When the house chef takes the night off, resist your go-to takeout and toss together this powerhouse one-bowl dinner instead. Yes, it’s a salad, but it stars bacon, salami, ham, turkey and cheese, which makes it an easy sell to the under-15 crowd, as well as a fun and filling meal.

This simple, pantry dinner (the only thing you may have to shop for is the fennel) packs a punch with just a few ingredients. Perfectly al dente strands of pasta are tossed lightly in a sauce of garlic, fennel, tomato, lemon and vermouth, studded with briny bits of sardine; the oil from the canned sardines enriches the sauce, and a shower of lemony toasted breadcrumbs brightens the dish.

I live for the day-after-holiday-feast sandwich, and giving it the Monte Cristo treatment with a few slices of soft, gently sweet St Pierre Brioche Loaf takes this celebration of leftovers to the next level. Served with a sidecar of gravy for dipping (or an all-over gravy pour, if you’re so inclined) this sandwich is a great way to guarantee none of your holiday dishes go to waste. If your festive feast includes ham instead of turkey, make that swap in this sandwich for a slightly more traditional Monte Cristo.

As Erin writes in Savory Baking, "My mom was both a nurse and a very good cook. So when I was sick as a kid, I was taken very good care of— including a regimen of her chicken noodle soup, sometimes complete with homemade noodles. While the real remedy was surely to be found in the broth, the thing I remember are those wonderfully chewy noodles. You can whip up these noodles in less time than it takes for your favorite soup to simmer to flavorful perfection. These are also delicious boiled until tender, then sautéed in butter (I top mine with grated Parm and black pepper for the ultimate comfort food snack)."

This is my go-to gravy recipe. It's great with roasted chicken or turkey.

Imagine setting your Thanksgiving table with rich, smoky turkey thighs swimming in a creamy, west African "gravy" made from your choice of melon seeds (egusi) or pumpkin seeds. This dish is popular in Cote D'Ivoire, particularly the northern region, where melon seeds are traditional. NOTE: Be sure to finely grind the seeds, or the sauce won't thicken. It should look like milk, with just the teeniest, tiniest particles floating around.

For a pretty easy fun holiday dish for an open house this recipe works really well. You can make these well ahead of time and heat in a crock pot for a party. The best way to serve these for a large party is in a shallow chafing dish over a warming plate with lots of toothpicks. The flavors develop nicely overnight, if you can make these a day a head. They also freeze well. You can cut this recipe in half easily if you do not need so many. These are pretty healthy for a party dish, too, and can be kept kosher. I just used gluten-free ginger snaps that worked out really well in this batch. The spices will add a holiday scent to your home.

I watched my friend's grandmother make this soup as it took her just a few minutes and a handful of ingredients: chicken stock or broth, homemade (or dried) pasta, peas, egg, and grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Note: You can use Parmesan cheese instead of Romano, or mix them. —sdebrango

In recent weeks, I’ve been using a lot of Chinese celery, thanks to healthierkitchen and thirschfeld, whose fabulous recipes featuring it have utterly converted me to this wonderful stuff. It just happens that the place where I buy it in Chinatown also sells nice fresh noodles, so I created this dish using both. The meat marinates in a soy, herb, and garlic mixture while you cook a light stock using the parts of the lemongrass not used in the meatballs, and a few other ingredients, which is then used to cook the noodles. A touch of miso gives the sauce a bit of depth. Enjoy!!

This recipe for a Sunday pasta sauce came from Spacca-Napoli, but I have simplified it and made it dozens of times for a crowd. —luvcookbooks

The following list of ingredients looks daunting -- it's not. Chances are, other than the ground meat, the fresh sage and the cream, you might have all these lurking in your pantry/fridge. The list of herbs is for dried -- if using fresh (always better, but no big deal in this recipe) double the amount -- more chopping for you!

A traditional Taiwanese sauce meets ramen.

Special Occasion Turkey is an elevated, show-stopping centerpiece perfect for holidays and celebrations. Seasoned with aromatic herbs and spices, it’s roasted to golden perfection—moist, flavorful, and designed to impress family and guests alike.

I discovered that this dish actually comes from Manchuria, where it is known by the name zájiàng miàn (雜醬麵)—which translates to “mixed sauce noodles," a name that makes much more sense. Zha and za sound very much alike, and perhaps there was some confusion upstream.

This sweet and tangy butter tucked under the turkey skin, plus roasting in a steamy environment, makes for moist and meltingly tender meat with a rich flavor. I lay awake in bed one night, puzzling how to get the butter under the skin without making a greasy mess, and came up with the trick in this recipe. Using vegetables to flavor the gravy is a technique I learned from a friend in Germany, and star anise is the one ingredient my German mother has always included in her chicken or turkey soups, so naturally, I have to sneak it into my gravy, for a subtle and elusive flavor note.

In my mind, this is the best way to use leftover Thanksgiving turkey. My Grammy used to make this for my dad—sadly, she never gave up the recipe, but I have done my best to recreate it, based on a Giada de Laurentiis classic chicken tetrazzini recipe. This is nontraditional in the sense there are no mushrooms, because my dad won't touch them! Enjoy!