Apple

This fruit butter makes a quick dessert. It's also a great snack on bread or toast. We use it in a low-fat recipe for a moist and chunky apple butter spice cake. We have found preserving in half-pint (250 mL) jars convenient, since that recipe calls for that amount of apple butter. But if you use larger jars, you'll have lots left for other uses.

Healthy bonus: 1 serving of fruit per 1/2 cup of sliced fruit, magnesium, and selenium from nuts, vitamin C from strawberries, fiber from nuts and fruits

This treat is so sweet (even though we've eliminated half the sugar), you won't need to serve it à la mode.

Jada Pinkett-Smith gets a lean, muscle-building protein kick from these marinated turkey skewers, which she recently served at a luau and which come from her personal chef, Bernie Guzman.

Wrapper's delight: two paper pouches, eight shrimp, 10 minutes — dinner! Take a lowfat cooking tip from French-born Alain Ducasse, whose New York City restaurant, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, is among the world's swankiest. Ducasse has perfected a simple method of cooking in a paper pouch, which uses trapped steam — not fat — to seal in flavor. In this recipe he teams shrimp with apples and cheese for a trio of seductive tastes. Tuck the ingredients into parchment-paper hearts, pop them in the oven and prepare to fall in love.

Saturday lunch. From Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Go ahead and pack it in: This chicken salad tastes deceptively creamy, but unlike the old-fashioned mayo-drenched variety, it is held together with tangy nonfat yogurt. The sweet and spicy flavor is a pleasure for your palate, and the flavonoids in the grapes are a boon to the heart.

Beware of packaging announcing a product is "100 percent wheat" — this designation can be used on foods made with refined wheat flour. To be sure of a product's nutritional value, read labels carefully: The first ingredient should be a whole-grain product. Check the fiber content — if the product doesn't contain a minimum of three grams per slice, you are probably dealing with an impostor.

Selma Hurwitz of Potomac, Maryland, writes: "I'm an artist, and I think that without question cooking is very creative. You can't be afraid to experiment in the kitchen. I often get ideas from cookbooks and recipes from friends, and I'll add my own touches. The apple cake is inspired by a cookbook from Michigan — I just added more rum and spices. Both recipes are great for company and freeze beautifully."

Sous chef John D. Martin pairs crisp, tart Granny Smith apples with a rich yet fluffy cake that has a crumbly texture.

Baker's sugar, a favorite of pastry chefs, is also called superfine sugar. It measures the same as regular but dissolves more quickly. It's available at some supermarkets. You can also make your own by whizzing granulated sugar in a food processor until powdery.

Without the ice cream and served warm, these make a great brunch dish.

This slight variation on traditional Ashkenazi charoset calls for deep-frying the walnuts and coating them with sugar. The nuts stay crispier in the final product and have a pleasant, toasty flavor.

In this recipe, simple pantry ingredients come together to make a homey cake that's so tender and moist, you'll be fighting over the last piece.

Silky smooth and with a crunchy topping, this seductive soup packs a range of flavors — earthy, smoky, and tart-sweet. If you decide to omit the bacon, substitute 1 tablespoon butter when you cook your vegetables.