Cinnamon

Jews from Persia (present-day Iran) are especially proud of Queen Esther's role in the holiday of Purim. A favorite dish of Iranian children is halvah, which they eat after they break the fast of Esther, observed on Adar 13. At nursery school, Merissa learned this recipe for halvah from an Iranian teacher. In between tastes, the children played with Esther and Ahasuerus marionettes they had made with the help of their teacher.

"While in San Diego recently, we stumbled upon Cafe 222, a great place for breakfast that serves the most incredible pumpkin waffles," writes Debbie Weber of Loveland, Colorado. "We would love your help in getting this recipe." We found that these waffles work best when made in a Belgian waffle iron.

Some cinnamon and pepper give these wonderful cookies a south-of-the-border flavor.

These not-too-sweet cookies are based on an old recipe seldom seen these days. Although the combination of almonds, honey and cinnamon is still a typical one, contemporary Neapolitan biscotti tend to be less aggressively flavored.

The graham cracker crunch topping is delicious on its own, but combined with ripe peaches, cinnamon syrup and ice cream, it makes for positively addictive sundaes.

Rich chocolate cookies get some Mexican flair when spiced up with cinnamon, cloves and cayenne pepper. Blanched almonds or pistachios can be used instead of cherries.

The French dessert that's known as clafouti is a pancake crossed with a fruit-filled custard. It's best served warm, right from the skillet. If you don't have a cast-iron skillet, any ovenproof variety is fine. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

An interesting mix of spices lends wonderful flavor to this simple pasta dish — known as pastitsada — from Tavern Tripa.

Today, Mexico's best coffee is ripened and dried along the roadways in the cloud-blanketed highlands of Chiapas and over through Veracruz and Oaxaca. The prime beans are usually roasted a little darker than ours — almost a Viennese roast — and they brew a nice, medium-bodied liquid with some spunk. They tell me it's the second-class beans that get roasted darker, to a mahogany black with a shining sugar coat. The steam-powered espresso machines in the city cafeterías extract a trio of ethnic brews: espresso, straight, foamy and Italian; café con leche, mixed with hot milk, French-style (but so common one would mistake it for purely Mexican); or americano, simply diluted with water. The more rural brew leans toward the Spanish, the history books say, but it seems like a Mexican-flavored campfire version to me. Café de olla at its best is pot-boiled in earthenware with molassesy piloncillo sugar and spices like cinnamon, anise or cloves. These days, many traditional city restaurants offer the dark, delicious drink more regularly, served in old-fashioned earthenware mugs at the end of the meal.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less, but requires additional unattended time.

If time is short, omit the streusel topping.

Try this cinnamon-scented sauce over vanilla ice cream, pound cake or both. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Remove the skin from the game hens before roasting them to make this delicious main course lower in fat. Uncork a bottle of Chardonnay, and offer steamed yellow and green zucchini alongside.

Pumpkin adds beautiful color to the all-American cheesecake while pecan praline makes a southern-style topping. Begin preparing this cake a day ahead.

The German plum harvest is celebrated every year with a festival in Bühl in the southwestern part of the country. In this simple German dessert, cake batter is covered with wedges of fall plums; a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar bakes into a crunchy topping.

The recipe yields two Texas-size portions or four servings for smaller appetites.