This is a family recipe that has been passed down through the ages. This is not one of those crisp-tender veggie dishes — you cook the cauliflower until it’s soft and well-steeped with wine. If purple cauliflower isn’t your thing, try it with dry white wine. My older brother Allen prefers this dish made with red-wine vinegar and sugar rather than with regular vino. Try it all three ways and see what you think.

This is an old family recipe that doubled as a Christmas pudding. You will note that it contains no plums. No, I don’t have the answer. As a surprise for the kids — and perhaps as an incentive for them to keep eating! — we used to wash up some nickels and dimes, wrap them in foil and add them to the final mix. In these inflationary times, you may wish to consider loonies and toonies!

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

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

This is a quick and lemon-lime-tasting recipe adapted from The Young Thailand Cookbook by Wandee Young and Byron Ayanoglu (Random House Canada). Fresh clams are a must. Look for specimens that have intact shells, and that close when they’re tapped. Serve with hot sauce and steamed rice.