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Stuffed shrimp recipes will help you celebrate any special occasion like a raise, a promotion or even an anniversary. These dishes are very elegant and very delectable. There are many different ways to prepare stuffed shrimp and several different ingredients that will have your tastebuds jumping for joy.

Many times stuffed shrimp recipes use other seafood ingredients like this one. This one uses clams for a great and tasty treat. For this recipe you will need:

1 pound of shrimp (peeled and de-veined), 
 ? cup of cracker or bread crumbs, 
 3 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine, 
 1 small can of minced clams, 
 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder, 
 1/3 cup of sweet sherry, 
 salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To start you will need to cut the shrimp down the middle and have it in the butterfly style, but leave the tails attached. Mix together the cracker or bread crumbs, butter, clams, garlic, salt and pepper. Stuff each shrimp with the mixture. Place the shrimp in a baking dish and pour the sherry around the shrimp. Bake for around 15 minutes until shrimp are transparent in the center.

Stuffed shrimp recipes are very popular and you will find several that use all kinds of spices and other ingredients to create wonderful and mouth watering meals. Just like this one. This one also uses crab meat. You will need:

shrimp, 
 ? cup of milk, 
 1 egg, 
 ? cup of cracker or bread crumbs, 
 1 pound of crab meat, 
 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, 
 1 teaspoon of hot sauce, 
 1 teaspoon of dried mustard, 
 1 teaspoon of miracle whip, 
 2 cubed slices of bread, 
 1 small onion chopped, 
 ? cup of green bell pepper, and 
 ? cup of melted butter or margarine. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare the shrimp as you did in the recipe above in the butterfly style leaving the tails attached. Stir together the egg and milk. Mix together the crabmeat, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, mustard, mayo, bread cubes, salt and pepper. Saut? the onions and green pepper in a small amount of butter, and then add to the crab mixture. Now, dip the shrimp into the egg mixture and place in a baking dish. Top each shrimp with the crab mixture and bake for 40 minutes.

You are sure to enjoy stuffed shrimp recipes and so will your dinner guests. They are easy to prepare and a joy to eat.

Hans is author of Seafood Recipes at http://www.steaks-guide.com

Here are four items that I think make the perfect steak dinner. Do all four. You won't disagree with me. What are the four?

Spicy Smoked Steak
Cheese Fries
Seasoned Green Beans
Homemade Milkshake

I'm getting hungry, so let's get started.

Spicy Smoked Steak
2 pounds of steak (round steak works fine)
MSG (sold as Accent in the seasoning section)
1 tablespoon of butter
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 eight ounce can of tomato sauce
1 large can mushrooms
1 banana pepper
2 bell green peppers
2 mid-sized onions
Some salt and pepper
Liquid smoke

Directions:
Tenderize the meat with a mallet and lightly coat the meat with the MSG powder. Take all the other ingredients, except the tomato sauce and put them on the top of the meat. It's important to keep it all on top.

Regarding the liquid smoke vary the amount you use to the amount of smokiness you want (don't overdo it, it's strong stuff). Pour the tomato sauce over the top of everything else.

Cover the steak snugly with foil. Poke holes in the foil. Cook it for half an hour at 400 degrees. It's a good idea to have a cookie sheet under the steak in the oven to catch drippings. Cover the cookie sheet with foil for easy clean up. Reduce heat to 200 degrees and continue cooking for an hour.

Cheesy Fries
3 potatoes (scrubbed and sliced in to French fry shapes)
3 tablespoons of melted butter
1/3 cup parmesan cheese (not fresh-grated)
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 chives

Directions:
Coat the fries in the butter. Mix the other ingredients together. Coat the fries in the mixture. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook them uncovered for forty minutes (less if you've thinly sliced them).

Seasoned Green Beans 10 fresh mushrooms
1 yellow onion
4 cups of frozen green beans
1 stick of butter
Mrs. Dash seasoning

Directions:
Chop the mushrooms and onions. Saute them until the onion is translucent. Heat the beans until they are tender. Drain the veggies and place them in a dish. Mix in the mushrooms, onion, butter, and Mrs. Dash.

Homemade Milkshake
4 cups of cold milk
4 cups of vanilla ice cream

Directions: Blend together in at high speed in a blender. Serves 4 to 5.

So there you have the perfect steak dinner. Personally, I think I'll fix this again tomorrow night. Good food is truly my weakness. Enjoy!

Pick a simple but delectable Valentine Day dessert recipe to add the finishing touch to your Valentine dinner. Chocolate is a lovely gift for Valentine’s Day, and it’s good used to add a note of indulgence for your dessert. Another good choice is succulent fresh fruit, which is always so welcome in winter. Any pink or red fruit is ideal, such as strawberries, raspberries or rhubarb. Tropical fruits are also an excellent choice, and for the simplest dessert of all, you could simply serve a platter of sliced fruits such as juicy mango, halved passion fruits, fresh pineapple chunks and papaya wedges. Add some cubes of chocolate cake, and a scattering of shelled nuts, and you’ll have an instant and delectable Valentine’s Day dessert.

