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!