Oat

Chunks of fresh cranberries and dark, milk, and white chocolate chips dress up oatmeal cookies for the holidays.

Sue Ellison of Edgewater, Colorado, writes: "Although I play guitar and piano, and have worked for more than 20 years as an elementary-school music teacher, at this point music is just my job; cooking is my passion. It's an interest I share with my daughter, Hannah. We do a phenomenal amount of cooking together. In fact, I think she learned how to count using chocolate chips, standing on a stool next to me at the kitchen counter while I baked chocolate croissants." Roasted pine nuts add a southwestern accent to this lightly sweetened granola. Once the granola has cooled, leave it in large chunks for a snack or crumble it into bits for a cereal topping. Either way, it will keep up to one week if stored airtight.

"I literally didn't know how to boil an egg until I was in my 20s — when I tried to impress a guy by making dinner for him," writes Sally Siegel of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "I didn't have much success with the dinner or the guy, but I regrouped and put together a repertoire of fairly elegant dishes I felt confident making. Over the years, my cooking style has become more casual; I make dishes that are not too demanding, but still special for company."

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

In addition to being great with milk at breakfast time, this is nice sprinkled over yogurt, fruit or ice cream, or baked into your favorite granola cookies or bars.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 1 hr

A crisp is one of the easiest desserts that a nonbaker can make.

This dough produces a crisp cookie with oats for added texture.

Cranachan is Scotland's traditional harvest-time pudding, a blend of Crowdie (an artisanal cottage cheese), cream, toasted oats, berries, whisky, and honey. Here, it's updated with crème fraîche (instead of the Crowdie), toasted hazelnuts, and grated chocolate, and served parfait-style in individual goblets. To allow the flavors to meld, assemble the parfaits ahead of time and chill them overnight before serving.

Hearty breakfast fare from Rick & Ann's in Berkeley, California.

Known as biscuits in the United Kingdom, these rich treats get their chewy-crunchy texture from Scottish pinhead (steel-cut) oats. For a more tender cookie, use old-fashioned oats.

These cookies are also good on their own.

These delicious waffles will propel you guilt-free through the morning.