Monday, October 21, 2019

Friday Friend Recipe #236 and #237 - Barb's Chicken Spaghetti and Brown Sugar Squares






Come with me as I continue to countdown my Friday Friend Cookbook!
What is it, you may ask?
In a nutshell....
About 20 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!





My mom had this recipe too---except she called it Brown Sugar Chewies.  They are very chewy, those Brown Sugar Squares.  Chewy and Good!
I think bar cookies are an easy, delicious way to end any dinner when you need just a little sweetness.  
This recipe calls for mostly  items you have on hand, making it easy to enjoy  any night of the week.
They are kind of 'melt in  your mouth goodness'



My mother had the absolutely worst handwriting ever!
I just like to look at it---it makes me miss her.
My dad had bad handwriting too.  It was always a mystery to figure out their letters and postcards.
(one time my dad sent me a postcard from Hawaii and he wrote that they were going out to dinner--all I could read was that they were bonging out for summer.
I was surprised at my parents!  LOL







This is the best comfort food ever!
I love the chicken spaghetti!
It's just cheesy, noodley  goodness.










Barb's 52 appearance in the countdown!
And again, I say, I'm running out of pictures and stories about her.

A few years ago, about  8 to be exact, I had a birthday party for myself at our cabin in Oregon--Wallowa Lake--and a lot of my Friday Friends came from all over (Washington, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Minnesota,  etc)
Barb drove up from Arizona and then she and I left a day early to go up to the cabin and get things ready for everyone.  
Thursday we made pulled pork and a few salads for everyone who was arriving that evening.  Barb helped me to get things ready for that.  We grocery shopped, we cooked, we pulled (the pork), we cleaned, we planned, we had fun.  It was a bit drizzly that day, so we even played some cards while we awaited the masses.
Friday night we took over a small restaurant where they made beer can chicken for us.
Saturday night we had a traveling cocktail party.
Sunday all kinds of leftovers.
Barb was like my girl Friday, or my extra special assistant. 
It's a good thing she is super extra ordinarily organized and efficient--because then I didn't have to be! 

 I'm just going to share a few random photos of Barb at the traveling cocktail party.
I promise when my next recipe on the countdown comes up, I will give a full review of my best birthday party weekend of all time.
But for now---I give you random Barb.

I'm not sure if she and April were doing the Bump or not?



And at one cabin on the travels--it looks like Barb had to hold herself up with a pole. I mean this was the 5th cabin-- was 5th cocktail of the night--and we still had more to go!
Oh... in case I forgot to mention--it was a WALKING traveling cocktail party.

Every cabin had a 'theme' (I'll have to tell the story of the whole weekend sometime) and this particular cabin's theme was "Elf Yourself Happy".   I had taken a photo of a sign that said 
Drink your self happy or something like that, but there was a pole blocking out the S on self, so it looked like it said to Drink your ELF happy.
So we were!



 Barb with a pork rind, Because before the Elf cabin, there was the hillbilly cabin.
Themes people---it's all about themes.



Barb (and Doug and Cherrie) saying 'CHEERS' to a vacation well done!
At least I think that's what she's doing.




That's my story!
My friends I bring to you recipe #236 and #237

Only 130 left to go!


Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Cooking Club - Thai Food (and maybe TMI about my friends)






Cooking Club
We go back and forth on what to call ourselves--cooking club?  Supper club?
We are just people who like to make food, eat and talk.


I am so far behind on Cooking Club updates!
And we have really spread out our get-togethers. 
With jobs and traveling and retiring--we are just busy.
I'm not sure who I'm apologizing too, but still---I'm behind.

To bring you up to date, this is what we've done so far:



Cooking Club #1 -Meals your mom used to make

Cooking Club #2- Cajun Cooking

Cooking Club #3 - Let's all go to Hawaii


Cooking Club #5 - Famous Chefs  (long post with other stuff mixed in, but just trust me)

Cooking Club #6 -Meatball Madness -- or something round  (long post combined with Famous Chef's.  Scroll thru some stuff to get there)

Cooking Club #7 - Breakfast for dinner

Cooking Club #8 - Slow Cooking

Cooking Club #9 - Mexican Street Food



Cooking Club #12 - It's all Greek to Me!

