Cheddar

This thick and creamy soup gains a rich flavor when the potatoes are roasted in a bit of bacon fat.

Baked in the convection oven, this soufflé rises high and is almost noncollapsible. However, you’d still better have the table set and be ready to eat when the soufflé is done because it won’t stay puffed forever!

Kids love “mac and cheese.” When I make it from scratch, I know what’s in it—all healthy ingredients! Here’s how to do it, saving time and energy in the convection oven.

The convection oven makes easy work of this recipe. While you roast the potatoes, cook the bacon in the convection oven. This leaves your cooktop splatter free.

This is a great quick snack or appetizer. To make it a bit heartier, add more toppings like chopped green onions, diced peppers, bits of sausage, or additional cheese.

Think of this as a streamlined and guilt-free version of scalloped potatoes. It's a toss-and-dump dish, in which I toss sliced potatoes with a little melted butter, dump them in a dish, then cover them with milk—healthier than heavy cream—that I've thickened slightly with a bit of flour (the flour keeps the milk from separating). The cheese topping is optional; with or without it, in less than an hour you will be rewarded with lusciously creamy potatoes along with that all-important browned crust. Editors' Note: Kemp Minifie reimagined the foil tray frozen dinner for Gourmet Live. Her updated menu includes: meatloaf made from grass-fed beef, scalloped potatoes, lemony green veggies, and your new favorite brownies for dessert.

This rich, soufflé-like dressing derives its texture from stone-ground grits.

My editor, Maria Guarnaschelli, suggested this recipe, based on her memory of a savory pie served at a London pub. One half of the pie was filled with pork and the other with apples. As I later learned, that dish has its roots in an eighteenth-century workingman's lunch called the Bedfordshire Clanger—a hand-held pie filled with meat on one end and jam on the other. It was a compact way to serve lunch and dessert in one package. In adapting this idea to my own taste, I decided to layer apples on top of a spiced ground pork filling, rather than setting the two ingredients side by side. The flavors are fantastic together, and this dish has been the hit of many parties. It makes an especially good buffet option, as it can be served warm or at room temperature. Apple Notes: As with all pie recipes, you want firm fruit here. Some good examples: Granny Smith, Arkansas Black, and Northern Spy for tart apples; and Golden Delicious, Jazz, or Pink Lady for sweet ones. Equipment: 10- to 12-inch skillet; food processor; 9-inch deep-dish pie plate, preferably glass; parchment paper or wax paper

In most parts of Texas, enchiladas are rolled tortillas stuffed with a filling and covered in sauce. But often in West Texas (and also New Mexico) the filling and sauce are instead layered between flat tortillas. They look a bit different, but the end taste is the same, not to mention stacked enchiladas are a heck of a lot easier to make. Another feature of stacked enchiladas is the inclusion of a fried egg on top. I don't know how this tradition came about, but it's a brilliant addition. When the yolk mixes with the sauce, its creamy transformation takes the sauce from merely delicious to truly decadent. I was born and raised a rolled-enchilada girl, but I can appreciate a plate of stacked ones, especially those made with an ancho chile sauce. And if I squint, I can see in the stack the rugged terrain of West Texas, with the egg standing in for clouds and the sun. It's West Texas on a plate.

Bison contains choline, a nutrient that may help keep stress at bay.

Here's a quiche recipe that goes wheat free without skimping on flavor. We call for broccoli and Cheddar cheese, but you can trade out the broccoli for asparagus tips or halved cherry tomatoes and the Cheddar for Gruyère, Swiss, or Comté.

Like most little kids, Dahlia loves macaroni and cheese, and I've made it for her in many guises, running the gamut of techniques. My aim is always the same—to make the dish quickly with a minimum of fuss, and to use a maximum of vegetables that she will tolerate and not pick out. This is one of both our favorites. It's comforting, crusty topped, soft centered, and very cheesy—but not at all sophisticated. Just simple, kid-friendly, homemade food with the added grown-up appeal of lots of healthful carrots tossed into the mix. I got the idea from a chef's recipe in a glossy food magazine. The chef called for cooking carrots in butter and orange juice, pureeing them, and using the puree as a sauce for mac and cheese. I tried the recipe as written and was disappointed. It was a lot of work, and I didn't like the sweetness of the citrus fruit interfering with my cheesy goodness. So I decided to come up with my own simplified and ultra-Cheddary version. It was a huge hit with the under-three crowd and their parents, too. It's a straightforward recipe that comes together without much fuss, other than having to grate some carrots. But to make up for that, I've eliminated the need to make a cheese sauce on the top of the stove. Instead, I toss the hot pasta with grated cheddar, butter, sour cream for creaminess, and eggs to hold it all together. The grated carrots get boiled along with the pasta, so cooking them isn't an extra step. And the tiny orange shreds look so much like the cheddar that your kids might not even notice they are there. Dahlia certainly hasn't, and while I've never lied to her about their inclusion, I might have left out the word carrot in the dish description—accidentally, of course.

At Peels in New York City, chefs Preston and Ginger Madson tweak this Low Country favorite with two secret ingredients: a little Budweiser and a lot of tasso, a Cajun-spiced ham, which you'll find at specialty foods stores and cajungrocer.com. You can sub in andouille sausage if tasso is not available.

"Really good fried chicken and really good biscuits—together, they're like Wonder Twin powers," says chef John Currence, owner of Big Bad Breakfast in Oxford, MS. For a no-fry, old-school treat, split biscuits and smother with Sausage Gravy . Trust us, you'll be full.

We've perfected Tanya's English grandmother's version of a succulent mainstay. Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave, and you can even prepare the casserole a day ahead and pop it in the oven for a stress-free weekend dinner with friends.

With its biscuity buttermilk crust, this rustic pie is our new summertime staple. Let the pie cool for at least one hour before serving.

How they fight fat Chicken and cheddar both pitch in. The protein in poultry helps burn fat, and cheese has two slenderizing perks: Calcium breaks down fat, as linoleic acids stoke metabolism.

There are no secrets to this burger recipe—this is simply a burger I like to cook on my grill, and then eat with a cold beer while watching the surf roll in.

When Jack’s cousin Baby Lizzie first started picking up food and feeding herself, we started making macaroni and cheese in mini muffin pans for her. Big cousin Jack likes to take a large bite, so for him regular muffin pans fit the bill. You can make these in either one. The crispy Ritz cracker crumbs on the outside form a little crust for these pies, making them perfect to eat with your hands. We’re not saying they will be much neater than regular mac and cheese, but these sure are fun and delicious.