Pumpkin

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Makes use of the microwave oven.

Adding sour cream to the filling richens the custard and makes it a bit less sweet, allowing the flavor of the pumpkin to come through in this dessert. Any extra pie dough can be cut into pumpkin shapes for a festive garnish on top.

Here's a fine-textured cake with a luxurious cream cheese and whipped cream frosting.

Start with vegetable sticks and dip from the supermarket. Warm tortillas and a plate of sliced red onion, orange and avocado are nice sides. To end, sprinkle rum and brown sugar over fresh pineapple chunks. Look for the coconut milk in the Asian foods section of the grocery store.

A pastry bag and large rosette tip are optional for the whipped cream topping, which can also be spooned over the trifle.

"When autumn comes to Chicago, I love going to Lucca's to enjoy a big bowl of pumpkin soup while sitting outside on the patio ," writes Tom Cove of Chicago, Illinois. "Can you get this terrific recipe?" A medley of exotic spices plus coconut milk and banana add complexity and rich flavor.

A clafouti is a sweet baked "pancake," made popular in France, that is usually filled with cherries or other seasonal fruits. In most versions, while the clafouti bakes, the batter puffs up around the fruit and browns, becoming slightly crusty on the top of the soft, custardy center. In this recipe, however, I use puréed pumpkin mixed into the batter instead of adding chunks of fruit at the end. It makes for a particularly creamy, silken clafouti to which I add some chopped hazelnuts for crunch. This dessert could take the place of a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving; since it's much lighter, your guests will be grateful to see it after the huge turkey dinner. The batter can be made ahead and baked while you eat, or during the football interlude before dessert. I call for a cheese pumpkin in this recipe. It's a thick, fleshy, rather squat pumpkin with very dense flesh. If you can't find one, don't substitute regular pumpkin, which is much too watery. Instead, use butternut or Hubbard squash. In a pinch, you can also substitute canned unsweetened pumpkin purée instead of making your own.

Even traditionalists will love this pie, which is accented with grated orange peel.

You'll need six baby loaf pans for this recipe. Look for disposable ones at the market.

Pour a Chardonnay with the meal; if there are kids at the table, offer them apple cider.

Pumpkins are grown throughout the middle states, and Missouri is the world's largest supplier of black walnuts. The pumpkin gives the finished biscuits a golden color and moist texture, and its taste is complemented by aromatic spices. To go alongside, mix butter with honey and then lace it with ground cardamom.

Porrusalda, or leek soup in Basque, is a very traditional dish. It includes pumpkins, an interesting component in a soup composed of both Old World (carrots, leeks) and New World (potatoes, pumpkin) ingredients.