My father recently celebrated his 82nd birthday. In our family, we aren’t big on presents or cards, instead we honor the occasion with a dinner and family gathering. For dad’s birthday, we prepared a wonderful Provencal fish soup (recipe to come later) and this spinach gratin with hard boiled eggs dotting the surface. Certain foods I associate with my dad, beets for example, or sauerkraut, and then of course spinach. When we were kids, we always had cans in the pantry (Popeye!). Later, he turned to fresh spinach from the farmers market. Because of my father, we are a family of spinach lovers. This gratin is a popular side dish served in the south of France. I would never have thought to add hard boiled eggs to spinach, but it’s a fabulous combination. The gratin is made with lots of spinach, either fresh and blanched or frozen and drained, mixed in with a simple white béchamel sauce seasoned with nutmeg and black pepper. Halves of hard boiled eggs dot the surface, and the whole thing is sprinkled with grated gruyere cheese and seasoned breadcrumbs. This gratin would make an excellent side for an Easter dinner, and you can easily make it a day ahead and heat before serving. Enjoy!

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I love seafood pasta dishes and when you add more than one type of seafood into the dish, the result is even more amazing. This seafood pasta recipe consists of both imitation crab and cooked shrimp. The seafood is cooked in a white alfredo style sauce and then served over your favorite pasta. If you want you can use real crab meat in place of imitation crab. The recipe calls for small salad shrimp but I used medium shrimp. This is a very easy recipe to prepare and it does not take very long to cook at all. It goes great served with garlic bread. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package linguini pasta (or your favorite pasta)
¼ cup butter
1 garlic clove (chopped)
1 cup heavy cream
½ pound imitation crab meat
½ pound cooked salad shrimp
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper (to taste)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Cook pasta according to package directions. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté until tender. Stir in cream and cook while stirring until thickened (about 5 minutes). Add imitation crab, shrimp, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low and cook for 2-3 minutes, until heated through.
Step 2: Drain the pasta and transfer it to a serving platter, and top with the seafood sauce. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.
(Makes 4 Servings)

If you enjoy both pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches this recipe is perfect for you. Your favorite pizza ingredients such as pepperoni, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese are combined in this amazing sandwich. The bread slices are like garlic bread; the butter is mixed with garlic powder and Italian seasoning before spreading it onto the bread. You can use fresh garlic as well if you choose. You can also add additional pizza ingredients to this recipe such a Canadian bacon, black olives, green pepper, and more. A cup of your favorite pizza sauce is served on the side for dipping. This makes a great dinner or lunch for any night of the week. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
8 slices of bread
¼ cup butter (softened)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 package sliced pepperoni
8 slices mozzarella cheese
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
pizza sauce (for dipping)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: In a small bowl mix together softened butter, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Warm the sliced pepperoni’s for a few seconds in the microwave or on the stove top over medium heat.

Step 2: Pre-heat a skillet to medium heat. Spread the garlic butter over one side of a slice of bread. Place butter side down in the skillet. Top with a slice of mozzarella cheese, as many pepperonis as you want, a little parmesan cheese, and an additional slice of mozzarella cheese. Butter an additional slice of bread with the garlic butter and place butter side up on top the sandwich.
Step 3: Cook in the skillet until lightly browned on the bottom and flip over. Continue cooking until the other side has browned and the cheese has melted. Repeat with remaining sandwiches. Cut in half and serve with pizza sauce for dipping.
(Makes 4 Servings)

We’re moving soon so I’m trying to live out of my canned goods stock pile (so I don’t have to move it!). Here’s what we came up with for dinner. It’s pretty delish.

Cowboy Chili
olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
2 red bell peppers, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans diced tomatoes
liquid smoke
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
1 Tbl brown sugar
1-2 tsp red wine or cider vinegar
2 cans kidney beans, drained
1 can corn (I didn’t have any…sad face)
salt and pepper
shredded pork, bacon crumbles (optional)

Heat oil in dutch oven over low (med low) heat and saute onion, peppers and garlic for 3 minutes, then cover and continue cooking for a few minutes until tender and fragrant.

**Add tomatoes (in juice) and stir in the liquid smoke, chili powders, sugar and vinegar.

Add the kidney beans and meats and season to taste. You can add more chili powder for more heat and flavor, but I was catering to a 2 year old’s palette.

