New Salon every Friday – c’mon in

CS friends, and help yourself to tasty resources

Hosted by Barbara J Nosek

No Salon March 12. See you right back here on March 19

  Let’s chat   

Quick Bites – Have you heard of these? Japanese soufflé pancakes. Whisking, whipping, freezing, piping, and using cold egg whites yield a pancake like no other. Food & Wine lets us give it a try.    Can flour go bad? Sure don’t want you to get sick. So note what Healthline says about this, what to look for in terms of aroma and appearance.    Bon Appetit believes these are the only veggies we should buy frozen. Btw, in my experience frozen artichokes are way more tender than canned or jarred.

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Shopping Finds – As you may well have noticed, Tasty.co has become a favorite site, a great source of exactly the kind of recipes we love here. Just wanted to let you know they also make pet treats {which almost look like they could appear in our Cocktail Hour 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.    If you’re a Ree Drummond fan {not? never mind}, may like to know about her new seasoning line, all six quite perky. She says find them at Walmart or on Amazon. See more from Ree below in Cocktail Hour Buzz.

This week’s featured CS-designed, Zazzle-crafted item – A fave term joins a popular saying in this whimsical mug, “Who’s a good Coffeehound???” At our Food Themed Mugs page

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Kitchen Talk – I’m really enjoying the Stanley Tucci series on Italy and hope you are too {01.29.21 Salon}. Trying not to use as an excuse one of the bits of information from the first show – deep frying sterilizes food!!!    Just love grilled cheese with tomato. You too? Usually I keep it classic but this time nudged it into pizza territory with garlic 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.    Assuming no dietary restrictions, finishing salts can instantly elevate so many dishes. But beware, somehow they manage to be saltier than {regular} salt.

   On the Table  

Feature – Celebrate St Pat’s with spirit – Bailey’s Chocolate Cheesecake Pots

A confection made with Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur. And with the recipe from the staff of IrishCentral.

How much more St Pat’s can you get?

And here’s a nice perk. It’s no bake. Here’s another. Biscuits or crackers go as is into the bottom, no crust prep.

Now don’t be scared by the ingredient list. Here’s what I used: 12 broken up chocolate Teddy Graham snacks, 1 1/2 8 oz pkgs cream cheese {12 oz total}, 1/4 c heavy cream, 1/4 c Baileys {see note}, 1/2 c 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.

The IrishCentral recipe, linked below, tells you how it all comes together. I’ve also linked the IrishCentral food & drink page in case you want to go bragh, I mean go bigger, for the Day, and also top rated Irish cookbooks on Amazon.

Recipe Notes – The recipe calls for the “chilled” cream cheese, not cold and not room temp, so I let it sit in the bowl for about 45 minutes before adding the other ingredients. And about the Bailey’s – while this is indeed what makes it Irish, for the kiddies or folks who don’t drink alcohol, I’d think you could sub chocolate milk and a bit of vanilla.

March 19, 2021 – Ham & Tater Cake-ettes, sort of like potato pancakes 2.0

Original recipe  ♦  Recipes on IrishCentral  ♦  Irish cookbooks, 4 stars and up

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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 Enchilada Rice? This prep is from AllRecipes and improves the title with the promise of Easy Chicken Enchilada Rice. The easy part is delivered, first, by calling upon a lot of store-bought goodies and, second, by having it all meet in a single skillet. Lots of flavor, and colorful too. By the way, we ran a veggie version of this dish in our 11.20.20 Salon.

Alexa says request: How do I make Nutella Mug Cake? Well, AllRecipes strikes again and once again ups the ante by giving us Fudgy Nutella Mug Cake. Preps in 5 min, cooks in 2, rests for 5, and go on in.

Alexa says request: How do I make an Italian omelet? It’s a trifecta as AllRecipes has the answer and, surprise, surprise, a promise is included in what they’re calling a Simple Italian Omelet. As with a French omelet the story is as much if not more about technique than ingredients. Still the filling here is quite nice, and yes simple, just goat cheese and chives.

And this week’s unexpected thing we found that Alexa can do – Calm your cat, comfort your dog

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

♦  Ranging from downhome to downright elegant, and from across the regions, I couldn’t agree more about these Top 20 Pasta Recipes from eately.com. “Italian is not my all time favorite cuisine, but these look well worth a try” – sent along by Esther Lodge Hevener

♦   Ree Drummond reminds us that deviled eggs are always a welcome addition to the snack table. In a recent show she topped them off with a shard of peppered bacon. I’ve also serve them wrapped in a strip of lean deli ham. Other possibilities, caviar, 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.

♦   Tasty.co strikes again. How fun are these cocktail snacks – Loaded Potato & Cheese Sticks! With bacon. Baked or fried. They’re sort of like mini cousins of the bacon-tater tot pie in our 02.12.21 Salon. Btw, lots of interesting stuff in the comments on the recipe page.

♦   So, watching a story on the MN State Fair on Food Network and one of the food vendors poaches eggs in the shell. Whaaaaat? Onto Google and still didn’t find exactly that but did come across a poaching trick that starts with a brief in-shell step {details here on the foodiewithfamily site}. But the line that brought a broad smile had more to do with cosmetics than technique when the author, showing a fine passion, said, “Pretty food makes everyone happy. It’s so nice to look at a pretty plate before dropping your face into it like a heathen.” – Rebecca

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