Keep fresh basil, chives, dill, parsley, tarragon and other favorites in the fridge. They’ll make any savory dish taste better—from breakfast to dinner. Use fresh herbs and you don’t need to add as much salt (or any sugar) to recipes.

Snip them into, or garnish:

• Boiled, fried, poached or scrambled eggs
• Soup—add a generous garnish or stir into the soup right before serving
• Green salad, egg/chicken/tuna/seafood salad, macaroni and potato salad—herbs really perk up the flavor
• Potatoes—baked, boiled, hash brown or mashed; sprinkle over French fries
• Anything else that needs a bit of color and flavor

If you find that your herbs only last a day or two in the refrigerator and can’t figure out why, the number one culprit is usually overexposure to moisture due to built-up condensation.

An herb saver is a more formal way to
preserve your herbs. Photo courtesy
Cuisipro.

• Instead of keeping your herbs in the plastic bag in which you bought them, loosely wrap them in a sheet or two of paper towel to absorb excess condensation.
• If you have room, another tip is to “plant” the herbs in a glass filled with enough water to cover the roots, and cover with a plastic bag.
• If you want to get really fancy, there are herb savers that do the same as the water-glass-and-plastic-bag approach.

Infinium is a most glam beer gift. Photo
courtesy Boston Brewing Company.

The handsome, engraved bottle looks like Champagne; but it’s a special sparkling ale from Boston Brewing Company, makers of Sam Adams beers. It’s been created in partnership with Weihenstephan Brewery of Bavaria, Germany, the oldest surviving brewery in the world (since 760 C.E.).

And it’s made with the thousand-year-old brewing technique called Reinheitsgebot (“The German Beer Purity Law”), which requires that beer be made with only malt, hops, water and yeast.

A special treat for beer lovers, Infinium contains 10.3% alcohol by volume, twice the amount of an average beer. A 750 ml bottle has a Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price of $19.99.

Infinium is available at retailers nationwide. You’ll thrill the beer drinkers at your party by pouring it to toast Christmas and the New Year.

• See more of our favorite liquor gifts for Holiday 2010.
• See all of our favorite holiday gifts.
• Brush up on the different types of beer (there are 30 different styles!) in our Beer Glossary.

We like a Cranberry Martini or Crantini: a martini with cranberry liqueur or cranberry juice. Here’s the recipe.

You can garnish by adding three whole cranberries to each glass, with a garnish of rosemary (it looks like evergreen).

Serve a red Christmas cocktail. Photo
courtesy Sence Nectar.

Beautiful and delicious Prosciutto Sushi.
Photo courtesy MaiCuisine.com.

The California Roll, for example, is not a traditional Japanese roll in the manner of tekka maki (tuna roll) and kappa maki (cucumber roll). There were no avocados in Japan.

California roll was invented in Los Angeles, land of the avocado, about 1973 by a sushi chef.

Similarly, cream cheese is not a Japanese ingredient. Philadelphia Roll, cream cheese and smoked salmon, was subsequently born in the U.S.A., along with Spider Roll and most of the fancy, multi-ingredient rolls on sushi menus (except for Futomaki, a Japanese tradition).

We’ve seen our fair share of Japanese-American fusion sushi (Boston Roll with Boston lettuce, Pumpkin Tempura Roll). Tuna tartare was created in Beverly Hills by Shigefumi Tachibe, a Japanese-born, French-trained chef, in 1984. Here’s the original recipe. The spicy roll group—spicy tuna, salmon, and others—followed.

This novel and delicious Prosciutto Sushi is an easy-to-make box sushi. The only “extra” you need is an inexpensive sushi press.

Prosciutto Sushi is a great pairing with white, red or sparkling wine. Get the recipe and serve up a storm.

See all the different types of sushi in our Sushi Glossary.

This week, four winners will each receive four store coupons for 1.5-quart cartons any Edy’s frozen dessert.

Use one a week and you can have a month’s worth of ice cream in popular flavors that include Butter Pecan, Cookie Dough, Espresso Chip, French Silk, Mint Chocolate and so many more. (To feed our ice cream habit, we eat a lot of the Slow Churned Rich & Creamy Light.)

• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Gourmet Ice Cream Section and click to enter your email address for the prize drawing. This contest closes on Monday, December 13th at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!

Four winners will enjoy Edy’s Ice Cream for a month.