Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I decided to push my "Seasonal Saturday" post to Sunday so I can combine my love of seasonal ingredients with one of my favorite days.
Every year I make a big brunch for my family as per my mother's request. When a mother says, "I would rather eat your food than any restaurants," you'd better take it seriously.
So I go all out....deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, eggs benedict with homemade hollandaise sauce, quiche...a real smorgasbord. In fact, I'd better head over there now!

So for this "Seasonal Sunday" post, I decided to focus on the midwest and as I've said before, there are a lot of great resources available online to help you find what is in season in your area. Two of my favorites come from Epicurious.com and the National Resources Defense Council. You simply enter your state and month and voila, you have your ingredients. Epicurious' interactive map not only allows you to find these ingredients but also leads you to further information about the ingredient as well as recipes featuring the item. The NRDC's handy program allows you to choose time of the month (early, mid, late) and also helps you locate farmer's markets in your area.

In early May rhubarb is in season in Michigan. Here are a few insights into rhubarb:

V-Day Inspiration: Outside-In Lobster & Mashed Potatoes

Unfortunately life doesn’t like to halt for a better blogging environment and so the “Hors D'oeuvres” post I’ve been planning will be postponed until the end of the week. In the meantime, yesterday’s Valentine’s Day hustle and bustle inspired me to write something about one of my favorite quick and easy romantic recipes.

When I feel like spoiling my man (or myself for that matter) with a romantic dinner, I usually think lobster. But I, like many other people out there, can’t stand the idea of killing a lobster. It just breaks my little heart.

So I like to buy frozen lobster tails, you can order them online or get them at the supermarket. As long as you’re smart about it, they can be a great and (mostly) guilt-free alternative. Read this great tutorial on “How to Buy Lobster Tails & Not Get Ripped Off”.

One day, when pondering what to pair with my lobster tail, I came up with the idea for “Outside-In Lobster & Mashed Potatoes”—a quick & easy recipe that involves “butterflying the tail”, cooking the lobster using the method of pulling the tail meat out of its shell (but keeping it attached and resting it on top) and then stuffing the hollow shell with mashed potatoes, so the yummy lobster juices seep into potatoes imparting yummy lobster flavor.