Friday, February 3, 2017

Friday Friend Recipe #115 -- Guacamole Shrimp Bites



My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #115!
(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

My favorite mother-in-law, Teresa's, Guacamole Shrimp Bites!

and you know all the whys and wherefores of this countdown, right? Homemade cookbook, friends contributed, Handyman said I couldn't/wouldn't do it, I'll show him, yadda yadda yadda....
...and the rest is cookbook history!




While this might seem a bit different--it was perfect to the pallet. (I should be a food writer, right?)  Homemade Guac with some good salty tortilla chips? Perfect.  Then stick a shrimp on top?  Heaven.  Really.  Trust me.






A mother-in-law story?  Hmmmm......
first of all, let me just say that this is her 4th appearance in the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown. 

I was glancing thru some old letters this morning and came across this one from my MIL.  I must have asked her what her favorite flower was..
she says:
Your asking about a memorable valentine made me think of a memorable corsage.  I was 13/14 and a freshman in high school.  I went to a formal dance at the school with a boy. Can't remember what kind of formal dance other than that it WAS formal.  In those days everything except sock hops where formal or semi-formal.  I don't remember who the boy was who asked me, but I do remember that when the florist delivered my corsage, I was so excited and wondered if it would be roses, an orchid or what?  I opened the box and the most heavenly scent came drifting out.  I was impressed!  I looked into the box and saw the most beautiful waxy white flower, with very dark green leaves and a lovely ribbon on it.  It was a Gardenia.  I have loved the scent every since.  After the dance I floated that Gardenia in a brandy snifter of water and my bedroom smelled wonderful.  It didn't even start turning dark yellow or brown for a week!
And until I had a bunch of kids, I used to buy myself a gardenia and float it in a brandy snifter on the coffee table now and then.
I think I will do that again one of these days.

Oh man! I'm going to go order her Gardenias right away!

For a while my in-laws owned a ranch.  It was beautiful and we all loved it very much. It was on the Washington side of the Columbia River (the Columbia river is the divider between Washington and Oregon) along the river gorge.  Here is a view from their backyard....if you look very closely you can make out the volcano, Mt. Hood.
(or at least you can in the original photo--it is snowcapped so it blends)




The view out the side was of this pond and the barns. My youngest son (on the right) and his cousin, Matt, loved to catch frogs...and snakes too.  There were rattlesnakes sometimes--YIKES!



My boys and the grandmother, "Nonna", circa 1999.
She's always loved flowers and gardening... if you look closely you can see that she planted all along the house and the edge of her property.  She was a master Gardner.


And the Handyman in his sexy big glasses, (or should that senence read: the sexy Handyman and his big glasses?  I guess it's open to interpretation ) and salt and pepper hair--now it's just salt, and his mom.



We all miss the days of the ranch!

This is recipe #115 out of 298!

I'll get 'em done, you just watch and see!






2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I wish I'd thought to ask my mother-in-law questions like that. My mom loves gardenias too. The recipe looks wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

Friday Friend recipe #352

  Making my way thru my  Friday Friend Cookbook , one recipe at a time. What is the Friday Friend cookbook?  I once had about 50 of my close...