You can’t fool a basil plant. it’ll absolutely wait until it’s warm enough to come out and play. Once summer really and truly arrives, basil can be your best friend at a party or picnic — ready to mix it up and bring out even the shyest of wallflower ingredients. I think it’s the italian accent that gets me every time. It can even hold its own with stars like glamorous berries. But don’t fool yourself into thinking it’ll be around forever. After the first cold spell in the fall — well, I won’t go into the details, but trust me, it’s not pretty. So enjoy it while you can.

One of my favorite ways to enjoy basil it is to drink it — mocktails, cocktails, lemonade and iced tea. Just keep in mind that it’ll lose its flavor if you cook it, so always add it near the end of cooking or you may be disappointed. One way to get around this when making basil simple syrup is to blanch it VERY quickly — for 10 seconds or so. Before it knows what happened, plunge into a bowl of ice water, then blend with the sugar & water. It’ll still retain that wonderful spicy, complex sweetness. The other big tip I learned from Jerry Traunfeld, in his Herbal Kitchen, is to add a tiny amount of baking soda to the simple syrup. This is a huge revelation for those of us who have added bright green herbs to drinks only to have them turn into a muddy brown mess. The next day, your basil simple syrup will look as lovely in its emerald green summer dress as when it arrived at the party (unlike the rest of us). Don’t combine with citrus until you’re ready to drink it to maintain its beauty for as long as possible.

Basil Simple Syrup

1 1/2 cups basil leaves ( get a “handful” for $1.50 at Let Us Farm at the University Farmers Market and you’ll have more than enough).

1/2 cup superfine sugar

1/2 cup water

1/8 t baking soda

Blanch basil leaves by plunging them for 10 seconds into a small pot of rapidly boiling water. Lift them out with tongs and place in a bowl of ice water. Place in a sieve and drain, squeezing out excess water.

Blend sugar, water and baking soda in a blender. Add basil leaves and continue blending until you have a dark green liquid — 30 seconds to a minute.

Strain through a fine strainer using a spoon to push the liquid through. Store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Once you have this potently delicious syrup you can mix up all sorts of concoctions.

Basil Lemon Lime Fizz (non-alcoholic drink for 1)

2 t basil simple syrup (recipe above)

1 t lemon juice

1 t lime juice

Sparkling water or club soda

Pour basil simple syrup, lemon & lime juice into glass. Fill with cracked ice. Top off with club soda. Stir.

You can adjust amounts of basil simple syrup, lemon & lime juice to suit your own taste. This drink is not only beautiful but is an excellent thirst-quencher for a hot summer day. These same ingredients make the basis (substituting the club soda with tonic) for an amazing gin & tonic.

Basil Berry Tonic (cocktail for 2)

4 ounces rum (we like the taste of dark rum but light rum also works and would make a drink of a lighter color)

1 ounce basil simple syrup (recipe above)

3 – 4 large strawberries, washed and hulled + 2 extra for garnish

Leaves of 2 or 3 sprigs of basil

Tonic water (if you can find Fever Tree, it’s the best we’ve found so far)

Gently muddle the strawberries and basil leaves in the bottom of a wide shaker. Remember you are pressing, not tearing.

Add rum and simple syrup.

Add plenty of ice to the shaker and shake.

Fill 2 glasses with cracked ice. Pour muddled mixture into glasses and top off with tonic. Stir and garnish with a strawberry.

If you prefer a clearer cocktail, you can strain out the muddled pulp. It may look prettier but we think it doesn’t taste as good. Why waste all that good stuff?

Once again, Charlie, our master mixologist, outdid himself with this herbalicious Basil Berry Tonic recipe. We have Jerry Traunfeld to thank for the basil simple syrup and inspiration for the Basil Lemon Lime Fizz.

Now about the giveaway. Lily drew the names out of the gardening hat and the winners are………….. Sally Lawless, Kelly Ann, Renee G, Andrea, Mangochild, Laura, Lorene, nfmgirl, Steve & Zack.

If you are one of these lucky readers, you should have received an email from me instructing you to reply with your name & mailing address. Once we receive that, we’ll send you your new cookbook. Thanks to everyone who entered. We had so much fun hearing your ideas that we’re inspired to find more great giveaways for you. Stay tuned……..

Local strawberries made their first appearance of the year at the University Farmers Market last weekend. It wasn’t a hesitant debut but an unabashed statement of presence that couldn’t be ignored. Not that I’d want to. In terms of sheer amount, I probably consume more strawberries per season than any other berry. Part of that may be accessibility but mostly I just love the taste in all its incarnations. I hope you won’t get tired of hearing about berries this summer because I plan to eat them as often as I can.

Basil & strawberries — a match made in heaven. Try a couple sliced berries on a bed of fresh greens of your choice — arugula, spinach and lettuce, to name a few. Add some crumbled goat cheese and chiffonade several leaves of basil (just a fancy way of saying roll them up and then cut into thin strips) Dress with a vinaigrette of balsamic vinegar (white balsamic is a nice change) and olive oil. Salt & pepper. This salad is appropriate for any time of day. The combination of basil & strawberries is a “must try” for some lovely summer cocktail. I plan to bring that to the table at the next meeting of The Cocktail Study Club and I’ll keep you posted.

It doesn’t take much imagination to think of desserts using berries. Today I’m a little too impatient for ice cream or shortcake but want something more than whipped cream. I settled on Creme Anglaise which is basically a pourable custard. I have to admit that I was nervous about making this incredibly easy dessert. I had visions of curdled eggs or some such silliness. Even Alice Waters in The Art of Simple Food goes to great lengths to explain each step in such detail — I was sure I’d mess it up. You can call it beginner’s luck but it turned out velvety, smooth and definitely the kind of thing I can whip up in no time and impress family & dinner guests all summer long. I flavored mine with vanilla but now that I have more confidence, I want to try herbs — maybe even basil.

Berries with Vanilla Creme Anglaise

4 eggs yolks

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

3 T sugar

2″ piece of vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1/2 cup toasted almonds (optional)

Fresh berries or other fresh fruit, sliced

Separate eggs.

Scrape the seeds from inside of the vanilla bean into the milk or cream.

Place milk, cream, sugar and the remaining vanilla bean in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir continuously while it heats up slowly. Once it is quite warm remove a large spoonful of the hot liquid and stir gently into the egg yolks.

Stir the egg yolks into the hot milk mixture.

Do not let the liquid boil.

Continue to stir over medium heat until it thickens. Once it coats the back of a spoon, it’s done. For me, this took less than 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and with a sieve, strain into a bowl. Let it cool or serve warm over sliced fruit. Top with toasted almonds.

Now that berry season has begun, all I can say is — just keep ‘em coming.