I’ve been enjoying a plethera of fresh basil thanks to a local market that is selling it for 99 cents a bunch! My favorite ways to incorporate this divine herb into my cooking repertoire include making pesto from scratch and enjoying plenty of caprese salads. The easiest way to work with fresh basil is by chiffonading the leaves. Once you have accomplished this step, it makes it so easy to incorporate the basil into a basic pasta dish or even use as a garnish on top of grilled chicken or a summer salad.

Never tried chiffonading basil leaves?…no problem, check out this quick instructional video. Enjoy!

Zupas is known for finishing every meal off with a chocolate dipped strawberry. Each fresh strawberry is hand dipped into imported Belgian chocolate (our favorite). With Valentines Day just around the corner, consider surprising your significant other on Saturday with a box of these delicacies. We’ll be selling them by the dozens at all of our locations. If you’d rather dip your own, here are our top tips for the perfect chocolate dipped strawberry.

• Always work with strawberries that have been rinsed and completely dried. Additional water could cause the chocolate to seize and become grainy.
• Use the best chocolate you can get your hands on…the better the chocolate, the better the dipped strawberry.
• After dipping, allow strawberries to dry in a baking sheet lined with wax paper. For even cleaner results, insert a toothpick in the top of each berry and stick carefully into styrofoam allowing the berry to dry without creating an edge.
• Melt chocolate in a double boiler.

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” A. A. Milne

The holidays are upon us. Thanksgiving, a holiday all about food, is in two weeks. It’s time to start thinking about preparations. Think it’s too early? Well, I assure you the sooner you prepare and plan, the more relaxed and enjoyable your holiday will be. Here are a few tips and ideas for a wonderful holiday feast with family and friends.

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If you love this fungus fresh, you’ll never stop sauteing them once you start. Sauteing mushrooms is easy, and well worth the time put into them (it doesn’t take too
long). They’re a delicious accompaniment to an entrée, tossed with a salad, added to a soup or sauce, or savored one by one purely by itself.

How do you like your mushrooms?

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Oh how sweet the sound (and taste) of a Vidalia onion. I’m thrilled that they’re popping up at the grocery store. The sweet taste of this onion reminds me of the South and Southern Cooking. With the onion being the oldest vegetable known to mankind, they’ve found their way into almost every cuisine and culture. My personal opinion, America should be proudest of the Vidalia.

F.Y.I.
*Vidalia onions originated in Toombs, Georgia.
*In the 1940’s the state of Georgia built a farmers market in the city of Vidalia which greatly aided in spreading the word about “those Vidalia onions” which is how they got their name.
*By the 1970’s the Vidalia onion had become so popular that it merited its own festival.
*Every year an estimated 15,000 acres is planted of Vidalia Onions.
*They are harvested typically from late-April to mid-June and all harvesting is done by hand.
*In 2003, the Vidalia Onion Museum was open to the public sharing information about all things related to this sweet onion.

In my opinion…nothing will change your cooking
more than fresh herbs.

The use of herbs and spices date back prior to recorded history. Many early records reveal a mixture of medicinal and magical uses for herbs. But herbs were also used to mask unpleasant household odors and to enhance the taste of dull foods. The use of culinary herbs is a feature in one of the first recorded cookbooks from the first century epicure, Apicius. In England (1699), John Evelyn wrote Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets which went into great detail of 73 salad herbs and their uses.

Today there has been a great surge of renewed awareness in herbs. A revival of the culinary arts and various ethnic cuisine has prompted new interest. Health conscious cooks have found that herbs contain no calories or fat - a fact of great importance to those on weight loss diets. Doctors even recommend the use of herbs and spices in salt-restricted diets to enhance flavor without adding sodium content. Adventurous cooks have found that raising their own herbs can be quite fulfilling as a hobby with the end results in cooking as just an added bonus.

-Herbs de provence is a mixture of dried herbs from Provence (Southern France) invented in the 1970s.
-The mixture typically contains rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf, thyme, and sometimes lavender flowers and other herbs. Thyme usually dominates the taste produced by the herb mixture.
-Herbes de Provence are used to flavor grilled foods such as fish and meat, as well as vegetable stews.
-The mixture can be added to foods before or during cooking or mixed with cooking oil prior to cooking so as to infuse the flavour into the cooked food.
-They are rarely added after cooking is complete.

This is one of my favorite spice blends to use. The combination of perfectly paired herbs allows you to get more bang for your buck. Herbs de Provence is one of those items I always like to have on hand.
-Zupas Aficinado