Barbara Lynch's New England Thanksgiving Dinner

Barbara Lynch simmers baby artichokes in an aromatic white wine broth, then stuffs them with a juicy crab salad for a light starter that honors her husband Charlie’s family tradition: “His mother made artichokes for every festive occasion. She’s no longer around, so I always try to make one dish with artichokes in it for him.”

Overhauling her mother’s celery sticks with cream cheese, Lynch finishes this cool, silky soup—flavored with parsley and crème fraîche—by adding a luxurious touch: a generous mound of tender bay scallops, which she gets from a friend who lives on Nantucket.

Lynch’s advice for a perfect bird: “Buy a turkey from somebody you trust. And keep going back to the same source...I'm a true believer that you shouldn’t mess around too much with the turkey. I don’t brine it, I don't fry it. If you buy a good turkey, you don’t need to add much to it.”

In this bread stuffing, Lynch relies on thick-sliced bacon and a mix of wild mushrooms to provide the robust, earthy flavors she thinks belong in every stuffing.

At No. 9 Park, Lynch serves a haricots verts salad with a hazelnut vinaigrette. Here, she adds fresh chestnuts to give the dish a meaty fall flavor. Finely chopped dates in the cider vinegar dressing lend a lovely, subtle sweetness.

Inspired by the pickled pearl onions that became a family tradition (“Mom just served them straight out of the jar and threw a toothpick at them”), Lynch bakes fresh pearl onions in a mixture of cream, garlic, shallots and bacon, then tops it all with a crispy panko crust.

Lynch isn’t choosy about which squash to include in this deeply flavored dish, which gets finished with a sage-infused cream sauce—she goes with whichever varieties look best at the farmers’ market—but butternut and delicata are among her favorites.

“It’s so easy to make your own cranberry sauce, why wouldn’t you?” Boston chef Lynch says of this bitter-tart conserve, which she also jars and gives as a gift. She suggests adjusting the recipe to taste by varying the amount of cranberries, grapefruit and sugar.

This fluffy mousse, served here with Spiced Almond Tuiles, could just as easily be made with fresh or canned pumpkin. Serve the leftover candied squash as a topping for vanilla ice cream.