Southwestern Shrimp Quesadillas

In this fun dish, a Southwestern favorite mingles with Coastal seafood flavor. While a popular party appetizer (think margaritas, queso, Mexican dip), it can easily make a quick, entertaining meal, served with chips and salsa. Mom wears a sombrero.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
2 green onions, sliced
1 tablespoon OLD BAY® 30% Less Sodium Seasoning
6 flour tortillas (8-inch)
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 avocado, sliced
sour cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 400° F. Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high. Add shrimp, peppers, green onions and OLD BAY. Cook and stir 4 to 5 minutes or until shrimp turn pink.

Place 3 tortillas on baking sheet. Spread with shrimp mixture. Sprinkle with cheese, then top with second tortilla.

Bake 5 minutes or just until cheese melts. Cut each quesadilla into 4 wedges.
Serve warm with avocado slices and sour cream.

Recipe Info

Makes 6 (2-wedge) Servings

Prep. Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Nutritional Info

• Calories: 316
• Fat: 16 g
• Carbohydrates: 23 g
• Cholesterol: 129 mg
• Sodium: 729 mg
• Fiber: 1 g
• Protein: 20 g

–Recipe contributed by:  Old Bay —

Follow Old Bay on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/oldbay

Ingredients:

Cajun Dipping Sauce

• 3/4 cup fat-free sour cream 175 mL
• 1 Tbsp Louisiana hot sauce 15 mL
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced

Instructions:

Yield: 6 servings. Serving size: ½ cup (125 mL) fries, 2 Tbsp (30 mL) sauce.

Recipe Donated By:  www.canolainfo.org

E*TRADE Financial Corporation today announced that E*TRADE Securities LLC has unveiled a new 30-second “Talking Baby” advertisement which will run during the NBC^®television network broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI.

The Super Bowl spot, entitled “Fatherhood,” features the E*TRADE Baby reassuring a nervous new dad about planning for his newborn daughter’s future with help from Financial Consultants at E*TRADE.

“As we celebrate our 5th year with the E*TRADE Baby, we’re focused on building on our momentum by ensuring the campaign remains memorable and iconic, and also says something new about E*TRADE’s offerings. With that in mind, this year’s approach features the Baby interacting with people facing important real-life events that trigger a need to consider investing,” said Nick Utton, Chief Marketing Officer of E*TRADE Financial Corporation.

“While E*TRADE is well-known for leading trading products, our new ad highlighting Financial Consultants provides a new perspective on the wide breadth of products, services and people available to help investors meet their long-term financial planning needs,” said Utton.

The Baby ad is part of a comprehensive new marketing campaign spanning television, print, online and social media, which includes:

• A second new Baby television spot called “Best Man“
• A series of Investing Solutions television commercials, launching in February, showcasing E*TRADE 360, Retirement and E*TRADE Pro
• Print and online executions aligned to the recently launched new etrade.com website
• Online advertising integration with key sites including CNNMoney.com™ and WSJ.com^®, MSN.com™, Yahoo!^®, Google^®, YouTube^®, Facebook^® and Twitter^®
• Fully integrated social media campaign featuring a “Top Ten Baby Moments” video, YouTube brand page, and Facebook and Twitter elements

E*TRADE has:

• Over 60 million total views and over 28,000 subscribers on YouTube
• More than 92,000 Facebook Baby and Corporate pages fans
• Nearly 13,000 Twitter followers
• Ranked #1 in generating online buzz for its 2011 ‘Tailor’ television spot¹

The campaign was created by Grey New York, E*TRADE’s advertising agency of record since 2007.

Important Disclosures and Trademark Attributions

1. Zeta Interactive, 2011 Zeta Buzz Awards, January 24, 2012

E*TRADE FINANCIAL, E*TRADE and the E*TRADE logo are registered trademarks of E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corporation. ETFC-G

Super Bowl is a registered trademark of the NFL and is used here for factual purposes only. E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. and its affiliates are not affiliated with the Super Bowl.
NBC is a registered trademark of NBC Universal Media, LLC.
CNNMoney.com is a trademark of Cable News Network, Inc.
WSJ.com is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
MSN.com is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Yahoo! is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc.
Google is a registered trademark of Google, Inc.
YouTube is a registered trademark of Google, Inc.
Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.
Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc.

