Gravlax Blini Bites

Gravlax, or cured salmon, is a Scandinavian specialty available in fancy food stores and restaurants. Here, you'll see how easy it is to cure your own for a fraction of the price. Serve with a piquant sauce on bite-size buckwheat pancakes called blini and accompany with a glass of frozen aquavit or vodka.

Country Seed Bread

When bread machines first became popular a few years ago, The Canadian Living Test Kitchen got busy adapting recipes. Very easy to make in the machine — and almost as easy by hand — this loaf is nutty, chewy and just plain good.

Monkey Bread With Cinnamon Glaze

It seems no one really knows why this pull-apart loaf is called monkey bread. But we're not going to question something so delicious and fun to make! Balls of sweet yeast dough, dipped in butter and coated with cinnamon sugar, are piled high in a tube pan. The cinnamon drizzle is the icing on the cake, so to speak. 

Mini Black Forest Cakes

Century Christmas Pudding

This November, Toronto teacher Trish Gresham and her family will make this rich, traditional pudding for the 70th consecutive year in Canada. Her mother, Lilian Rollinson, brought the recipe — already a family tradition for 30 years — from England in 1932. Trish serves it with hard sauce, while her sister, Pamela Scott, simply pours cold whipping cream over top.

Apple Cheese Danishes

Family and friends will be amazed at how impressive these treats look and taste. (How easy they are to make can be your secret.) Look for pressed cottage cheese in the dairy case of the grocery store. Use 10% cheese for its rich and creamy taste. This is not the place for low-fat cheese – you won't get the desired creamy texture.

Classic Quiche Lorraine

Quiche is a menu workhorse. You can even freeze it to rewarm when needed.

Roasted Tomato Goat Cheese Tart

Team this tart with a frisee salad to complete the meal. Baking an unfilled pastry shell (blind baking) ensures a crisp bottom to the tart.

Crêpes with Feta, Scrambled Eggs and Zucchini Tomato Salsa

Crispy Salmon on Braised Vegetables and Spinach Mash

There is nothing quite like salmon skin cooked to crispy perfection. I regularly make this for dinner parties and have converted many a fish-skin hater. The secret to the crispness is cooking the fish 90 percent of the way through on the skin side (in a nonstick pan!); the key to maintaining it is serving the fish skin side up so that the moisture from the fish and vegetables doesn't turn it soggy. Don't try to turn the salmon too early; if it's sticking to the pan, it's not ready to turn. – Annabelle Waugh, Food director