“This family favorite is a great treat on chilly nights. It’s warming and has so much flavor in every bite. I like to serve it with a tossed salad and rolls.”

Faith Richards from Tampa, Florida needs just a few ingredients to pack a lot of flavor into this hearty ground beef bake. "My daughter received this recipe from a missionary when they were both serving in Zambia," Faith recalls. "It's delicious."

Fideuà is similar to paella, but it is made with short toasted noodles called fideus, which you can find at Hispanic markets. You can also toast the noodles yourself as described here. The dish starts on the stovetop just like paella, but then it is finished in the oven. You can tell it is done when you look into the oven and the noodles are standing up—or trempant, as we say in Catalan, meaning “with an erection.”

All that matters is you find the freshest best ingredients you can get your hands on. I make the rice vinegar seasoning for the rice instead of buy the seasoned rice vinegar which I find to sweet. Buy good sushi rice and cook it like the box says and you will end up with great rice. Finally don't pull your fish from the fridge and serve it cold. It will be flavorless. One of the reasons sushi works is the chefs use their hands and this warms the sushi while they are making it. So pull the salmon, cooked shrimp and oysters a half hour before serving it.

This dish is full of vibrant, contrasting flavor and texture combinations: crisp hot edges; smooth, cooling yogurt; sweet coconut milk; spicy, salty, and sour toppings. Balachaung is a Burmese condiment similar to XO sauce that I like using on everything, from sautéed string beans to cucumber salad to soft boiled eggs. You can also make the pancake with leftover sticky rice, even if it was made with water as opposed to coconut milk. It will still be delicious.

This simple recipe highlights the sweetness of fresh shrimp, and their comforting flavor when they are marinated and then charred on a hot grill. The technique that separates this recipe from others is grating the garlic over a fine microplane. Microplaning the garlic (instead of just slicing it), leads to an added depth of flavor and intensity.

These quick-to-fix wraps are ideal for lunch or dinner. They're versatile too—you can replace the tuna with chicken, turkey or ham. Adapt them to whatever you have on hand for a fun alternative to sandwiches.

This dish was a revelation! I can't wait to make this for a picnic dinner at an outdoor concert - it’s elegant, neither dry nor soupy, and all of the flavors pop, making it thoroughly delicious. The Israeli couscous is creamy to begin with, so only 1/4 cup of mayonnaise is needed for a perfect consistency. I used Italian sausage, but cubed ham would be just as good; I can also see using proteins other than or in addition to shrimp - perhaps chicken, other shellfish, or cold leftover pork or lamb.

When camping, my wife and I top large beefsteak tomatoes with spicy chunks of crab. Then we warm this summer treat over the fire.