Cooking Club #13 -A Root Beer Tasting Holiday

And Now! -- Cooking Club #14 Thai Food 

and still to come (because I'm so late in posting)
Cooking Club Pizza
Cooking Club PNW (Pacific Northwest)
Cooking Club Milkstreet Mania

Here are five of us (we are missing Gina, but we figure we have to catch whoever is in town when we can) 
Debbie, Shelly, Me, Sally and April

We are the cookers!  We all love to cook --except for Shelly. 
(Shelly loves to socialize. And eat.  Two very good qualities for a supper club--that's why we can't decide if it's cooking club or supper club!) 
It was Debbie's turn to host and she really wanted to do Thai Food, because it's her favorite.  I have to say it was all WONDERFUL, altho the fried bananas were certainly a new taste for our buds  (nicely cooked tho April!)




I had the appetizers and because I couldn't find spring roll wrappers in my little town, I went with Thai pork lettuce wraps and Thai chicken wings for the win!






These are our guys enjoying the lettuce wraps and chicken wings!
They were very yummy!



And drinks!  
Debbie found a Spicy Thai Lemongrass Ginger margarita.
HOLY COW!
It was the strongest thing I've ever had in my life.  Maybe that's why the conversation while we ate dessert took a turn.... (read on to find out how)



Paul was the bartender and then everyone gathered 'round to get those spicy drinks.
They were very spicy and very strong!






Debbie sets a pretty table!


Sometimes I wish I lived in a big city, where I could be incognito, but then---I think
small town friends are the best!



We started with some soup by Sally.
A Thai chicken soup.


Then we had some curries by Debbie.
Beef Curry and Chicken Curry.
So Yummy!!



And Debbie had spicy chilies on the table to add more spicy spice to the curry if we wanted.


Shelly made a Thai noodle salad!


And April finished us off with some fried bananas and Thai Flan.



It was a very good meal.
A substantial meal!
We tend to eat big when we have cooking club.




This is Tom.



Naughty naughty Tom!





But he really wants to help do the dishes!




You know how, earlier I mentioned that the drinks were the strongest ever and how that might have led to some interesting discussion?
Well......

Notice the TP  (that's short for toilet paper-😄) on the table?  And people touching it?

Okay....full disclosure.... this might be too  much information for you.  Especially since we're not that familair with each other...  but Cooking Club kind of brings out the familiar.
So now these friends, whom I love, well, we are way more familiar with each other now!






Why?  You might be asking yourself. Why?
Well, I had just read a book about --I can't remember, BUT it had this part in it which mentioned that people don't eat at each other's homes anymore.  
People, don't invite friends over as much, they tend to go out to eat.  It went on to tell how eating at home around a table can lead to much more interesting conversation. 
Such as--- are you a folder or a scruncher when it comes to toilet paper?

I know, I know! What a conversation!
This led to us all finding out things about each other and EVEN OUR OWN SPOUSES, that we did not know.
(you thought you knew your own husband? Think again!)
Conversation was fast and furious and funny and before you knew it, I had gone to get some TP out of Debbie E's bathroom and some were showing us the artful master of the scrunch vs the fold.

We were all surprised and well---kind of in shock that we took it this far!

Actually no, it was the funniest conversation ever.
EVER!
We laughed our asses off--which is ironic since we were talking about asses. 
(I'm such a comedian! LOL ) 






Maybe we should go into dinner party influcing? 
Influencers are big right now.
Good times!


You know how you can tell that I'm behind in posting?
We were all glued to the television at certain times during the evening---watching the Olympics in January! 
2018!!!








The food was good, the conversation at the table--beyond description--the company was great!

Cooking Club #14 was the best one ever!

Coming up next---Cooking Club Pizza!













Friday Friend recipe #352

  Making my way thru my  Friday Friend Cookbook , one recipe at a time. What is the Friday Friend cookbook?  I once had about 50 of my close...