Hosted by Barbara J Nosek
& Misty the FoodieCat
CS friends, help yourself to tasty resources!
♦ CatChat – Misty previews this week’s salon ♦
♦ TIDBITS – grilling gone wild / off for the coffee, bound for the beer / flex your diet muscles ♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT – everyday ways to lose weight ♦ FEATURED RECIPE – rock with rolls ♦ TIP – hot & not ♦ THE WEEK – go Med / egg bonanza / ps x 3 for all-in bread pudding
{There’s a new pic in my gallery showing how I tried to help mom, but she didn’t seem to appreciate it}
Misty’s History ♦ Misty’s Gallery
♦ TIDBITS ♦
Newsy, schmoozy stuff for cooks
♦ Wow! “Featured this season are new grilling techniques such as smoking with smoldering straw, and grilling with ash, flaming planks, hot iron and smoky salt slabs.” What? “Steve Raichlen’s Project Fire – Season 2.” On PBS starting July 20. In my reference, says Saturdays at 2:30 p.
♦ Pack your bags for a vacation highlighted by . . . coffee? . . . or beer? Maybe so for for the biggest fans of these beverages. The Apartment Guide has you covered for coffee with a rundown on the best destinations for a cuppa. And Food & Wine picks up the ball – or glass – for beer. Btw, that F&W page also, for you folks in the former category, has a story on the best coffee in every state.
♦ Have you caught up with the term, “flexitarian.” It is sort of self-explanatory but more of the descriptions I found said those who follow this diet platform tend to be mostly vegetarian, but eat meat sometimes. Some forego red meat though, others stay with organic or sustainable or responsibly raised. There is a proprietary site out of the U.K. and of course Amazon is all over it.
♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT ♦
Say neener neener to “food fat traps” with my Dieter’s Survival Guide kindles
Find a veritable buffet of easy and powerful ways to help you avoid weight gain, and still enjoy the 
dining experience, in life’s everyday situations – home alone, on the road, in a fast food outlet, at the office or a party, and more – plus shopping “survival style,” long, smart lists of snacks and substitutes, and short lists of “sneaky-
cises” and wardrobe tips.
It treats you to a fast course in savvy decisions AND satisfying selections. And you “graduate” knowing just how to balance practicality and pleasure with the goal of forever lookin’ good and feelin’ good.
It can be your sole field manual or it can dovetail with a separate diet or exercise plan. Either way, you can just pick and choose what you want to use, or go for it all. Choose either the full Guide at $4.99 or the “Busy Person’s” version at $2.99.
“Dieter’s Survival Guide” ♦ “Busy Person’s Diet Guide”
♦ FEATURED RECIPE ♦
Roll up an easy summer lunch with friends
A Tasting Panel Selection
And this classic sandwich isn’t just easy. But tasty and pretty too. And great for get-togethers!
Start with flour tortillas spread fairly generously with mayo. Then just layer on all the components of a ham club, making sure the lettuce and tomatoes are as fresh as can be, the bacon is nice and crisp, lots of ham but sliced thin
.
Have the ingredients stop just a little short of the far edge of the tortilla. Then just roll the whole thing up so that the mayo on the “naked” section of the tortilla glues it shut, and cut each roll into festive pinwheels.
As an alternative to the mayo you could also use cream cheese. Or, cream cheese mixed with a bit of ranch dressing. And of course, chicken or turkey versions or entirely different combos could be tucked in instead. Go for it, creative CS-ers.
♦ TIP ♦
Another favorite way to use tortillas
I love gyros and often indulge in a homemade version. One thing I’ve never figured out is how the restaurants manage to have the meat hot when the sandwich is served despite the chilled toppings.
So, came up with my own way. Two tortillas! Both warmed to make pliable, meat on one, another tortilla on top, tomato, onion, cuke sauce on that one, fold over and yum.
For other tips & technique in the kitchen, maybe take a look at my . . .
“50 Fun & Unexpected Prep, Presentation & Storage Tricks”
{what a hussy! again promoting her own books!}
♦ A PEEK AT MY WEEK ♦
Welcome to my kitchen and living room
♦ Not planning to convert to a total Mediterranean diet any time soon, but given the continuing focus on its health benefits I’m thinking it’s probably a good idea to fold in some of those dishes now and then. Found this book “The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook,” 4 1/2 stars on Amazon, has some darn good sounding stuff. Now what to try first, the Italian Breakfast Bruschetta, Spicy Shrimp Puttanesca, Honey-Almond Crusted Chicken Tenders, or Chilled Dark Chocolate Fruit Kebabs???
♦ Oh do I love having discovered this website. Well not so much the site itself, egglandsbest.com, but 
rather the beautiful array of recipes there. And not just breakfast and brunch but good stuff for appetizers, main dishes, side dishes and dessert. The one I tried 
relied on our old friend the sheet pan, oven-baked scrambles with turmeric and tasty toppings.
