Seafood Cakes or Gateaux de la Mer (for a dollar more)

Every now and again I like to treat myself (and my wife) to a restaurant style dinner at home, presentation and all. I also like to keep it fast, easy and with as little clean up as possible. Today I'm feeling like cakes-from the sea...like crab cakes, salmon cakes, shrimp cakes and so on. These are fast, easy and can be served as an hors d'oeurve, appetizer or an entree, all depending on the portion. I'll share some flavorful ideas with you today.

Happy Valentines Day/Presidents Day

How about that for a 'two for' holiday weekend or extended weekend? This calls for a celebration of sorts and you are likely considering preparing a  tasty dinner or two for the event. As always when we face the temptation to treat ourselves during a holiday we must take a moment or two to plan what we will do and make. Special occasions are not the time to break away from all of the hard work we've done to stay on course with our weight management. On the contrary, we can have the best of both worlds, but only with careful planning. Here are some thoughts on how to do just that.

Spice It Up Brazilian Style
Now that we're in wintery cold weather hearty soups and stews are on the menu at home more and more. But, maybe it's time to try some different flavors to perk up some of your tried and true recipes. How about some flavors from the South? By that I mean South America. Here's a quick spice blend that hails from Brazil.

5 Myths About Crock-Pot Cooking

During these cold winter times nothing seems more comforting than a slow cooked meal from our trusty crock pots. But I've heard some questions concerning cooking with a crock pot, more like myths. I'd like to clear some misconceptions up though for problem free cooking.

Delicious homemade "sun-dried" tomatoes in 5 easy steps

I love tomatoes — fresh in a salad, as a sauce or even tomato juice.
However, one of my favorite ways to eat them is sun-dried. When I first discovered sun-dried tomatoes, I wondered how I could get tomatoes dried in the sun when I lived in Aptos, a small foggy town in Santa Cruz County. In Italy these scrumptious nuggets are actually dried in the sun. This is a good work-around for those that don't have all that much sun to do this with.

Turkey Day Q&A

It's that time of year again- time to plan the Thanksgiving day spread. Today I won't be addressing the pros and cons of deep frying, barbequeing or smoking your holiday turkey. Instead I'll just go over some of the most asked questions, especially for those who may be cooking this holiday's meal for the first time and quite possibly for a larger group.

Home Made Stocks

Homemade stock is one of the easiest recipes to make from scratch. It is also the fastest way to elevate a homemade meal. Plus, you can cook it up with nothing more than food scraps. If you have room in your freeze I recommend that you store your veggie scraps in the freezer to save up for making stock. The thing is though, while this is one of the simplest foods to make, there are some rules that need to be followed if you want the best results. And by rules, we mean veggies not to use.

Cutting back on carbs doesn't mean you have to give up meals that you'll actually crave — there are more dinner options out there than pasta! These recipes are healthy, are packed with flavor, and range between 5 and 26 grams of carbs per serving. Sometimes you just need to get a little creative with your typical preparations — like substituting carb-heavy pizza crust with roasted eggplant or cauliflower. You'll want to add these recipes to your dinner rotation for sure.

Every so often I get asked to help out a friends prepare a dinner. Being in the food business I get used to doing things in a particular fashion because I know it works. But I don't want to offend anyone when I see them make some rather obvious steps that are either a mistake or that will cause them more work than necessary because, well, I'm their guest and don't want to be a know-it-all. But sometimes, I just can't let it go. A case in point: the sometimes arduous job of peeling hard boiled eggs. I know, I know, this is no big culinary deal. However, you can do it the easy way or the hard way. Let me explain.

Fruit Roll Ups Made at Home!

With 3 ingredients and no special equipment, you can make a healthier version of your favorite elementary school snack at home.

Back in grade school, the only one thing I looked forward to more at recess than hanging off the monkey bars was the possibility of finding a Fruit Roll-Up in my backpack. I could unravel a tasty treat and spend the rest of recess ignoring my friends playing jump rope.
I thought I had left Fruit Roll-Ups, like recess, in the past. But, good news, kids: Now you can make your own roll-ups at home and, dare I say it, they are actually kind of good for you (or at least a whole lot better then their grocery store counterpart). Homemade roll-ups are packed with fruit—and there’s no artificial color in sight.