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Hosted by Barbara J Nosek
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Kitchen Talk – While cold March winds are still a-blowin,’ nice hot chicken soup remains a welcome counterpoint. And it’s Better Homes and Gardens at your service with bowls of their Best Recipes, many hearty enough to easily serve as a main meal. 
Meanwhile MyRecipes has their own Best, and it’s a goodie. Our Best Restaurant Copycat Recipes {and some packaged goods too}. Yay!
Legendary rolls, breads breakfasts, soups, sandwiches, sauces, desserts and beverages, ethnic specialtes, even Bailey’s, Nutella and Chili’s Baby Back Ribs Oh what fun this colored sugar is! Especially as a decorating substitute for those {hand raised}
who do not like sprinkles. A glittery upgrade for simple peach ice cream and whipped cream A sparkly update on bagel and cream cheese. And as if donuts aren’t already fun enough, a step even beyond the chocolate frosting. Link goes to Amazon. See Cocktail Hour Buzz below for yet another happy app.
{PS on the sugar – as much as possible add it just before serving because being sugar there may be some melting. Although if it’s going onto something sturdy like cream cheese, as on the bagel here, you can let it just blur into a different pretty pattern. Something more liquidy like whipped topping, maybe not so much.}
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Shopping Finds – Have you heard of the sausage company called Seemore??? Oh my goodness wait till you hear their flavors. Chicken Parm, Chicken Soup, Broccoli Melt, La Dolce Beet-A, Loaded 
Baked Potato. In a sausage! All can be ordered directly from them. I have to say I’ve never heard of these folks before, but their products are sold at Whole Foods and Amazon. So, I had this somewhat addictive spicy dill snack mix, that was then {how rude} discontinued. Went online to see about something similar. Did, but wow, some unexpected pricing.
Finally found something not only dilly and reasonable but also a brand name. Blue Diamond Bold Spicy Dill Pickle Almonds on Amazon, and maybe at your own market.
This week’s featured CS item on Amazon – If quitting smoking is still one of your 2021 goals, maybe this can help. Our Kindle book of reinforcements about all the good to be gained and the bad to be gone when you kick this butt. Use with or without other methods. On our Eclectic Mall page.
On the Table
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 banana split cake? And it’s a no-bake cake! A vanilla wafer crust is layered with a cheesecake-like mix, then topped with crushed pineapple and sliced bananas, and then non dairy topping, chopped walnuts and maraschino cherries. This prep is from AllRecipes.
So, a couple of notes. First, you may want to be a bit more generous with the walnuts. Second, ummm, a most important classic topping is not represented – chocolate syrup! which you are of course free to add, or maybe chocolate chips on top.
Alexa says request: How do I make bacon jalapeno chicken? So, while this is a fairly simple and most appealing dish, it’s based on a Traeger Grill. If you have one, yay, here’s their recipe. Meanwhile so the rest of us don’t have to miss out entirely, found these Chicken Bombs with Bacon and Jalapenos on AllRecipes. Oh boy, Monterey jack and cream cheese are wrapped
up in there too, then all glazed with bbq sauce.
Alexa says request: How do I make smoky poblano corn pudding ? The smoky and the poblano elements start off this recipe with a trip to the oven for the peppers to get nice and charred. They then merge their smokiness with butter and whipping cream, cheddar and chives, to turn the frozen corn into a beautiful casserole. Thanks for this super side dish also goes to AllRecipes.
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, 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
♦ Sparkly sugar comes to happy hour. And its sweet contribution so nicely plays against this vodka sour. As you can see, I didn’t use it in the usual way. Instead of upending the glass into the sugar thus creating only a narrow coating inside and out, I ran the cut lime about a 1/2 inch down around the rim on the outside, then rolled the glass back and forth on a band of the sugar. This method also means no sugar on the inside to be washed away as you make the drink. This sugar on Amazon.
♦ Like your beer well aged? Archeologists have uncapped quite a discovery in Egypt – what’s regarded as the oldest biz-size brewery in the world, dating back over 5,000 years. OK, probably no suds left in these tanks, but it’s estimated that at its peak, the facility could pour out 5,900 gallons of beer at a time. Turns out though most of the output was used ritually rather than for consumption. Cheers! {or not}
♦ While I don’t have an Aldi’s in my town, their map shows a bunch east of the Mississippi and even a sprinkling on the other side of the river. And so for all you folks in Aldi towns, here is the Well Done Newsletter’s report from EatingWell on best wines there under $15.
♦ “Life is a combination of magic and pasta” – Federico Fellini quoted in Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy”
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But because they’re also magnetic they can turn your fridge into the place for grocery lists, coupons, reminders, notes, appointment slips, photos, even lightweight holiday decorations. 
helps the whole shebang stick together.
with fresh tomatoes. For lunch, we followed the traditions for regular potato pancakes and paired the cakes with applesauce and sour cream. For dinner, plated them with sweet potato casserole and peas.
Recipe Notes
Buzz section} available at Petco. They’re based on their own recipes, also shown. One other perk of visiting the page, some pretty cool pupsters. 
powder, marjoram and mozzarella both above and below the tomatoes. Served with a pile of parsley, which I recently discovered is among the foods reported to counteract inflammation, treated with a squeeze of fresh lemon. 
brown sugar, 2 T cocoa powder – btw, as best I could tell the conversion for the cocoa was actually 1 T, but I wanted it a bit more chocolatey.
capers, black or green olive slices, chives, or sprinkled with paprika, dillweed, or the fave seasoning in this kitchen, Tajin. Truth be told though, I like them best just pure.