Friday friend recipes #332, 333, and 334

 

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 recipes #332, 333 and 334

Barb's

  Green Noodles and Veggies

Zucchini and Hominy

Jumbo Vegetarian Pasta Shells

I only had parmesan shavings and not anything grated.  They were good on this pasta/side dish. 

This had an interesting flavor and texture-- green pasta in a velvety butter sauce.

And then came the zucchini (good) and hominy (also good), put them together and you have a hearty vegetable side dish.

I like all the ingredients, but if you don't like hominy especially, then this might not be for you.  On the other hand, you don't know what you're missing. 

I couldn't find any pasta 'shells', jumbo or miniature or anywhere in between, in the whole town of Winnemucca.  (we only have 3 grocery stores) So I used some manicotti shells and tried to make them look like 'sea' shells.  HEY!  what a minute---it doesn't say 'sea' shells anywhere in this recipe.  

Imagine that----I'm not on the hotplate anymore.  I used pasta shells---manicotti shells!!

These were yummy, but as I might have mentioned before, one cannot go wrong with pasta and cheese and sauce. 

This posed a bigger dilemma for me than choosing a pasta shell, other than 'sea' shell.

White or Yellow Hominy?

Or Mexican style which looks like a blend.

I'm pretty sure I did the blend.

So---Barb and Doug.

True lovers for a long, long time.

for reference----

Long ago:

 

6 years ago:

We spent a wonderful weekend with the Browns in Tahoe 6 years ago.

But let me get back to the true love part.

One Valentine's Day---in 2005 (I kept records. Seriously. From when we did the Friday Friend Forum.  I knew these confessions by Friday Friends would come in handy someday) I got this email....

From Barb:  I don't want to gloat, but... When I got home from work yesterday, Doug had a bubble bath ready, with a heart candle and a drink.  After I soaked for a while, he got me my white terry robe to lounge in. Then once I was comfortable, I got a foot/leg/neck rub with lotion.  Maybe I need to keep working??  NOT!   I'll take my chances that he will continue to do this.  Isn't he great?

Then later in the month-- I was invited to a Pampered Chef party.  I went with April. When I dropped her off at home, she sighed and said, "I have to go paint a wall.  Want to come see which one I'm painting?  We walked in and it smelled like fresh paint to me..and guess what?  HER DOUG, had painted the wall, so that she could get her new (antique) buffet situated there on that very wall.  He HATES to paint. But he did if for her.

Now I really, really want a Doug of my own!  Dougs seem so nice.

From Barb: Now I sound like an ingrate but go ahead.  He's yours for a while.  I will learn to live with the temporary dust.   Doug took it to a ridiculous level this morning.  He was awake before 5, so the smell of coffee made me get up around 5:05.  He had already read the paper and had a cup. So--while I am trying to do the same---he is starting a load of laundry, dusting the furniture, swiffereing the floors, getting the vacuum out, etcetcetc.  Not that I don't appreciate his help, but does all this need to be done befoer 7am??!!    And the smell of all the cleaning solutions does not go well when one is trying to enjoy their coffee. I finally gave up and took my shower and got cleaned up just to get away from him.  On the bright side, since he has done practically every chore possible, I might just be able to enjoy my coffee and Sunday  paper tomorrow.  It's supposed to rain (in buckets/hard) later today, so I can hardly wait to lie on the couch, with my book and listen to the pitter patter of drops.  Unless Doug decides to move the furniture or something.......

Awwwww--true love!                                                                           I found something interesting in going thru my boxes--of classified Friday Friend material---I found this from Doug (Barb's Doug)  It's his list of top 5 favorite movies.

Wait? What?  There is a movie version of Barb and Doug's Great Adventure?

Hmmm, Barb might have some 'splainin' to do.

The other Doug--April's Doug (and one of my favorite sisters-in-law, Cherrie) and Barb.

So, friends, My friends!  These are recipes, #332, 333, and 334 out of 361 (I'm 99% sure I have all the math down pat now)

2023 will be the year!!

