Featuring: A Southern Season

No, this isn’t about Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter.  Although, I wouldn’t quite know which one to label the perfect Southern season.  They all have their positive undertones.  This post is about a store that makes my mouth water and my brain tick when I think of it (sensory overload, in a grand way!).  I didn’t think my day could get any better after being featured on the homepage of WordPress and officially being “Freshly Pressed” (of which I am eternally grateful and blessed), and being with Mom all day, but it did, with an experience I never get tired of…

A Southern Season is nestled in Chapel Hill, NC.  It’s the kind of place where you feel part of the elite as soon as your foot graces their threshold.  Walking into the smells that waft past your nose causes you to immediately fall in love with it.  Whether you are eating at their magnificent restaurant, The Weathervane, or just tooling (literally) around their vast layout, you are bound to be inspired at some point during your visit.

This isn’t really a store, it’s more of an experience.  Kind of like Ikea, in a sense.  The experience brings to light all of your wants and needs for your kitchen currently, or your dream kitchen.  Sure, I would absolutely adore a gorgeous set of Wusthof knives, but that goes on the dream kitchen list.  For my current kitchen, I needed a durable cheese slicer (especially for my amazing Tillamook Cheese!). 

They have gadgets galore here (and on their website and through their catalog), no kidding.  If you ever needed something for your kitchen, this is your place.  There is a mouth-watering deli meat section, a fresh bean coffee selection that is out of this world, a tasty variety of cheeses available at the cheese counter (if you follow them on Twitter, you can track the 20% cheese sales), a nostalgic candy selection that makes your memories of childhood dance wildly in your head, an aisle of fire-provoking hot sauces (yes, I said a whole aisle!), a vast selection of beer and wine from around the world,  cooking utensils and electronics you never knew existed, dishes, sparkling glasses, a specialty smell-good beauty section (of which I sampled some Crabtree and Evelyn lotion today, and my normally dry hands are still soft and touchable), chocolate and baked goods counters that leave you ten pounds heavier and in a sugar coma just from passing by it, extremely helpful technique classes (of which I need to sign up for), delicious samples throughout your journey, and soooooooo many more wonderful sections. 

I wish I could name them all for you here…let’s put it this way, the store is perfect! 

A few things I love about this store are the varieties of items from all over the world to tease your palate to the point you feel like you must visit that country, the people that are always helpful and kind (like a very nice gentleman we spoke to today, Jeremy, at the coffee counter), and the feature of local-to-North Carolina items (Lee’s Bee’s Honey, you must try…although, our favorite Clary Sage wasn’t available today). 

 In closing, I wish you all the joy of living next to such an inspiring store/experience.  It truly is an amazing place to visit!

Visit A Southern Season’s website by clicking here.

Today’s recipe comes from a feature ingredient I purchased at A Southern Season.  Remember how I mentioned the items from all over the world?  Well, I purchased some Tandoori Indian Sauce….oh my, so good!  I prepared the dish similar to how the in-store sample was prepared today, with a few additions of my own…

Tandoori Indian Chicken and Tofu

(yes, I said Tofu)

• 1 lb. cubed skinless, boneless chicken breast
• 1 cup super firm cubed tofu
• 1 can diced potatoes
• 1/2 cup Tandoori Indian Sauce
• and because I like saying it…A dollop of Daisy Lite Sour Cream

1. Sauté the chicken and tofu until the chicken is cooked thoroughly.
2. Stir in the diced potatoes, and sauté until the potatoes are warmed.
3. Then combine the sauce and sour cream into the mix, and serve. 

Enjoy!

Armed without my trusty camera, I relied on my Mom’s cellphone camera for the mouth-watering pictures of A Southern Season below (as my cellphone was dead from me checking all my wonderful comments from everyone on here).

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