California Central Coast Wine and Food Guide.

This time of year, I succumb to Spring Fever. I start to get excited about all of Spring's new vegetables and fruit. I even get butterflies in anticipation of Easter, and the longer days with more sun. Everything seems a little less dreary when so many fresh new eatables start appearing. With this in mind, we've got a selection of recipes that has a little bit of something for everyone.

Our low-cost meal of Rapini, Sausage and Penne pasta is quick, inexpensive and pretty easy to make.The earthy taste of the rapini, the gusto of Italian sausage combined with the grated Parmesan cheese is a really mellow "week-day" low-cost meal to make. You can also use this same recipe, substituting kale to make another inexpensive meal.

Our really fun Onion Pizza entree is safe for those still fasting for Lent, and economical too. With its caramelized onions and oregano topped with Parmesan is so mellow and yummy, you'll almost forget that you're fasting!

When the above pizza is paired with this month's featured salad: Our Easy Chicory, Toasted Walnuts and D'anjou Pear Salad with a very light lemon vinaigrette, it's a very satisfying meal sure to please all.

While the tail-end of winter is still with us occasionally, I thought we should have at least one robust meal this month, so I pulled out my recipe for Chicken and Mushroom Risotto. It's absolutely delicious! It's really unusual! It's a Chicken Risotto with Sauteed Mushrooms with a light cream sauce! (Basically you saute the mushrooms with a little garlic, then add a little cream and save for later.)Then make the rest of the risotto, then at the end, fold in the mushrooms in cream, add the Parmesan cheese and get set for Nirvana! The whole dish is unbelievably good! I think that this is my most robust risotto recipe. Everyone that's tasted it loves it! What's not to love? Chicken, mushrooms, Rice, Parmesan cheese and cream just naturally go together. And the neat thing about this risotto, it reheats very well. So you'll want to make a couple meals out of this dish. This is a dish that you'll be proud to share with friends!

Another one of our "Lent-friendly" meals will be our version of Shrimp Tacos, ideally using Mexican Wild Shrimp. (They're the sweetest ones when available.) If you know that you're going to be in a hurry and not have a lot of prep time, buy good quality frozen cooked shrimp. They'll work well too.

These tacos are not the greasy "fast-food" type, but rather very colorful, healthy and delicious. Tacos just seem to go with good friends, so you'll want to have this for a fun get-together.

And to round-out this festive Spring month for dessert, we'll feature another one of my family's recipes for Lemon Meringue Pie using Meyer lemons. Lemon-lovers beware! This pie "goes fast!"--Both in making it (you have to work fast) and eating it!

All in all, it's going to be a fun, short month-food-wise. And as this season unfolds, these recipes will reflect our mood of wanting our lives to get brighter, less heavy and burdensome. These recipes will offer a cure to winter's doldrums. Try them out for yourself!