Nutmeg

Pumpkin seeds give earthy flavor and lovely color to this side dish.

These individual desserts feature layers of tender spiced chiffon muffins; a mix of caramelized apples, pears, and cranberries; and a rich custard laced with apple brandy. To show off the pretty layers, assemble the trifles in clear bowls or dessert glasses. Enjoy the extra muffin for breakfast the next day.

Brown Betty recipes started showing up in the late 1800s, although nobody is sure who "Betty" was. Traditionally, a brown Betty is made with apples, breadcrumbs, and spices. In this updated version, pears stand in for the apples and the breadcrumbs are enriched with almonds. Keep in mind that this dessert is best eaten the day it's made (but any leftovers would be nice for breakfast).

As you knead the dough for this Mardi Gras cake, watch for it to begin to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl. If that doesn't happen (because the moisture content in flour fluctuates with the humidity), add a spoonful or two more flour.

Savor these morsels with benefits: Each has nearly 20 percent of your calcium RDA.

Consider these "beauty" bites: They offer up 26 percent of your daily dose of vitamin A, which keeps skin and hair healthy.

Just as custards work well in the savory portion of the meal, although they’re more often served as a dessert, so do bread puddings. This one is a great complement to the Blowtorch Prime Rib Roast and Pan-Roasted Duck Breasts. But you could also top it with Oven-Roasted Tomatoes and serve it as a vegetarian meal.

This is not the cloying, candylike sweet potato side dish that is so often topped with marshmallows. Here, the vegetable's distinctive, mellow sweetness (as well as that of the acorn squash) is augmented by hints of brown sugar and nutmeg, so that the ingredients speak for themselves. Slicing the vegetables rather than puréeing them also imparts a lovely presence—the squash looks like happy smiles, the sweet potatoes like shining coins.

These smoothies are light, delicious, and not too sweet. If you prefer a thicker smoothie, add 1/4 cup plain yogurt. Almond milk is a dairy-free product made from ground almonds; it's available at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and natural foods stores.

Greek-style yogurt gives the cake a rich, moist texture.

Traditionally used to season pâtés and terrines, this French spice mixture also adds an earthy depth to the duck confit.

Oven-baking this rice pudding eliminates a lot of stovetop stirring while still producing a delicious, creamy dessert.

Creamed spinach often gets a dash of nutmeg. With the rest of this meal, you'll be happy to have a lighter (meaning creamless), more basic sautéed spinach, but the nutmeg remains, for a sense of something special.

Florence Myers of Gainesville, Missouri, writes: "In the late 1950s and early 1960s I was a counselor at an all-girls summer camp in New Hampshire. When we went on long hikes in the mountains, the camp cook, Peggy Ward, would pack up plenty of her wonderful ginger cookies. I've passed that cookie recipe on to many people, including my granddaughter. She tells me that every time she makes the cookies people ask her for the recipe." Old-fashioned flavor in a super-easy cookie.

This moist cake keeps beautifully for a day or two after you make it.

A rich, aromatic (and potent) version of hot buttered rum.

Spekkuk Bumbu Editor's note: This recipe is adapted from James Oseland's book Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It was originally part of an article by Oseland on Indonesian cuisine. This butter-rich spice cake flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves is known as spekkoek (the Dutch spelling) or spekkuk. It's an inheritance from Holland's four-century rule in Indonesia. This recipe was given to me by Mami, my friend in Bandung, Indonesia, who's an expert in all things sweet. Because butter is a rare commodity in Indonesia, especially outside of big cities, many cooks often substitute margarine for it. Mami wouldn't dream of doing that. "Spekkuk is a special-occasion cake. It deserves a splurge," she says. She usually makes this cake when important guests come calling or for her berbuka puasa (literally, opening the fast) feasts during Ramadan. Essentially a pound cake baked in a tube, or bundt, pan, it has a golden, faintly crisp exterior and a shamelessly rich, velvety interior. There are few things more satisfying than eating a warm slice of spekkuk along with sweetened tea (the traditional accompaniment) or icy cold milk (my favorite accompaniment). If all of your ingredients are at room temperature, this cake is relatively easy to make—and immensely pleasurable, too. Once it starts baking, the spicy aroma will perfume not only your kitchen but also your entire home. Lapis legit (literally "layered stickiness") is a spekkuk constructed of up to 25 thin layers, each no thicker than an eighth of an inch—the more the layers, the more grand the cake. It is made by spreading thin successive layers of batter, one layer at a time, and baking each new layer until it is cooked through. A fresh layer is spread on top, and the process is repeated until all of the batter is used up. Each layer needs about five to ten minutes of baking time. Some cooks alternate plain, white, spice-less batter with the golden-brown batter containing spices for a variegated effect. Other cooks only make lapis legit with ten thicker layers, as opposed to 25. Whatever the case, though lapis legit is lovely to look at, it tastes no better than a single-layer spekkuk, as it's made with the very same batter.

This drink was featured as a Cocktail of the Month. Click here to learn more about eggnog.

The warm spices in this version are the very essence of the holiday.

Caramelized sugar laces this classic with a sensuous richness, extraordinary in the context of this unbelievably light and delicately spiced pie. And since it's cooked in a deep quiche pan, a single pie will serve 12 guests.