Friday Friend Recipe #133 -- Broccoli Salad

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

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 17 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 #133  Debbie E's Broccoli Salad

Everyone has a version of a broccoli salad (I have a few in the FF Cookbook), but this one is especially  good--it has cheese and chopped hard boiled egg in it.  (I don't think my mom's does)

Broccoli Salad

Debbie Engstrom

Winnemucca, Nevada

2 heads chopped broccoli

2/3 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup mayo

1/4 cup sugar

2 T. vinegar

bacon bits

shredded American Cheese

6 hard boiled eggs, chopped

Combine all of the above.

I think this is Deb E's  6th time in the countdown. 
It's hard to tell, because I've tagged her on other things too--she's in my cooking club also.

You can see all the posts she's in if you click  here.

We were having coffee this morning as we do every Tuesday at 6am, and I was thinking--I don't have many pictures of the two of us together!  I thought about taking one, but-- 6am? I didn't do it.

So below are two pictures of Debbie from cooking club. She hosted our "Let's all Go to Hawaii" themed dinner, and she sported a coconut bra!

(if you want to see our Hawaiian themed cooking club post, click here!)

She wore it over her top, Because, you know....  Cooking club?  It would have been  hard to cook shish-ka-bobs with ONLY a coconut bra on.

Let me tell you a FUN FACT about Debbie....

She is the best meal prepper EVER.

There have been many a Tuesday morning that she will chop onions, veggies, cook rice... anything to be able to have a short  cut to her meals when she gets home from work.

Unlike her dear friend, me, who usually doesn't even know what she's having and starts thinking about dinner at 4pm each day.  Nope, Debbie is a meal planner and a doer.

And she's great about using stuff up. She'll say "I had some chicken left over so I added that to the salad."

Me?  I forget about that leftover chicken until something begins to smell in my fridge.  (okay, I'm not actually that bad, but almost)

Debbie is my cooking hero!   My mentor, my muse. I once asked to borrow her recipe book and then I secretly copied all the pages.  Just so I have them! 

(then, neglected to put them into a binder or notebook and they are getting  a very 'used' look to them.

see....

it only looks like they are in a binder, as I copied that also--just laid her cookbook/notebook flat and copied it all! )

Look!  There is Debbie at Cooking Club with Shelly, our Friday Friend who is turning all this into a real cookbook!

You can see all of her posts here--just click!

She has been known to wear a coconut bra once or twice in her life also.

It seems as if my friends don't know how to do the coconut bra?

This is how you do it girls--

The Handyman and Barb!

I'm not sure, but I think she might be pointing out a nipple (?).

Also...isn't it amazing that I can always bring a theme around?  I mean,  Debbie E--coconut bra, with Shelly the maker of the designer cookbook, with Handyman sporting the way to wear a coconut bra fashionably, with BARB, the one who typed up all these recipes for me in the first place.

Whew.

And may I present, the Handyman and his mother.

That makes 133 done and only 165 to go!

oh...look! I found a picture of me and Debbie together!

This is not an easy thing.

We are in my backyard...must have been somebody's graduation party, circa 2003.

Still after all that I have 165 recipes to go!

Outdoor Wednesday

We opened up our cabin in Oregon this past weekend.

It rained and was damp and cold, but oh, so beautiful and green!  Coming from this desert rat--where I think brown in beautiful too--green is heaven!

Speaking of heaven,  I made the family take a drive on Saturday afternoon, and we came upon an old cemetery. Below are a few photos of that and then some more random ones of our country road drive.

**by the way, the Handyman says: you have taken the same photos of the same places for years!  He's right.

But still.... beautiful!

What does your Outdoor Wednesday look like?

oh....and a couple of Nevada skies I took while on our way up to the cabin.  We left before sunrise, so saw this on the way!

Friday Friend Recipe #132 -- Do Ahead Mashed Potatoes

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #132!

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Barb's Do Ahead Mashed Potatoes

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!

These need no introduction at all.

Potatoes and cheese = Happy Dance.

 Speaking of a happy dance--- I think Barb and Doug actually did a little dance with these outfits on!

