Friday, January 28, 2022

Friday friend recipe number #294--Laura's Fireside Punch




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... recipe #294

Laura's Fireside Punch



I do have to say that the Handyman and I have liked all the 'beverages' I've been making lately.
I cut the recipe in half, because it's just me and he. 
And it's a Sunday.
Morning.

But it is January and it's cold in our part of the world, so a fun hot beverage has been nice!
And tasty. 








Okay.... now for a Laura story.
This is her 2nd time appearing in the cookbook countdown and it is also her last time.
You can check out her spaghetti sauce here (just click) and read about our children being switched at the hospital (we had babies on the same day) AND she her as the Easter Bunny when our kids were small.
Go ahead--click on it---I'll wait.

As I have mentioned, I feel sad saying goodbye to friends as this draws closer to the end  
Okay, there are 73 recipes left to make after this one, but it's all relative, right?
I'm saying goodbye Laura!
Of course, she just sent me a text, so really---perhaps not truly a goodbye. 
I was also sad because I thought I have no photos she and I. Back when we lived in the same town, 32 years ago, we didn't have cellphones to take pictures willy-nilly, so I thought I had slim pickins.
BUT LOOK!
I found an assortment of "Laura and Me" photos throughout the years:






Laura and I taught Sunday School together. 
(ah crap---and now, all these years later, I am drinking her hot rum drink on a Sunday morning instead of being in church!  How the mighty have fallen.  LOL)
(well, not totally true--I still go to church.  Just not on the Sundays I start out drinking.   I better stop explaining before I dig myself in deeper, right?)
This is how Laura and I did church together for 8 years:
Some years we taught Sunday School and
Some years we dropped our boys off at Sunday School and then went to have coffee before church (we could have attended adult Sunday School, and sometimes we did, but coffee was always nice) and sometimes (once) we came back from coffee only to find out our 5-year-old sons (they might have been 4 at the time) had made their Sunday School teacher cry.
We are not proud of this--they were being little twerps, who needed a slap upside the head (we didn't really slap them upside the head, but it was 1985, we could have.... we might swatted their little bottoms instead. Hey--it was 1984 or 1985, what can I say?)
What we were more bewildered about was the teacher who was crying.
CRYING!!
A couple of 5-year-old (maybe 4 years old) boys made you cry?
Give them the evil eye--they'll back down.
Put your hand on your hip and say 'HEY we'll have none of that' real loud and they'll back down.
Clap your hands real loud, get down on their level and tell them, "Jesus doesn't like naughty little boys"
(a good 'come to Jesus' talk works every time! I mean they were in church--his portrait was on the wall, for heaven's sake--just do the eye thing--point to your eyes, then to Jesus's portrait and then to them and say He's got his eyes on you!)
We could have given her 100 ways to handle 5-year-old boys.  And none of them would ever be letting them see that they made you cry.
Never, ever let them make you cry.
Cuz, then they are like a pack of Hyenas and go in for the kill.

Look at these little angels.
Those cute little angelic faces.
How could they ever do anything to make their Sunday School teacher cry?


Angels, I tell you!



Or lambs, I guess they were lambs in the Christmas pageant. 
They have ears not halos.

*****

Then years later, look what they gave us!
Some actual little angels!
Our first grandchildren!


These photos were taken about 17 years ago---both these grandsons are going to be 20 this year.
Laura and I, of course, look exactly the same so no need for an updated picture. 


So, this is embarrassing... but the Handyman still has and wears that shirt.  It just came thru the laundry last week!
The cuffs might be a little worse for the wear, but he surely isn't. 
He and Tony look exactly the same too!




Remember how I said that I just received a text from Laura?
She was off on a little jaunt with her sister, and they were passing thru my old territory (the PNW) and she said she thought of me.  but the reason she is doing this in the middle of the week, in the middle of January is because---
---Laura is now officially RETIRED!
Her husband Tony is not far behind and by the end of the summer, they plan on traveling the country in their RV. 
I am envious!
Happy Trails to you Laura!



And this my friends is

recipe #294

Only 73 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 73- it's more like 67. 
Which would make me very happy, but for now....I'll stick to the 73 until it gets closer to the end and I'll recount what I have left.



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