Caramelized onions on brie on toasted French bread. Photo by Paul Binet | IST.

This is because for many home cooks, caramelizing is something of a mystery.

How does one get that perfect caramel color and sweet, round flavor from a sauté pan? How hot should your pan be? How long does the process take? How do you keep things from burning? How much oil does the whole process take? To stir or not to stir?

Suffice to say, there are a number of things that can go wrong. But armed with the right knowledge, you can get luscious brown color and sweet sugar flavor out of the onions and other veggies you put into the pan.

Chef Johnny Gnall lays out the steps to perfect caramelization. Once you work your way through them, you’ll find yourself making batches of delicious caramelized onions. We do it weekly. The onions are delectable with almost any savory food.

Caramelized onions are also healthy. Onions are an anti-inflammatory, filled with more polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) than garlic, tomatoes, red bell peppers, carrots and many other vegetables. Like their cousin garlic, they can have a positive cardiovascular effect. And studies have shown that onions can help increase bone density and lower the risk of several cancers.

Health care experts recommend eating half a medium onion each day. Cook it in heart-healthy canola oil and you’ve got a delicious home run.

Oh, how we feel for people who are fed green bean casserole made with canned green beans, canned fried onions and canned mushroom soup. If you know such unfortunates, please share with them this splendid recipe for the real thing, from Alton Brown.

Alton’s green bean casserole recipe uses fresh green beans, cooked al dente, and crispy onion rings baked in the oven with panko bread crumbs. The cooked beans are mixed into a mushroom cream sauce and topped with the onions.

While Alton leaves his assembled casserole in the iron skillet for the final 15 minutes in the oven, you can also transfer it to a casserole dish or other baking dish.

Don’t wait until Thanksgiving: Enjoy a batch this week!

It’s great for sipping at home, and is an appealing Thanksgiving and holiday gift.

Kahlúa, made in Veracruz, Mexico, is the number-one selling coffee liqueur in the world. But that’s old news.

The new news is that the company has added Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice to the Kahlúa family. The new flavor joins original Kahlúa, Kahlúa Especial, Kahlúa French Vanilla, Kahlúa Hazelnut, Kahlúa Mocha and a seasonal Kahlúa Peppermint Mocha.

In the coffee shop world, French vanilla, hazelnut and mocha are popularly added to hot and cold coffee drinks. Cinnamon and spice is a holiday season favorite.

And if the cinnamon and spice are 40-proof, so much the better to celebrate the season.

New Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice. Photo courtesy
The Kahlúa Company.

The tempting new flavor is patterned after café de olla, a traditional Mexican coffee drink flavored with cinnamon and piloncillo, Mexican dark brown sugar. In Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice, you can taste these flavors over dark coffee notes, along with a touch of cloves, molasses and nuttiness. The combination is creamy, smooth and seductive.

It’s definitely a crowd-pleaser. You can drink it neat, add it to coffee (hot or iced), pour it over ice cream or add a spoonful to perk up hot fudge or caramel sauce. We’ve enjoyed it in hot chocolate and warm milk.

There are many cocktail possibilities as well; you can find them at Kahlua.com.

While we prefer Kahlúa-vodka and Kahlúa-tequila cocktails, here’s a fall-inspired recipe:

Hot Mexican Cider

 
Shake all ingredients and serve in a glass mug. Garnish with a dash of nutmeg or cinnamon.
  

Crisp up that pizza! Photo by Moi Cody | SXC.

We’ve got a better technique, courtesy of Chef John of FoodWishes.com.

Refreshing a pizza on the stovetop delivers a much crisper pizza, in a fraction of the time it takes to heat the oven.

You can use this method for reheating day-old pizza; it’s also useful for crisping up pizza that was just delivered, to restore the fresh-out-of the-oven texture.

Find our favorite gourmet pizza recipes in our Pasta & Pizza Section.

Here’s a special cocktail recipe for Thanksgiving. It includes pumpkin, maple syrup, bourbon and vodka.

The recipe was created with Kanon Organic Vodka by Demetrios Saites of the Fat Radish restaurant in New York City. Here’s a video that shows the cocktail preparation.

TIPSY TURKEY THANKSGIVING COCKTAIL
Ingredients Per Cocktail

1. Muddle pumpkin with maple syrup in a cocktail shaker.

2. Add all other ingredients and shake vigorously.

3. Strain (double strain with sieve, if possible) onto fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a pinch of cinnamon or a cinnamon stick.

VODKA NOTES

The history of vodka.

Learn about Kanon Organic Vodka, distilled in Sweden from organic wheat sourced from local farmers, naturally occurring yeast and starch and water from the company’s own well.