(Although I'm slow going)

Then what will I do?

You can check out all of Barb's Recipes here.

Cherrie Lou who's recipes here.   ( just cuz she's right there and she's cute)

And April's recipes here (because there is her Doug :)

Cooking Club--Jewish Deli Food

I think we need a cool name. Cooking club---Supper Club.

They sound boring to me.  So, I looked up cool cooking club names and thought perhaps we could borrow one?

Here are a few interesting ones:

The Zesty Chefs

The Tasty Temptations

Gourmet Goddesses

Bad to da Bone Cookers

I'm not sure what fits us. 

We are a small group of friends who get together on a semi-regular basis to take on a large cooking project--or--explore an unfamiliar cuisine.

This was a bit unfamiliar to us--

Jewish Deli food.

And-- I am so far behind; we did our Jewish Deli food in March of 2020.  Early March, right before the world went crazy.

And let's face it--it did go crazy for a while, and at first it was very scary.  And then, it wasn't.  

But I digress.

Sally and Paul made corned beef and Pastrami from scratch!!

It was the centerpiece of the meal.

And it was oh-so-good.

This is a text about how they did it:

It tasted really good!

Seen below right before going on the grill. 

What we always do---whoever is hosting, buys a cookbook before cooking club. NOT something we have to do, or even talk about--we just do it, to be able to look thru it and know some facts about what we are attempting to do.

Of course, none of us have Kosher kitchens, but the food was really, really good.

We bought the right stuff....

We read the right books, watched the right movies.

And then we just had fun--as we always do.

It was a really good sandwich!

As usual I have a gazillion photos of our evening. 

I wish I could explain how nice it is to have a cooking club/supper club.

When trying to find something on the internet about cooking clubs I did discover that they are the newest trend.  Cooking and meal sharing is trendy. 

I've done both and while the meal sharing (we called it dinner swap and only once a week was I responsible for making dinner--for four couples.  And dropping it off on their doorstep.  My day was Wednesday and then on all the other weekdays, someone would drop off on my doorstep.  Or kitchen counter.

We did it Monday-Thursday for 6 months.   It was so nice to have dinner prepared for us.

I loved it.  And I would do it again, but if I had to choose, I'd choose this cooking club, the one where we eat with our friends. We get to talk and laugh together.  You share a bond with people when you gather to eat on a regular basis.

I feel comfortable saying that I love this one, this cooking club the most, because half of the dinner swap people are the same as cooking club people.

But anyway--- let's get back to our Jewish Deli party night!

We had a test!

Yes, a test!

I think I am so smart, but I failed this test!

We began our evening with some pickled things.  

Pickles

Olives

Beets

And bagels and lox-- or my bastardized version of it.  

But they were good, nonetheless.  

Something smells good!

It's Chicken soup with Matzo Balls!

We had latkes or latkas--it depends on where you are from--a Ashkenazi Jewish tradition that is made for Hannukah.  

We served with applesauce.

And we also had Kugle..

I didn't get a close up of the Kugle, so I borrowed this photo below.  But April's Kugle looked exactly like this. 

As you can tell if you look closely at all the Kugle left on the plates.

It was no one's favorite. But really, who are we?

And once again, poor Paul and Sally got put in the corner.

(whenever I say 'corner' like that, I am reminded of the movie Dirty Dancing and the line "no one puts Baby in the corner."  And that movie took place in the Catskills, which was a typical Jewish summer holiday place.  See how I can bring this all back around to the theme of the evening?)

We always have fun at our SUPPER-CLUB!

(whatever you want to call it)

**notice that Shelly and Lorin were absent from this cooking/supper club get together.  They were probably in Hawaii in March but let this picture (of them missing) be a foreshadowing. 

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

Cooking Club #19 -  9x13 Cooking

Coming Soon --

Italian Dinner

Cook from a Movie --CHEF

Fondue Party

End of summer rhubarb party

Paella 

Fermentation, pickled, raw, clean food.