Friday Friend Recipe #181 - Light and Fruity Summer Pie

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 #181

My Light and Fruity Summer Pie

Light and Fruity Pie 1 pgk.  (4 serve size) any flavor Jello
2/3 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
ice cubes
3 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip
1 cup diced fruit  (fresh, frozen, canned)  *  I used fresh fruit.
1 prepared graham cracker crust

Dissolve Jello in boiling water. Combine cold water and ice cubes to make 1 1/4 cups. Add to Jello and stir until thickened.  Remove any unmelted ice cubes.  Using wire whisk, blend in Cool Whip till smooth.  Fold in fruit and chill for  20 minutes.   Fluff it up and mound into crust. 
Chill for  2 more hours. 

This is the simplest recipe in the world....Cool Whip,  Jell-o and fruit.  That's it.  Oh, and a graham cracker crust.I think foods/dishes tend to go in cycles. This pie was trendy in the early 80's. Jello and Cool Whip? Yep, the  early 80's.     Or the Midwest.

But just because it 'used' to be trendy doesn't mean it's not good.

This is good! It might not be the healthiest thing ever, but once in a while won't hurt you.

I made raspberry flavored of course....because that's my favorite,  (I do actually like a huckleberry the best, but you know--it's difficult to find, unless your grandma makes you go out into the forest and compete with the bears to pick them, in northeastern Oregon in July )   but you can use any flavor of Jello  you want.   You just have to be sure and use a corresponding fruit   If you use strawberry flavored Jello, you use strawberries,  peach flavored, peaches, and so on.

Honestly, I've only ever made raspberry flavored, because that's my absolute favorite flavor of  berry.

I feel guilty sometimes, because I make what I like and the Handyman just eats what I make.

So to be fair to him I'll try to make a light and fruity summer pie this summer with his favorite fruit.

Um....

I just asked him....and he said:

Me:  Hey, what is your favorite berry?

Him: Why?

Me:  I just want to know.

Him:  Hmmmm....  Manilow.

(sigh) He thinks he's very funny.  He went on to say strawberry, no raspberry,  but he's not ever given the huckleberry a fair chance.  (neither has the Jell-O company)

See?  It's easier if I just make it and he eats it.

My favorite selfie of us.....

It took a while to get it.....

This is recipe #181--only 113 (or so) left to go!

I have no idea how many more I have left to go....  to infinity and beyond!!

What Book Should I read next?

A monthly meme hosted by Michelle at  Because Reading is Better than Real Life.

Michelle says:

We sit for hours looking through our TBR lists wondering when we will ever get to that one book we were dying to read when we added it 3 months ago or maybe even a year. As our piles get bigger we realize there is just not enough time in a day to read all the books that we wanted to read. So I had a great idea, pick 3 books from my TBR Pile and have you all pick which one I should read next. This is a monthly MEME and you are more than welcome to join me. 

There are of course some rules, but if you want to join in go here to check them all out.

********************

So It's February and I'm still here!!

(this is more thrilling than it sounds, for me anyway, as I have a bad habit of not following thru---BUT ONLY ON BLOG STUFF! In my life, my work, my marriage, my friendships (not so much letter writing recently tho) I am steadfast and loyal and a big follow-thru-er 😉!  Plus I was being sarcastic--because it's only February. But my percentage this year is great!

Anyway...

you know how it goes--I'll choose 3 books from my TBR list and you guys vote on which one I should read next and then I'll read it and report on it at the end of the month.

a word of warning...I've never been able, or taken the time really, do insert a poll in the body of this blog post, so...SORRY, but you are just going to have to vote with a comment.

I'll let you know next week, which one wins!

Here are 3 newer ones that are on my TBR pile. I can't wait to read them all, so help me decide which one first:

In Catherine Lowell’s smart and original debut novel—“an enjoyable academic romp that successfully combines romance and intrigue” (Publishers Weekly)—the only remaining descendant of the Brontë family embarks on a modern-day literary treasure hunt to find the family’s long-rumored secret estate, using only the clues her father left behind and the Brontës’ own novels.

Samantha Whipple is used to stirring up speculation wherever she goes. Since her eccentric father’s untimely death, she is the presumed heir to a long-rumored trove of diaries, paintings, letters, and early novel drafts passed down from the Brontë family—a hidden fortune never revealed to anyone outside of the family, but endlessly speculated about by Brontë scholars and fanatics. Samantha, however, has never seen this alleged estate and for all she knows, it’s just as fictional as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights.

But everything changes when Samantha enrolls at Oxford University and long lost objects from the past begin rematerializing in her life, beginning with an old novel annotated in her father’s handwriting. With the help of a handsome but inscrutable professor, Samantha plunges into a vast literary mystery and an untold family legacy, one that can only be solved by decoding the clues hidden within the Brontës’ own works.

