Friday Friend Recipe #266, Helen's Cream Wafers, #267, Chicken Tortilla Casserole and #268, Spinach Parmesan

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

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell....

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!

Which brings me to recipes #266, #267 and #268

Barb's "Helen's Cream Wafers, Chicken Tortilla Casserole and Spinach Parmesan"

These cookies are delightful.  One of my son Luke's favorites.

We first had them when we went to spend New Year's with the Brown family, 25 or so years ago.  We played board games and ate leftover Christmas cookies all weekend long.

It was a blast.  

When I made these for the countdown, I made them for Valentine's day.

The Chicken tortilla casserole---

The Handyman liked it a lot.  It was warm and cheesy, so what's not to like?

(forgive photo--that is melted cheese on top, but picture taken the next day, after it had been in the fridge.  Don't judge--it's good.)

Spinach Parmesan.

It was good. A creamed spinach with some onion and Parmesan cheese.

Look at all those cheese 'strings' in the pictures.

I do love a good creamed spinach with a bbq steak. (grilled steak I mean)

I have to confess--I might have run out of pictures of Barb.  And stories.

I mean this is her 58th appearance in the countdown after all.  

Let me see what I can come up with...

So, I guess that I wrote "so I guess" a lot back when I had the Friday Friend forum.  LOL

(see my old forum texts/emails)

Anyway---Barb is a woman of many talents.  She can:

recite Casey at the Bat (my favorite poem ever)

tie a cherry stem into a knot in her mouth

and jump on a pogo stick without using her hands!

She is amazing. 

That's my story.  The many talents of Barb.

(she can also quilt like no one's business!)

and this is how I know she can do those things---she's never actually showed me in real life.  And we we finally DID have a reunion, we didn't have a talent show, dang it!

I'm making her do them all the next time I see her!

And these my friends are

recipes #266, 267 and 268

Only 99 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 99-- it's more like 86. 

Which would make me very happy, but for now....I'll stick to the 99 until it gets closer to the end and I'll recount what I have left.

I think next week I'll introduce you to my cousin Barb. (not to be confused with Barb the  original cookbook typist.  My cousin Barb has only 1 recipe entered, Barb Brown, FF Cookbook typist/editor blah blah, has a gazillion recipes in this countdown(

Friday Friend Recipe #265-Bailey's Irish Creme Cheesecake

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 20 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 #265

My Bailey's Irish Crème Cheesecake

I'm not sure when or where I got this recipe for this glorious Cheesecake, but the original one I have has been photo copied from a handwritten note.

So I claim it as 'my' recipe.

I mean--why not?

It's soooo good! 

This is my fancy Cheesecake--the one I  make when I want to impress someone.

Let me tell you a story about impressing someone.....

This is my friend Theresa.

She was a Friday Friend, but she came in later---after we made a cookbook.

She's a good cook---and a great hostess.

She would describe herself as being a better hostess than cook-- she doesn't really enjoy cooking.  Okay, that's fine.  But she has managed to raise 3 kids and send then out into the world all fed and growed!

Oh look---that's her youngest Max below.  

This was at my house for a "Weinerfest", which is what the Handyman and I like to call our annual hot dog party.

This was a few years ago. (Max is a young man out on his own now. A college man)

Now I will back track a bit---

During Covid quarantine, we had a bubble of friends--4 of us (I shall not name the others as their names have been changed to protect them.  They are innocent)

Our bubble of friends decided to do DINNER SWAP 

each week. I cooked dinner on Wednesdays and took it to the 3 other couples.

Theresa cooked on Tuesdays and dropped it off for the rest of us, and so on and so on.

We only  had to cook one night a weeknight!
It was heaven!

I loved Dinner Swap so much.

You know, now that I think of it---Dinner Swap has nothing to do with this recipe (I just really loved it), but Theresa does.  And Cheesecake.

But while you wait for  my cheesecake story,  you can enjoy another photo of Theresa in my backyard at another Weinerfest, a different  year.  She is with our good friend Trudy.

This story about Theresa and cheesecake happened at Christmas time--- not this Christmas time, but years ago.

Theresa invited us over on Christmas evening to play some games--they had lots of family and other friends--it was a Holly Jolly time!

I made a cheesecake to take.

My cheesecakes are really, really good!

But this one -- well the topping had run over the side and it didn't' look so pretty.

I knew tho, once it was cut and people could see the pretty layers, they would love it.

So I said to the Handyman, please take a piece of my cheesecake right away, so it looks good on the platter, etc etc. 

He agrees.

We walk the couple blocks to Theresa's house to join the party.  We walk in, take of our coats and head to the kitchen  (where all good parties take place), and Theresa, who does not 'cook' had made a cheesecake from a box--a Jell-O-cheesecake.  It looked beautiful. 

So, the Handyman, love of MY life,  my Soul partner, husband for better or worse, sees her cheesecake and says, OH CHEESECAKE, and goes and gets a piece of hers.

And there sat my lonely cheesecake.

All by itself. 

I.  Could. Have. Killed. Him.

But I didn't. 

This photo  was not taken during  the same Christmas time, but this was a Christmas a few years ago..

if you look close you can see some   Christmas cookies on the table.

No one made cheesecake tho.

Shelly, Me and Theresa.

By the way-- we did Dinner Swap from April until Thanksgiving. 

We have taken a hiatus for a while.

It was a wonderful 8 months.

Theresa has done Dinner Swap with Shauna, another friend of ours and Shauna tells this story---

Shauna says she makes a mean lasagna. All from scratch. Everyone loves it.

It's time consuming but oh-so-good.  And she does it with love!

So, the thing about dinner swap is that you don't have to think of dinner, it just arrives at your door step sometime between 4:30 and 6:30pm.

Once in a while it involves some cooking or warming up, and sometimes it's hotdogs or something as simple, sometimes it's a 5 course dinner, including dessert and beverages--it's just that you don't have to deal with planning and shopping and cooking.

And sometimes we have hectic days and if you happen to be in charge of the dinner that day, well, ??? you do what you can.

Theresa had had a hectic day and showed up at Shauna's with frozen Stouffer's lasagna. A bad of salad and some garlic bread.

And said--sorry, this was the best I could do today.

Shauna said thank you, baked the lasagna and sat down to dinner with her family and her kids proceeded to tell her that 'THIS IS THE BEST LASAGNA we've ever had"

Jell-O Cheescake?

Stouffer's lasagna?

And Theresa says she's not a cook!!

Her husband Mike might think differently. 

That's my story!

And this my friends is 

recipe #265

Only 102 left to go!

I can do it!