Hollow out a nice green cucumber, removing all seeds and pulp, leaving a nice hollow tube. Stuff with your favorite salad, from crab, tuna, egg, or chicken salad. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate for 24 hours. Just before serving, unwrap and slice about 1 to 1-1/2” thickness. Added appeal: run tines of a fork on outer skin before you stuff it. When you slice it, you will have a very pretty design. Try using gherkins instead of dill or sandwich pickles. Insert slices of thinly sliced mozzarella cheese between your tomato slices and drizzle Italian dressing over. Sprinkle with a little parsley. *****

If this isn’t fancy enough for your dinner party, try a Relish Tree. Using a 24-inch styrofoam cone, cover sides with fresh greenery, such as parsley. The greenery can be held to cone with fine wire

Using toothpicks, attach cherry tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts, raw cauliflower, radish roses, and raw zucchini and cucumber slices (preferably seedless).

Use your imagination and attach vegetables that your family would enjoy. You can do a fruit tree as well with pineapple, mandarin oranges, strawberries, etc. However drain any fruit thoroughly so it doesn’t run down your tree.

A relish tree on a buffet table is definitely very special indeed!

*****

So relish your relishes, whether they come in a bowl, on a plate, or on a “tree.” Use relishes to decorate, delight, enhance, and add color and taste appeal. ©Arleen M. Kaptur

According to “Parents” page, Ask Jeeves For Kids only searches for “G-Rated” information. However, they do warn that since web sites change, there is no guarantee that adult content cannot slip through cracks. Still, they do a good job at trying to filter out information, so if you have children surfing net, you may want to point them over to this popular resource.

Google http://www.google.com/

Visit “Advanced Search” link and take a look at “SafeSearch” section. Click “Filter using SafeSearch” radio button to cause Google to only returns sites that match Google’s “SafeSearch” filter. This filter attempts to remove material containing pornography or sexual content, but it is not and cannot be 100% accurate. Click link “SafeSearch” on this page for more information about this filter.

You can also click “Preferences” link from front page to set preferences on how you want Google to search through documents. From here you can enable “SafeSearch” setting by default. These preferences are placed in form of a cookie stored on your browser, so if you disable cookies your preference choices will not stick. Be sure to press “Save Preferences” button when you are done with your choices or they will not stick.

Lycos http://www.lycos.com/

Click on “Parental Controls” link on front page (located under search bar), or turn on “Adult Filter” from advanced search page to enable “Lycos SearchGuard”. This feature attempts to filter out sites containing inappropriate or offensive material such as “adult, violent, hate and weapons-related content”. Note that while no filter can be 100% effective this is a good start.

You may also want to visit following family and kid-friendly Lycos sites:

Lycos Family Zone http://familyzone.lycos.com/

Lycos Zone (For Kids) http://lycoszone.lycos.com/

No matter which site you use, realize that no filter can be 100% accurate. All it takes is a little web browser knowledge to defeat cookie-based filters. Inappropriate sites can and sometimes will “slip through cracks”. Thus, I recommend that you always supervise your kids’ Internet usage whenever possible. These filters, however, may make your supervision easier and your entire family’s Internet experience more enjoyable without any surprises.