in different ways -- mustard makes a nice addition.

This was made for two, but can be scaled up for just about any number... as many as your cooker will hold.

Try other steaks such as striploin, pork chops, pork tenderloin or chicken breasts. Recipe courtesy of McCormick Canada.

Why call for delivery when you can make quick and fresh pizza in about half the time.

Spelt is an ancient grain grown throughout Europe and North America. It has a nutty flavour, and is a great alternative for anyone who has a wheat allergy. Most grocery stores carry it. However, you can substitute the spelt for regular wheat flour, if you prefer.

Instead of pizza, roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Then roll it up end to end to form a baguette. Bake according to the directions, and enjoy fresh bread with your dinner.

Tamotsu’s recipe involves store-bought mix. This option is easier except for one drawback: the instructions will be in Japanese. Following is a from-scratch recipe from Setsuko Yoshizuka from About.com.

Recipe courtesy of Lobel’s Meat Bible (Raincoast Books).

This recipe by Chef Andrew George Jr. is taken from the book he co-wrote with Robert Gairns titled Feast! Canadian Native Cuisine For All Seasons. "You won’t find a Native community in Canada where bannock is not made in one form or another," he says. "It’s one of our basic food groups. As a matter of fact, after the decimation of the buffalo herds in the mid-1800s it was almost our only food group. But that’s another story. I’ve made bannock more ways than a newlywed couple has done Hamburger Helper and I’m going to show you some fascinating recipes. Let’s start with my Tsaibesa’s recipe. It’s easy, authentic, and very, very good, especially when served hot. In the Introduction, my dad showed you how to cook bannock over an open fire, but first I want you to try this recipe in your oven, the way Tsaibesa taught me."

A Portuguese-inspired dish from Goa, Vindaloo is one of my favourite curries. Not only is it flexible, versatile and easy to prepare but it delivers precisely the sort of soul-searing heat I crave. Though traditionally hotter than the ninth ring of hell, feel free to accommodate or challenge your own personal threshold. This is an adaptation of Madhur Jaffrey’s Pork Vindaloo (ironically from a book called Quick and Easy Indian Cuisine). Her trick of using grainy mustard rather than mustard seeds and vinegar saves both time and fuss. Like the mulligatawny, this is the sort of recipe wherein once you’ve got it going, you can walk away and do as you please for an hour or so. I’ve used pork shoulder or lamb and both have been delicious. This would, however, work equally well with duck, chicken, beef, venison … anything you can kill really. So long as you’ve got two pounds of it. You’ll definitely want to serve this with mountains of rice so if you don’t have a rice cooker, I’m afraid you’ll just have to make some the old-fashioned way.