Molasses

An all-purpose barbecue-style marinade that is great with chicken, quail, and duck.

These cookies are also great made with regular semisweet chocolate chips.

Magnolia Grill offers these chops with a black-eyed pea risotto and homemade corn relish. The pork is chilled overnight in brine.

"I love cooking with the new recipes every month when Bon Appétit arrives," writes Gabriella Hughes of Windham, Maine. "One dish I'd really like to make is the gingerbread with lemon icing from Standard Baking Co. in Portland, Maine. Could you request it?" Serve these tender gingerbread muffins with whipped cream for teatime or dessert.

Arrange the soft, spicy cookies on a platter with apples and Vermont cheddar cheese; also serve hot cider or hot buttered rum.

It is no coincidence that the method used to bake this bread, steaming, is similar to one used by the native Indians of New England, who taught us how to use corn as a grain for bread. The most famous of our region's breads, this wholesome blend of wheat, rye, and corn flours is suitable for our diets today as it was 300 years ago.

As the pie bakes, the filling separates into a soft pudding-like bottom and a cakey top.

An especially easy baking powder version of the traditional yeast-leavened cornmeal and molasses bread. We've used buttermilk instead of water to give the loaf moistness and tang.

What to drink: A big red with lots of fruit, such as a California Zinfandel; an off-dry white with rich fruit, such as an Alsatian Pinot Gris; or pale ale.

The beans need to soak in water overnight, so start this recipe at least a day ahead.

This dessert, long favored by the British at holiday time, originally contained minced meat along with the fruits and spices. This version, more suited to the nineties table, is meatless and brimming with apples, dried fruit and lots of spices.

This no-knead, one-rise bread was introduced by Doris Grant in her book Your Daily Bread. This recipe is an improved version devised by Myrtle Allen, founder of the now legendary Ballymaloe House hotel and cooking school in County Cork, Ireland.