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My wife and I were recently having a pre-dinner Scrabble game and feeling peckish. We decided to snack on some pistachios.

A friend recently celebrated a milestone birthday and my wife and I offered to prepare a special dinner for her to mark that occasion. We asked her what she would like and she said any kind of seafood would be great.

If you enjoy Southern European-style flavours and flaky pastry, here’s welcome news: The two work marvellously together. The proof is in my recipe for Mediterranean-style phyllo triangles.

If you can’t decide whether you want Asian-style crispy prawns or soothing noodle soup for dinner, make both and combine them. That’s exactly what you’ll do when making a tasty Japanese-style concoction called tempura udon.

Many recipes I’ve created for this column in the past 20 years started out with a basic idea. For example, today, I wanted to offer a recipe for vegetable-based enchiladas. I wrote that down and my recipe-developing process was underway.

Traditional comfort food gets a spicy Italian spin with this cheesey recipe

Layering a balanced mix of ingredients in a bowl, whether hot or cold or a mix of both, has become a popular, nutritious and colourful way to create a meal. You could use a recipe to create that bowl, and today, I’ve provided two options.

On Wednesday, I wrote about onion soup. Today, I thought I would keep the bistro-food theme going and talk about mussels and french fries — moules frites, in French.

If you’re still planning your Thanksgiving dinner and need one more side dish to round things off, how about a salad? Something seasonal that will complement the other dishes and won’t require las-minute cooking as some of your other items will.

Given how plentiful they are in autumn, it’s no wonder you’ll see mounds of sweet potatoes and yams for sale at supermarkets around Thanksgiving.