What are intimate gatherings made of? Sweet and savory recipes, cocktails, tools, and tips — all with healthy pinches of sugar and spice. Set your hearth to crackling and get ready for some seriously homey entertaining.
San Francisco’s Fifth Floor chef David Bazirgan is hot, but his famous squash soup is spicy, thanks to hints of cardamom, cumin, and coriander. Topped with fried chestnuts, cranberries, and whipped cream, it’s a well-balanced feast for your holiday table.
Get the recipe.
Grandma’s fruitcake recipe has been in the family since the ’50s (and tastes like it). Travel back in time stylishly by sipping mulled cider from retro mugs.
Available at westelm.com, $8.
Crushing spices doesn’t have to be a grind with a rainbow-bright resin mortar and pestle.
Available at gretelhome.com, $139.
Shake up your apple-a-day routine with a recipe (complete with “pecan dirt” and horchata shot) from food bloggers Hot Knives’s new veggie cookbook, Salad Daze. Spoiler alert: It’s not really ice cream.
Get the recipe.
Hold your guests’ taste buds hostage with sugar cookies that make cheeky ransom notes (or a love letter if you’d rather).
Available at thinkgeek.com, $18.
Treat your favorite chai lover to a ready-to-brew tea kit. If you’re lucky, maybe she’ll pour the second cup for you.
Available at etsy.com, $16.
Your next experiment in fall coziness: brewing up the perfect cup of mulled apple cider from vials of spices (which come with a recipe book).
Available at etsy.com, $65.
Punchy cookie cutters give the traditional gingerbread man a kick in the pants.
Available at spoonsisters.com, $12.50.
Go nuts for Mama’s Nuts Chicago-made snacks with hints of clove, allspice, and molasses, to name a few. Use them to garnish pumpkin soup, endive salad, or eat them straight out of the bag.
Get the recipe.
Sure, you could add it to hot water and lemon when you have the sniffles. But when you’re planning on self-medicating with a cocktail, this sweet-tart syrup adds a dash of fall flavor.
Available at oldfaithfulshop.com, $21.
Anybody want a peanut? We don’t — and we mean it, after discovering a cashew brittle that warms with notes of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper, and Darjeeling tea leaves.
Available at morninggloryconfections.com, $5.
We eat Mike’s Hot Honey on ricotta. We would eat it on pizza. We would drizzle it on okra. Consider it our green eggs and ham (which, coincidentally, it would be delicious on).
Available at mikeshothoney.com, $8.
Pump yourself full of (drinking) vinegar with this refreshing concoction of gin, soda water, and lemon.
Get the recipe.
What’s better than Mom’s pumpkin pie? A mini sweet (buttermilk-whiskey) or savory (chicken chile relleno) pocket of baked goodness you can take to go.
Available at amazon.com, $13.
Every year around the holidays you turn into a party animal. Match your beverage to your mood with The Beast, a pumpkin-infused cider cocktail from the mixologists at NYC’s Anfora wine bar.
Get the recipe.
Remember the movie Chocolat? Juliette Binoche added spice to her hot cocoa and got to tango horizontally with Johnny Depp. We can’t guarantee this will happen when you use Texas-based Delysia Chocolatier’s cayenne hot chocolate, but either way you score.
Available online at delysia.com, $15.
Nothing could improve upon a glass of red wine on a chilly night. Except, of course, Dean & Deluca’s blend of cloves, allspice, Ceylon cinnamon, and dried orange peel.
Available at deananddeluca.com, $30.
We have always deferred to the French when it comes to baking. This savory treat from Chocolate & Zucchini blogger Clotilde Dusoulier only strengthens our allegiance.
Get the recipe.
Despite good intentions, you’ve been known to char the cookies and annihilate the apple pie. A set of vintage Indian rolling pins is for display only — much to the relief of your friends and family.
Available at cb2.com, $50.
Feeling extra fancy? Accent cakes, cookies, and cupcakes with decorative sugar in nearly every form. We’re talking amber rock crystals, mini hearts, and flowers.
Available online at chambredesucre.com, $11-$74.
Take the humble sugar cookie from standard to sparkling with a cookbook that includes 40-plus recipes, decorating tips, and clever disguises (a cookie masquerading as a peppermint stick).
Available at amazon.com, $12.
Your kitchen becomes more patisserie than poor man’s when you store your spices in French-inspired ceramic jars.
Available at anthropologie.com, $4.
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