Friday Friend Recipe #222 -- Portuguese Beans

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

What is the Friday Friend cookbook? I had about 50 of my closest friends and family (from all over the county) on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends . At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 19 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... recipe #222

Traci's Portuguese Beans

Portuguese Beans
Traci Marques

2 24oz can pinto beans
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 lb. bacon
1 to 2 links linguica--sliced into small bite sized pieces
4 oz tomato sauce
1 tsp cumin

Fry bacon and linguica - set aside to cool.  Simmer onions in bacon grease.  Drain into a bowl lined with paper towels.  In large pot dump beans, juice and all, add crumbled bacon, linguica pieces and onions.  Add tomato sauce and cumin. Stir well and simmer on low for 3-4 hours. Add more cumin to taste.

It's a different take on the old ham hocks and beans my mom used to make--but a very good one.

This is Traci's 8th recipe in the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown.

(check out her others here:)

Traci is my person.

You know--the one I talk to every day.  Well maybe not 'talk' to but we email every day all day long.

We're both at work and we'll always say 'good-morning'  and then send little notes/questions/things going on in our lives throughout the day.

We've done it for 20 years.

Do we see each other ever?  No!

Did we get together much socially when we lived in the same town?  No!

Do we talk on the phone?  No!

Do we keep in touch via the US Postal Service?  We use to every week, now it's sporadic.

Do we know more about each others inner lives than our closest friends?  YES!!

Seriously we talk most of the day long 4 or 5 days a week.

We know each other's deep dark secrets.

One day---and I don't know how this subject came about--Traci said,  how often does anybody ever see a real cowboy?   She was implying the answer was--NEVER!

Well, Holy Cow! (that's a pun--and you'll see why)

 I was shocked that she didn't know this about me-- my answer was,

every single day of my life!

Traci comes from the land of Dairy Cattle--she sees cows. She smells cows.  She is surrounded by cows.  Dairy Cows.  

I knew I would one day write a post like this so I said, the next time you are by a dairy  (her Portuguese son-in-law...see how this all comes together? Portuguese son-in-law AND Portuguese beans... and daughter own one) take a picture for me, would you?

She didn't and I kept bugging her to do so,  so one day she sent me these  (she's an elementary school librarian) (as well as a smart-ass)

I mean alec….Smart Alec! 

Sorry about that. 😏

I on the other hand, come from the land of Cowboy Country -- no, really, the Nevada State Tourism Office has divided Nevada into territories (for tourism purposes) and I do live in COWBOY COUNTRY!

I won't even meander to stories of my granddad being a cattle rancher in Oregon--a cowboy.

But back to the story at hand--I never thought about it, but I do live among working cowboys.  The Handyman and I are not, but we live and love and encounter REAL cowboys every day of our lives.

Once a year there is a huge beef cattle auction --done on video--and all the cowboys/ranchers come to buy and sell.  I took a picture of the crowd one year.

And this was a real cowboy showing some little cowboys how to lasso.  Something they really do use in their life.

I love Dairy country--because I also lived there for 5 years.  I too, saw it, smelled it and lived it, but the two, Dairy and Beef, cattle are miles apart--both very important and hard hard work, but living where I live now, and have lived for most of my life, you can just be out driving and come across an honest to goodness 'cattle drive'.  STILL!  In this day and age.

And we have 'free range' here in the state of Nevada so cattle can roam for miles and they have the right of way on any dirt road you are driving on.

I like to photograph them.

I say  'moo' as anyone does and they look up and think 'yeah, that was really funny lady.  I've never heard that one before.'

I will end with this-- cow dogs!  They help the cowboys with their job.

These guys are working hard to get the cow thru the gate.

I love them so much.

 And a shout out to all the cattlemen in every state--Beef and Dairy. It's a hard life, but a good one.

My mother bought my kids a shirt once that said

Farming!  It's everybody's daily bread.

It's true.  Farmers and Ranchers!  Where would we be without them! (not a question)

This is recipe #222 only 145 left to go!

Friday Friend Recipe #221 - Spaghetti Sauce #13

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 recipe #221

Spaghetti Sauce #13 

Peggy's sauce!

I don't think it matters if you don't cook much or not when it comes to spaghetti---pasta and a tomato sauce is just good.

Can you believe at recipe #221 I am introducing someone new?

This is Peggy's one and only submission to the Friday Friend Cookbook.

As she said, she's not much of a cook---I guess that's why anyway. 

Most likely, Peggy only turned this in because I was insisting that everyone give me their spaghetti recipe.  I wanted to see how many ways people can put together pasta and tomato sauce.

Believe it or not, there are many ways....and they are all good!

So...my friend Peggy.

When I first met her she was doing marketing for the Winner's Casino, so whenever we would have a party, like for Halloween, she would also be promoting a big celebration for the Casino and she would pop in and out of our parties while tending to the much bigger shindigs at work.  While I love to have 'home' gatherings,  lots of times we would all head down to the casino or restaurant to continue the party.

Peggy is standing in the photo below---from a neighborhood Halloween party I had once about 20 years ago.

(seen with Charmie, on the left, another low-submitter to the Friday Friend cookbook.  That's why they bonded--they don't cook much 😄)

Later, Peggy and her husband Don bought a restaurant (irony?) so she was able to do more than just pop in and out of our dinners/parties. 

Below she and April 

(geez--another low submitter for the Cookbook!  Peggy's just bonding with them all!) are doing the FF Handshake.

It was a joke--that Friday Friend Handshake, but I made everyone do it, so I could send the photos via email to the FF Forum.

For a time, we went to so many community events with Peggy and Don.  We were all so involved in our town: marketing, tourism, chief of police, county commissioner, restaurant/bar owner, city councilman and chamber of commerce. Wow!  I could probably write a whole book about those experiences--but then I'd have to kill you, as I'm not sure we've reached the statute of limitations.

This is recipe #221 only 146 left to go!