Cream Cheese

I don't know which I like better, the roast turkey served on Thanksgiving Day or the leftovers. Like most Americans, I purposely roast a larger bird than my family and friends can eat for this celebration, knowing that extras can be turned into many tempting creations. Among my favorite are warm, open-face turkey sandwiches napped with gravy and served with dressing, as well as tall Dagwood-style turkey clubs layered with whatever is in the refrigerator. Turkey and wild rice salad with dried cranberries, curried turkey salad with grapes and almonds, and turkey pot pies topped with flaky puff pastry are other dishes I like.

The sign of a true dessert lover is someone who will skip a second helping of Thanksgiving stuffing to leave room for the last course. A true dessert lover doesn't ooh and ahh over the turkey when it's presented at the table, but sneaks back to the kitchen to see what has been baking. A true dessert lover pulls out all the stops - the cream, eggs and sugar - that make a sweet as rich as possible. Cranberry Cheesecake is a dessert lover's dream. The vanilla filling is studded with Grand Marnier-soaked dried cranberries.

Forget Wall Street, the GNP and the Dow. What you should be looking at is the bagel. Yes, that round hunk of dough with the hole in the middle. Nothing gives a clearer indication of our nation's economic health. While less aggressive financial vehicles, like the English muffin and the Kaiser roll, have remained static over the last 50 years, the bagel has yielded unprecedented dividends. In 1947, a bagel was traded on the open market for 3 cents. Today, a single share (plain or poppyseed)

When it opened back in 1989, Samuel Adams Brew House became Philadelphia's first new brewery since Prohibition - plus the city's first modern-day brew pub. To put this in perspective, you have to know that Sam Adams was given statutory life in the late 1980s, after the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board approved conditions for the licensing and operation of such pubs. That meant granting permission for producing beer for on-premises consumption. No other alcoholic beverages were permitted to be sold.

Virtually every food market offers some form of take-out these days, and consumers have come to rely on prepared foods from deli counters and salad bars for quick meals. It's one of the growing conveniences that has helped trim more than two hours of meal preparation from the average homemaker's day over the course of this century. But for all the take-out food available, few stores of any size prepare on site all of the ready-to-eat dishes they now offer. Instead, most turn to outside manufacturers to supply at least some items, especially salads.

Ann Hodgman has a lot of nerve, which served her well as a food columnist for Spy magazine and continues to serve her well as a cookbook author. She is not your traditional cookbook author: Named Seventeen magazine's Teen Gourmet of the Year at the tender age of 14, she went on to author 40 books for children, several humor books for adults, and two cookbooks - "Beat This!" and "Beat That!" that purport to contain "the very, very best recipe" for the dishes dearest to your heart: among them, potato salad, egg salad, beef stew, apple crisp and lasagna.

I would much rather snack than eat. Not for a love of junk food or a penchant for eating on the run, but simply for the taste of it. Snacks are all sensation. They're too tiny to be nutritional; they're too casual to be taken seriously, and their portions are so flexible that the only reason for ever getting jaded or overstuffed is one's own gluttony. Problems do arise when people overdo. Unlike ordinary eating, the act of snacking is inherently addictive. The palate, once titillated, yearns for more, and rationalizing another chip or a handful of popcorn is much easier than sitting down to a second steak or another plate of pasta.

Not only are tortillas the most common bread served with almost every meal in Mexico, but they are made into appetizers, soups, salads and desserts. Called the bread and spoon of Mexican cuisine, tortillas scoop up beans and rice, wipe plates clean, and help the diner savor the last morsel of mama's chile rellenos. In fact, a friend from Mexico told me that in traditional homes, brides are still chosen by the way they make a tortilla. The mother-in-law visits the bride-to-be, watches, tastes and approves.

June is Dairy Month, and although there's no formal observance, the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council have stepped forward to answer some commonly asked questions about milk and cheese. Q. What does the expiration date on a carton of milk really mean? A. The expiration date is used as a guide for grocery retailers and ensures that you are being sold a fresh product. Once you bring milk home, it remains fresh for 7 to 10 days beyond this date - if refrigerated at 35 to 45 degrees.

Strawberry pie made with truly ripe strawberries is one of the best treats of spring, especially when it has a creamy vanilla filling. Unfortunately, many lovers of strawberry pie do not indulge in their favorite dessert, assuming that such a tasty sweet must be rich. Others feel they are too busy to bake their own strawberry pie because of the work involved in making the crust and filling. The good news is, you can now make a speedy, effortless strawberry pie with a nonfat vanilla filling that is absolutely delicious.