Heart of the Artichoke | Artisan, 2010 | Serves 4 to 8

There’s something wonderful about a big pile of peppery chicken wings for a casual supper. Remove the wing tips and save them for stock, so what you’re serving is the meatier part of the wing. You can use the same seasoning and technique for chicken thighs, if you prefer.–David Tanis

LC Magnificent Multipurpose Peppery-ness Note: The intensity of the classic buffalo wing is tempered here, usurped by a warming–though not incinerating–blend of spices. Truth be told, we rather prefer the defiantly untraditional, beguiling blend of paprika, allspice, cayenne, and clove to the incendiary heat of most classic wings. That said, the recipe is eminently adaptable. If you crave a more intense flavor, double the amount of ingredients for the rub—both spices and oil—and marinate for the full 12 hours. And if you like crisp skin, leave them in a little longer. If you like your wings tender and moist, pull the chicken out of the oven just shy of an hour. And if, like us, you really swoon to this spice rub, try it on thighs and breasts–bone-in, skin-on chicken, that is–either as a game-day conversation starter or a simple weeknight supper.

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Peppery Chicken Wings Recipe

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Michel Richard | Happy in the Kitchen | Artisan, 2006 | Makes 2 to 4 servings

Serve these as you would potato chips, as a nibble with cocktails, alongside a sandwich, or as a side to a main course such as roast chicken.–Michel Richard

LC These Ruffles Don’t Have Ridges–Nor Do They Need Them Note: Okay. Let’s call a spade a spade. Or, as the situation would demand, a potato chip a potato chip. These ruffles are, essentially, potato chips. And yet they’re more than that. They’re fancy schmancy, shatteringly crisp, conversation-stopping potato chips. And unlike the brand-name chip by the same name that once had an entire country trilling its little ditty, they bear no ridges–nor do they need them. They’re sufficiently, satiatingly crisp just as they are. Our one quibble? Clearly frying up a single potato, as the recipe below suggests, is only going to get you so far. Fortunately, the recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, or otherwise multiplied exponentially. Given how quickly our greasy little fingers kept reaching for the ruffles, it’s best to allow one large potato per person.

Seeing as they require a turning vegetable slicer, they perhaps hold most appeal, fittingly, for those casual couch potatoes who like to stay up late at night and, as such, are privvy to infomercials. That said, an old-fashioned apple peeler will work in its place, provided you make just a few adjustments. (See the comment from Dan Kraan beneath the recipe.) A Y-shaped vegetable peeler? Not so much.

Special equipment: turning vegetable slicer

Active time: 40 minutes | Total time: 40 minutes.

Potato Ruffles Recipe

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Ina Garten | Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? | Clarkson Potter, 2010 | Makes 24

I came across these very British crackers in London—a savory shortbread made with Stilton and walnuts. I make extra rolls of dough and freeze them unbaked so I can just defrost, slice, and bake the crackers before guests arrive. Everyone loves these and there are never any leftovers!–Ina Garten

LC Sippy Sip on the Side Note: We can think of nothing lovelier as a precursor to dinner than these crackers. Well, okay, a little lovelier would maybe be these crackers and a generous pour of  a not-too-wimpy red wine or a modest dose of port.

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.

Stilton and Walnut Crackers Recipe

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Adapted from Neiman Marcus Taste | Clarkson Potter, 2007 | Makes 12

It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like deviled eggs. Whenever we serve these as a passed hors d’oeuvre, they are always the first item to run out. This recipe features three versions: the classic and variations using smoked salmon and truffle oil. These variations make great talking points, as they dress up a familiar friend like a crisp white shirt worn with an Hermès scarf. Choose your favorite for your next party, or offer them all and win rave reviews!–Neiman Marcus Taste

LC Playing Favorites Note: Nope. We’re not going to go there.

Active time: 10 minutes | Total time: 40 minutes.

My Mother’s Deviled Eggs Recipe

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Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs Recipe

Directions

1. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel them and cut them in half crosswise. Place the yolks in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade.

2. Add the cream cheese, salmon, mayonnaise, chives, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper to the yolks and blend until smooth. Spoon the vibrant salmon-colored yolk mixture back into the egg whites. If making deviled eggs ahead of time, cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

3. Transfer to a serving plate and garnish each egg with an additional sliver of salmon and if desired, snipped fresh chives.

Truffled Deviled Eggs Recipe

Directions

1. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel them and cut them in half crosswise. Place the yolks in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade.

2. Add the mayonnaise, truffle oil, mustard, salt, and pepper to the yolks and blend until smooth. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the egg whites. If making deviled eggs ahead of time, cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

3.Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with the truffle or chives.

Diana Henry | Plenty | Mitchell Beazley, 2010 | Serves 4 to 6

Another variation on the theme of plain, raw vegetables.

Fresh ricotta can be hard to get but the stuff sold in tubs in the supermarket just doesn’t cut it. Go to a good Italian deli or cheese shop to seek out the fresh version. It’s milky, sweet-smelling, and almost crumbly.–Diana Henry

LC Behold! The Power of the Dipper Note: One of our treasured recipe testers–um, you do know that we test each and every recipe to perfection before we trust it enough to put it on the site for you to make over and over again, yes?–relayed to us that this recipe inspired her five-year-old to eat an entire bag of baby carrots. Behold! The power of the dipper.

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 20 minutes, does not include chilling.

