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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
Another tip in the comments suggests patting the watermelon dry so the cream doesn’t slide off
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porch or patio or, OK, tucked deep inside the a/c. And it looks like many of the ingredients just may already be resident in your pantry or fridge. Here’s the one I chose – and while I generally like avocados pretty much pure, this fabulous creamy avocado dip is velvety, flavorful and a ready companion for so many other goodies. The prep suggests tortilla or pita chips and crudities, but also calls it into service as a topping for tacos, burgers, and sandwiches. Or, hmmmm, how yum as one of the tiers in 7-layer dip? 
won’t be showing up if you use only cooked. Like I did – and no knocks on my door! We’ll call it sushi-esque. The style of this particular prep is called 
columns gives the ideal kinds of companion foods in the categories of savories, cheese, and dessert. Rounding out the helpful information, recommended glassware and serving temp.
lightly pressed into muffin cups, baked until golden. The remaining two ingredients in this prep add up to the title, 
Would certainly be good as is. But just to gussy it up a bit, melted another 1/4 cup of chips to drizzle overall.
years, in the Southern states it’s been a staple for what is apparently 
forever. And while my experience came out of a jar, that would be a NO if you want to truly as they say, “Put some south in your mouth.” Talking here about 
as she used it, to stuff big burgers on the grill {recipe at link above}. Thanks Kardea! 
lie down, some make pockets for flatware, some hold place cards – one actually looks like an
envelope. And some look like something else entirely – fans, flowers, containers, a tie, tree, heart, placemat, centerpiece. All 27 become easy peasy with this demo, with mine here taking about a minute. 
Thanksgiving turkey napkin fold, securing the top with a yellow paper clip, the bottom with a key chain, and pulled the bottom folds back a bit to stabilize the fan {guessing Martha didn’t need these props but just in case like me, you do . . .}
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appetizers, served in mini phyllo shells. Those snacks use such bitsy amounts of ingredients that I had leftover shells, cream cheese, and cranberry too, and decided to put them to use in an easy and pretty dessert plate. For some I beat cranberry and cream cheese till smooth, topped with reserved cranberry. For others I beat the cream cheese with a little juice from mandarin oranges, finished with halves of the mandarins. One important thing to note is that for cream fillings, or similar, you really want to do this as close to service as possible, as the shells can eventually go soft. 
spreading the ingredients on dough and then cutting
wedges to be rolled, all the filling is done at once and distributed evenly vs parceling out individually for each piece. In her prep & demo, which we featured in our 
grandfather, Neil McCarthy, a high-powered entertainment attorney for top Hollywood luminaries of the times {think Howard Hughes, Lana Turner, Katherine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, et al}, had a salad named after him at the Polo Lounge, a sort of re-imagined Cobb, where it remains on the menu to this day. Heck of a conversation piece. 
So, here we have a creative cook’s shortcut turning into a crowd favorite. Instead of individual poppers, all the goodies join forces in 
Mai Tai to Tia Mia, Wicked Games of pear & pineapple, Smoky Fig Sour, gingery Ginger’s Lost Island, Cucumber, Salt & Smoke. What do they have in common? All are part of 
small rolls that pull apart, which are then sliced horizontally while remaining intact. In goes pepperoni, of course, plus sauce, cheeses, and seasonings. Did we mention garlic butter all over the place? In the oven, out of the oven, and voila! 
prep shows a preference for the brand sitting right on my pantry shelf. So much good going on here. First, and as usual foremost, the taste is phenomenal, and would be even without the chocolate chips I added. Now just look at the photo and you can see how tender this is, the way it curves onto its platemate. And because it bakes in a 9×13, you can feed a lot or freeze a lot. 
breakfast vibe. Sort of like an early cocktail hour. And wowsie does this dish fit the bill. 