A fast-paced adventure from start to finish, The Madwoman Upstairs is a smart and original novel and a moving exploration of what happens when the greatest truth is, in fact, fiction. 

Blending strange kindnesses, casual violence and buried secrets: an unforgettable debut from a dark new voice in Irish fiction

When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland’s west coast, he brings only a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the village’s lies.

His arrival causes cheeks to flush and arms to fold in disapproval. No one in the village - living or dead - will tell what happened to the teenage mother who abandoned him as a baby, despite Mahony's certainty that more than one of them has answers.

Between Mulderrig’s sly priest, its pitiless nurse and the caustic elderly actress throwing herself into her final village play, this beautiful and darkly comic debut novel creates an unforgettable world of mystery, bloody violence and buried secrets.

From the bestselling author of All Is Not Forgotten comes a thriller about two missing sisters, a twisted family, and what happens when one girl comes back...

One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.

Thanks!

I'll be back next Saturday.

vote in the comments please.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine -- winner of my TBR List

 I love joining in a monthly meme hosted by Michelle at  Because Reading is Better than Real Life, 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 read and then I write a blog post on the last Saturday of the month.

I am not always as dedicated as I should be-- I miss a lot of months --but I always enjoy it.

(truth be told I am in awe of you dedicated bloggers!)

Anyway.....

This is so much fun!

This time the winner was:

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

by Gail Honeyman

I really loved this book!

I gave it 4 stars, but perhaps it should even be 5 (I am very stingy with my 5 stars tho)

My friend Shelly said:  Sad. Funny. Hopeful. Eleanor is not completely fine, but I think she will be.

That's it!  Exactly.

The book is sad and funny! And hopeful and wonderful! 

Eleanor is quirky and weird and socially awkward -- but there are reasons -- she grows on you and you end up rooting for her,  crying for her and smiling for her.

Eleanor ends up having your heart.

Thanks for choosing for me.  I'll be back next week with another 3 books for you to help me choose from.

Friday Friend Recipe #179 and #180-- Chicken Dressing Casserole and Potluck Potato Salad

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 #179 and #180

Barb's Potluck Potato Salad and Chicken Dressing Casserole

Let's talk about my friend Barbara Brown!

I have no recollection of how it was decided  she would type  up the Friday Friend cookbook.  (but THANK GOODNESS she did, or it might not have ever gotten done).  I mean, the Friday Friend Forum was facilitated by me.  I knew every one, I asked the questions, I cut and pasted and resent answers and stories to everyone.  No one had access to each other without me.

(or maybe they did and I didn't know about it?)

But somehow, someway,  she did all the hard work and typed up the whole thing!  

See below 

It used to be pristine.  Nice and neat and new.

But as you can tell---it is  very well  used by me.

It has stickers and notations and folded corners now.

All these  years later, Barb is not the only one who had the hard, hard work of typing up and making a book --- I feel I'm doing a hard, hard job in MAKING ALL THE DANG RECIPES!

And then Shelly  is doing some hard, hard work  putting all my blog posts on Shutterfly and making me some 'real' cookbooks!

You can see the back of one two photos up--next to the potato salad, which is what this post is supposed to be about. 

Last June, Barb came thru town on her way to the Oregon Coast, and spent a night or two with us.  I made her make her own potato salad--that was in the cookbook. She said it was kind of cheating since I didn't make it, but I said it was okay.

(oh look!  There is the front of a Friday Friend Cookbook that Shelly made for me--on the counter)

I invited Shelly and her husband Lorin and April and her husband Doug over to see Barb and enjoy a real original Friday Friend recipe! I do this every so often--invite them over for a  Friday Friend meal, but never by the original artist!

At this same time, I was watching Otis, my daughter-in-law's dog, while they were out of town.

Let's just say that Otis is not very well socialized (they don't get out a lot is all) and we always thought he was a little aggressive, so I told everyone to not follow the Handyman outside when he was doing the grilling. 

*sigh*  I should have known better. I should have never said a work, because as soon as I said 'dog' and 'don't'   Lorin was going to make friends with Otis no matter what.

And he did.

So  then I got so excited that Otis was not an aggressive dog I began taking pictures of Otis (whom Lorin let into my house!) hanging around people, that I forgot to get a picture of Barb and me and Shelly and April--all FRIDAY FRIENDS!

I got their husbands tho...Lorin outside with Otis, Doug inside with Otis under the table.

And one of Barb (in serious conversation) and Otis.

But--sadly none of four Friday Friends together.  What was I thinking?

The Potato Salad was a hit tho.... 

Oh yeah, she has this really delicious Chicken Dressing Casserole in the cookbook too!

I made this earlier in the year---it's a great comfort food. 

Warm and filling and kind of holiday tasting.

This is recipe #180--only 114 left to go!

I have somewhere in the vicinity of 190 left to go.

One of these days....I'll be done.