How To

• Frigid winter weather calls for black bean soup and cornbread cassoulet.
• The secret to a well-assembled cheese board is contrasting tastes, textures and colors -- and capping the selection at six different varieties.
• Tired cooks can get more shut-eye by preparing their breakfast dishes before going to bed.
• Sliced beef filet on baguette rounds is a winning tapas recipe for timid eaters.

Photo: Steve Adams

by Julie M. Usher

While cookie swaps are synonymous with Christmas time, they are easy-to-plan parties year-round. The traditional cookie swap is a specialized form of potluck, where guests share in the baking and cost burden by bringing their favorite cookies to the party (they're made ahead of time). The hostess provides the space, sends out the invitations, sets up the cookies and provides the beverages. Guests bring two or three batches of their favorite recipe (5-6 dozen) and then they are swapped with other guests cookies. The advantage of a cookie swap? Multiple cookie varieties without the prep time and mess.

More recently, people have started to participate in baking exchanges, where guests bring their ingredients to the hostess's home and they bake together. With more interaction at this type of party, it's great for people less savvy in the kitchen. This concept is also a great way to get kids into the kitchen by encouraging them to help in prepping and decorating stages. Kids can get their hands dirty while learning how to cook and take pride in what they make.

The Rules of Cookie Swapping and Party Planning Tips after the jump.

When pairing wines with edibles, there are rules. Or so we've been told.

Sometimes it's OK to snap those rules in half and come up with your own adaptation.

Here are four rules you can turn on their head during the winter holidays.

Drink white wine with fish.
Red wine goes with meat, white marries well with fish, blah blah. Yet if the sauce or spices served with the fish are bold and heavy, by all means pull out a Zinfandel or a Shiraz. These two full-bodied, luscious reds will enhance nuances in the fish.

Learn how to make your own vanilla extract -- it's as simple as set, shake and let sit.

While packing up to move to Baja, I got rid of many winter clothes with the sweltering summer heat still fresh on my mind from closing on purchase of Casa Cóctel in the hottest part of the year.

Now the fall chill has finally hit even La Paz. This week had me scrambling for sweaters and blankets. The cool air stiffens bones while the dark spirits loosens them back up again.

Fall seems to be the perfect season for apples. Fermented apples turn into cider. Distilled apples turn into brandy.

Get my Fallen Leaves cocktail after the jump.