At this time of year, everyone’s a cook. People who never bake are baking. We’re all on the hunt for festive recipes to make for parties or cart to potlucks. So I gathered a few of my own holiday favorites for your consideration. I make almost all of these dishes at some point between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. They are tried, retried and true. The best gougères. The best panforte (beautiful on a cheese board). The best pumpkin cheesecake. My opinion, of course, but I hope you’ll try some of these recipes and let me know what you think. All are party-ready and cheesy or intended to accompany cheese.

My panforte is dense with toasted hazelnuts and almonds, dark with cocoa and subtly scented with aniseed and orange peel. I’ve never met a panforte I didn’t like but I like mine best. Double the recipe so you have one for gifting and one for yourself. Serve thin slivers on a cheese board with blue cheese and Gouda.

Sarah Scott is the executive chef at Napa Valley’s Opus One winery, with a long history of catering parties for the valley’s elite. Her crusty gougères are famous and foolproof; she shared the recipe with Planet Cheese a few years ago. You can use any cheese that melts well but a cave-aged Gruyère is Sarah’s usual choice. Serve warm with sparkling wine or Beaujolais Nouveau.

My favorite cheesecake comes from Cenk Sönmezsoy, a Turkish food celebrity whom I met in Istanbul years ago. Cenk subsequently wrote a bestselling cookbook, which was eventually translated into English as The Artful Baker. I am not the perfectionist that he is, so I don’t make my own cookies for the crust, and I’ve tweaked a few of his steps for simplicity’s sake, but the results are still outstanding. This pumpkin cheesecake freezes well, but that probably won’t be an issue. It disappears quickly.

My husband and I have a running argument over whether tarte flambée should be made with a cracker crust or a yeast crust. Both are traditional, but the cracker crust is faster. If you’ve never had this Alsatian specialty, imagine quiche Lorraine without the custard –just fresh cheese, onions and salty bacon. Oh, man. Even without a pizza oven, it comes out crisp and smoky. Open a Riesling and cut into thin wedges for a holiday appetizer.

Among my favorite dairy discoveries this year was Alouette crème fraîche, a widely distributed product that has been hiding in plain sight (from me at least) for years. French in name but made in America, this luscious cultured cream sends buckwheat blini over the moon. I use Margrit Mondavi’s easy blini recipe and top them with dollops of crème fraîche and smoked fish.

Over many years of entertaining at home, I have observed that if I cut an hors d’oeuvre into tiny portions, people eat more of it. As someone who believes cookie crumbs don’t have calories, I get it. Proving my point: these truffled grilled cheese mini-bites. They’re petite, gooey and crusty and nobody eats just one.

You hardly need a recipe for mixed nuts in honey but here’s how I do it. Pack this glistening cheese companion in decorative jars for gifting or stash some in your own pantry for dressing up future cheese boards.