– I opted for the unstirred version. If you would want scrambled but don’t want to do the stirring step, you can bake it as a “cake” and then crumble it afterward as shown. {If you want to know my partnerships, just look in the Links section on my Let’s Chat page {btw – nuts! – not these folks}.
♦ So in the 07.05.19 Salon we talked in My Week about an all-in bread pudding. Should have ‘fessed up about the sauce which also pretty much resulted from a scavenger hunt. It was about equal parts store-bought whipped vanilla frosting and Cool Whip, thinned with just enough {really, just drops} of lemon lime soda to make a spoonable consistency. Since discovered it’s pretty good with syrup too. Also think any bread pudding I make from now on, whether classic or “fridge roulette,” will have some kind of chocolate as part of the mix.
So far next week: wait till you see! Mega fun in the kitchen, yes, yes, yes, play with your food – it’s the entire Salon!
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Cook with passion and a party spirit, whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you
itself. Along with the crinkle cut fries, shakes, Chicago dogs {took some liberties with these but at least no ketchup – see below} and other fixins.
complex.
certainly just spoon on a thick hot fudge from the fridge, such as Mrs. Richardson’s.
cheese and capers. Food Network magazine did a nice slide show of ideas, which you can see at the link below.
toppings shoved in}.
feature – a creamy, herby, citrusy sauce, in the book a flounder topper but ever so good on other fish, poached chicken breasts, grilled veggies, and on and on.
some honey or agave. The texture to me is much like a red plum. Those seeds are barely noticeable, not crunchy as in raspberries.
chocolate/coconut cookies, maybe a half cup of peanut butter pudding, the bottom of a jar of Nutella, also to give the name some legitimacy about a cup of bread, and then because I’ve become such a fan, 2T of malt powder.
No qualms about this one from F&W. Could this birthday cake possibly be any more festive. And what make it even more fun is that its party perfect presentation remains a surprise until it’s cut. Dessert and decoration all in one! See the recipes for both cake and frosting and the full photograph 
{!} Our Tasting Panel gave it a big thumbs up in a dish of cold poached shrimp {Garten used it as a dipping sauce for roasted shrimp}.
The first way is actually a prep approved by our savvy Tasting Panel, and that is colorful diced veggies on French endive leaves that have been painted with dressing. I used ranch but whatever you like will do just fine.
The next is the skewer trick. Just go with whatever produce is poke-able and serve dressing on the side. 
Pickles and olives are good on there too. And some cheese cubes wouldn’t hurt either.
throughout “The Star Wars Cookbook,” quite compact because it’s actually directed to kids with requisite alerts for adult supervision.
Since I was making bacon anyway for another dish {German potato salad!}, I tested the recipe on a few slices. It turns out with a nice rich color, as you can see here – the two middle slices are Chewie-d, the others destined for the potato salad. Though after tasting the recipe ones, realized what a great addition they would be and – into the salad they went.
Well here’s a problem I’m hoping to have, though maybe should be careful what I wish for. In case you already need to know 
pick it up at random as an ongoing treat.
banana flavor}, and spooned that atop the chocolate . . . and then smoothed the Cool Whip over that.
correctly on their 
tuna/ham/cheese/pepper creation, a “sandwichon,” actually comes from her beloved mom who, btw, used olives halves instead of flowers, and in fact the garnishes aren’t even listed in the ingredients but rather as suggestions in the directions – really, a matter of your own artistic choice.
of lemon juice. You cut, use the half or whatever, store the rest, find it in the fridge weeks, months {?} later. But . . .
Dubliner, it wasn’t really a match for what I’d thoroughly enjoyed in a totally authentic Irish pub, crisp cool veggies topped with warm melty cheese. Onward. Decided to apply the idea to a Mex mix. The lettuces, green onion, black olives and serrano were cold from the fridge. Tomatoes room temp. And then melted cheddar, sour cream and lime wedges.
And making that one immediately gave me a taste for Mexican Tuna Dip, which I first discovered in Cabo San Lucas, and subsequently found right in one of my fave local restaurants. As the name implies, the lively mix of cilantro, onion, tomato, jalapeno, mayo is intended as a dip but is actually quite a treat on toast or lettuce.
It also occurred to me that the melty salad could be an entree with the addition of a bit of rotisserie chicken, and then avocado making it even more substantial. Btw, with cheese pretty much all over this one, it’s a bit more like that Irish salad that started the ball of fun rolling.
versions is cut into rounds, but here it was triangles.
version where I add in Italian seasonings and some extra cheese.
Coincidentally enough at a media event shortly thereafter one of the food rooms solely featured platters of large cubes of crusty bread and good chunk chocolate.