Friday Friend Recipe #142 & 143 -- Orange Julius-the taste test

Come with me as I continue to countdown my Friday Friend Cookbook!

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 17 years ago, 50 of my closest friends and family, who had been on an e-mail forum with me, sent in recipes in different categories and we compiled a cookbook.
I decided to count those down!
Why?

Because  one night I was looking thru the cookbook and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog"
The Handyman--who thinks he knows me better than I know myself, said,  "you'll never EVER do that."
Well,  maybe I will!  Maybe I'll show him!

Which brings me to recipes #142 and #143 Sadie and/or Barb's Orange Julius

One is made with Tang and one is made with Real Orange Juice. 

While both are good, and truly, they are,  one was clearly the winner for me (and by that I mean that one tasted exactly like a real Orange Julius)

Orange Julius

Sadie Stone

San Francisco, Ca

1 6oz can frozen orange juice

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

Blend with ice cubes in a blender till smooth

Orange Julius Mix

Barbara Brown

Buckeye,  AZ

1 3/4 dry milk powder

1 9oz jar Tang

1/2 cup sugar

1 t. vanilla

Stir dry stuff together. Blend in vanilla. Store in airtight container. For one serving: in blender place 1/3 cup mix, 1/2 cup cold water and 2+ ice cubes.  Blend till smooth.

(don't mind the onions in the background.  Who wouldn't check that before taking a picture?  Sheesh!)

One with Tang, one with Orange Juice.

While the Orange Julius 'mix' with Tang tastes great, the one with frozen Orange Juice tastes more like a  'real' orange Julius. (to me)

It doesn't look nearly as vibrant, but--it tastes amazingly like one I used to crave at the mall!

Way back in the day, at the mall, they used to ask if you wanted a raw egg in the blend.  I never had it that way. Anyone else?  And I don't even know if Orange Juliusus are a standard "mall" drink (now they are in with Dairy Queen tho) across the U.S.  Perhaps they are just a Western side of the country thing?

Now that we have established that these are both good drinks, but that I prefer one--you should check them both out for yourself and decide.

One of course is made by our good Friday Friend Editor and original cookbook maker, Barb.  This happens to be her 32nd appearance in the cookbook, so...  I'm not going to talk about her..  I'm going to talk about the maker of my favorite Orange Julius, my  daughter-in-law,  Sadie Stone.

Sadly, Sadie is not married to my son anymore, but Happily, every one has found their "happily ever after" and weddings and much anticipated celebrations are happening soon!

My story tho?  Hmmm--- there are so many to tell.  So very many to tell and  yet, Sadie only has 2, TWO, recipes in this whole countdown --out of 294!

How do I do this in a nutshell...

I've known her since she was a teenager, watched her grow into a wonderful woman--minister--mom--world traveler--activist--adventurer--

ooohhhh---adventurer!  I wanted to be an adventurer too!  I imagined myself racing across the world, doing obstacles, solving riddles, finding clues, eating weird food!

Back when "The Amazing Race" was in it's infancy, before I had grandchildren, I said to Sadie,  "Let's apply for the Amazing Race!   It would be great, they've never had a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law team!

LET'S DO IT!

She smiled and said,  "no."

Why I asked? Why???

She smiled and said "because you are too nice."

Huh.  Well.... .  Hmmmm.

Perhaps she is a bit, just a tad, a smidgen, little touch more competitive than I.

We'll never know.

Unless....  we might make an EVEN better team now!!

Whadda ya say?

I can really rock that weird food!!

Sadie you can drive now---with no speed limit in certain European countries, I'll just smile and hang on!!

Minister and activist

Adventurer

World Traveler

And runner

(see?  Sadie you got all the credentials for the Amazing Race.  I will eat a snail!)

That is my Sadie story. 

One day we'll do the Amazing Race!  I'm not getting any younger tho!

Orange Julius!

Recipes #142 and #143

Only 151 more to go!

**************

This should be the end of the story, but I wanted to add besides all those things, she makes great Halloween costumes!

I couldn't let this story go!!

These are my grandchildren, the twins, Eli and Emerson.

As I mentioned, Sadie is a minister and had the kids when she was in Divinity School at Yale.  She made these costumes, Priest and Nun, for their first Halloween. Get it?  Divinity?

That  is funny!!

Later, there was a photo contest where the prize was a really cool double stroller-- it was on the internet and whoever got the most votes for 'cutest' won the stroller.  My son,Mark and Sadie recruited all their friends and family near and far and-- well, they ended up winning!!

One time during the voting period, my father in law, was sleepless, so in the middle of the night, he was on the internet voting away and sent out an email that said, come on people let's get to voting! We laughed when we saw he had been up at 3am voting.

  Then there were notes from friends that would say  "the North Dakota contingent is voting!" (Thanks Gina Lou--who went to visit her inlaws and had the whole small town voting for my grandkids!), but the funniest story was that my friend Robbie--my Friday Night friend--goes each year to visit her friend Theresa, who is a nun, and that year she was visiting during the voting time.