You must be 18 years of age to open an E*TRADE Securities account.

About E*TRADE Financial
The E*TRADE Financial family of companies provides financial services including online brokerage and related banking products and services to retail investors. Specific business segments include Trading and Investing and Balance Sheet Management. Securities products and services are offered by E*TRADE Securities LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC). Bank products and services are offered by E*TRADE Bank, a Federal savings bank, Member FDIC, or its subsidiaries. More information is available at www.etrade.com.

© 2012 E*TRADE Financial Corporation. All rights reserved.

According to an Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of the February 3rd employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, job growth improved in January with 243,000 jobs added to nonfarm payrolls. In January, women gained 95,000 jobs (almost 40 percent, above their share for the past year) and men gained 148,000.

The unemployment rate remained steady from December to January for women aged 16 and older (8.3 percent), but fell for men (from 8.7 percent to 8.3 percent). Some of the apparent improvement for men is due to workers ending their job search and no longer being counted among the unemployed. Overall, the male civilian labor force (men aged 16 and older employed or unemployed and actively seeking work) shrank by 303,000 between December and January. While women were leaving the labor force in the last three months of 2011, the female labor force grew by 812,000 in January compared with December.

November and December’s job totals were revised upwards by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in January. The revised jobs numbers for November and December are much more favorable for men: an additional 81,000 new jobs in the two months for women were reported compared with an additional 448,000 new jobs for men. With these revisions, of the 809,000 total jobs gained in the last four months (October–January), women gained 33 percent (265,000) while men gained 67 percent (544,000).

In the last year, from January 2011 to January 2012, of the 2.1 million jobs added to payrolls, 643,000 or 31 percent were filled by women and 1,438,000 or 69 percent were filled by men. Since October of 2009, when men’s and women’s total jobs numbers were virtually equal, women have gained 545,000 jobs, whereas men have gained 2,359,000. The gap between women’s and men’s employment in January is 1.8 million.

Women have regained about one out of four  (752,000 or 28 percent) of the total jobs they lost in the recession (2.7 million from December 2007 to the trough for women’s employment in September 2010, which occurred more than one year after the recession officially ended). The picture looks somewhat better for men, who have gained more than 40 percent (2.4 million) of the jobs they lost since December 2007 (6.0 million). Men are recovering more quickly than women, but 12.8 million workers remain unemployed as of January.

About the Institute for Women’s Policy Research
IWPR conducts rigorous research and disseminates its findings to address the needs of women and their families, promote public dialogue, and strengthen communities and societies. IWPR is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that also works in affiliation with the women’s studies and public policy programs at The George Washington University.

SOURCE Institute for Women’s Policy Research

In honor of the Mobile Chocolate Festival today’s recipe is Chocolate Covered Strawberries.  The Mobile Chocolate Festival, a celebration of all things chocolate, will be held at the Mobile Civic Center Expo Hall on Saturday February 4, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., with all proceeds to benefit Penelope House.  For more information about the Mobile Chocolate Festival visit there website www.mobilechocolatefestival.com

Chocolate covered strawberries are a treat year round!   When creating this wonderful dessert, make sure that you’ve got the freshest strawberries you can find.  Perfectly ripened ones have a taste that’s out of this world, but make sure that there are none with green on them, or you might just be serving more tartness than sweetness.

