New Salon every Friday – c’mon in
CS friends, and help yourself to tasty resources
Hosted by Barbara J Nosek
Let’s chat
Kitchen Talk – If I’ve got this right, Fancy Feast is offering a cookbook for parents of felines, with meat recipes inspired by their cat food flavors. So you and Fluffy can have matching dinners maybe. It is sort of a cute idea. See for yourself on this FF page where you can scroll down to download the book. 
Sounds messy but actually quite helpful, “17 Steak Marinade Recipes to Keep in Your Back Pocket.” Some are spicy, some citrusy, some favoring ethnic seasonings, some with side dish recipes included. From Food & Wine. The song says, Summertime and the livin’ is easy, but how about some easy livin’ in this season. Can do with these 25 Spring Slow-Cooker Recipes for Easy CrockPot Meals from Southern Living.
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Shopping Finds – Last week we talked here about goldbelly.com, where you can order goodies from
restaurants nationwide. Now I have no connection to them, but good golly miss molly, just look at this German Chocolate “Killer” Brownie®. What a fabulous resource. Since I rescued my KitchenAid stand mixer from oblivion I guess I’m more attuned to the brand name, because this recently caught my eye. Did you know this? There’s a new line of KitchenAid Cordless Appliances – hand mixers, hand blenders, food choppers, tea kettle, can opener. Who knows, more might be added as we speak {write? read?}. Most are Prime eligible, and many at reduced pricing, on Amazon.
This week’s featured CS-designed, Zazzle-crafted items – Who do you know that’s a coffeehound? Or could that be you??? Two of our CS mug designs celebrate that happy relationship. “Coffee Coffee Coffee – then everything else” and the whimsical “Who’s a Good Coffeehound???” Find both on our CS Fun Food Mugs page. The Coffee Coffee Coffee design is also available on our CS T-Shirt page.
On the Table
Feature – Lasagna Bites, easy
So, here’s another appetizer that is hearty enough to become part of a “Snack-ifed dinner” {05.21.21
Salon}. But its versatility carries it all over the hours.
Called Lasagna Bites, they’re not actually made with pasta but rather wonton wrappers that that are fitted into your muffin tin to hold the filling, which is pretty
much classic lasagna ingredients. It calls for ground turkey, but notes the original used ground beef.
A great appetizer for sure. But also, send it morningside with a poached egg, so satisfying for breakfast or brunch. Add some sides and it moves right on in for 
lunch or dinner.
The recipe comes from FoodTalkDaily, part of the Hometalk network, and a pretty cool site with recipes galore. As the say, “Grab a plate and join the fun.” And you can find even more of their fun below in our Cocktail Hour Buzz.
Btw, vs the print option shown on the page I copied the recipe into a word document and printed from there.
Recipe Notes – I’m actually going to use this prep as a starting point for a regular lasagna. Report to follow.
Next week – German Chocolate Brownies, yes we can make our own
Recipe ♦ Italian appetizer cookbooks
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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 Mini Pecan Sticky Buns? And muffin tins come right back into the spotlight though in this case, as the title suggests, the mini size. Store-bought bread dough shortcuts the process. The recipe makes 72 buns but no worries, folks will likely be making them disappear in impressive multiples. It’s by Ree Drummond on Food Network Kitchen.
Alexa says request: How do I make bacon burger rolls? This is like burger meets meatloaf meets sandwich wraps. And something else to note right at the start is this dish doesn’t stop with the title ingredients but also adds in ham, cheese and spinach. The demo shows serving a slice knife and fork style but I sure could see it instead on a big crusty roll. This prep comes from Tasty.
Alexa says request: How do I make Cracker Candy? Just look at this inviting subhead: “This recipe is simple, quick, and can be made with many ingredients you have on hand.” The pic showing the chocolate and caramely layers doubles down on the invitation. See it all here.
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
♦ If I were to ask if you have excess vodka hanging around, would you laugh uproariously or wonder if there could be ways to put it to work? For those of you who raised your hand for the latter, tap into these “16 Unique Uses for Leftover Vodka.” MyRecipes shows us how this hooch can “help to clean your home, eliminate odors, fend off unwanted critters, spruce up your hair care routine, and more.”
♦ So cool when appetizers are extra cook friendly. These Sweet and Spicy Shrimps From the Oven from FoodTalkDaily bake away while you tend to other things. And much of the sauce can be prepped in advance. So, according to Alexa 250 g is a bit over a 1/2 lb. The 100 ml of soy sauce according to both Alexa and google is 8 T {!} These guys are intended over rice as lunch or dinner. But stick in the toothpicks and awesome addition to the snack table.
♦ “I’m greatly outnumbered by these margaritas, but I shall triumph” – the lovably irascible cartoon character Maxine. Love her too? Find Maxine on just about anything printable at Hallmark.
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Click here to email your comments, questions, links to fave recipes, or?
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Huevos Ranchero, and Breakfast Enchiladas. 
what I did – treated the compartments with non stick spray, filled all 24 with rice, covered the top tray with a cut-to-fit piece of plastic wrap, holding the 
wrap in place turned top over bottom, closed up and into the freezer. As you can see, when you subsequently open the carton, most of the top portions pop out on their own {you can just close the top back over them after removing what you want}, and if they don’t just push on the bottom of the sections. Where the two have been removed you can see the shininess of the plastic wrap. 
BIG help, with not just preps but also tips and techniques. And if you’d like to check out the various mixer models on Amazon, just click 
this – she’s also a cookbook author, capturing her culinary passion in “Mayim’s Vegan Kitchen.”
blondie brownie. Given the cream cheese swirl it’s almost like a stuffed version. 
certainly the prescribed pan should work just fine. I did line it with parchment paper {see more about this in Notes}
some interesting tips about incorporating fat into flour. 
But it does fold in some surprising spices more typically associated with dessert. Combined with the aromatics, the medley yields a just so full of flavor roast. Oh yeah, the bacon helps too!
prep, “updated for the modern kitchen,” suggests we serve with carrots and greens. I actually put the carrots in the pan to roast with the beef, more opps for absorbing those flavors.