If you want to be good to yourself and your guests at the same time, ask your fish store to sell you cooked fresh lobster meat, instead of cooking a lobster yourself. This is a great summer appetizer or a special treat for New Year's Eve. This recipe is also good, and not quite so expensive, with cooked shrimp or crabmeat. You'll see that a little salad makes a lot of appetizers.

3/4 pound fresh cooked lobster meat, small-diced
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
1/2 cup small-diced celery (1 stalk)
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
pinch kosher salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
4 heads Belgian endive

Combine the lobster, mayonnaise, celery, capers, dill, salt, and pepper.

With a sharp knife, cut off the base of the endive and separate the leaves. Use a teaspoon to fill the end of each endive leaf with lobster salad. Arrange on a platter and serve.

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Excerpted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten; Foreword by Martha Stewart Copyright© 1999 by Ina Garten. Excerpted by permission of Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.