This was a spontaneous cake effort on Jason’s part one morning when we had some over-ripe pears to use somehow, and a craving for something sweet. With an apple cake recipe, we substituted the sliced fresh pear, added some peanut butter chips for total craziness, and loaded up on the icing once it was out of the oven. Experimentation pays off - it was moist, delish, and fun to make!

If any of you are familiar with fast food dollar menus, this burger will be familiar to you. We have attempted to re-create one of our favorite $1 burgers, which consists of burger with barbecue sauce, cheddar cheese, and an onion ring on top. When you have got a gas grill, top-quality angus beef, aged cheddar, awesome barbecue sauce, organic onion rings, and whole wheat burger buns, you are going to turn out a burger that no fast food chain could ever dream of making! Do yourself a favor and make one of these burgers once or twice over the summer, and don’t forget the lemonade!

And their love child is totally edible. As with the pie battle royale, my sister and her boyfriend showed off their cooking talents with a new dessert bar. The bottom layer is basically a chewy oatmeal cookie. Over that is a thick layer of sweet pumpkin, and a bit of oatmeal streusel is sprinkled on top. These gooey bars were even better the next day!

When it comes to pie contests the real winners are the eaters. And in this case between homemade graham cracker pie with real pudding vs. boxed pudding, the vote was unanimous: homemade pudding rocks out! Alas, I can’t share exactly what was in the winning pie because it was made by my lovely sister and her charming boyfriend. But what I can tell you is that the crust had loads of cinnamon in it, which puts graham cracker pie over the top for me. The fresh strawberries added a nice summery flavor as well. Treat your family and friends to some fresh pie soon!

Though they are a little time consuming, nothing beats waking up to warm delicious cinnamon buns! Of course if you are the one making them, you can’t very well wake up to them, but you could surprise someone very dear to you. And that someone very dear to you would be most appreciative (if they’re not something is seriously wrong with them). There is an assortment of cinnamon bun recipes on www.allrecipes.com, so check some out and choose one that looks good to you!

Spur of the moment breakfasts can be fun, but sometimes you never know what you’ll end up with. Not so for this breakfast we whipped up last weekend. Using a general recipe for sausage gravy (flour, milk, leftover sausage grease, a little butter, salt & pepper), and a biscuit recipe from a Betty Crocker cookbook, this hearty breakfast treat was devoured before it had time to cool! It’s so easy to fall into a meal-time rut, eating basically the same meals over and over. Why not switch it up and try something new this morning?

April has been good to us here in Maine this year and the first barbecue of the spring/summer has not only already happened, but it was a great success! Hotdogs, rolls warmed on the grill, and potatoes baked on the coals was a tasty way to kick off the grilling season. Looking forward to trying some new grilling recipes this summer and completely indulging (or at least a little)…

The original recipe calls for spinach instead of broccoli, which I made the first time and I have to say that I prefer the spinach. But desperate times call for desperate substitutes and the broccoli came to the rescue with flying colors! With the cheeses and seasonings you may not even realize you’re eating broccoli (which is exactly what it wants you to think)! This chicken dish is quite good though, and pairs very well with whole wheat pasta, marinara sauce, garlic bread and fresh salad. Also keeps well for leftovers.

I have always wanted to make Eggplant Parmesan and am so glad I finally did! It is more work than a normal dinner around our place, more prep work really, but it’s totally worth it. I started out using this recipe from allrecipes.com, but ammended it as I went along using tips from other users on the site. I bought only one eggplant and it made plenty plus leftovers for four people. Starting with the washed/dried eggplant, I cut 1/4 inch slices then sprinkled all slices front and back with kosher salt, and let them sweat for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, I rinsed the slices and dried them throroughly with a paper towel. I then had three dishes ready with flour, then beaten egg, and finally breadcrumbs with which I also mixed in garlic powder, italian seasonings and salt/pepper. Have a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray (or extra virgin olive oil) ready, and then dip each piece of eggplant into flour, then egg, then breadcrumb mix and place on the cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 7 minutes and then flip and bake another 5 to 7 minutes. Serve over pasta with pasta sauce, fresh mozzerella and a dusting of parmesan cheese - so good! (The original recipe calls for baking the eggplant in a sort of casserole style with sauce/cheese, but I chose my way to keep the crispness of the eggplant, which would have gotten a bit soggy otherwise. But if you prefer this other method, by all means, try it out and enjoy!)

The next day I made a sandwich with some leftover eggplant crispers, basically laying a couple of the eggplant slices over some sourdough bread with pasta sauce and fresh mozzerella - completely delicious.

Grilled cheese is one of our family’s top lunches. There are a few ways to shake up the old fave, and this one is simple and totally delicious: add apple slices! Apples and cheese are a great snack on their own and taste, dare I say, even better grilled on lightly buttered bread. Other yummy variations we like are grilled cheese with pesto, grilled cheese and tomato and grilled cheese and bacon. Honestly though, the possibilities are endless; cheese is great!