Friday Friend Recipe #193 (spaghetti sauce #12) -- Cherrie Stone Sauce

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. (plus so much more....)

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... recipes #193

Cherri Lou Who's Spaghetti Sauce (sauce #12)

Cherrie Stone Sauce

Cherrie Lou Who

Auburn, Washington

Start with fresh tomatoes  (canned okay).

Add ground beef, sausage, olives, onions, mushrooms, sometimes 

peppers, tons of garlic and spices.

No measuring!

I did it all! All the ingredients.  I sliced the Italian sausage just for something different.

Most of the time I am not a 'mixer in-er' of the sauce.  I am a 'spoon-it-over-the-top' kind of spaghetti eater.  So, my apologies to anyone who's sauce I am screwing up.

While looking thru the books I  found some correspondence when we were talking about everyone's spaghetti sauce!

It's so true-- that line where  I write about everyone using the same ingredients and coming up with something entirely different. 

Well,  kind of different anyway. I think I wrote 'a bit' different, but you know what I mean.

and from me again... a few days later....

You all know my sister-in-law, Cherrie Lou Who, right?  But did you know that she loves Pirates? 

That's a Cherrie Lou Who Fact!

She loves pirates!
When she was little she wanted to grow up to be a ghost--while that's still possible, in the meantime, she'll be a pirate! 

Cherrie Lou Who (or loohoo?) is everybody's favorite aunt (be you relative or not) and she hosts a Pirate Camp once a year --  a camping trip with a pirate theme!

Everybody joins in!  At least Cherrie and the kids do anyway.

Arrrrgh Matey!

Shiver me Timbers!

Yo Ho Ho!

She has formal pirate attire....

And then there is the Semi-formal pirate attire....

On my 52nd birthday I threw a party for myself at our cabin in Wallowa Lake, Oregon.  Invited Friday Friends from near and far... and one night we had a traveling 'themed' cocktail party...

Cherrie Lou Who and her husband Mike and good friend Leah, hosted the Pirate stop (of course)...

And our friend Mitzi became the Pirate Queen!

Maybe under duress?

The décor was all early pirate of course.

It's a fact, Cherrie Lou Who loves Pirates!

And spaghetti sauce,  because she grew up thinking she was Italian.  Her mother told her so... then came Ancestry.com, but that's a story for another time.....

And that my friends is Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown recipe #193 and Spaghetti Sauce #12!

That's my story!

It's a fact!

I'm not hornswagglin' ya!

Friday Friend Recipes #191 and 192 -- World's Best Cookies and Zucchini Flats

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

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 19 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 #191 and #192

Barb's Zucchini Flats and World's Best Cookies

World's Best Cookies?
I do love them!  A shortbread cookie with coconut and crunch (it's the cornflakes!)
I've seen them called Hawaiian Shortbread cookies.  Because of the coconut maybe?  Call them whatever you want, but you're going to love them!

I like zucchini -- some people don't.  What can I say?

Fried, dipped in Ranch dressing tho?  It's hard to be anything but good.

This could be a side dish or an appetizer.  Choose whatever suits your fancy!

As you  know, this all started from a 'friend forum' I used to have. I'm not sure how we got the idea of making a recipe book, but we did---and Barb ran with it.  I have saved our correspondence and printed them out and put them in notebooks.  Sadly, (to me anyway,)  I am going to toss the notebooks soon.  No one cares (like my family) about The Friday Friends daily conversations and the truth is, if you don't know anything about our past conversations it's hard to follow. Like it will never make it into a book or anything, so why keep them? 

  I have had fun tho---skimming thru them before getting ready to toss*

I came across this bit of correspondence that was about the cookbook, so thought it fit right here!

This note was from Barb..

Then later another from Barb to the Friday Friends:

Hey!  I wasn't really sleeping with another man!**

We finally got a few answers..... all of them a different category.
But I want to note the last answer from Shelly.  She was pretty new (I guess) to the Friday Friend Forum.  Funny how life turns out because now-a-days she is the one putting all this into a GREAT PHOTO SCRAPBOOK from Shutterfly for me!!  She is awesome!

