Cooking Club #19 9x13 Cooking

One of the hottest trends to sweep the country in the past decade is the growth of supper clubs and other forms of cooking groups. The combination of socializing while cooking together or eating dishes made prior to meeting up has become a much-loved pastime for participants in thousands of clubs around the country.

Oh My Gosh! We are trendy!  I knew it!

9 x 13 Cooking

All we had to do for this Cooking Club get-together was to cook something in a 9x13 dish.

That's it.

That's all.

The theme was 9x13.

Look at these two!

Rebels!

Mutineers!

Non-conformists!

Never in any other facet of their lives are they non-rule followers.

Never!

Ever!

They 'halved' them.

They thought there would be 'too much' if they made their dishes in 9x13's. 

Do you see here, the 9x13 ham and potato dish?

The 9x13 Jell-O Pretzel salad dish?

The 9x13 sourdough pretzel rolls?

And the green salad at the very end came to cooking club in a 9x13 baking dish, then transferred to the salad bowl.

There in between 9x13 pretzel/Jell-o and 9x13 transferred salad sits outlier 8x8 macaroni and cheese.

And before dinner sat loner hot cheese dip with veggies and bread. 😞

sigh

But because they were both great dishes--and we love Shelly and Gina--they have been forgiven--these radical dissenters!

And look!  Once on the plate you can't even tell it wasn't made in a 13x9 pan!

HA! I just loved calling them all those names because seriously--the most

 Un-rebellious persons I have ever known!

Sally's saying "I'm staying outta this!"

And Debbie E's thinking "What the heck--settle down Deb (me)" 

And April is happy that "all's well that ends well"

See!?  All's well that ends well!

Except--why did those three in the back coordinate their clothes?

And never told the rest of us!

WHY?!

I'm never in any pictures anyway, so it didn't matter what I was wearing.  

Even Gage gets more screen time than I do.

All kidding aside tho,  (because I was kidding.  I really was.   I didn't care that they disobeyed the rules of cooking club and went out on a contrary limb.  I was just happy they were there! )  we had some great food, as always, and the company of great friends and lots of laughter.  (some of the laughter was at my expense when I had a slight panic attack seeing 8x8 dishes! Sigh.  And I called them non-rule breakers?  hahahahaha!)

This might sound too corny, but  I really love my friends!

This might sound old, but what is better than good friends and good food?

Old and corny.  That's what we are!

It is said:

Of all the different relations which we indulge in, friendship is considered to be the purest of them all. Friendship is the true confluence of souls with like minded attitude that aids in seamless conversation and the best of times. It is believed that a person who doesn’t have any friend lives one of the toughest lives.

Let me recap--

some great sourdough pretzel rolls 

The main dish ham and potato dish

The famous Jell-O Pretzel salad.

(sometimes categorized as a dessert--it depends on who is brining it)

and some yummy warm bread pudding!

With caramel sauce!

And wow---this really looks like a church pot-luck from the 1960's!

All so tasty!

And some cute guys!

I do realize that my friends must think this--while I am snapping away photos on my phone at every cooking club!

At least my husband is.

We always have fun at our SUPPER-CLUB!

The end!

This was the best cooking club ever!

And these cooking club meals were all good too... just click on the link to see.

Cooking Club #1 -Meals your mom used to make

Cooking Club #2- Cajun Cooking

Cooking Club #3 - Let's all go to Hawaii

Cooking Club #4 - American Regional Cooking --Great Lakes Region, featuring: SUPPER CLUBS!

Cooking Club #5 - Famous Chefs (long post with other stuff mixed in, but just trust me)

Cooking Club #6 -Meatball Madness -- or something round (long post combined with Famous Chef's.  Scroll thru some stuff to get there)

Cooking Club #7 - Breakfast for dinner

Cooking Club #8 - Slow Cooking

Cooking Club #9 - Mexican Street Food

Cooking Club #10- Your Christmas Cookie Heritage

Cooking Club #11 - Cooking from labels/back of box, can, or carton

Cooking Club #12 - It's all Greek to Me!

Cooking Club #13 - A Root Beer Tasting Holiday

Cooking Club #14 - Thai Food

Cooking Club #15- Pizza

Cooking Club #16- Pacific Northwest

Cooking Club #17 - Christmas Scavenger Hunt

Cooking Club #18 Milk Street Mania

Coming Soon --

Jewish Deli Night

Italian Dinner

Cook from a Movie --CHEF

Fondue Party

Friday Friend recipe #308 and 309--Banana Banshee and Mock Tamale` Pie

 

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 these... recipes #308 and #309

Barb's Banana Banshee and her Mock Tamale` Pie

This one was really good.

That makes it seem like some aren't really good.  Not true--all the Friday Friend Recipes have been loved by someone!

 I just meant it was quick and easy and cheesy--well, you can see---very cheesy, and gooey and good.

I guess over the course of 309 recipes and over 6 years, you can tell I like some ooey, gooey cheesy recipes.

And then this---this was fun!  And really good.

A Banana Banshee.  It's more of a summer drink, because it's blended and icy and cold.  One must like bananas to like this drink.

A banshee is a screaming Irish ghoul, but the name for this drink comes from the howler monkey who howls will wake the dead. so if the zombie Apocalypse comes shake yourself one up and enjoy the taste of chocolate and bananas.

We just had a nice afternoon, drinking slushy cocktails and comforting ourselves with gooey cheese and beans. 

And now for a story about Barb.  As you know, this is getting harder and harder!

Photos are becoming scarce. Stories too.

Let me just tell you that once, when I had the Friday Friend Forum, we had had a discussion about 'enjoying' our backyards.

I am discussing this stuff privately with married middled aged women.  I felt safe in sharing my story.

My story was that The Handyman and I were watching our friends' yards while they were on vacation. 

I am pretty sure that we had multiple friends on vacation as the same time that summer--The Miltons, The Storms, The Nobles, The Cains  (OMG!!  I'm exhausted just thinking about it!)  I was giving all these friend a bad time---about how the Handyman and I were 'enjoying' their yards.

In was summertime, Nevada high desert nights are THE BEST!  No mosquitos, warm enough to lay on a blanket in the backyard and "enjoy" the stars (among other things)

I was teasing on the FFF (Friday  Friend Forum) about how much 'enjoyment' the Handyman and I were getting out of their yards.  (wink, wink, smile smile)

Mitzi Storm said (on the forum) (remember, she was in Minnesota and her yard was one that we were taking care of-- taking care of her yard and taking care of business):

And Shelly also replied (we were also taking care of her yard---and enjoying it!)

Hmmmmm--- Barb?  Barb. Barbara!

Looks to me like they enjoy more than just their own backyard.

Found these photos of her and Doug looking like they might have 'enjoyed' our backyard at the cabin, when we took a little trip with them.

Here they are looking  'excited" and "eager"  (disregard the Handyman who inserts himself into every photo I ever try to take)

And then the 'after' photos.

I don't even know how I ended up with these!!

I was only kidding about enjoying my friends' yards.  

But it sure looks to me like Barb and Doug did some enjoying of sumpthin. 

That's my story!

And this my friends is

recipe #308 and 309

Only 58 left to go!

I can do it!

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