This sauce is incredibly versatile. It's used in a whole array of dishes from every day macaroni and cheese to special occasion lasagne. You can even easily increase or decrease the amount according to your needs.

Another fun dish, which when done with minimal care can make you a kitchen hero. Especially when the butter spurts. Steamed vegetables, minimally seasoned, will pair nicely with this rich dish.

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.

The flavour of the dish will change depending on the type of curry you use, so pick the curry flavour you like best and run with it, paste or powder. I buy chicken breast fillets when they’re on sale and keep them in the freezer for quick no-fuss meals.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

This easy-to-cook Chinese specialty is usually enjoyed at Chinese New Year celebrations. It works best if the duck’s skin is absolutely free of moisture. Pat with paper towels until dry.

Cook this recipe up even faster by picking up pre-washed and cut greens from the supermarket.

Pierrette Mather submitted this recipe for Tidings' Maple Syrup Recipe Contest.

She suggests that this recipe is also excellent with rabbit.

Mild sweet leeks are available year round but their peak season begins in the fall. Trim off the root end and green leaves, and use only the tender white part. Be sure to wash thoroughly as leeks can be gritty. Mushrooms, like leeks, are grown in dirt. Although some cooks prefer to gently wipe mushrooms, I always wash them in cold running water, patting them dry afterward with a paper towel.

Accompany this delicious chicken with buttered capellini pasta and a green salad with slivers of fresh fennel.

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. "This is a great favourite of anyone I prepare it for," George says. "The recipe is quite simple, and the end product is spectacular. Think of it: smoked duck breast, and red wine, and juniper berries. Use your imagination as you read this recipe and the flavours will almost jump off the page onto your palate, even before you start cooking."

A strata is a sandwich that is baked in a very light custard -- actually, a lot like dressed up French toast. This one's perfect for breakfast, brunch or lunch.

Preparation of chicken tikka masala is a two step process — the tikka and the gravy. The chicken can be either grilled or cooked in the oven. Once the chicken is set for grilling, V.K. says the gravy process “should run in parallel.”