By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

Can better butter mean an even more beautiful Christmas meal? Believe it or not, quick gourmet, economical enhancements to inexpensive condiments can be all it takes to draw raves at the holiday table.

Add great glazes, bodacious bastes, magnificent mustards, rousing relishes and dazzling salad dressings to the list, and you've got split-second solutions to holiday dilemmas.

Many multitask, as well:

The juniper butter below can be rubbed under turkey skin, melted on potatoes or other vegetables or spread onto holiday rolls, bread or biscuits.

The sparkling apple cider glaze below can decorate either a ham or a dessert tart.

The wedge salad-inspired salad dressing can make a salad sing or be converted into a snazzy appetizer dip in a snap. Here is a guideline for preparing the dazzling dollop:

Salad Dressing that Sings

--- Wedge salads are famous at steakhouses. The ingredients that are usually strewn out all over the plate can be turned into an interesting multipurpose dressing.

Combine blue cheese salad dressing with finely chopped tomatoes, red onions, pine nuts and real bacon bits as well as freshly ground black pepper. Serve over salads or as a dipping sauce for chicken tenders or chicken wings.

Fold in some softened cream cheese, and it's an appetizer dip you can serve with mini chunks of iceberg lettuce and rye crackers as dippers.

Better Butters

--- Your own easy homemade-enhanced butters can be used for endless entrees. Or they can even be given as a holiday gift or hostess present in a covered tub (kept refrigerated) surrounded by homemade baked goods or store-bought artisan bread loaves. This juniper one is particularly good at this time of year:

At least a day before to let flavors gel, mix seasonal herbs and spices - chopped fresh rosemary, store-bought ground juniper, fresh thyme, fresh sage, minced shallots, minced garlic, minced fresh ginger and freshly ground black pepper - with unsalted softened butter and store, covered, in the refrigerator. Serve melting over potatoes or other vegetables, spread on rolls, or rub it under the turkey's skin before roasting.

There's Magic in These Mustards

--- Do-it-yourself home-improved mustards can be a boon to serve alongside ham or beef dishes.

For instance, use store-bought Dijon mustard and then fold in minced sauteed onions, drizzles of dry white wine (if desired), honey, Tabasco sauce, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator. Serve on the side of your ham, poultry or beef entrees. It's also good on leftover sandwiches, as well as drizzled into ham and cheese or vegetable omelets.

Glamorous Glazes

--- Buy store-bought ham glaze and drizzle in a few drops of sparkling cider, cranberry sauce, molasses and dried cherries. Use as a glaze for ham, turkey or chicken.

To use for a dessert tart, spread on top of pastry during last 15 minutes of baking tented with aluminum foil, or do the same if heating a store-bought pastry.

Fully Realized Relishes

--- For an interesting relish, to refrigerated fresh-style store-bought cranberry sauce or compote, add finely chopped apple, red onion, fresh lemon juice, dash cayenne pepper, honey and ground cinnamon.

Fun fare like this proves that food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun and fast. The dishes are delicious evidence that everyone - including you and your kidlet helpers - has time for tasty home cooking and, more importantly, the healthy family time in the kitchen that goes along with it!

Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you choose to use can't help but draw "wows" at the holiday table and all year long.

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  Dried fruit can be a healthful foundation for memorable holiday appetizers - or nutritious snacks anytime. Simply make a slit in dried dates, figs or prunes. Stuff with a whipped cream cheese mixture (whipped cream cheese has more air, which lowers the fat content versus regular cream cheese) of spices that have been judged full of the most potential concentrated antioxidants, like turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, oregano, red pepper, rosemary and thyme. These larger dried fruits (called some of the most antioxidant filled foods of all), plus the stuffings, are filling, so keep the portions low as, in larger quantities, their calories and natural sugar (fructose) contents multiply.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.