August | 2022 | CooksSalon.com

New Salon every Friday – and you’re invited

C’mon in and help yourself to tasty resources

Hosted by Barbara J Nosek

Summer Break! See you right back here Sept 9 Happy Labor Day!

Cocktail Hour Buzz

🎈🎈 Brunch Edition 🎉 🎉

When Happy Hour goes early with snacks, drinks and chat

and maybe related resources & goodies on Amazon

whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you

{links within my items go to the sources shown in red – any links underneath items take you to Amazon unless otherwise indicated, and then only ones with the lock icon}

♦♦♦ What is it about bacon? For many of us, the idea of it, the appearance of it, the aroma of it, just makes everything seem better. And now we can go into happiness overload with these 33 Bacon Recipes for BLTs, Burgers and Beyond. The “Beyond” gives us other sandwiches, pasta and other entrees, salads and other side dishes, tarts, the great sounding beer bread with brown ale, cheddar and bacon, and within the mix snacks and preps that can become snacks. Including these great tasting beans that we chose, with the maple bacon all but stealing the show. Food & Wine

Serve the beans in small hot cups {be sure package specifies for hot foods & beverages} for snack time, and a little cheese on top can’t hurt

Recipe for Baked Beans with Maple-Glazed Bacon

While the original recipe would deliver the fullest flavor, shortcut possibilities all but leap off the page

Bean cookbooks, including one with recipes that all start with canned beans

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♦♦♦ To give credit where credit is due, the idea for this this fun s’mores-y treat for the sweet side of the Happy Hour table comes from a flyer in Sprouts Famers Market. Campfire Cones! No ice cream, instead filling coconut cones with chocolate, marshmallow, other stuff like coconut if you want, wrapping in foil and grilling.

We took off on this two different ways, in both cases using cup style cones and going a bit more S’mores-y with the addition of graham cracker crumbs . For our baby cone {see pic} we stayed ice-cream-free, layering hot fudge, marshmallow creme, fudge, creme, fudge, crumbs. For the larger one that does use ice cream along with the marshmallow and fudge, you’d probably want to set up a fun diy S’mores buffet. CS

For the hot fudge the thicker ones work better like Hershey’s or Mrs. Richardson’s, either one OK right from the fridge. You don’t however want to refrigerate any filled cones as they will go soggy.

S’mores buffet set-ups on Google ♦ S’Mores maker on Amazon

Did you know? – Sprouts has pages & pages of great looking recipes on it site

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♦♦♦ In these lazy, hazy – OK, and HOT – days of summer, icy is nicy. Cooling off in the tastiest way is as close as these 12 Frozen Cocktails to sip into as long as the season lingers on. With one more colorful than the next and flavors galore there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Two I found particularly intriguing were the Miami Vice which uses frozen fruit instead of ice, and the Frozen Salted Espresso Martinis with all the interest right there in the title. Cheers! Food & Wine

And keep those Happy Hour beverages icy with these freezable glasses

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♦♦♦ Perfect summer fun. Any prep that starts with watermelon sure inspires further reading. And this one, Watermelon Dessert Pizza, whimsically has a thick slice of the melon taking on the role of “crust.” It then further rewards us with an innovative creamy layer topped off with some if the star’s cousins. And so, so easy. Btw, I took a clue from the comment section and mixed the coconut cream with cream cheese for a sturdier texture. Tasty