Cooking up the end to winter

As winter moves into its final few weeks, some may take that as cause to party.

If that’s you, several shows on basic cable this week will show you how to do it up right.

One is “Dinner at Tiffani’s” Sunday on Cooking Channel, as host Tiffani Thiessen throws a Mardi Gras bash that comes complete with gumbo, a hot crab and kale dip with Creole crostini and cheesy grits washed down with a Sazerac cocktail, a traditional New Orleans beverage not unlike cognac.

On the guest list is Thiessen’s former “Fastlane” costar Bill Bellamy and actor Eric Close.

Immediately following on Cooking is the season finale of “Tia Mowry at Home,” which finds the host in the mood to celebrate her family’s new house with a menu of arugula farro salad with garlic vinaigrette, roast chicken and vegetables, zesty lemon green beans and a dirty chai cocktail. Yum!

Earlier that day on Food Network, Giada De Laurentiis marks her recent trip to Italy on “Giada Entertains” with her “Tuscan Barbecue Party,” featuring grilled chicken involtini, buttery herbed potatoes, mushroom and grape crostini and spiked Arnold Palmers.

Too bad we can’t drop by.

Later in the week on Food, the Saturday edition of “Valerie’s Home Cooking” sees host Valerie Bertinelli cooking for a wine club party in which one of the guests is lactose intolerant. She prepares a menu of steak towers, polenta crackers with roasted wild mushrooms, grilled shrimp skewers with green onions and romesco sauce and white pepper cherry cookies. Who knew nondairy could be so enticing?

Over on Travel Channel on Monday, “Booze Traveler” brings host Jack Maxwell to Cuba to check out the Havana haunts of Ernest Hemingway, get cleansed in the island nation’s oldest religion and sip on iced mojitos and rum with sugar cane.

Five days later and about 300 miles to the north, we can find Emeril Lagasse of Cooking’s “Emeril’s Florida” in Miami Beach, where he hits the world-renowned hotspot StripSteak and drops in on two new eateries that offer unique dining experiences. And in the kitchen, he cooks up petite tournedos with beurre rouge with crabmeat and braised baby kale.

If your tastes run to the more exotic, try Cooking’s “Ching’s Amazing Asia” on Tuesday, which brings host and Taiwanese chef Ching He-Huang to cities such as Taipei and Macau to try everything from black pepper duck to Taiwanese comfort foods.

And if good home cooking is what you seek, the chefs on Food’s “The Kitchen” on Saturday have tips for weeknight meals ranging from a pierogi reuben skillet dish and lasagna soup to honey chipotle bean burritos and spicy chicken stir fry. Home chefs, take notice.