**I pulsed the tomatoes and most of the cooked peppers and onions so it wouldn’t be so chunky. Do whatcha want. 

if you couldn’t tell, my notes and additions are in red

Lillian and I have gone out on our own.  With the help of a great IT man, we are doing our own thing and publishing our series of cookbooks Think With Your Taste Buds. Our 1st book Think With Your Taste Buds – Desserts is now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as e-books and will also be available in paperback through CreateSpace within the next couple of weeks.  The Think With Your Taste Buds series is created to stimulate your taste buds while cooking.  It takes simple recipes with Lillian and I talking you through some of the possible changes that can be made to make the dish fit your own taste.  Check us out and keep an eye on our site for our next book Thin With Your Taste Buds – Beef.  This has some really great dishes that are easy and fun to play with.

I know this is a food site but now and then I run across something that needs to be posted to as many people as possible.  The information I’m posting today has to do with those wonderful, furry little babies that we call our pets.  If you’re a pet lover like me, please copy this information and keep it handy.  It’s one of the best lists of toxins that are poisonous that I’ve ever seen. 

Both known and unknown toxins can be found hiding in our houses and yards. In 2011, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) in Urbana, IL, fielded more than 165,900 phone calls about pets exposed to poisonous substances. Visit our poison app on Facebook.

1. Prescription Human Medications
Almost 25,000 calls last year were about human prescription medications. Pets, especially dogs, are notorious for ingesting any dropped pill. Cardiac and ADHD medications make up a large percentage of these calls. Always make sure to take these medications in a safe place away from your pets.
2. Insecticides
Insecticides were the subject of 11% of calls to the ASPCA in 2011. These include products used on the lawn, in the house and on the pet. The most important thing to do is read the label before you use any insecticide, and never use a product labeled for dogs on cats.
3. Over-the-Counter Human Medications
Over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen can kill your pet. Never give any medication to your pet without consulting with your veterinarian first.
4. People Food
Chocolate is still the number one people food that pets ingest (we received over 7,600 calls last year). Too much chocolate can cause vomiting, diarrhea, high heart rate and seizures. The second most common food is xylitol (the sugar substitute). Xylitol can cause seizures and liver failure in dogs. 
5. Household Products
It is amazing what animals can find to chew up around the house from fire logs to paint. Some household items may just cause stomach upset, while others can be deadly.
6. Veterinary Medications
Chewable medications make it easy to give your dog or cat a pill. However, this tasty pill can also mean that the pet, if given access, will ingest all the pills in the bottle. Always make sure to keep pet medications out of reach. Contact your veterinarian if your pet ingests more than its proper dose of
medication or ingests another pet’s medication.
7. Rodenticides
When putting out baits to kill mice and rats, never underestimate the resourcefulness of your pet. Most bait is grain based and is attractive to dogs. Depending on the type of rodenticide, ingestion can cause internal bleeding, kidney failure or seizures.
8. Plants
About 4% of our phone calls are pet parents calling about their animals eating plants. This is one category that cats lead dogs in the number of exposures. Lilies can cause kidney failure and death in cats. Please see our list of toxic/non-toxic plants for more information.
9. Lawn and Garden Products
Fertilizers, which can be made of dried blood, poultry manure and bone meal, are very attractive to pets, so it is not surprising that we get many calls (almost 3,900 in 2011) on lawn and garden items.
10. Automotive Products
With more people keeping their animals inside (especially cats), the number of animals exposed to automotive products (antifreeze, brake fluid, etc.) has dropped. This is great news since many of these products, if ingested, can be life-threatening to pets.

If you have any reason to suspect your pet has ingested something toxic, please contact your veterinarian or the Animal Poison Control Center’s 24-hour hotline at (888) 426-4435.

This original recipe called for graham cracker crumbs. I decided to use cookie mix and the oatmeal chocolate chunk sounded good. You can actually use any flavor you want. You can also change the nuts from almonds to pecans or walnuts. This would probably even be good with peanuts. I like using the large shaved coconut that is unsweetened which I find at the health food stores in bulk.
Find the full recipe by going to Martha’s Recipe Cabinet

 Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size.
You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.       

[Source: Daily Savings from All You]

Find budget recipes, money-saving tips and more at http://dailysavings.allyou.com/.

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