Friday Friend Recipes #278 , 279, 280 and 281Asparagus Oriental, Scalloped Onions, Zuchini-Tomatoes-Onions and corn pudding

Vegetable/Side Dish Palooza!!

This time you get not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4---count 'em---FOUR recipes in one post!

Why, you ask? 

Well, it's apparent that I am posting recipes far and few nowadays.  But I am under 100 now, I must get this done.  At least to prove something to myself if not the Handyman...

 because..

...about 21 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!

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

I just need to hurry up and  'get 'er done'

Then I'll show him!

And as always,  it's not about the quality of the photos, it's about the family, friends and fun we have all had together!

All of the recipes were sent in by my cousin Linda.

Let us begin with some Asparagus and pea pods.

This was really good.

I don't know what to say, except this was really good.

And then we'll move on to some Scalloped Sweet Onions.

I  have to be honest here--I was skeptical about this one, but you know what? I loved it.

And then we had some 

Tomatoes/Onions/Zucchini

I love tomatoes, onions and zucchini.

TOMATOES/ONIONS/ZUCCHINI

2 T butter

2 small zucchini, sliced

1 med. onion, thinly sliced

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

 2 cups mushrooms, sliced

1/2 t. garlic salt -- 1/8 t. pepper

1 cup shredded mozzarella

Melt butter in a skillet. Add zucchini, mushrooms & onion. Cook over med heat till crisp tender. Stir in tomatoes and seasonings. 

Cook 3-5 minutes, till tomatoes ae tender. Remove from heat. 

Sprinkle with cheese.  Let stand a couple minutes.

Corn Pudding--with so few ingredients I wasn't sure it would become 'pudding', but it did!

And it was good.

And there you have it--Vegetable/side dish PALOOZA!!

All from my cousin Linda

(you can see all her recipes here)

Linda with her daughter, Jen 😃

 

We have many great cousin stories--just click her recipes above to read all about them--but I thought since this was a Vegetablepalooza post, it could also be a cousinpalooza post.

Here are a few of my grandchildren--cousins.

4 years apart at cousin camp both times. 

They recreated a photo--or as best as they could remember it anyway.

Here is to cousin relationships everywhere!

They know all the family secrets!

And these my friends are

recipes #278, 279, 280 and 281

Only 86 left to go!

I can do it!

WOO HOO!  I am below 100 recipes now.  Yay!  Yahoo! Whoopie!

Altho.... do you remember when I counted wrong before?  I think I did it again.

I keep counting what I have left by recipe AND by person and it does not add up to 86- it's more like 73. 

Which would make me very happy, but for now....I'll stick to the 86 until it gets closer to the end and I'll recount what I have left.  

August Reads

 

I've pretty much given up on my blog---except for recording my cookbook countdown.  I vacillate between starting blogging/journaling again (for my own satisfaction only) or not.

So, here I am.

I thought I'd just start slowly and post my August books.

It was a really good reading month for me.  

Better than any month ever--18 books. 

I had 2 five stars reads.

2 3 star reads.

and all the rest were 4 star reads.

I feel that the star rating system is so arbitrary.  

Because my 3 stars are still books I'd recommend.  3 stars means I liked the book.

I am very selfish with my 5 star ratings.  I don't give them often.

But that means that I would recommend all of these books to most of my friends.

Although, I know my audience, so the romances not to everyone.

My big surprise?  Running with Sherman.  I loved it.   

And that's my slow re-entry into the blogging world. 

 

Friday Friend recipes #276 and #277 --Seafood Pasta Salad and Zucchini Cake

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 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 21 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 thinks he 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 #276 and 277

Tracy's Seafood Pasta Salad and Zucchini Cake

This sound so good to me--I want it right now!

I love a good pasta salad--maybe more than a potato salad and that's saying a lot, as I really love a potato salad.

But this is just so good.

Pasta salads just seem summery to me.

As does zucchini anything. Because that's when zucchini is in season.

Garrison Keillor, of a Prairie Home Companion, had an essay about zucchini and how in late summer, you'd wake up to 2 or 3 zucchini on your front porch and if you left your car unlocked and/or windows down to run into the store, you'd come back and find a couple zucchini on your front seat.

It was a Midwest story, of a time gone by, I feel, because people don't have home gardens as much anymore and we don't 'reach out' to our neighbors as much anymore either.

Unless---unless you are in the Post Office in  Winnemucca, Nevada on a hot, sunny, August afternoon and some random gentleman in line before you starts asking everyone if we want zucchini!  He had a bunch in his car and needed to get rid of them.

It was like 1965 all over again!

If someone offers you a zucchini take it!

And make this great zucchini cake.

I have a few more recipes of Tracy's to add, but my stories and mostly my photos of Traci are slim.

I worked with Tracy over 20 years ago when we taught pre-school, and I didn't have a cell phone to snap, snap, snap at a moments notice, so I have ended up stealing a few photos from Facebook when I needed them, BUT today I went to look and they have taken her Facebook page down.  Tracy passed away a few  years ago, so it's only natural, but still it was kind of sad to me to not be able to find it today.

So I'm using a photo that I used previously.

And my story is that she made a mean pasta salad and zucchini cake!

And these my friends are

recipes #276 and 277

Only 90 left to go!

I can do it!

WOO HOO!  I am below 100 recipes now.  Yay!  Yahoo! Whoopie!

Altho.... do you remember when I counted wrong before?  I think I did it again.

I keep counting what I have left by recipe AND by person and it does not add up to 90- it's more like 77. 

Which would make me very happy, but for now....I'll stick to the 90 until it gets closer to the end and I'll recount what I have left.