Calvados

I've never been drawn to premade margarita, sweet and sour, and bloody mary mixes, mostly because I can make the aforementioned from scratch. Needless to say, I was hesitant when I heard about The Perfect Purée, a Napa Valley-based company that produces a wide range of exotic fruit purées designed for combining into beverages. That is, until I tried one in a cocktail.

If you can't locate, say, white peaches, yuzu, or blood oranges in your area, this product is truly the next best thing. Unlike most other cocktail blends out there, these purées are extracted from fresh fruit and flash-frozen to preserve freshness.
At a recent tasting, this cocktail — an eclectic recipe of tequila, apple brandy, and Campari with passionfruit, pomegranate, and blood orange purée — was so enjoyable that I asked the company for the recipe. Here it is.

It's starting to get chilly out there! Over the holidays, warm drinks and cocktails like eggnog, Tom and Jerrys, and hot buttered rum are in abundance. The problem is that these drinks are stacked with sugar and saturated fat.

Spiked mulled cider is a great alternative to these holiday favorites. Hot cider is satisfying on a cold Winter's night, and its spices are reminiscent of the season. I love that the sweetness of the drink comes from using all-natural apple cider and just a hint of brown sugar. And unlike most warm holiday cocktails, there's not a single gram of fat in the recipe.

To see the recipe after the break!

• Learn how to make candy corn from scratch. — Serious Eats
• Take a visual tour through the Obamas' garden. — Feast
• Meet AppleJack and Calvados, Fall's signature spirits. — The Atlantic
• Is OpenTable worth it? — Inside Scoop SF
• Find out what Iron Chef Jose Garces eats on a regular basis. — Grub Street Phillie
• Combine vanilla beans and vodka and you'll get vanilla extract. — Eatocracy
• How to deal with a drunken house guest. — Chow
• Q and A with Mario Batali. — Eater NY
• 100 dishes that make use of pumpkin. — Endless Simmer

I wish there were more dishes in my repertoire for that transitional period when warm weather's not quite ended and Autumn's yet to really begin, but thankfully I've discovered at least one cocktail. By its name alone, the Harvard Cooler sounds like the start to a crisp, cool Cambridge Fall — but its spritzy, bright appearance still sings of summertime.

This oddly named cocktail, which is apparently a staple at bars in Japan, is a combination of lemon, sugar, seltzer, and apple brandy. The recipe's quite simple, but sometimes that's what works best. See it when you read on.

There's been no greater way to celebrate the season's berry bounty than by dedicating each Summer month to a different berry — May for strawberries, June for cherries, July for blueberries, and now August for blackberries, which are currently at their peak.

I'm starting things off with a dessert that treasures blackberries at their freshest. I've got a weakness for whipped English desserts with funny names — and who can resist something called a fool? Don't skimp on the Calvados, as the boozy bitterness of the apple brandy adds a nice counterpoint to the otherwise sweet fruit dessert.
For the recipe — which only has four ingredients! — keep reading.

Next Wednesday FabSugar and I are hosting a game night. We're playing Apples to Apples and serving a menu of easy dishes that all have apples.

Usually when I host a party, I like to make a pitcher drink so I don't have to worry about making cocktails all night. However, since this is an intimate gathering and I'm cohosting with Fab, I've decided it will be fun to play bartender!

I'll be mixing up a libation called the Gold Rush. It's a beautiful combination of vodka, apple juice concentrate, and Calvados, a French apple brandy. It's easy to make, so learn how and read more

Over the weekend, something monumental happened: I discovered what is quite possibly the world's most perfect Fall cocktail. The Normandy, as it's called, has cool weather written all over it, with ingredients like cranberries, green apples, and Calvados, a type of French apple brandy from — you guessed it — Normandy.

The tipple balances all the elements you'd ever hope for in a drink. It's simultaneously cool and warm, sweet and tart. Despite being incredibly basic, its elegant simplicity has more sophistication than most of today's overthought cocktails. My only problem? Now that the pursuit for The Thanksgiving Cocktail is over, what do I look forward to? The drink to end all other Autumn drinks, when you read more.