Herbs & Spices

Tart, sour, and just as refreshing as ye olde cranberry sauce.

Vibrant greens, handfuls of fresh herbs, nuts for crunch, and horseradish for bite. Ingredients are suggestions; feel free to mix it up.

Silky, with a texture somewhere between pudding and panna cotta—and no water bath required.

These knobby-looking tubers (a.k.a. sunchokes) are sweet and nutty when browned. Balsamic vinegar smacks some sass into them.

Most butchers will remove the backbone for you; see left to learn how. Lots of guests? Roast two 12–14-pounders; spatchcocking anything larger will be harder and takes longer.

Store-bought cornbreads can be very sweet; taste before using, or omit the sugar from your favorite recipe.

You'll never be tempted to buy packaged again.

Traditionally, punch is made with some kind of spice element. We satisfied that requirement with this tea-infused vermouth, which was a real game changer for us.

This recipe—a rhapsody for sweet, bitter, and salty—is based on one from Ruth Reichl, published in Gourmet Today.

One of my favorite post-shift hangouts was Painkiller NYC, where my buddy Richie Boccato made a mean Dark and Stormy at his tiki cocktail haven. Sadly, the bar is long gone; I raise my glass to Richie and the best Dark and Stormy anywhere. It is a favorite cocktail of mine, so I thought the combination of rum, lime, and lots of ginger would be really refreshing in a frozen dessert. This is a great summertime treat-light and airy but with a nice boozy kick. What really makes this is the fresh ginger juice. Grate peeled fresh ginger into a small fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl. Once you have a fair amount of pulp, squeeze the juice out of it. You'll need a fairly large piece of fresh ginger, about 12 ounces (335 grams) to get enough juice.

Plain sugar cookies, no matter how well they are made, are a bit boring to me. You may think I have gone off the rails by adding curry powder to cookies, but along with the ground and candied ginger, the combo really wakes up a classic American cookie. Give these a shot!

The following is a slightly-NSFW recipe from the brilliant minds behind the popular cooking blog Thug Kitchen. To learn more about them, read our profile.—Epicurious Editors Grab beer and get to work. Just don't get sloppy 'til you're done cooking.

These dumplings are delicious whether you put the classic pleats in them or not.

This simple dish employs the French technique of cooking vegetables in a mixture of water and butter. The water eventually cooks out after steaming the vegetables, leaving them glazed with the butter. This is a dish that can be cooked while the turkey is resting.

A simple puréed soup, known as velouté in French, is the perfect way to whet the appetite and take the edge off hunger without overfilling your guests' bellies before the big feast. Here, chestnuts, which come already roasted in jars, make an earthy and seasonal soup that can be made well ahead of time. Serve in shallow bowls, or even teacups or shot glasses, while guests are still milling around.