Once you’ve made some Spiced Apple Cider, or if you simply happen to have a bottle of storebought cider in the back of the fridge, it is a snap to make one of my favorite wintertime drinks, Caramel Apple Cider. I was first turned onto this drink on a visit to Starbucks, where it is generally available year-round but is often featured on the menu boards during the winter. The drink seems to retain heat much better than just about anything else, so not only does it taste great, but it keeps your hands warm when it is snowy outside!

The Starbucks version of this drink is made by steaming apple cider until it is very hot, then adding caramel and whipped cream. I start mine with homemade cider and heat it up in a saucepan if I am going to be serving a crowd and in a mug in the microwave if I’m only serving myself. Once the cider is steaming hot, stir in about 1 1/2 tbsp caramel sauce, then add whipped cream and another drizzle of caramel. Use any kind of caramel for this drink, whether it’s homemade sauce or your favorite topping brand - I’ve even melted solid caramels into it in a pinch and it turned out very well. I often add a very small pinch of salt to the caramel on top for that salted caramel effect, too.

The sweetness of the caramel highlights the sweetness of the apples in the cider, while the whipped cream on top is a nice, cool contrast to the steamy beverage below. And the caramel on top? Why, that’s just an excuse to eat even more caramel. As though I needed one.
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Apple cider is a type of unfiltered apple juice made from pressing ripe apples to remove the liquid from them. It looks quite different from regular apple juice, which is filtered and is completely clear, because it is cloudy as a result of having apple particles still suspended in it. Many fans of cider will tell you that it has more flavor to it than regular apple juice does. It can be served chilled, but one of the most popular - and most delicious - things to do with a batch of apple cider is to spice it and serve it heated. It’s great for warming you up on a cold day when served this way.

Spiced cider. also known as mulled cider, can be made in a number of different ways with a number of different spices. To make spiced apple cider, add some cider to a medium or large saucepan (depending on how much or how little cider you want to make) and add in some whole spices to it. Use cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise and a bit of nutmeg. I actually don’t use very much nutmeg, so I’ll generally add in a sprinkle of ground nutmeg. Bring the cider to a boil, the remove from heat and let the cider steep with the spices in it for 15 minutes or so. Strain out the spices and reheat before serving.

If you don’t have whole spices, you can use small amounts of ground spices, but you should keep in mind that you won’t be able to strain them out easily and they’ll probably just sit at the bottom of the glass when you go to serve the cider.

One of the first food-related, creepy Halloween things that I learned to make was a big ice hand to float in a bowl of punch. You make this by filling up a latex (rubber or similar) glove with water, tying it off like a water balloon and freezing it, then peeling the glove away when you’re ready to use the ice hand. It looks neat floating in a bowl of punch, especially if you have some dry ice in there, too. The only drawback is that the ice hand is big and clunky, and not ideal if you’re going to be serving anything other than punch at a party. So, this year, I picked up some Bone Chillers, a silicone Skull and Bones ice cube tray.

I really like the shapes and the tray is just as easy to use as a hard plastic tray, since you simply peel back the tray to release the ice cubes. Even better is that this tray can double as a mold for other things, like candies, fudge, truffles, marshmallows or anything else that you might want to make into a little skull and bones shape. The only downside is that the tray makes just eight ice cubes at a time. I started two days ago, emptying and filling the tray again - not continuously, just when I had the chance - and now my icebox is full of cute and slightly menacing Halloween ice cubes!

I found these on sale at a local store and have seen them all over the place, even at bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders, so keep an eye out to pick some up (probably at a good price) before Halloween.

I rarely mention restaurants - unless I’m dining out of the country - but this week I had a lunch that was so foodie-oriented, I can’t resist writing about it. It was a coffee-pairing lunch hosted by Starbucks at Lucques, a restaurant in Los Angeles. The lunch was held at the end of Coffee College, a day long seminar that Starbucks hosted (and was generous enough to invite me to) that discussed everything from how coffee is grown and harvested, to how the beans are roasted and cupped (tasted, essentially) to try bring out their fullest flavor. Lunch was dedicated to seeing how different flavors in food brought out, or paired with, different flavors of coffee from different regions of the world.

The first course was a yellow tomato soup with pesto, parmesan and opal basil. The coffee pairing was with Kenya and Costa Rica La Candela  coffees. The Kenya  was known to have citrus notes, but turned out to be overpowered by the coffee. The Costa Rica, on the other hand, had a very bright flavor that was similar to the acidity of the tomatoes and turned out to complement the soup, drawing out peppery notes and just making it taste more flavorful. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a cup of coffee to have such an impact on a dish - especially a soup - so it was surprising, in addition to being tasty.
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I often get asked questions about what buttermilk is and how to substitute for it because people don’t keep it “on hand.” The best answer to this is to say that buttermilk is a wonderful dairy product that makes for some delicious baked goods, and it should always be kept on hand if you like to bake more than just the occasional batch of chocolate chip cookies. Buttermilk is thick and has a tangy, buttery flavor - sort of like a cross between melted butter and sour cream. Despite its thickness, it is low in fat. Some people like to drink it plain, but it is usually best utilized in cakes, pancakes, breads and other dishes where it lends a lot of butter flavor without the extra fat of more butter or full-fat sour cream.

Buttermilk is so named because it was originally the liquid left over after the butter-churning process was complete. These days, buttermilk is cultured, made by adding lactic acid bacteria to [pasturized] nonfat or lowfat milk to thicken it and give it a tangy flavor. The easiest substitute is to add 1 tbsp of vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk to curdle it and give it a sharper flavor. This also provides a similar level of acidity to buttermilk, so it will work in recipes in the same way (it doesn’t have the buttery flavor of buttermilk, however).

Buttermilk is usually sold in smaller containers than regular milk and it is usually quite inexpensive (usually around a dollar, in my next of the woods). It has a longer shelf life than regular milk, so you have more time to use it up. With cakes, pancakes, breads, salad dressings to choose from, there are plenty of options to choose from.

• Buttermilk Lemon Bars
• Buttermilk Pancakes with Nectarines
• Buttermilk Pie
• Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes
• Strawberry Buttermilk Shortcakes

The principle behind iced tea is simple: make hot tea and serve it cold. Unfortunately, getting a good batch of iced tea is not always as easy as it sounds. It’s easy to over-steep the tea, making it bitter, and it is equally easy to over dilute it with ice, leaving you with a less-than-refreshing drink. I find that the best way to make iced tea is to brew extra strong tea by using a few extra tea bags (depending on the size of the batch), stir in a generous amount of sugar or honey while the tea is hot, then chill it overnight without adding any ice. Ice should be added to the glasses just before serving.

My current favorite way to serve iced tea is to use frozen fruit in place of ice cubes. The frozen fruit keeps the drink cold while they are defrosting, and they don’t add excess water - unlike ice cubes - that dilutes the tea. In fact, they add a little bit of fruity sweetness to the tea, so each glass will be even more flavorful than it would be with ice alone. Frozen fruit will be good in any type of tea, but it’s even better if you brew a fruity tea to begin with. The tea pictured above is Zhena’s Gypsy Tea Strawberry Kiwi Green Tea (review here), which I iced with frozen strawberries, raspberries and cherries, then garnished with a sprig of mint.