Friday Friend Recipe #178 -- Chicken Enchiladas Au Graten

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #175!

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Georgann's Chicken Enchiladas Au Graten

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!

A different twist on a popular Mexican-chicken dish!

It was so popular it was entered 2x in the FF Cookbook even.

This one uses Swiss cheese instead of Jack or Cheddar which is what you usually see in an enchilada.

It didn't taste so much Mexican as it did just plain old good.

This is Georgann's  2nd appearance in the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown.

I worked with Georgann for five years, in an elementary school library,  before we moved away (back to Nevada) and in that time we became good friends.  We had the opportunity to travel a bit to certain library functions, book buying trips and a young readers award convention to name a few things. Georgie is fun to travel with--although she always trusted me more on California freeways more than I trusted myself -- we would shop and visit and laugh together.  We just had only little hang up.  She's the kind of person who wants to share a meal.

Yes.

That's right.

Share a meal.

I don't want to share a meal.  Ever.  Not even with the Handyman.  

(not that I'll always finish my meal--I do tend to take stuff home--I just don't want to share. I'm weird, I know.  Georgann got used to me thank goodness!)

Georgann is teeny.  The kind of person who 'got so busy, she forgot to eat last night'

I've never forgotten to eat. 😕

Maybe I should have shared more meals with her?!

It is hard for me to find photos with Georgann, because this was way before cell phones.  I did come across these two -- one with me and Georgann about 20 years ago and then one taken at the same time with  Traci Marques, who besides having lots of recipes in the cookbook countdown-- had  the  recipe to start the whole thing!  It was #1 in the countdown.

Georgann has since retired and Traci is an elementary school librarian counting the days till retirement!

You can see all of Georgann's recipes here.

You can see all of Traci's recipes here.

https://thefridayfriends.blogspot.com/search/label/Traci%20Marques

This is recipe #178--only 116 left to go!

THAT IS A LIE!!!

I was checking off how many entries I had left for each person/Friday friend (as to not saturate at the end with one person) and something wasn't adding  up to me, so I did a recount and there are 376 recipes left!!!

I was devastated!  And I wrote so on Facebook -- which you know, you should never post anything serious on there --and this wasn't, I was exaggerating (slightly), it was more like "ugh!  You're kidding me right?"

But some of my friends took me literally.

What...they can't understand sarcasm on Facebook?  sheesh!

If I were really devastated, I wouldn't be posting it on Facebook.  Just so you know.

Now I know that you'll all be DEVESTATED to not have a correct countdown for now... because when I counted the 376, I didn't take into account the few recipes that  are entered into different sections -- this one for instance, was entered into both Mexican and chicken sections.

So... this is recipe #178, but I have only an estimate of how many I have left to go....

194?  196?  189?

I hope you'll stay with me for the ride!

Friday Friend Recipe #176 and #177 -- Tortilla Pinwheels and Mini Chili Rellenos

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook: I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 18 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.

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 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 #176 and 177

Barb's Mini Chili Rellenos and Tortilla Pinwheels

I sometimes find it hard to know what to say about the food I make (and this is why I'm not a food writer), but if you are in need of a new or different appetizer to make, you should give these a try--they are really good!

These are Barb's recipes.  And here is Barb in a sweater.

I have no words for what happened next.  I really don't.

There might have been gin and tonic involved.

Okay, so I think what happened is that Doug's mom made this sweater/cardigan and gave it to him for Christmas.  As he readily admits, it just wasn't 'right' for him. 

I still have no idea what the rest of us were doing tho!

I can guarantee you that their daughter Kim and our son Mark were glad they were not there....cuz everybody plays at the Brown's!

This is recipe #176 and #177--only 117 left to go!

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by

West Metro Mommy Reads 

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post to West Metro Mommy Reads!   Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

You've seen my happy place before...

Wallowa Lake?

We have a cabin there and the Handyman and I went up to spend a week in October.

It was wonderful, as there was no one there--no tourists.  We got to walk and relax and read and really enjoy ourselves.

So, once again, photos of my favorite walk--down to the lake.

We saw a ton of deer!

Meanwhile back at our cabin-- Bailey doesn't ever see this big buck. 

Ever.

And those are my snapshots for today!

TBR Winner!

I love this monthly meme hosted by Michelle at  Because Reading is Better than Real Life, (even tho I don't join in as regularly as I want to)  in which we put up 3 books on the first Saturday of the month, and then you readers, vote on which one I should read, I let you know--on this 2nd Saturday of the month, which one won-- I read and then I write a blog post on the last Saturday of the month.

It's so much fun!

I always have a hard time choosing what book to read next....as any book nerd knows, it's because our TBR Piles are so big!!  So, this is a way to read something I've been meaning to for some time.

This was the book you chose for me this month:

I'm looking forward to it!

Here was the breakdown:

Eleanor Olipahnt is completely fine -- 8

The Vanderbeeks of 141st Street -- 3

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore -- 0

Friday Friend Recipe #175 - Mother-In-Law Mystery Cake

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 recipes #175

 Traci's Mother-in-Law Mystery Cake!

My food photography wasn't at it's best during this cookbook countdown session.

This is a great patio cake.  That's my new name for any kind of dessert cake you might make for a backyard bbq or picnic.  It sounds good, right?  It should catch on I think.

Because this is a refrigerated cake, I always think of it a 'light' dessert.

But.... cake and pudding?  Maybe not 'light', but very good!

When I emailed her this morning and  said that  I needed another story about her, she wrote back:

Traci Marques:  married 40 years, 2 children and 'Noni' to 4 beautiful granddaughters.

There you go info about me.  :) 

SHE'S A SMART ALEC!!

 Above is Traci with her husband of 40 years, Larry.  And below is Traci with her kids, her mom and her four beautiful granddaughters. 

But this is her mother-in-law, Tillies' cake.

I do not have a picture of Tillie, but I do have a story.

Clotilde Marie Laurence Marques, known to all as Tillie.  Tillie hated the name ‘Clotilde’ .  Mary, Carmen, Joe and then Clotilde, what was her mother thinking! (that's from Traci, not me, but... what was her mother thinking?)

Full blooded Portuguese,  her parents where from Sao Jorge Azores Island. 

By the time we knew her, she was older and a bit, um,  a bit blunt in what she wanted. She said what she meant.

The Handyman was the manager of the JCPenney store in Los Banos, California and Tillie would often shop and try on clothes. Well, the mirrors were not exactly where Tillie wanted them to be.. and she kept telling the Handyman where they needed to be.  He would sigh inside and joke around with her, but she persisted (haha) and finally he decided to put a full length mirror where she had been suggesting  all those months.

And guess what?  It was the perfect spot (women kind of know what they need Handyman!) and all of the sudden he was getting complements from other customers on how they LOVED where he put the new mirror.

Tillie just looked at him and said 'told you'.

That's my story!

This is recipe #175--only 119 left to go!

My Backyard year---Up to date!!

Backyard Wednesday!

I started out calling it that, and then it got all screwed up, but now we are back on track--Wednesdays!

We've been having some gray misty rainy days lately.

Well, only for 2 days--the sun will be out tomorrow.

We really should get out there and clean up the backyard. But...  it's cold.

One of these days!