Herbed Ricotta Dip with Spring Vegetables

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Alastair Hendy | Cooking for Friends | Ryland Peters & Small, 2000 | Serves 4

Asparagus might have been specially made for the tart treatment—use long spears for a square pan or short ones for a rectangular pan.–Alastair Hendy

LC Simple Yet Stunning Note: When it comes to entertaining, it’s all about reliability. And, let’s face it, appearance. And hopefully a little ease. This asparagus tart boosts all of the above. It’s also eminently versatile as a standby for just about any spring occasion, constituting at various times a first-course, a main course, maybe even the only course.

Active time: 20 minutesTotal time: 1 hour

Asparagus Tart Recipe

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Ethan Stowell and Leslie Miller | Ethan Stowell’s New Italian Kitchen | Ten Speed Press, 2010 | Serves 4

Philosophically, I part ways with places that conclude your dinner with a plate filled with fanciful concoctions topped with sprinkles and crunchies and wafers and genoise and ganache and foam and…you get my point. I rarely have dessert when I eat out. For me, it’s just a little over the top. A beautifully made, straightforward dessert can be a lovely ending to a meal. I’m not anti-dessert; I just like what I like. And at the end of a meal, generally speaking, I like cheese. Cheese for the civilized, desserts for the rest of you.

Go to your farmers’ market and get the freshest and best goat cheese you can find—the tang and texture are critical with a dish this straightforward. Ask for tastes and buy what you like, and please, please dont’ serve your cheese cold. Refrigeration is a wonderful advent in food preservation, but it blunts the flavor and affects the texture of every cheese you buy. Simply leave it on the counter during your meal and it should come to temperature by the time you’re ready to eat it. Chestnut honey has an earthiness, almost a gaminess, really, that adds depth and structure to the dish.–Ethan Stowell

LC Honey Do List, er, Note: When you (or your honey) are shopping for this simple last course, you may wish to add a sort of unstated asterisk after the word “chestnut.” True, as Ethan Stowell notes, chesnut honey will contribute a complexity that’s really quite lovely–although it’s not the only honey that’s compatible with goat cheese. Not by far. In truth, almost any honey will do. Since you’ll probably already be at the farmers’ market sampling local goat cheeses, consider trying a few local honeys, as anything taken from the same terroir as the goat milk will accentuate the cheese in ways both subtle and profound.

Active time: 5 minutes | Total time: 5 minutes.

Goat Cheese with Honey Recipe

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Colman Andrews | The Country Cooking of Ireland | Chronicle, 2009 | Serves 12 to 16

In Ireland, as in so many places, people originally ate offal because they had to, as they couldn’t afford to waste precious meat, no matter what the organ’s original function. In more recent times, the Irish, or some of them at any rate, have taken to eating offal simply because they like it. This country-style chicken liver pâté recipe is one of the most popular appetizers and bar snacks at Maurice Keller’s Arlington Lodge in Waterford. He says to serve “with a crisp salad, melba toast, and any sweet chutney or relish.”–Colman Andrews

LC Not So Offal Note: This traditional take on pâté leaves little to the imagination—save for how lovely something so simple can be.

Arlington Chicken Liver Pâté Recipe

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1. Fry the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until lightly browned. Add the onion and garlic, reduce the heat to low, and cook until the vegetables are softened and lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the chicken livers to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until they’re cooked through but still slightly pink inside, 8 to 10 minutes. As the livers cook, add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time.

3. Remove the skillet from the heat and season the livers with salt and plenty of pepper. Stir in the parsley and, if using, the cilantro. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and pulse 3 to 4 times, just until a coarse paste is achieved.

4. Line a 1 1/2-quart terrine or glass loaf pan with plastic wrap and scrape the chicken liver mixture into the pan. Cover the terrine with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the butter solidifies, at least several hours and preferably overnight. (You can refrigerate the terrine for up to 5 days.)

5. Turn the terrine out onto a serving plate, distribute the parsley leaves evenly over the top, and serve immediately with a knife for slicing.

Laurent Tourondel | Fresh From the Market | Wiley, 2010 | Serves 6

Call us crazy, but we’ve always been partial to sipping a late-harvest wine. Chef Laurent Tourondel would have us think otherwise. He suggests we consider reducing it to a shimmery sweet sauce. An inspired complement to a luxe pan-seared foie gras, to be sure, one that’s served alongside toasted brioche, mildly nutty mache, and a tart Granny smith purée. No argument here. We think you’ll concur. –Renee Schettler Rossi

Author’s For the Best Foie Note: Hudson Valley Foie Gras provides some of the best in all of the United States and perhaps the world. Located in Ferndale, New York, just a few hours north of Manhattan, Hudson Valley Foie Gras specializes in Moulard duck livers.–Laurent Tourondel

Author’s Wine Note: Serve this dish with a sweet wine that offers aromas of dried peaches and candied citrus, such as Seyval Late Harvest “Romance,” Clinton Vineyards, 2006, Hudson Valley, New York.–Laurent Tourondel

Active time: 45 minutes | Total time: 45 minutes.

Seared Foie Gras with Chardonnay-Grapefruit Reduction Recipe

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Diane Morgan | Skinny Dips | Chronicle Books, 2010 | Makes 1 1/2 cups

Those of you with an herb garden will find this low-calorie green goddess dip recipe easy to make—the recipe turns a bundle of freshly clipped herbs into a delicate green, creamy sauce. The perfect dippers to go with it are garden-fresh vegetables such as asparagus spears, baby carrots, radishes, and cucumber.—Diane Morgan

LC Voluptuous Green Goddess Dip Note: Of course, if you prefer to use full-fat sour cream and mayo, we’re not going to even attempt to stop you. As for the perfect dippers, well, neither will we say anything if you set this dip out and pile thick-cut, kettle-cooked potato chips all around it rather than those virtuous vegetables.

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 15 minutes, not including chilling.

Svelte Green Goddess Dip Recipe

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