Ingredients:

• 30-40 fresh, ripe strawberries (with the green stalks cut off)
• 250 g of Chocolate chips or your favorite chocolate bar whether dark or milk chocolate
• Approx. 40 thin skewers of bamboo

How to make chocolate dipped strawberries:

• First of all, wash the strawberries with warm water, to remove any dirt and germs. Let them dry out gently, but completely, or the chocolate won’t take.
• Place the chocolate chips or favorite chocolate bars in a small pan. Take a larger pan, and add some water, and then put it to boil.
• Cover the smaller pan containing the chocolate to prevent any moisture from mixing with the chocolate, since this may cause it to seize.  Place the smaller pan atop the larger one, but not so that the water from the larger one overlaps the smaller pan.
• Alternatively, just place the chocolate chips or chocolate bars in a glass bowl, cover and use the microwave to melt it. A minute should be enough!
• After the chocolate has melted, place each strawberry onto a skewer, and then dip into the melted chocolate. While removing the strawberry, rotate the skewer to form swirling patterns as well as to cover any nooks left with chocolate.
• Turn the strawberry upwards by inverting your hand to let the chocolate settle with an extra bite at the tip!
• Place the dipped strawberries on absorbent paper after the chocolate has hardened slightly.   And you’re done!

For the ultimate chocolate sensation, chocolate dipped strawberries should be eaten the same day that they’re dipped.  Storing them in the fridge is done, but not advised since the chocolate may firm up in a haphazard manner.

Chocolate covered strawberries can be served as an elaborate dessert, normally set within a silvered tray, and eaten with a chilled glass of red! However, having strawberries dipped in chocolates for high teas or during breakfast is also a wonderful idea for an occasional breakfast treat.

If you have a recipe that you would like to share please submit it via our contact form here:  Recipe Submission  Please be sure to include full recipe along with your name and email if you would like for us to give you credit for the submission!

Ingredients:

Marinade

• 3 medium limes
• 1/3 cup canola oil 75 mL
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp ground ginger 10 mL
• 3/4 tsp ground allspice 4 mL
• 3/4 tsp dried thyme leaves 4 mL
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1 mL
• 1/2 tsp salt 2 mL
• six 12-inch metal or bamboo skewers

Kabobs

• 12 chicken tenders, (1 1/2 lb/750g total), cut into thirds (36 pieces)
• 2 medium yellow or red onions (8 oz total), quartered and layers separated (36 layers)
• 2 medium red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces (36 pieces)
• canola oil cooking spray

Instructions:

1. In small bowl, squeeze juice from two limes. Cut remaining lime into six wedges. Add canola oil, garlic, ginger, allspice, thyme, cayenne pepper, and salt to lime juice. Whisk together. Place chicken in large, resealable plastic bag with half of marinade mixture. Marinate chicken overnight or for at least 8 hours, turning occasionally
2. Remove chicken from bag, discarding leftover marinade. Alternating chicken and vegetables, thread six skewers, beginning and ending with chicken pieces.
3. Preheat grill to medium-high heat.
4. Place skewers on grill rack coated with canola oil cooking spray. Cook 12 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center, turning frequently. Be careful not to overcook chicken. Remove from grill, place on serving platter and spoon reserved marinade over all. Serve with lime wedges.

Country superstar Alan Jackson brings his tour to the Pensacola Civic Center on Friday, May 4, 2012.

Tickets for the show may be purchased starting at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10, at the Civic Center box office, online at Ticketmaster.com, charge by phone at 800-745-3000 or at all Ticketmaster locations.

Alan Jackson New Video Release “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore”

Today, the Administration announced important enhancements to the Making Home Affordable Program, including the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), to expand the reach of the program to help additional homeowners stay in their homes and strengthen hard-hit communities. These enhancements will provide additional relief to struggling homeowners, renters, and their neighborhoods to accelerate the housing market recovery and improve our overall economy.

The Administration is committed to a multi-pronged effort to support American homeowners to help heal our nation’s housing market. This includes providing refinancing opportunities for responsible homeowners, transitioning foreclosed properties into rental housing to help reduce the overhang of unsold homes, and providing states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis with resources to develop targeted relief programs that work for their communities.

