Cream Cheese

This cheesecake, a delicious contrast of sweet vanilla and tart cranberry, is a scruptious conclusion to any dinner. Whipped cream rosettes are a pretty finish.

If you can't find fresh Key limes in your area, you can substitute bottled Key lime juice. We've tried several different kinds in our test kitchen, and the only one we like so far is Manhattan brand*.

Frieda Caplan, doyenne of the produce company Frieda's, introduced the U.S. to the kiwi in the sixties. It took a few years, but in the seventies, the green fruit with the fuzzy brown skin really took off.

A standard at health food restaurants across the country, carrot cake was ubiquitous in the seventies. Grated carrots made it a nutritious choice, or so the thinking went. This ultra-moist version is updated with a maple icing.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

There's a rich cream cheese base in this simple yet sophisticated dessert.

This lovely dessert must be chilled at least two hours (or up to one day) before serving.

You might be tempted to bake 2 sheets of cookies at a time in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Don't give in to this urge—the cookies must go in the middle of the oven to cook through and brown evenly.

These tiny turnovers have the same balance of filling to dough as my number one favorite cookie, rugelach, but they are easier to prepare because they aren't rolled. Rugelach means rolled; therefore, I have dubbed these "un-rugelach." The buttery cinnamon/walnut flavors fill your mouth with opulent pleasure, but despite their richness, they are easy to keep on eating because of the fresh tangyness from the apricot jam filling.

Prepare this one day ahead to allow the flavors to blend. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.