You can never make too many Lobster Treats

When my husband and I were very new to our neighborhood a couple who lived close by brought over a plate full of these fantastic bacon-wrapped lobster appetizers and we became fast friends! Haha! Seriously, these "Lobster Treats" as they called them are heaven on a stick. When you serve them at a party they will disappear before you can set the platter down on the table.

Admittedly, lobster is a bit harder to come by these days, but I made some the other day with shrimp and my husband practically serenaded me out of gratitude.

This recipe is a winner. I hope you'll try it: http://www.ehow.com/how_5358205_make-lobster-bacon-appetizers.html

Easy Potato Pancake recipe (also called Latkes)

You may have noticed that my recipes are sort of from all over the place. I grew up with a Russian/Polish influence from my father's side and a French/Italian influence from my mother's side, then I married a Greek guy! I love the French and Mediterranean way of cooking but am equally happy with a nice plate of latkes with sour cream. My grandmother on my father's side used to make these fantastic potato pancakes which seriously are better than any I've tried in a restaurant or a deli.

They're very easy to make and will be sure to please everyone in your family. Here's the link to my recipe: http://www.ehow.com/how_5411841_make-potato-pancakes-latkes.html

A great Italian Pasta Salad

I remember as a kid I was visiting a good friend of our family and there was a cookout get-together planned for that evening. She had made a big bowl of her Italian pasta salad and had it waiting in the fridge. Her daughter and I kept sneaking into the fridge every couple of minutes and stealing bites of the salad. The mom kept shooing us away but we were addicted! Many years later I asked that mom how she made the fantastic dressing for that salad and she said "Oh, it's just Wishbone Italian dressing!"

Over the years I have tweaked her version here and there and can now officially call it my own. This is my go-to dish for every party, picnic, potluck and shower I attend, and everyone seems to love it. Sometimes I get such a craving for it that I will make a batch of it for myself and eat it for lunch for 4 or 5 days. It is so delicious!

Here's my recipe: http://www.ehow.com/how_5414328_make-simple-italian-pasta-salad.html

Authentic Piperade from French Basque country

Oh this one is so good I can hardly write about it without my mouth watering. It's about 1:00 am and I am fighting the urge to run down to the kitchen and start cracking some eggs and cutting up some veggies!! Piperade is a delightful dish that is very popular in the French Basque region. It is basically vegetables and eggs but it is decidedly NOT am omelet. My mom knows how much I love this dish so she made it for dinner one night when I was visiting and told me the dinner - meant for the two of us - contained 2 eggs. I thought, great, there's a hearty meal. But with a little green salad and a piece of bread it really was a fulfilling meal.

With economic times being what they are, I am always on the hunt for meals that are budget-conscious but still pack a nutritious punch. When you're pinching pennies it's so easy to fall into the trap of pasta, rice, ground beef and other foods that are less expensive. I absolutely love to use eggs as a main course (as evidenced by my quiche recipe in a prior post) and in this dish, with all the lovely vegetables mixed in, I know I am eating right too.

Please check out my recipe: http://www.ehow.com/how_5270855_make-piperade-french-basque-country.html

No Bake Chocolate and Peanut Haystacks - are they cookies or candies??

You know something is going to be good when you can't figure out if it's a cookie or a candy. That's a pretty tasty sounding dilemma if you ask me! These no bake chocolate and peanut haystacks are simply fabulous and totally addicting. Plus, they are incredibly easy and fun to make so it's a great project for including the kids. Even little ones can help pour ingredients in a bowl and everyone will enjoy the finger-licking part while forming the haystacks.

When I first asked a friend for this recipe I was very surprised to see that one of the ingredients was butterscotch chips. I would have thought I wouldn't like the combination of chocolate and butterscotch but it's delicious and works great with the peanuts. So try it as the recipe is written and see for yourself. You are going to love these cookies (or are they candies??).

Here's a link to my recipe:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5324381_make-chocolate-peanut-haystacks.html

Delicious salad with bleu cheese and nuts

Okay, I have to admit that my kids don't eat this salad, or any salad for that matter. I always read that you have to set a good example for your kids and that they need to see you eating healthy foods. Well, my kids watch my husband and me eat a salad pretty much every night and still can't be convinced to take a single bite!

My husband and I went to Bonefish Grill over the weekend and had a lovely dinner, but the salad was absolutely amazing. Like the scrumptious salad we had once at The Melting Pot, it contained bleu cheese and nuts (Bonefish Grill had pine nuts and Melting Pot had walnuts). So I decided to create my own version at home with a homemade raspberry vinaigrette and it was so good we practically licked our plates! My husband said he would have happily eaten 3 more bowls of it. I have to admit it was pretty darn delicious. Somehow the addition of a little bleu cheese makes the light taste of the vinaigrette pop, and the toasted nuts add wonderful depth to the whole thing.

