This dish comes together so quickly it will amaze you and your family. You can try it with Thai green or yellow curry as well. To save time, purchase peeled uncooked shrimp.

There is something truly amusing about serving tiny little bits of this and that as a precursor to the main. Nothing too filling, but altogether satisfying unless you have the appetite of Sasquatch. This combo has caused my friends to dig in without cutlery — it’s that good. You can vary this recipe by preparing the plate with Boursin-style cheese, sugared walnuts, sliced avocado, smoked salmon and date–nut bread. I also like to substitute hot-pepper jelly or peach chutney for the fig jam. Another nice touch is to prepare one larger plate for each couple at the table. This recipe divides the ingredients into four individual servings for four people.

Flank steak is a tougher cut of beef. It will be even juicier if you let it sit overnight in a marinade containing the juices of 1 lemon, 1 orange and 1 lime.

Surprise your taste buds with these tasty burgers.

Recipe courtest of the Dairy Farmers of Canada.

These delicious kabobs are perfect for barbecue cottage cuisine. Recipe courtesy of The Beef Information Centre.

My mother started making this dish when we were small. Imagine four little kids sitting around a dinner table with palates so refined that we scarfed up Chicken Marsala like other kids eat Kraft Dinner. Of course, we threw chicken at each other when our parents weren’t looking, so we weren’t totally refined. I use sweet Marsala Fine for a great tasting sauce.

Tuck the grilled chicken pieces into a pita, or lay them on top of hot buttered rice. For a great taste variation, try using turkey, pork or lamb in place of the chicken. You can also roast or broil the meat in the oven instead of grilling it.

There's nothing like homemade stock. Yes, it takes hours to simmer, but the resulting flavour is unequalled. Here's my take on a classic. Feel free to add your own variations to it.

I had this lovely autumn dish at a restaurant and experimented with it at home. A light sprinkling of cayenne pepper adds just enough bite to balance the sweet sauce. This is delicious with mashed red potatoes and steamed broccoli, which is exactly how the restaurant served it to me.

This Chocolate Ice Cream recipe has only 6 ingredients, requires no cooking, and with the right equipment is ready in 30 minutes.

Although this recipe calls for liqueur, whisky, rum or any other spirit would work as well.

This recipe is adapted from Tom Jaine's and Nicholas Campion's book, Cosmic Cuisine - The Astrological Cookbook (Windward).

Recipe adapted from Cosmic Cuisine - The Astrological Cookbook by Tom Jaine and Nicholas Campion.

Large uncooked frozen shrimp are so convenient and often on sale. Pick up a bag next time the price is right and pair with beans for an elegant entrée. Garlic will keep in the fridge for quite a while, but for convenience’s sake, you can use jarred minced garlic instead. If you’d like, add a can of diced tomatoes to this dish.

Dried cranberries sometimes contain a trace amount of oil on the surface. Take a moment and use paper towels to blot off any oily film floating on the strained liqueur.

I’m not going to lie to you — there is some work upfront on this dish. A mandoline helps to slice the potatoes uniformly and it speeds up the process. Once the potatoes are in the oven, you’re home-free until dinnertime. This dish works with the Beef Tenderloin in taste, oven temperature and cooking time. Leftovers are fabulous and will make you the envy of the company lunchroom.

Take advantage of fall’s bounty with these vegetarian stacks topped off with bubbly cheese. It may seem time-consuming to create “Napoleons” but they stack up in a snap. Try to find an eggplant and tomatoes of approximately the same circumference.

There's nothing like homemade stock. Yes, it takes hours to simmer, but the resulting flavour is unequalled. Here's my take on a classic. Feel free to add your own variations to it.

For those of you who missed it last time round, here’s a refresher on how to put together your own garam (warm) masala (spices), a component of, or a topping for your curry. It comes from friend Meeru Dhalwala, the culinary queen of Vij’s famed restaurant in Vancouver. The whole spices listed below are available from most Indian grocers. Meeru suggests that while you’re preparing your masala, it’s a good idea to close the bedroom and bathroom doors and to turn on the kitchen fan. Your call.

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).

Feel free to prepare corn up to 1 day ahead. Instead of tying the corn husk in place, seal each ear with its husk in foil. The corn can then cook over direct or indirect heat.

This popular Italian rice dish has infinite variations. If you’re short on time, make this risotto a day or two ahead of when you need it. It can be reheated in the oven in just a few minutes.

Traditionally, the tuna is served raw. But, you can also grill it before adding the dressing if you’d prefer.

