Spiked Pineapple Agua Fresca

This comes together in about the time it takes to order takeout, and is miles more nuanced than your average Chinese restaurant's sweet and sour sauce. Ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, and rice or cider vinegar are boiled together with water (though pineapple juice makes for a tasty tropical twist), and thickened to the perfect dipping consistency with a little cornstarch slurry. Serve this with egg rolls, wontons, rangoons, and whatever other fried foods you want to perk up. Feel free to add some heat to the sauce with minced ginger, garlic, or chiles (or all three). Read more.

In this week's episode of CHOW Happy Hour, Martin Cate, owner of Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco, shows us that a holiday party doesn't have to be all spiked cider and boozy eggnog. Drawing inspiration from a friend's latke party, Martin mixes it up with a fresh and fruity spiced holiday sangría.