Here are more ideas for Valentine’s Day desserts.

1. Make it pink
   Early forced rhubarb is a lovely shade of fresh pink that looks so pretty in a mousse. Chop 450g (12 oz) fruit and simmer covered for 10 min in a pan with 50ml (4 tbsp) fresh orange juice, 1 cinnamon stick and 25g (5 tsp) caster sugar, until the rhubarb is tender. Remove the lid and cook for another 5 mins until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in 1 tbsp redcurrant jelly and leave to cool. Fold the fruit through 150ml (2/3 cup) 0% fat Greek yogurt, spoon into glasses and chill for 2 hr. This makes six individual portions, and keeps for 1-2 days refrigerated.
2. Just add chocolate
   Prepare a plate of mixed fruit cut into bite-sized pieces. Put 200g (1 ? cups) dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl and add 50g (1/4 cup) butter, 75ml (1/3 cup) water and 2 tbsp Malibu or brandy. Place over a pan of barely simmering water, so the base of the bowl is just above the surface of the water. Stir occasionally until melted, then stir until smooth. Serve with forks for spearing the fruit and dipping into the chocolate sauce.
3. Celebration sorbet
   Put 600ml (2 ? cups) apple and mango juice into a pan with the zest of a lemon and 75g caster sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil, simmer for 1 min, then pour into a bowl to cool. Strain into a container and place in the freezer for about 4 hours. Remove from freezer and whisk well to break up the ice crystals, then freeze until firm. Serve piled into glasses and decorated with mint leaves, with chocolate finger biscuits.
4. Heart-shaped delights
   Any dessert can become a Valentine dessert, if you add a heart-shaped decoration. Many cookware shops sell heart-shaped moulds and cutters, which you can use to bake cakes and cookies for the day. Or make a heart-stencil, by cutting a heart out of sheet of thin card. Place the card with the heart-shaped hole on top of a cake or pile of pancakes, and dredge with icing sugar. Lift off stencil carefully.

Keep it healthy, by using low fat ingredients and choosing chocolate with a high proportion of cocoa solids, for these Valentine’s desserts.

Elizabeth Martyn is webmaster at healthy-eating-made-easy.com, where she provides information, tips and recipes on using seasonal, fresh ingredients to feed the family healthily and without hassle.

Visit the site for detailed Valentine's Day recipes and other seasonal recipes.

This article may be published electronically or in print in its entirety as long as the author bylines in the resource box are included and urls kept live.

To a person that does not commonly purchase meat, the deli counter can be a very intimidating place to be. There are so many selections to choose from when you are trying to find red meat, and many people don't know where to look when it comes to purchasing good cuts of meat. In this article, we'll discuss some of the common features of steaks to look for when purchasing beef so that you can know how to choose the right cuts for you and your family.

First off, you need to understand the USDA's grading system when it comes to steak. There are three grades of beef sold under the USDA guidelines - Prime, Choice, and Select. Prime is the most expensive cut of beef, and it is usually from younger cows and features extensive marbling. Marbling is an aspect of beef that is important to understand. When small levels of fat permeate through the meat, causing it to have a ‘marbled' appearance like the stone of the same name, the beef is often very tender and consequently highly desired. It can be tough to find Prime USDA beef outside of restaurants, with only specialty butchers usually carrying the meat. The next step down in the quality of beef is Choice. Choice beef is the most commonly found grade in the marketplace, and while it has less marbling than Prime beef, it still tends to be desirable. Select is the lowest grade of beef, featuring limited marbling throughout the beef, usually resulting in tough meat that isn't very juicy.

Another important aspect to consider when buying beef is the cut. One of the most commonly purchased high-end steak cuts is known as filet mignon. Also commonly referred to as beef tenderloin, these cuts are amongst the tenderest cuts of beef available. They are often round in appearance, and you can expect to pay a pretty penny when purchasing filet mignon. New York Strip Steaks are also often desirable, featuring a long marbled cut of meat with a strip of fat along the side. T-Bones and Porterhouses represent the bigger cuts of steak, with 20 ounces being a common size for the Porterhouse. They feature a bone along the center with plenty of marbled, tender meat throughout.

When choosing an individual steak, there are some things to look out for. Purchase beef that is bright red in color, signifying a level of freshness not found in most steaks. The package that the steak comes in should be cold, and there shouldn't be much juice floating around the package - that denotes that the meat may have been on the shelf for too long of a time. The meat should be firm to the touch, with soft meat possibly being on the shelf too long as well.

Now that you know what to look for when shopping for a steak, you can more accurately pick the cut of meat and the choice steaks to keep you and your dinner guests pleased.