*notice I keep saying 'getting ready to toss' and I haven't actually tossed anything yet.  It's a hard thing to do because when I do skim thru them, I always smile!

I'll share a couple pics of Barb on Mother's Day this year.

She and her daughter Kim. (who looks just like her)

Barb's caption for this one with her husband Doug...

Mother's Day would not be complete without the guy who helped make our wonderful daughter!

Geez Barb---kind of risqué!

** and this was the note that made her say I was sleeping with another man!

I thought I was so clever.... hahaha!

And that my friends brings  us almost up to 200 recipes made by me from the FF Cookbook.

Stay tuned for more!

Friday Friend Recipe #190 -- Party Potato Skins

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #190

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

My Favorite Mother-in-Law's Party Potato Skins

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!

Oh...maybe I shouldn't have used a yellow plate.
Well, no matter what color plate they're on-- they're very good.
Warm with a crunchy skin and just enough soft, white potato still in the shell to fill your mouth with comfort -- that and the cheese!  And the bacon! 
Leave the green chili off if it's not your thing.

The first time I met the Handyman's mom, I didn't really see her.  It was late at night and the Handyman was hungry and instead of stopping at a restaurant, he broke into his mother's home while everyone was sleeping.  I guess 'broke into' is not the exact truth because he had a key to his mother's house. 

And I can't tell you the exact date we were on, when it happened to be that late at night when we stopped and everyone at his mother's house  was sleeping (he had teenage siblings for heaven's sake)--because I don't remember.

What I do remember is her refrigerator.

The Handyman wanted a sandwich and so he let us in with his key, went to the kitchen and proceeded to make the most tasty sandwich I'd ever had.

Her refrigerator had deli meat in white paper!

At my mom's house we had peanut butter, tuna fish and bologna. 

During real fancy times my mom would grind up a leftover pot roast and mix it with some Miracle Whip and relish for a 'spread' and man was that a fancy lunch!!

And once in a while some deviled ham.

But real deli-meat and  deli-cheese in white butcher paper? 

Never in my life had I seen anything so grand.

And where my mom had white Wonder Bread, Handyman's mom had some good cracked wheat bread.

The Handyman proceeded to make us a sandwich, while we whispered and giggled in the kitchen-- I couldn't believe no one was waking up to catch us.  He used all kinds of deli-meat, making it a triple decker and then,  AND THEN, he fried an egg and set it up on top of the sandwich. The yolk was  little bit runny and dripped down the sides of the roast beef and ham.  He then topped all of that  with cheese and lettuce and a tomato.

It was heaven on a piece of cracked wheat bread!

PLUS his mom used mayonnaise and not Miracle Whip like my mom did.  Mmmmm…. seriously heaven!

I often wonder what his mom thought in the morning when she saw a small frying pan and a couple of knives in her sink.

While I didn't actually meet her that night, I had a glimpse of her refrigerator and knew we'd be friends forever!

Years later, after we were married with kids, we went with my in-laws  up to Hood River, Oregon and boarded a paddle wheel boat for a trip up the Columbia River.  It was just a day trip, lots of fun and apparently--very windy!

The Handyman and I grew up on the Columbia River --and truth be told we might have spent our date that fateful night where I was introduced to the best sandwich ever,  walking along the river, holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes.  We didn't have a lot of money back then so a lot--A LOT- of our dates consisted of river walking. 
We love the Columbia River -- and when we retire are planning on doing the weirdest thing ever and following the river from start to finish--or finish to start, making side trips along the way.
I'll blog about it!

This river/paddle boat took us on a day trip down to the Cascade Locks where we ate at this wonderful little café overlooking the gorge.  It's so beautiful.
These little boys are now in their mid to late 30's and my father-in-law is gone, but when we go visit my mother-in-law she still has the best stocked fridge ever --and cracked wheat bread!

And that my friends is recipe #190 in the never ending countdown of the Friday Friend Cookbook!