Check out this link to my recipe which also contains ideas for variations on this simple but delicious salad:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5392660_make-using-bleu-cheese-nuts.html

FYI: In case you're wondering why I don't just post the recipes themselves within this blog, it's because I write up my recipes on another site (www.ehow.com) where they are formatted already and it makes it very easy if anyone wants to print the recipe - it comes out looking great and it's easy to read while preparing the recipe. Now you know.

Make delicious nutty homemade granola

I am a huge granola fan, but the stuff I could buy in stores was lacking something for me. I don't know if it was freshness or taste or what, but I knew I could make my own and it would be better than any I could buy at any price. And speaking of price, have you seen how much they charge for granola?? I buy my ingredients in bulk and make my own any time I want to. It only takes me a few minutes - literally by the time my oven is pre-heated my pan of homemade nutty granola is ready to go in. No one in my family can resist it and it gives me the mommy warm fuzzies to see my 2 little boys feasting happily on my homemade granola. I think because of this delicious nutty homemade granola my sons have become big fans of healthy nuts like almonds and walnuts, and they will gladly take a handful of almonds from me as a snack if we're between batches of granola!

Here's my recipe, along with a lot of other ideas about how to change up the flavor:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5293428_make-delicious-nutty-homemade-granola.html

Once you try making granola yourself you will never pay those sky-high prices again!

Spinach Quiche also known as "Cheesy Egg Pie"

I make a delicious quiche with spinach and swiss cheese which my whole family, even my 2 picky eater sons, devours. I think if I called it Spinach Quiche my kids wouldn't eat it. Solution? I call it Cheesy Egg Pie and guess what? They eat it! I tell my 6 year old that the spinach is just the same green stuff that he likes in pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce (a lie) and that he won't taste anything but the yummy cheese (the truth) and somehow that's good enough for him! Plus, one thing I've discovered in my cooking is that everybody loves pie crust. If you serve something in a pie crust, they'll probably eat it. Now I don't make my own pie crust - I leave that for the Martha types out there. I have to keep it quick and easy, and I can't see the point of making my own pie crust when I can buy a perfectly good one for a couple of bucks. If you want to make your own, knock yourself out.

Here's a link to my recipe:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5196848_make-tasty-spinach-cheese-quiche.html

I made this one time a few years ago and it is so delicious it has become one of my regular menu items. It's also very economical and a great way to get your family to eat some veggies. Let me know how you like it!

Picky eaters? Care to watch them slurp down a whole bowl of vegetables?

I have 2 sons, ages 6 and 3. My older son is a terribly picky eater and his little brother is rapidly following in his footsteps. I try to feed them a nice balance of healthy foods with a few treats thrown in here and there. When life gets busy sometimes I notice that a few days will go by where they haven't eaten anything much healthier than the tomato sauce on a slice of pizza. That's when it's time for Mom to take action. I make a soup that any adult would crave, that anyone would happily pay for at a restaurant. It involves no skill whatsoever, is delicious and rich, and is chock full of vegetables. My sons call it Mommy's Magic Soup because they swear when they eat it they can run faster, jump higher, and shout louder (I can live without that last one). Check out my recipe for the secrets and watch your kids wolf down a couple bowls of pure vegetables. You'll sleep better knowing their little bodies are full of all that good healthy stuff! Here's a link to my recipe:

How to Make a Healthy Vegetable Soup Your Picky Kids Will Eat

If you think your picky eater will never fall for this ruse, try adding larger noodles and a lot of them. I made this once and I added two cups of navy beans just to make it even better for the kids, but it was a little "beany" and I wasn't sure they would eat it. I decided to add a couple handfuls of elbow noodles and they totally went for it! My younger son Jack, who was 2 1/2 at the time, literally sat there quietly and ate 3 bowls of the stuff. There's a good basic principle: when in doubt, add more noodles.

Another great tweak, especially if you decide to add cabbage or beans, is to put a piece of the rind of parmiggiano reggiano cheese in the pot while it cooks and let the flavor blend right in. You don't throw those rinds away do you? Just throw them in a zipper freezer bag and use 'em as you need 'em.

I'm here to help with great recipes and ideas for meals!

I love to cook. I have never been very artistic, can't write a poem, and only dance in front of my kids. But I can cook. It's not like me to settle for store-bought, pre-packaged meals for my family. Fresh is best and homemade is the only way. When my little boy asks me why my food tastes so good, I tell him it's because of my secret ingredient. The magic ingredient that I put into everything I cook - LOVE. I hope to share some great ideas for family meals, including some for my super-picky kids who balk at eating most vegetables but who eat a large amount of them nonetheless. (What they don't know won't hurt them.)