Since I'm something of a home mixologist, one of the seminars I looked forward to attending at the Food & Wine Classic was Tony Abou-Ganim's Create Your Own Specialty Cocktails. While I make tons of drinks at home, I always follow a recipe, so I was curious to see what Ganim had to say.

According to him, the key to a good cocktail is balance. Also, making drinks is like cooking; once you know the basic ratio, you can build upon it. Most libations consist of a base spirit, modifier spirit, citrus, and sweetener. To demonstrate his method, Ganim made his signature cocktail, the Cable Car.

He created this drink back in 1996 at the Starlight Room in San Francisco. It's a mixture of Captain Morgan, orange curacao, and fresh lemon sour. The Cable Car is a modern classic that's perfectly balanced; it's refreshing, smooth, and not too sweet or too potent. If you're new to making cocktails at home, I suggest you start with this recipe. Get it now.

During the Summer, I love to experiment with different salad recipes. There's a plethora of fruits and vegetables to choose from at the market, and the hot weather almost requires salads as a side dish. Since I had never cooked with Israeli couscous, I recently made this scrumptious salad. Israeli couscous, or pearl couscous as it's sometimes called, is larger than regular couscous and has a chewy texture and orzo-like starchiness. It can be mixed with just about anything, but this recipe coats it in a roasted tomato and garlic dressing before tossing it with tomatoes, black olives, and tons of fresh herbs. The resulting salad is easy to transport and would be great for a picnic. Serve with grilled meat at a barbecue or, for a lighter meal, a chunk of hard cheese and grilled bread. Trust me, this salad recipe is a keeper! Get it now.

The final Aspen Food & Wine event is the Classic Quickfire, a timed cooking competition between the most recent Top Chef winner and an acclaimed chef (such as Jacques Pepin). This year, Top Chef champion Michael Voltaggio was up against stiff competition: Top Chef Masters winner Rick Bayless!

Host Sissy Biggers announced the theme was "sexy vegetables." Just like on the show, the two contenders drew knives to determine their main ingredients: Rick drew "surf," which meant whole lobsters, while Michael took "turf," which equated to rack of lamb.

They were also given leftover ingredients from previous cooking demos to work with and one sous chef each (Michael's was the fun and feisty actress Allison Janney). Rick Bayless stunned the judges with a roasted tomatillo salsa-topped lobster and potato course; meanwhile, Michael Voltaggio wowed the crowd with his frozen sangria starter and seared lamb loin and eggplant crostini with tomato seed "caviar."

See the two chefs in action — and find out the winner of the quickfire! — when you read on.