Friday Friend Recipe #209 - Sneaky Pete

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

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 19 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 recipe #209

Cherrie Lou Who's  Sneaky Pete Dinner

You might be wondering....how is Paella a "Sneaky Pete" dinner?

And you would be correct in wondering.

Cherrie Lou Who turned in this recipe....

And so I did exactly what she said.  I took my crockpot down from the cabinet.  I left my crockpot on the counter, 

(not my actual crockpot)

hoping/thinking that the Handyman would make something to put in it, but Nooooo! What he did was take me out to a  dinner of Paella.

My lovely neighbor Liz is dishing up the Paella, which was made in huge, HUGE Paella pans.

Have you ever eaten Paella?  It's so good!

This recipe is not about Paella tho---it's about Sneaky Pete--which the Handyman was.

He snuck out of the kitchen, so he didn't have to cook!

We enjoyed a nice Paella with chicken and shrimp and sausage.  It was a fundraiser for another friend who had some medical issues.  (I love living in a small town where everyone is a helper!)

The Paella was good, the company was good, the cause was good.

Sneaky Pete Dinner was a success! 

***********

One time for Thanksgiving, we went to Las Vegas. 

Don't judge. It wasn't traditional ---except for the nice Turkey dinner we had at Hooters  (yes, Hooters. They had the best Thanksgiving meal/prices in the town) -- but it was very fun and family came from near and far. Friends too! 

The Handyman's sisters from Washington, our son and his family and in-laws from Arizona, our good friends (and editor of the original Friday Friend Cookbook ) the Browns from Arizona.

We ate good food, gambled a bit, went to see Jersey Boys and more.

One afternoon while we were experiencing  the Freemont Street Experience (which is better experienced at night)  having some refreshment in a bar (aka beer/cocktails)  some dancin' music came on.  My little 2 year old granddaughter Cassie, felt the beat and wanted to dance--so her Great-Aunt Cherrie-Lou-Who got up and danced with her!

Cassie had a blast!

But that's not the story --  

this is the story --

of a man named Mikey.

Well, Cherrie Lou Who calls him Michael.

His friends call him Mike

but all of us relatives (and there is a lot of us) call him Mikey.

Mike is the nicest guy ever.  This is not a lie.  Ask anybody. He has the best personality of anyone on earth.  This too, is not a lie. He can visit and make small talk with anybody.

Anybody, that is, except for this guy.

Elmer Torres,  my daughter-in-law's father.

 A lot of the time in Vegas that Thanksgiving, we traveled in a group to dinner or met up somewhere along the strip to go to a show or have a drink.  Mikey was always so kind and nice to include Elmer in conversation.  Mikey is the guy who always puts people at ease in a crowd. He doesn't want anyone to feel left out.

On the last day of our trip,  Mike, having carried on an almost one-sided conversation with Elmer for 3 days,  says to the  Handyman, "Boy Elmer is really a quiet guy, isn't he?"

The Handyman looked at his brother-in-law and said, "Oh. Well, he doesn't speak English."

😊

Mike looked very surprised and said  "well crap (only it might not have been crap he said)  it would have been nice if someone would have told me!"

Here's to Mikey, the nicest guy ever and to Elmer Torres, the only man who Mikey couldn't engage in small talk with!

We all thought it was hysterical!

Elmer can hold his own tho--my son doesn't speak much Spanish and Elmer much English and yet it is Familia and it works.

This is recipe #209 only 158 left to go!

Friday Friend Recipe #111 -- Potato Casserole

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #111!

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Barb's Potato Casserole

and you know all the whys and wherefores of this countdown, right? Homemade cookbook, friends contributed, Handyman said I couldn't/wouldn't do it, I'll show him, yadda yadda yadda....

...and the rest is cookbook history!

In my Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown history, I am betting that the region of the Midwest and era of 1980's cooking trumps all other regions and eras.  It 's just a little guess I have, when I reflect on all the times I've written "creamy goodness" and "cheesy yum" in my recipe description.

There are lots of casseroles in the FF Cookbook.  Made with cream soups and lots of mayonnaise.

You take this:

Plus this:

Plus this:

=

Creamy Goodness!  and Cheesy Yum!

Casseroles are the easiest dump and go kind of dish you can make.

But this is all beside the point, as I know you are wondering why there are a few pecans scattered on top of this wonderful, cheesy, creamy goodness of a potato casserole?

Well, because, when you bake a Christmas Brunch and everything has to go into the oven at the same time (Ham, potato casserole, egg bake AND pull-apart cinnamon monkey bread) do not put the cinnamon, pull apart monkey bread on the top rack and everything else on the bottom, because the cinnamon, Pull-apart Monkey bread just might run over and drop a bit into the dishes below.

It's alright tho, nothing is ruined---you just pick them out and toss them into your mouth. Wah-LA!

Potato Casserole

Barbara Brown

Buckeye, AZ

2 lbs. frozen hash browns

1 pt. sour cream

1 stick butter, melted

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cups grated cheddar

1/2 cup milk

2 cups cornflake crumbs

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all (except for cereal).  Place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Top with cornflakes mixed with 1/3 cup melted butter.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Barb originally  typed out all 398 recipes that my friends, from near and far, contributed to this project. 

Because she was in charge, she contributed quite a few recipes (she called it editor's privilege) --this is her 28th appearance here --more than any other friend ( my mom runs a close 2nd), and it's getting harder to think of stories about her, so I said to the Handyman, "tell me a story you remember about Barb."

He remembered something about her that made me remember something about her and so on. Sometimes it's good to have someone to bounce things off of.

In Barb's last FF Cookbook appearance (2 recipes ago) I said that we celebrated minor holidays with them when we both lived in California.  The Red-White-Blue holidays!  I had forgotten that we also have spent a couple of Thanksgivings with them too.   One of them was  5 years ago.  We met our oldest son Luke and his family, the Handyman's 2 sisters and one brother-in-law and Barb and  Doug in Las Vegas.  We had a great time.  We did some sight seeing, had some good meals, went to show or two, and did a small bit of gambling.

On Thanksgiving Day,  we ended up eating our meal at Hooters.

Yes.
Hooters for Thanksgiving. 
They had the best buffet deal and the food is really good.

So.

Hooters.

Earlier, when I asked the Handyman to tell me a story about Barb,  he said, "I have one.  It's embarrassing.  One time when we were going to a meeting, I was driving and had to stop suddenly. Barb was my passenger and I shot out my arm to stop her from going forward (as our mom's used to do--it's reactionary)  and... I grabbed her boob."

"on accident"  he assured me.
Uh huh.

I'm not sure how I can connect our eating at Hooters on Thanksgiving with my husband grabbing one of my best friend's boob. BUT I'm sure there is a connection there somewhere.

There has to be.
Right?
That's my Barb Story and I'm sticking to it!

I cannot find one good photo of Barb from our Thanksgiving in Las Vegas!
There she is at the end of the table with the Handyman and me.

And here she sits in our motel room --it must have been cocktail hour.
The Handyman's sister Cherrie LouWho in the window seat, and her husband, the greatest guy ever Mikey.

 I just put this photo in cuz, she's the cutest thing!  Our granddaughter, Cassandra.  (5 years ago)

Let's imagine, for a moment that there was something connectional about eating at Hooters, and the Handyman grabbing Barb's boob (for protection  services only). If those two things fit together to make this blog post have a theme of some-kind..... does this photo of my son Luke (sigh) and Cotton Candy fit in?

We were just walking down the Vegas strip, minding our own business when Cotton Candy jumped at us flaunting her/him self!

And well, you can see what happened.

I'm not proud. 

Happy Potato Casserole eating!