So...all the nuns were sitting around having gin and tonics (it's no joke--Robbie called me--they have gin and tonics every evening) voting for this cute picture above!

The nuns at Sister Theresa's convent LOVED the photo!

I loved that such a big community of Friday Friends helped win the vote! 

Some years later, Sadie also made these costumes for the kids for Halloween...  so cute. 

Just add seamstress to the list above.  (whew--long list)

May I leave you with Mary and Bert.

That's the end!

Friday Friend Recipe #141 -- Chocolate Chip Cookies (#19 in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Countdown)

I used this coffee cup in honor of Barb, our much-loved, unanimously titled Spelling Nazi.

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #141!

(and #19 in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Countdown)

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Barb's Chocolate Chip  Cookies

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!

Ucan't raellly go wring weth a chocalite chip cookie.

Evrr. 

Btu thees cookees our relly relly gudd. 

Very mouest and sfot. N theyy saty frish along tme.

thhe pudin jsut giivs n xtra pucnch ta tehm.

Whew! That was so hard.  It's hard to spell wrong on purpose!

I really did use this coffee cup for this post-- I do love it!  I might spell things wrong once in a while, but I do notice, the to, too and two's that are wrong...also the they're, there and their's.

And I have a quirky idiosyncrasy when it comes to grammar.

If someone writes --I have a friend that loves ice-cream ---

THAT SCREAMS OUT TO ME!!  A friend is a person...a person not an intimate object, so please say,  "I have a friend who loves ice-cream. "

Thank you very much.

Other than that small idiosyncrasy spelling mistakes don't bother me at all, but for my good friend Barb? Well, she takes her spelling seriously. Very seriously.

This must be why I don't Barb----

This is Barb's 31st appearance in the Friday Friend Cookbook  Countdown--you can check them all out by clicking on this link!

I don't really have a funny story this time, but we did get to meet up with Barb and  Doug in Arizona last month, when we went to the Grand Canyon, so that was FUN!  It had been a while since we've seen them, let alone gotten together with them.  It was just an evening for dinner, but we have high hopes to catch up again soon.

We did take a couple pictures of all of us

If I leave this one smaller, I look smaller, right?

Surprise! 

We did get together with Barb about 10 days later. She came thru and stayed a couple of nights with us on her way to Washington State, where she stays at her son's beach house for a couple of months.  Doug flies up for a few weeks in the middle.

Ahhhh.....sounds good!

Seriously....her biggest decision this week (she posted on Facebook this morning) is  what coffee cup to use

I voted for Jake the Alligator Man!  and that one dolphin cup in the middle is the runner up.

Coffee and books on a beach chair!  You go Barb!

That's recipe #141!

Only 153 to go!

Friday Friend Recipe #140 - Chicken Parmesan

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook: I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 18 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

Which brings me to this... recipe #140

Adria's

Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parmesan is an Italian classic!

I always forget how good it is-- but it's really good.

Really good.

I know I didn't pound the chicken breasts thin like I should have--I was in a hurry.  Don't be in a hurry.  You can take the time to make it a bit more traditional (thinner, which is best) or just use the chicken breast as is. 

Either way, it's a winner.

A little bit crunchy and then tender inside, covered in a seasoned tomato sauce.

Yum!

I'm hungry now.

And now....let's meet my Friday Friend, Adria Webber!

YES, even now, at recipe 140, you are meeting new people. (there are a couple more....)

Adria was my neighbor when we lived in California, our boys who were nine at the time (now 32) were best friends, in the same class, cub scouts together, on swim team, and all around neighborhood ---  I was going to say hooligans, but a hooligan is a violent troublemaker, and they were not that --  free spirits?  No matter, you get the idea.

Once her son Michael ran away from home.  He came to our house and lived in my son Mark's closet--until dinner time, when his mom came to bring him back home.

I tend to (now) not really know my neighbors as well as I should, I mean, I KNOW them of course, but I don't visit them as often as the Handyman.  He knows the cars they drive, the people they have over and where they work, their hopes, their dreams... I pretty much want to be left alone and read a book.  EXCEPT when I have a dinner party, which I love to do, I love to entertain, and then everyone is invited!

But I was kind of lonely when we first moved to California, so I made banana bread and took loaves to a few of my neighbors and told them I was available for coffee anytime if they'd like to stop by for a visit.

My next door neighbor, opened the door a bit, took my banana bread and said "no thank you, I don't do that" in answer to my coffee invitation, and shut the door.

But not so Adria!  She invited me in and the rest is history.  We had coffee (or a coke in the afternoon) a couple days a week and have been friends ever since.

Here is a photo of Adria and a pelican.

Adria's on the left.

(I crack myself up!)

And that my friends is recipe #140!

154 to go!