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Hosted by Barbara J Nosek

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Quick Bites – When Stanley Tucci starred as a chef in The Big Night, which he also directed, turns out the foodie creds were pretty genuine, as evidenced by his Italian flavored best-selling cookbooks. Now he’s about to fold those skills along with experience gained from a year in Florence into a new CNN show, “Searching for Italy,” debuting Feb 14.    Here’s something nice to take into the rest of the year. On the “Food Trends” page in this month’s Taste of Home magazine – “Move over trendy restaurants. The real story about what’s new and exciting in food is coming from home cooks. The renewed interest in preparing and sharing creative foods from scratch ignited during the pandemic shows no sign of slowing down as families rediscovered the magic of a home cooked meal at their own dinner tables.”    Health.com offers these “5 Ways to Keep Bagged Salad Fresh For As Long As Possible.”

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Shopping Finds – Yahoo life believes this one single ingredient “can make every baked good better: milk powder,” {story} which is another name for powdered milk and probably available at your grocery store. If you’re more into ordering than going you can find it on Amazon, and it you do go to the page you’ll see it’s available from nonfat to full cream level, and also coconut milk powder, almond milk powder, and my fave for many foods and beverages, malt powder.    As you listen to cooking shows, read food mags, you may have noticed a particular term entering the conversation a bit more often – Pantry Cooking – which is to say, using up what’s already on hand with the double benefit of possibly avoiding extra shopping trips and also helping avoid waste. No surprise, right, that Amazon has books for that, and the text link takes you right to that page, while the image link takes you to this particular book.

This week’s featured CS-designed Zazzle-crafted item  “Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate/ everything else” tee, with the title goodies tucked right into the letters – see it on our Food-Themed Tee’s page or its Zazzle page

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Kitchen Talk – OK, I don’t have esp but can pretty much predict your reaction – no, that can’t work. So, had made a big chicken stir fry and crisped and seasoned tortillas, leading to leftovers. Looking at those tortilla triangles thought, hmmm, nachos. Yep, next day stir fry on the “chips,” a bit of jack, in the oven and – it did work!    Emboldened by that success, took another walk on the mashup side, which you might find particularly interesting if certain leftovers are still in your freezer. Warmed turkey, stuffing, gravy and again the jack, wrapped in a tortilla and crisped in a skillet, then dressed with jellied cranberry nuked with a little water.    Have you tried avocado ranch dressing? Truth be told it’s not avocado-intensive, but it is nice tasting with an extra smooth texture and I kind of like just a touch of it in guacamole.

   On the Table 

Feature – Loaded Mashed Potato Cups

While the Tasty site has made a number of appearances in Alexa’s room, this is its debut in our featured recipe space. But just look at its perfect fit with all we love here at CS and you can see why.

First, mashed potatoes just on their own qualify for the comfort food hall of fame. But here they’re joined by more good stuff – bacon, chives, parm and seasonings, cheese stuffing, sour cream topping.

And it’s an easy prep. Ingredients that are few, familiar, likely already at hand. No complicated techniques. And a pan probably pretty much all of us already own.

You can of course start with fresh mashed as shown in the recipe. But also what a great way to use leftovers. All in all, this is a side that will give the main dish competition for the spotlight.

In addition to being a boffo side dish, tasty variations abound and we show a couple here. Smash down a a bit and top with an egg for breakfast of brunch. Smother with tender beef and gravy to create a savory entrée. Also thinking just go with the gravy for a tasty twist on poutine.

Recipe Notes – I cut this recipe in half with no ill effects. It’s a good idea to taste for salt before adding the amount shown in the prep. Also, depending on appetites and what else is going to be on the plate, may want to serve two, given that these cute little guys add up to just 1/6 of a cup of taters each.

Substitutions if needed – minced green onion tops can stand in for chives

Next week – Tie Dye Cookies – what fun!

Recipe  ♦  Top potato cookbooks on Amazon

Have a cuppa in Alexa’s room – recipes & more

You don’t have to have an Amazon Echo Show to tap into the particular tidbits we’ve linked below, drawn from its vast culinary bounty.

Just pour a cup and let’s talk food with Alexa. We also show the actual requests for those who are Echo owners, who should also note that in many cases she guides you step by step through the recipes.

Alexa says request: How do I make Nutella Banana Split Bread? Fans of the popular spread have yet one more way to use it thanks to this AllRecipes prep. The recipe lives up to its name with chocolate, pecans and whipped cream in the banana bread batter and then Nutella swirled throughout. Not rich enough? No problem, there’s also a homemade caramel sauce to top it all off.

Alexa says request: How do I make poached scrambled eggs? Well, if this turns out to be to your taste, it avoids a couple of potential issues. First there’s that thing with regular poached eggs about hitting the timing just right so the yolk remains soft and the white is all cooked. Solved. Second, if you love scrambled but want to avoid fat, there you go. It’s really a quite simple process that Food Network calls “entirely a home cook’s meal.”

My request: Do you have a recipe for Black Bean Chili ? Actually quite a few good possibilities were returned for this inquiry. Rachael Ray’s version adds extra interest with a green onion corn cake as a cover over the serving, kind of like a chili-esque pot pie. That corn cake btw shortcuts the prep with muffin mix. Lots of nice seasonings too in her Beef and Black Bean Chili, also on the Food Network site.

And this week’s unexpected thing we found that Alexa can do – {6 Minute} Full Body Stretch or 7 Minute Workout or Animal Workout

Would you like your own Echo Show?

Boundless information, music, movies, tv shows, videos, health tips & news, entertainment news, national news, local news, sports news & recaps, weather, timer, alarm, reminders, shopping lists, Amazon delivery notifications, alerts, security camera connection . . .  and food, food, food, all on an interactive screen. Some connect to Amazon Prime.

You can browse all the Echo styles here on this Amazon page

   Cocktail Hour Buzz  

Sundowner snacks, drinks, talk – whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you

♦   Oh happy day! And thank you Iowa State University, where a recent study looked at the foods and beverages that can help us hang onto our marbles, or in U-speak, protect against “age-related cognitive problems, even late in life.” The winners? Red wine and cheese!!! Beating out, among others, fresh and dried fruit, cooked and raw vegetables, oily fish and lean fish, meats {except lamb}, cereal and salad. Read the rest of the tasty details here.

♦   What a fun breakfast idea from Kellogg’s, their Rice Krispies® topped with tri-color melon balls for a fanciful beach scene, enhanced by a tiny umbrella. So why is it in our Happy Hour? Because – if you used a larger dish, laid down some soft cream cheese, topped with the cereal and then a bit of brown sugar for that sandy look, and then the melon {beach} balls, what a sweet and theme-y addition to the cocktail table. Don’t forget the umbrellas! 

♦   These would be great for the baked ham & cheese party snacks that we featured in our 11.20.20 Salon. Easy and tasty Tender Potato Biscuits, from AllRecipes, CS tested and approved. Nice way to use up mashed too.

♦   “A love of life, spaghetti and the odd bath in virgin olive oil. Everything I have I owe to spaghetti” – Sophia Loren  ♦ “No man is lonely eating spaghetti; it requires so much attention” – attributed to Christopher Morley

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