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69 Ingredients •1 small orange or tangerine •1/4 cup sugar •2 cinnamon sticks •4 whole cloves •1-2 vanilla pods, sliced lengthwise (optional, but worth it) •2 star anise •1 bottle of cheap red wine (the drier the better) •1 cup port, brandy or apple cider Mulled wine Please, please, please don’t feel like a fancy wine recipe needs fancy wine. In this case, it’s 100 percent okay to grab a wickedly cheap bottle o’ dry red. I would even go so far as to discourage you from buying any- thing that might be described as “a really beautiful gar- net with a nice smoky mid-tone” as you swirl it around and take in its bouquet. You’re about to add a whole new world of flavors while also heating it up unapolo- getically; this is not the time for a buttery Bordeaux. As for the spices, one trip to the foreign mart should cover it, or a quickie iHerb order. Peel large sections of the orange using a small paring knife and put them in your biggest pot alongside the sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, vanilla pod(s) and the juice of the rest of the orange. Add just enough wine to cover the sugar and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. You should now have a gorgeous-smelling syrup, nice and thick, that will enable you to incorporate flavor without cooking off all the alcohol in the process (that would be silly). Once the syrup is made, lower the heat and add your anise, the rest of the wine and the port, brandy or cider. Cook on a low flame just until the wine is warm and steamy, then strain out the spices and serve.