Can’t Decide Between Pie or Cake? Here is How to Make a Piecaken!

Ingredients for Bacon-Wrapped Sweet Potatoes

• 3 medium sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
• 20 slices of bacon
• 1/4 teaspoon pink salt
• Freshly ground pepper

Directions for Bacon-Wrapped Sweet Potatoes

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper.
3. Cut your sweet potatoes into thick-cut wedges or fry shapes.
4. Wrap each sweet potato piece with a slice of bacon, slightly overlapping the bacon on itself as it goes around the sweet potato.
5. Place the sweet potatoes in a single layer onto the baking sheet, leaving an inch or two in between each one. Do this in two batches, if needed. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top before baking.
6. Bake the bacon-wrapped sweet potatoes for 35 minutes. The potatoes should be tender and the bacon should be crispy.
7. Serve the wedges with your choice of ketchup, ranch, or aioli – or all of the above! Enjoy!

And just like that, I'm in full on holiday mode. Can't help it, this time of year makes me so happy! And with Thanksgiving less than two weeks away it's hard not to be excited. Anyone else feeling the same?

We've been having the coziest weather up here in the mountains. It's inspired me to create recipes that will to warm us up from the inside out. That's honestly one of the cheesiest things I'll say, but it's the truth. I know it's hard to imagine a drink warming you up, especially one that's served over ice, but the spices in this wine spritzer do just that.

The key to this fun drink is the cranberry jam-syrup. It's actually kind of a mix between a jam and syrup. It uses fresh fruit like a jam would, but it's consistency is much more syrup like. So, it's kind of a cross between the two. Whatever you'd like to call it, it's a delicious mix of sweet honey, fresh tart cranberries, rosemary, and warming cardamom. The honey balances out the tart cranberries, while the rosemary and cardamon add coziness and warmth. Perfect for a Thanksgiving spritzer!

To make the jam, just add all ingredients to a pot. Bring to a boil, boil a minute or two, and done. So simple.

Once the jam has cooled, add it to a pitcher along with a bottle of your favorite rosé, elderflower liquor (this is my favorite right now), cranberry or pomegranate juice, and a few dashes of orange bitters. Chill the mix, and then just before serving, add fresh citrus slices. I used blood oranges, but regular oranges or grapefruit would be great too. Top it all off with fizzy, spicy, ginger beer (another one of my favorites).

This cocktail is both refreshing and warming, perfect for a chilly November night, or a snow-filled Thanksgiving Day complete with cozy blankets, a roaring fire, and candles galore.

Ingredients for Spiced Cranberry Rosé Spritzers

• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, plus more for serving
• 1 tablespoon cardamon pods or 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 bottle (750 ml) rosé wine
• 4 ounces elderflower liquor
• 1/3 cup cranberry or pomegranate juice
• 2-3 dashes orange bitter
• 2 blood oranges or regular oranges, sliced
• 4-6 (12 ounce) ginger beers, to your taste

Directions for Spiced Cranberry Rosé Spritzers

1. To make the cranberry syrup: In a medium pot, bring 1/2 cup water, the honey, cranberries, rosemary, and cardamon to a boil over high heat. Boil 5 minutes or until the cranberries begin to burst, then remove from the heat. Let cool. Remove the rosemary and cardamon pods. If desired, strain out the cranberries.
2. In a large pitcher, combine the cranberry syrup, rosé, elderflower liquor, cranberry juice, and orange bitters. Chill until ready to serve, up to 2 days.
3. Add the orange slices and ginger beer just before serving. Garnish each drink with a candied rosemary (recipe below), if desired.

For the candied rosemary garnish:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Gently run rosemary sprigs under a little water to dampen and place on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Sprinkle the rosemary with granulated sugar on all sides, making sure the rosemary is thoroughly coated in sugar.
4. Allow to dry on the baking sheet for 1 hour. The rosemary can be made 1 day in advance and stored at room temperature.

Talking to Vanity Fair for her newest film Lee, Kate Winslet revealed one project she wishes fans asked about more is Iris. The 2001 film stars Kate as a young Iris Murdoch against Judi Dench's older counterpart. And for Kate, nothing was more terrifying than working with such a wonderful actress.

"People don’t really ask me about Iris. It’s such a delicate film," she says. "It was the first thing I had done after having my daughter. Going to work with a baby, I’m playing Iris Murdoch, looking to Judi Dench’s older Iris Murdoch — I was sh—ting myself."

Considering how nervous I get when I meet my heroes, I can only imagine what it was like to meet Dame Judi Dench. Talk about a dream! Another film Kate loves is Revolutionary Road, and not just because she got to reunite with Leonardo DiCaprio.

"The thing that people say is, 'You got to work with Leo again.' Then they go off on the whole Leo tangent, which I totally understand," she says of the film, which follows an ambitious couple who find themselves trapped in the reality of 1950s suburbia. "But Revolutionary Road — f—king hell, it just knocked us all sideways. Unbelievably difficult material. I was very proud of that film and what Leo and I were able to create as Frank and April. It was so brutal."

The process for getting Lee into the world sounds equally brutal, considering Kate started working on it over a decade ago. As producer, Kate tells Vanity Fair she doesn't mind the fact she's done more for the film than if she only had an acting credit. "That has felt very necessary for this film. But it’s also just really important to me," she says. "It’s important to me that people know that it’s out there and might feel compelled to go and see it."

Because it turns out, commercial success or stardom on its own doesn't actually help your movie get made! "It doesn’t matter who you are," she says. "No one’s going to go, 'Oh, I’ll just back that pony because she was in Titanic.' It doesn’t happen that way, and I never expected that. That’s really important to say."

"I've gotten older and I’ve learned more and felt more confident in myself about whether or not I could actually do it," she adds. "It’s not something I would’ve done had I not felt so passionately about the subject, and Lee was just—she wouldn’t let me go."