Ginger's Time To Shine

By Allison Fishman Ingredient

Credit: FotoosVanRobin/Flickr

It's ginger's time of year. The heady root is a headline ingredient in gingerbread houses, a natural partner in pumpkin pies and spiced cookies, and the base for a medicinal tea to help un-wreak the havoc we've wrought upon our stomachs during holiday feasting.

Candied ginger is my favorite, the spicy adult version of the Chuckles candies I ate when I was a youngster. It's a key ingredient in Ina Garten's pumpkin roulade, featured here on Wives With Knives. If you don't feel like cooking and need a ginger hit, try Carr's ginger lemon crèmes or those fantastic ginger chews from the Ginger People, who carry everything from pickled ginger to ginger beer.

If you want to sip your ginger, try this ginger pear cocktail from Slashfood, or make a restorative ginger tea. From an aperitif to an after-dinner cuppa, ginger's easy enough to feed to your overfed guests, and they just might thank you.