The Perfect Pantry®

Grilled chicken, avocado and peach salsa quesadilla recipe

In the house where I grew up, we ate grilled cheese sandwiches all the time, but nary a quesadilla. Maybe it was a Northeast thing, but more likely, it was a my mother never heard of quesadillas thing. My own pantry always holds enough fixings for these simple Mexican grilled cheese sandwiches, a go-to meal on busy days. Most often I use Joseph's low-carb oat bran tortillas -- the gorgeous orange ones in these photos are habañero-lime tortillas from Trader Joe's -- and my friend Lucia keeps me supplied with her homemade peach salsa. Newman's Own peach salsa from the supermarket, or Trader Joe's peach salsa, will be fine substitutes that add a bit of fruity heat. Here's my secret to great quesadillas: tuck a few teaspoons of the salsa inside, and cook them on a dry griddle, to keep them from being greasy on the outside.

Recipe for cod cakes with red pepper, tarragon and yogurt remoulade

Here in coastal New England, we pride ourselves on fierce regional loyalty: to baked beans, clam chowder and stuffies, Del's frozen lemonade, and the Red Sox, our perennially heartbreaking baseball team. We also love our cod, the local white fish spawned in the cold water of the North Atlantic. Fishing boats bring cod to market all year long, which makes cod cakes a popular appetizer on restaurant menus. You can make them at home for a fraction of the price; serve minis for a dinner party appetizer, or larger ones for a light lunch or dinner entree. If cod is expensive or hard to find in your area, substitute salmon or crab meat. To make this really quick and easy, whip up a batch of the remoulade a day or two in advance.

Recipe for turkey salad with grapes and walnuts

Though I'm always interested in new things to make with holiday leftovers, I love the classics, and this turkey salad with grapes and walnuts is a classic-in-the-making. Nothing complicated here. Just a basic, really good salad of turkey cut into big chunks, with a sharp vinaigrette, a kind of Waldorf salad send-up. In case, like me, you're too tired to do any more fancy cooking after preparing the holiday meal, marshalling the kitchen helpers and table setters, and overseeing the clean-up contingent, know that you can count on this salad on the day after, or any day.

Mashed garlic sweet potatoes recipe

Fun with sweet potatoes, all week.

Some families hold mashed sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows sacrosanct. My family, thank the food gods, is not one of them. We're more savory than sweet, at least when it comes to what we eat, which makes these mashed garlic sweet potatoes scented with ginger and coriander a much better fit for us. The sage plants in my garden survive well past the first snow, and I love having leaves to fry for an edible garnish. If you don't have sage, substitute fresh parsley, rosemary or thyme. (Simon and Garfunkel will be delighted.) Leftover mashed sweet potatoes make a great filling for potstickers, or a topping for shepherd's pie.