Beverages

Perfect for the fall, this Pumpkin Spice Latte will warm you up inside. Try this CARNATION BREAKFAST ESSENTIALS® reader-submitted recipe today!

Greet the day with this tangy creation, adding a soft drink twist to your favorite flavors. Become a morning person with this Sunrise Smoothie recipe.

You'll just love this Sumptuous Berry Shake, a CARNATION BREAKFAST ESSENTIALS® reader-submitted recipe from Marta R., New York, NY. Try it today!

Taste the tropics in minutes with the flavors of banana, apple, mango and creamy French Vanilla in this delicious Apple-Mango Madness smoothie!

Totally elegant, easy, and seasonal, this is just the main to make for your next fall dinner party.

Named for a region in Normandy known for its apples (and Calvados), this traditional recipe combines both in a rich, creamy sauce. Afraid to flambé? Buy a long-reach lighter at a hardware store.

Wine spritzers are an excellent way to bluff your way through the wine hour. Spend your time and money on the accoutrements ("fancy" club soda, fresh garnishes, big ice cubes) instead of the main ingredient (wine) and still impress guests.

Most fish markets will sell you the bones you need to make the rich broth, but avoid those from oily fish like mackerel or bluefish, which will overpower the stew's flavor.

Raspberries or blackberries can be swapped in for the blueberries.

Sorenson says this beer cocktail is "the best of both worlds: Bloody Mary meets Michelada. It gives so much, and asks for so little in return."

Sorenson uses locally made House Spirits coffee liqueur, made with Stumptown beans, in this cold-brew cocktail. It's delicious, but hard to find outside of Oregon. In its place, use any other coffee liqueur.

Don't rush the browning of the onions—it's essential to the finished soup's flavor.

Strisce means strips—any long pasta will work—and Chiantigiana refers to the Tuscan wine used to flavor the sauce.

Egg whites are shaken into this gin-based sour, where they take on an airy, velvety texture.

Mix this New Orleans classic hours ahead of time, and serving it is as simple as pouring a pitcher of lemonade.

Sparkling wine and Jamaican rum make for a compelling riff on the Negroni. Plus, it's a quick finish once it's batched.

June 24 is the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the traditional day to harvest green walnuts for making nocino, a delicious liqueur invented at a congress of witches, according to Anna Tasca Lanza, the doyenne of Sicilian cooking. Lanza's witches were Italian, but other countries from Croatia to France to the chilly Teutonic regions equally claim greenwalnut liqueur as their own. I learned to make it at the Institute of Domestic Technology, a cooking school in Altadena, California, where I also teach. When you harvest the nuts—working barefoot, according to some folklore—they are smaller than eggs, smooth to the touch, and crisp like apples, because the shells have not yet hardened. The nutmeats, at this stage, are jelly. Like most liqueurs, nocino is easy but requires patience. You slice the nuts and cover them with strong booze, sugar, and spice, and allow the mixture to infuse for forty days, until it is nearly black. The real test of patience begins after you bottle it. Ten-year-old nocino is said to be the best, and certainly you would never drink this summer's batch before cold weather sets in this fall. Mature nocino has a complex flavor of nutmeg, allspice, coffee, and caramel. Drink it neat as a digestif, or use it to flavor desserts. A few tablespoons of nocino lightly whisked into a cup of heavy cream will cause it to seize, as if magically transformed into cooked custard. The thickened cream is called "posset," and can be used as a sauce alongside cakes or other desserts. My nocino recipe is based on those from the Institute of Domestic Technology and Lanza's Sicilian cookbook The Garden of Endangered Fruit. Its fundamentals are green walnuts, 80-proof grain spirits, and sugar. (My secret ingredient is coffee beans.) You can change the aromatics if you like, but use small quantities, because the spices can take over. Green walnuts are sometimes available at farmers' markets, or can be ordered online at www.localharvest.org.

If I entered a competitive-eating contest, it'd be one for pancakes. I like mine crispy edged, yet soft and tender inside. After years of tinkering, I've found that the best way to get this texture is to start with a fresh pancake batter, but you don't even have to make it yourself. (I love the buttermilk-based Robby's pancake mix available at RobbysPancakeMix.com or Amazon.) If you can, let the batter sit overnight in the refrigerator to hydrate and swell—that extra time makes for the fluffiest pancakes, I promise you. I love the play of the sweet maple syrup with the creamy, slightly bitter nature of the coffee butter in this recipe.

Key when making this batter: Be sure your beer and club soda are ice cold, and chill the batter if prepping ahead.