The weather is warming up. That means it's time to get grilling back into full swing. And to start off your flame season here's a recipe for some easy baby burgers, with an unusual flavor burst inside.

It's from the folks at Salads of the Sea, and if you've ever mixed a little cheese into your ground beef before throwing it on the fire, you're gonna like this. They've got a seafood cheese spread that might sound a little strange, but makes an interesting, tangy, and surprisingly good, filler for burgers. So grill up a few of these easy-to-make baby burgers this weekend for your first cook-out of the season. Start things off right.

Baby Burgers with Seafood Cheese Filling
(Makes four 2-burger servings)
1 lb ground beef
1 8 oz container Salads of the Sea Seafood Cheese Spread
8 mini hamburger buns (or Hawaiian rolls) ...More

When's the last time you saw a baking company call out pro athletes?

The All-Natural Batter Cookie from Dancing Deer Baking Company, released at the start of the major league baseball season, is made with a batter that contains "No artificial ingredients. No performance enhancers.", unlike certain other batters that use enhancers. (I think they're talking to you Barry.)

The Boston-based bakery is staffed with sports fans that believe the term "all-natural" is as much about honesty and fair play as it is about using pure ingredients. So they're donating a nickel from the sale of every one of these clove molasses cookies to the Taylor Hooton Foundation, whose mission is to end the use of steroids of young athletes.

So order a dozen. And send them to the guys named in the Mitchell Report. You get to help a good cause, and they get to experience something natural for a change.

$17.50 for a dozen
www.dancingdeer.com

Housing is tanking, gas prices are higher than Cheech and Chong, and people much smarter than me are starting to utter the "R" word. It's no secret the economy is lamer than HBO since The Wire ended, and guys are looking to trim their spending anywhere they can. Which means cutting back on eating out, rather than give up MLB season pass.

So to save you from endless nights of Ramen noodles and Easy Mac, I turned to Jaci Rae, known as The Queen of More Green. Her book, 5 Meals for $5, is loaded with recipes like B-B-Q Ham Sandwiches w/Homemade B-B-Q Sauce and Mexican Beef Enchilada Lasagna, that cost, on average, under $1.60 per serving. With many costing under $1. Including a salad. (Suck on that, Dollar Menu McNuggets.)

In the coming weeks, Jaci will be developing recipes just for us bachelors who want to make a batch of $5 meals, freeze the leftovers, and eat like a king for a month. (Then, like idiots, go out and blow the savings on 3-for-1 dances at the Pole Palace.)

Here's the first of her recipes, which will always include the average cost per ingredient, cost per serving, and total cost to feed five people. (Keep in mind prices vary depending on where you live and shop.) So put the Cup O'Noodles down, and eat something just as cheap, that actually requires a knife and fork.

Chuck Roast
Average total cost for five people: $4.78
Average cost of meal per person: $0.96 ...More

I'm not talking about that kind of strip, where a single mom "putting herself through law school" peels off her threadbare lime-green lingerie to Motlëy Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and then hits you up for $20. I'm talking about the kind of strip that's seared over a hot grill to such perfection that it melts in your mouth.

With locations in Las Vegas (in the new Planet Hollywood Hotel Casino), New York, Houston, New Jersey, two in Puerto Rico, and three in Florida (Naples, Palm Beach Gardens, and Key West), Strip House is the new vision of an old-school steak house. A guy's steak house. The type of place you'd expect to see Frank and Dino hanging out. The type of place that puts together a special Bachelor Menu for you and the boys to feast on.

From the hundreds of vintage black and white photos of burlesque girls, to the red velvet-flocked wallpaper with matching napkins (look closely at the design, you can see it on their site, and tell me it's not genius), Strip House is the place for guys to go have a few drinks - and a few top-of-the-line steaks - in style.

Their Bachelor Menu is available in every location except New York, and it can be served to you and your boys in a private room (complete with flat screen TV), so the other guests don't infringe on your party. Unless they're hot, and invited.

The menu starts off with the Seafood Plateau, an enormous tray packed with huge chilled shrimp, raw clams and oysters, tuna tartar, lobster chick, king crab legs, ...More

Normally you'd think your buddy would jump at the chance for some cold beer and hot wings, but on a Tuesday night it might be a little tougher to get him off the couch after a long day in the cube. Even if the beer and wings are on special. So see if a call from the twins gets him motivated.

Buffalo Wild Wings has a feature on their site where the lovely ladies pictured will call (or email with a link to a sound file), your friend and invite him to join you for some Wing Tuesdays specials. It's not exactly a live call. It's a prerecorded message with his (or her) name, your name, and the time to meet, dubbed in. But he won't care. He might even offer to buy a round. For a change.

www.buffalowildwings.com