Rolls

Here's a different use for one of the ingredients from the first Thanksgiving. Though this recipe is particularly easy to prepare with frozen winter squash purée, canned pumpkin purée or mashed freshly cooked butternut squash will work just as well. The squash will impart a beautiful golden color to the rolls.

Use this focaccia to make Sausage, Bell Pepper, and Onion Sandwiches and Genoa Toasts.

Traditional New York-style salt sticks are chewy and dense because they are usually made from the same dough as bagels. These are softer and more delicate and make fine dinner or sandwich rolls.

In most baking recipes, it is customary to see salt measured in teaspoons. The amount of salt called for in the following recipe, however, is correct for the proportion of flour used.

21st Century Recipe Today, when our far-flung family gathers for holidays, my mother, my sister, and I make this updated version of my grandmother’s recipe to go with our typical menu: grilled beef tenderloin served with a dollop of sour cream, horseradish and bacon sauce; grilled asparagus; potato casserole; a green salad with blue cheese crumbles; and pear and almond tart for dessert.

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

These all-American rolls are so flaky and buttery that everyone will want seconds. Be sure to begin preparing the dough a day before serving because it needs to be refrigerated overnight.

Mary Tuohy, a Cappagh, County Tyrone, native who now lives in Redbank, New Jersey, has been making this raisin tea cake for so long that she can almost do it from memory. She says, "I can't remember where the recipe came from, but we used to bake it over an open turf fire back home. It came to me on a piece of dilapidated paper, which I still have." It's a very moist cake, she says, nearly foolproof. "You can't go wrong with it."

(Soft White Rolls)

Legend has it that these cornmeal and molasses rolls are named for a New England fisherman's curse on his wife: "Anna, damn her!" Regardless of what she may have done to upset her spouse, she was a great baker.

Anadama bread recipes, which date back to pre-Revolutionary New England, all call for molasses and cornmeal for substantial- and delicious- results. This contemporary rendition is no exception.