It’s very important to get tomatoes that are in season because they are what make the dish.

Tired of bacon that's too salty or watery? Try making it yourself at home. It may take a while, but the effort is certainly worth it. This is a really basic recipe for a rubbed dry cure bacon.

Honey and ginger provide a sweet and tangy flavour combination for salmon. Adapted from McCormick Canada

Spring lamb is very tender and flavourful. The vegetables and herbs in this dish mellow the gamey taste that lamb sometimes has.

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.

Vancouver food guru Lesley Stowe, who devotes much of her life these days to manufacturing and distributing her beyond-delicious Raincoast Crisps (www.lesleystowe.com ) shares a favourite recipe: It’s an “easy mid-week dinner, or leisurely weekend lunch that’s healthy, sexy and spicy.” Everything you want, says Lesley, in a quick-and-easy pasta dish. This dish screams for a Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige. Say that ten times fast.

The website of the Ontario maple syrup people, ontariomaplesyrup.com, is loaded with enticing recipes. From the beginning of the meal to the sweetest endings, there’s a fascinating variety of maple tastes. I picked this one and the next from the long list.

I love this cut of meat. It’s nutrient-dense with a high level of B vitamins plus phosphorous, zinc, magnesium and selenium. Because pork tenderloin is lean, it’s best prepared with a marinade or sauce. Experts now say you can cook pork just until the center is pink, but I prefer to give it a full 40 minutes in the oven or until it reaches 170˚F on a meat thermometer. This recipe includes the twenty-first-century champion of the culinary world — the ubiquitous chipotle. It remains to be seen what hot new darling will replace chipotle in ’08, but let’s hope pork tenderloin holds its own well into the next millennium.

There's nothing like homemade stock. Yes, it takes hours to simmer, but the resulting flavour is unequalled. Here's my take on a classic. Feel free to add your own variations to it.

Entrepreneuring foodie Linda Meinhardt, who built and operates two spectacular destination fine food emporiums on Vancouver’s West Side, has found a ready market in these busy times for meals to go — many which start their journey to the city’s dining tables from a hot table in her Arbutus Street store. More often than not, the hot-table items have a cultural edge, like this chicken dish created by chefs Neil Porter and Ashok Sethi. With rice, the refreshing recipe will serve four.

Monkfish has a wonderfully meaty texture and is mildly sweet. The brown butter adds a nice subtle nuttiness to the whole dish. Monkfish tends to release a lot of juice as it cooks, salting it up to an hour before you cook it will help dry it out. A variation of that is to soak the fillet in milk overnight.

Thanks to Chef David Wolfman for providing this tasty recipe. You have to order moose meat about two weeks in advance from your butcher. If you're not able to find it, bison or beef make great substitutes.

I love making stews. Hearty and nutritious, you can add almost any ingredient to the pot and end up with a scrumptious meal. Although this recipe calls for moose, which must be ordered from your butcher about two weeks in advance, you can use bison or beef instead. The ingredients are those I have on hand all the time, but feel free to add your own favourites.

Spices you probably already have in your cupboard turn ground beef into an interesting supper dish with exotic North African flavours.

Traditionally, soup has not been a significant part of Indian gastronomy. Mulligatawny, spawned by the Anglo-Indian community, is a gorgeous exception. With its orange hue, its creamy base, its use of apple and spice, this soup screams for a cold autumn night, a glass of wine and so-bad-it’s-good television. It’s simple as pie to make. Simpler, in fact. After plunking the ingredients in the pot, you are pretty much free to putter about for a half hour or so, drinking and/or scowling at the fastly darkening sky. A great way too to use up leftover cooked chicken. If you have none handy, you can cook the chicken in the soup. I’ve also found (don’t judge me) that canned chicken works quite well. If you do not have coconut milk, feel free to use heavy cream. This soup is relatively mild in terms of heat, so I like to add a bit of cayenne. Obviously you don’t have to. The addition of cooked rice at the end makes this a meal, but if you don’t feel up to making rice (if you have a rice cooker, you have no excuse), you could always serve this with bread.

You can also turn this appetizer into an entrée. Butterfly chicken breasts, spread the stuffing over the cut surface, and secure the edges with a toothpick. Or, de-bone chicken legs and stuff the cavity, again securing the leg with a toothpick. When buying the ingredients, make sure that you go home with more mushrooms than you think you might need. Some will undoubtedly break when the stems are removed. This recipe has been adapted from the California Culinary Academy.