To date, HAMP has helped more than 900,000 struggling families permanently modify their mortgage loans, providing them with a median savings of more than $500 every month.  For these families, this savings can mean the difference between keeping their home and foreclosure.   These efforts have set the industry standard for successful modifications and have helped prompt private lenders to modify an additional 2.6 million mortgages.  In total, public and private efforts have helped more than 4.6 million Americans get mortgage aid to prevent avoidable foreclosures since HAMP was launched.

When the MHA was announced in March of 2009, it was not easy to predict what would happen to the housing market by 2012.  As we enter 2012, the housing market shows signs of recovery but is still fragile. The MHA programs have proven to be critical foreclosure prevention tools, setting new standards for the mortgage industry to follow.  These enhancements will extend the reach of HAMP to a broader pool of struggling homeowners and provide more robust relief to those who participate:

• Extending the Administration’s Mortgage Modification Program.  In order to help more families at a time when many across the nation still need relief, the Making Home Affordable Program deadline will be extended for an additional year through December 31, 2013. This date conforms to the extended deadline for the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).

• Expanding Eligibility to Reduce Additional Foreclosures and Help Stabilize Neighborhoods.  Eligibility for HAMP will be expanded so that it reaches a broader pool of distressed borrowers.  Additional borrowers will now have an opportunity to receive modification assistance through an additional evaluation process that provides the same homeowner protections and clear rules for servicers established by HAMP.  This includes:

• Ensuring that borrowers struggling to make ends meet because of debt beyond their mortgage can participate. Many homeowners who have an affordable first mortgage payment struggle beneath the weight of other debt such as second liens and medical bills.  Recognizing that many homeowners in this situation are still struggling to make ends meet, the program is being expanded to offer another evaluation opportunity with more flexible debt-to-income criteria to expand modification assistance to borrowers with higher levels of secondary debt who otherwise meet program requirements.

• Preventing additional foreclosures to support renters and stabilize communities. Treasury will expand eligibility to include properties that are currently occupied by a tenant as well as vacant properties which the borrower intends to rent. This will provide critical relief to both homeowners that live in their homes and those who rent their homes, while further stabilizing communities from the blight of vacant and foreclosed properties. Single family homes are an important source of affordable rental housing, and foreclosure of investor-owned homes has disproportionate negative effects on low- and moderate-income renters.

• Increasing Incentives for Cost-Effective Mortgage Modifications that Help Borrowers Rebuild Equity in Their Homes.  Currently, HAMP includes an option for servicers to provide homeowners with modifications that include principal reduction, when a borrower owes significantly more on their mortgage than their home is worth.  While not appropriate in all circumstances, principal reduction modifications are an important tool in the overall effort to help homeowners achieve affordable and sustainable mortgages.  To further encourage investors to consider or expand use of principal reduction modifications, the Administration will:

• Triple the incentives provided to investors who agree to reduce principal for borrowers:  To increase the amount of principal that is reduced, Treasury will triple incentives to investors, paying from 18 to 63 cents on the dollar, depending on the degree of change in the loan-to-value ratio.

• Offer principal reduction incentives for loans insured or owned by the GSEs. HAMP borrowers who have loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (the GSEs) do not currently benefit from principal reduction loan modifications. To encourage the GSEs to offer this assistance to underwater borrowers, Treasury has notified the GSEs’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), that it will pay principal reduction incentives to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac if they allow servicers to forgive principal in conjunction with a HAMP modification.

While the economy continues to shows signs of recovery, the broader housing market remains fragile. HAMP continues to offer homeowners some of the most sustainable assistance available and has established critical standards and protections for homeowners that we believe must continue as the housing market heals.

Extending the reach of HAMP will assist a broader pool of struggling homeowners, offer support for tenants at risk of displacement due to foreclosure, and provide more robust relief to those who participate.  Taken together, these enhancements will help the housing market recover faster from an unprecedented crisis.

Source: Timothy G. Massad is Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability.

$50 gas card when you book at least two days in Perdido Key, near Pensacola, Florida