Just 4 days remain to cast your votes in the annual Gap Casting Call! We have been so honored to partner with Gap to bring Sugar readers all of the details on this year's contest. Gap had the unenviable task of narrowing down nearly 900,000 submissions to 20 bundles of cuteness, and now they need your help to pick 4 winners. You can vote every day, so mark your calendars and support your faves!

Need help? lilsugar has rounded up photos of the girls and the boys as well as her first-hand account of the official photo shoot (lucky gal). So get voting, and visit lilsugar for all of our Gap Casting Call coverage!

There's nothing quite like the sound of a cocktail shaker in action. As I wait for a bartender to make my drink, the noise of ice clicking against glass fills me with giddy anticipation. Why? Because a perfectly poured drink is one of life's most luxurious pleasures.

To help you truly enjoy happy hour, we regularly feature refreshing, tantalizing, delicious, and original cocktail recipes. Many I make at home, but others are expertly mixed by some of San Francisco's top bartenders, like H. Joseph Ehrmann, Aaron Smith, and Buffalo of the Alembic. To say cheers to cocktails, I've rounded my top 10 cocktail recipes of the year:

• Cranberry Amaretto Kiss
• Basil Gimlet
• Easy Mango Mojito
• Rossellini
• Green Grape Sangria
• Cherry Mojito
• Sweeney (Hottie) Toddy
• Ruby Chai Appletini
• Le Coup de Jarnac
• Sparkling Shiraz Punch

The holidays are the perfect time to go all out and make a show-stopping, elaborate dessert. The classic Christmas ingredient, eggnog, gets an Italian makeover in this stunning tiramisu eggnog trifle recipe.

Since it's like three desserts in one, you'll need to start making this dish at least one day in advance. To look at the recipe — it's the ultimate finish to a feast of seven fishes — read more

It's unusually chilly in San Francisco this week and downright frigid in other parts of the country, which has me craving comfort food: sandwiches, soup, lasagna, turkey, meatloaf, turkey meatloaf . . . So although I dismissed the Sentinel's shoddy construction on my last adventure in expensive sandwiches, I was lured once again to the nearby shop by the thought of turkey meatloaf, snuggled in a hot, buttery roll and slathered with cranberry sauce.This sandwich was both lip-smacking and something of a letdown. To hear what I thought and to get the recipe, read more

• The latke isn't just a little potato pancake; it's a glimpse into Jewish history. — Los Angeles Times
• Celebrity food personality Rocco DiSpirito has taken flack for spending more time on the silver screen than in the kitchen. — New York Times
• These snappy bites prove to be crowd-pleasers in a holiday pinch. — Boston Globe
• Tonight, try a different kind of meal — spicy seafood with grapes — that will only set you back 25 minutes. — Washington Post
• Warm up with spicy-hot, pepper-inspired cocktails. — Houston Chronicle
• The Bay Area's top pastry chefs share recipes for their favorite wintertime desserts. — San Francisco Chronicle
• What you should know if you're on the hunt for a good corkscrew. — Chicago Tribune
• Yes, they can: Champagnes that pair well with food. — Wall Street Journal

Source

Earlier this year, Pizza Hut played a trick on the country by claiming it had changed its name to Pasta Hut. Although the name change turned out to be an advertising prank, the pizza delivery chain did roll out a new line of Tuscani Pastas ($12.99). After trying out Domino's new line of subs, I decided that to be fair, I'd give Pizza Hut's pastas a try, too. To find out how the chain's new offerings tasted, read more

This holiday, I wanted to make homemade candy as one of my edible gifts for friends, and I concluded that candied citrus fruit would be the perfect choice. The recipe only calls for fruit, which I always have on hand, and sugar. Candy making doesn't get more basic than that!

I used oranges, but any combination of lemons, oranges, and grapefruit would be wonderful. I can't wait to give this handmade, preservative-free candy to my friends and family — to do the same, check out the recipe and read more

As part of our Best of 2008 coverage we asked you what website is your favorite resource for recipes. The results are very close: Food Network beat out Allrecipes by one vote! Yum and I agree with the majority and are making Food Network the editor's pick for best online recipe resource.

Although I was initially taken aback by the site's recent makeover, I've come to love the new Food Network. Besides the huge collection of easily searchable recipes, I enjoy the videos and behind-the-scenes details. Why do you log on to Food Network?