Quick

"I was making breakfast at home one morning, and my son suggested using croissants for the French toast instead of bread," says owner Michael Stein. The swap was such a hit with his family that the dish soon made the restaurant menu. Stein is thrilled that the dish caught the eye of our young reader: "Sometimes you just have to let the kids have their way."

Use to liven up Bloody Marys, or stir into sour cream as a sauce for roast beef.

This is the slaw that is served everywhere in Ensenada. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the Baja style of fried fish taco, as it doesn’t have much liquid to make the tempura batter–coated fish soggy. This slaw goes on the tortilla before the fish. Always look for small, bright green heads of cabbage. These have the smallest core and are sweeter, with a more subtle “cabbage-y” flavor. Avoid any that are pale to almost white, which are older and not as sweet.

This buttery crust can be used for sweet or savory dishes, baked in either a pie pan or a fluted French tart pan with a removable bottom. This recipe will make a crust for a 9-inch pie or tart.

What makes this recipe special is its lightness: twice as much milk as cream, and the white of the egg whipped stiff and folded into the mix, so it was almost like clouds on top of the eggnog.

This was on the bar at every establishment in New York City during the holidays in the Gay Nineties.

Crab may be my favorite food of all time—except maybe for scallops or octopus#151;and I like it any way I can get it, including in this totally kicky ceviche dish. I know this combination of foods sounds totally off the wall, but I love to play with food, and this play knocks it out of the park. Trust me! (And if you don't want to trust me, trust the diners at The Surf Lodge, where this dish is a top seller and the one people always ask for.)

The play of shapes and shades of green in this vegetable combo takes the humdrum out of these supermarket standbys. Lemon zest adds just the right zip of citrus, but unlike a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, it won't turn the greens an unappealing khaki shade. Editors' Note: Kemp Minifie reimagined the foil tray frozen dinner for Gourmet Live. Her updated menu includes: meatloaf made from grass-fed beef, scalloped potatoes, lemony green veggies, and your new favorite brownies for dessert.

We swooned over deputy food editor Janet McCracken's pumpkin seed and cilantro pesto when she made it in the BA Test Kitchen. Now we use it on rice, pasta, roasted vegetables, and chicken, too.

Slice the red beets last and keep them separate until serving so their color won't bleed onto the other vegetables.

While the turkey rests, take 15 minutes to whip up this simple, timeless preparation.

Use this fresh blend of spices and herbs to add pep to the Cajun-Spiced Turkey and Crawfish Gravy , or to season blackened redfish or gumbo.

Meyer lemons, a cross between lemons and oranges, start to ripen in November. They add a deliciously fragrant sweet-and-sour note to this cocktail.

Serve this sweet and tangy condiment with the Cranberry Spice Cake , or spoon it over vanilla ice cream.

Herbaceous, nutty, and bright, this rendition of the Prohibition-era classic doubles the gin for a more robust cocktail.

The Pacific Northwest is the birthplace of America's specialty coffee culture, and beyond the coffee shops that dot every street corner of the region, bars have gotten in on the action, mixing locally roasted coffee into cocktails like this one from Seattle bartender Andrew Friedman, which features espresso from Stumptown Coffee Roasters. "Their Hair Bender espresso is so expressive that I thought it deserved to be in a cocktail," says Friedman. Taking inspiration from the classic froth of a flip cocktail, this velvety concoction harmonizes the rich, chocolaty notes of the espresso with vanilla-flecked Navan liqueur. Mandarine Napoléon adds the perfect splash of orangey sweetness.

In the early 1900s, New York state had more than one thousand stills on local farms. Then Prohibition started in 1920, spelling the legal end for the country's distilleries, both large and small. It took eighty-three years for a New York distillery to pick up the torch, but finally, in 2003, Tuthilltown Spirits launched, becoming New York's first small-batch whiskey distiller since the "Noble Experiment" put everyone out of business. When New York City bartenders Jim Meehan and Karen Fu set out to craft a cocktail that honors their home state, which happens to be the second largest producer of apples in the country, they reached for Tuthilltown's Heart of the Hudson vodka, made from apple cider from local orchards. Muddled Granny Smith apple plus fresh mint and saké give the drink a deliciously fresh, green-apple crispness.