Beverages

Serve brisket with sauces, slaw, pickles, and rolls so guests can assemble into sandwiches.

Nutrients are lost when ingredients boil, so steep this cold-and-flu-buster at a relatively low temperature.

Treat this as a weekend project (quick it's not) and your Sunday supper will be off the charts.

This delivers a concentrated shot of vitamin C (from the citrus) and antioxidants (from the prickly pear).

This also makes a tasty spritzer—use club soda in place of water.

Saba is wine-grape juice that's been reduced until syrupy and concentrated. If you can't find it, use a few drops of aged balsamic vinegar.

This is a true weekend-long project—and that's a good thing. Seasoning, cooking, and crisping the meat over the course of three days mean you don't have to spend hours in the kitchen the day you're hosting a big meal. In fact, the extra time your pork spends in the refrigerator only improves the taste. This is the perfect-for-a-party pork that gives you plenty of time to drink a beer and watch (or play) a game or two before grilling up crispy, tender slabs of pork shoulder for a crowd.

Here at Epicurious, we're big fans of the nutty, fruity buckwheat-biscuit shortcakes in Alice Medrich's cookbook, Pure Desserts. So we created a version we can enjoy all year long. Cooking dried apricots in Earl Grey tea with a vanilla bean infuses them with sweet spices that pair nicely with the earthy bitterness of buckwheat flour. Don't forget to freeze the butter for 1 hour before grating.