This will be Barb's 30th time in the Cookbook Countdown!  To see all her recipes click here!

We've been friends for a gazillion years--and today happens to be her birthday!

Happy birthday Barb!!

I was all prepared to do a funny story about her-- how she and Doug were 'invisible', but now I don't think it's appropriate to embarrass her.

She is lovely, has a great sense of humor, is a meticulous housekeeper, a quilter, a golfer, a great cook, a good mom, a conservative dresser.

Never has my friend done an inappropriate thing.

Never.

Never has she kicked all the men out of a restroom so she could use it. (more times than one)

Never has she lectured a non-English speaking girl about using a 'potty guard' in a restaurant bathroom.

Never  has she suggested to me, while we were at a water park with our families, that we should tell a European woman that she should 'shave' her whatzit area, before wearing a 2-peice bathing suit. (if Barb had done this--she might have thought of it as helpful, and her friend, ME, might have said NO, we are NOT doing that.  IF of course this had ever happened)

Never has she used a vomit bag to 'potty in' while on an airplane flight in an airplane which didn't' have a bathroom.

I would never want to embarrass her on her birthday by saying these lies.

So I won't.

She is the friend who typed up the original Friday Friend Cookbook for me!  (you should see the condition it is in now!)

She typed and sorted and spent her own money on a 'graphics'  CD.  And then she copied and packaged and mailed it to me!

She is responsible for THIS! 

Well, she and my  husband, who have always been partners (in crime!)

This photo of the four of us taken in Yuba City, CA, 20-22 years ago? But I think we still look exactly the same!

Happy Happy Birthday Barb!

I hope someone makes you some good mashed potatoes!

 And that, my friend, is

recipe #132!

Only 166 left to go!

Friday Friend Recipe #131 -- Gina's Cheating Sauce (Spaghetti Sauce #9)

Friday Friend Recipe #131--Gina's Cheating  Sauce

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... recipe #131

 

Gina's

Cheating Sauce

Gina is a great cook! GREAT, I tell you! And this sauce is mostly homemade--the title comes from Gina's comment in the parenthesis in her recipe.  She really is not a 'cheater'.

I was just a tad bit unclear -- this is how I made the sauce-- I made a meat sauce with all her ingredients, AND I added meatballs in the sauce.  It really was a good spaghetti sauce!

This is Gina's 1st--FIRST--appearance in the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown (I keep finding these friends who hid out by only turning in 1 or 2 recipes) altho I do have her tagged in four other blog posts. I guess I don't think of her as a new one in the countdown--she's in my cooking/dinner club, and she's also a "Winnemucca Bird Nerd Herd" member, if you'd like to see other posts with Gina in them, click on this!

I have agonized over which story about Gina I should tell, because I feel that this might be her only recipe in the cookbook--and I can't go on for pages and pages (even tho I like to do that sometimes), so....I'm going to tell you about Gina's man, Mark.

Gina got married in her mid 30's.  She was much sought after, of course, but she had high standards. (and she had a group of 7 friends whom any man she dated had to be approved of by...it was a tuff crowd)

One morning, 14 years ago, after a blind date, April and I stopped by her house to have some coffee and we said,  "Well?  Do tell!"

Gina smiled and said, "he was a really nice guy, but we have nothing in common at all.  He's an adventurer.  He's an extreme sportsman! He climbs mountains and rides motorcycles and sky dives. Nothing in common. At. All.  He'll never call me back"

Then 13 years ago, this happened:

Gina's getting.... 

To that same guy who was 'nice' but would 'never call her back'.

I guess he did.

Call her back.

He called her back and then---he had to get approval from all of us!

So fourteen  years have come and gone...

And our adventurer Mark, has stolen  more than Gina's heart, he took her more 'spectator personality' and turned her into a 'semi-adventurer'!

She used to be a 'cheerleader' on the sidelines with us, but now she is running races, hiking mountains, riding motorcycles and snowmobiles. And having the ride of her life!

It  took  just one look--

That's my Gina Story--- I have tons more. We'll see if more recipes pop up from her.

And that is recipe #131

167 to go!