Friday Friend Recipe #288 And #289 Traci's Spaghetti and Shrimp/Crab Dip

 

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #289 and #289

Traci's Spaghetti and Shrimp/Crab Dip

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!

Just remember, the countdown is not all about pretty food and food design---it's about the people and the stories.

And (the most important thing)  proving my husband wrong--and that I can and WILL make every recipe in this cookbook

This is Spaghetti Sauce #18 in the Friday Friend Cookbook--and I'm not done yet! (with spaghetti sauces)

Traci doesn't call it 'canned' -- Barb was looking for different titles for the gazillion spaghetti sauce recipes that came in!

What does one say about spaghetti?

It's good?  Because it's all good!

I had to show that I did 'mix it together" and also left sauce to put over top.

This was a heated debate between Friday Friends on the forum--do you mix the sauce in, or do you spoon it over the top?

Wars have been fought over such disagreements! Kingdoms ruined!

Now this? This is really, really good!

I tried to chop my veggies small, I really did. But it doesn't look like it--no matter, it's great.

There are so many variations of this seafood dip in the book --all just a bit different and all very good.

and that 2 and a star doesn't mean it was only 2stars rating.  It was page #2 for the appetizers and the star just means I'm done with all the recipes on that page. 

She said to put in in a mold.

The only mold I have is this lime green Tupperware mold from 1979.

And look! It has/had a crack in it.  I say had because I tossed this mold as soon as I unmolded the dip. Because---1979! and a crack.

But I did not throw any of this dip away!  It was yummy and we ate every bit of it.

Okay...now for my Traci story .

This will be her 9th, appearance in the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown.

Last appearing on February 18, 2019.  Where I said she was my person--she still is, we email back and forth all day long on workdays, but she is set to retire in 5 months and 1 week. 

What'll I do then?

She's my person--I'm her person.

We have these very stimulating and intellectual conversations.

Just look at this one email from Monday from me to her (it was in a thread of 26 back and forth conversations)

Debbie Stone	Mon, Jan 10, 10:32 AM (2 days ago)
to Traci

so it intrigues me.  But not enough to learn it well.  hahahaaha

wadded up panties to chess.    ??? hmmmm.   LOL

She answered:

Traci M

to me

It's a Monday what can we say?  hahaha

Now don't worry your pretty little heads about why we were talking about wadded up panties. It's really not important...really, it's not.

Okay, if you must know, we were only talking about folding underwear.  

and then it might've got weird from there.

BUT 

I'm just saying--I'll miss her (in 5 months and 1 week)

One time in the Friday Friend Forum, I asked this question:

Did you have trouble with your mother when you were growing up?

Traci answered:

I was going to say that she wouldn't let me do all the stuff I thought I should be able to do during my teenage years but thinking back--I pretty much did what I wanted to whether she knew about it or not.

We really didn't argue that much, if we did it was more about my crappy teenage attitude than anything else.

OOOHHHH Traci, a rebel!  

She did whatever she wanted.  Within reason, I'm sure. 

I wonder if that meant getting married at 18. She wanted to, so she did it!

Traci and Larry, sittin' in a tree

K. I. S. S. ING!

Look at their little baby faces!

Then look at them 29 or 30 years later (and this was about 15 years ago), when their daughter got married!

Traci told me (In Tuesday's email.  hahahaa) that this was the only time she's ever seen her husband's face naked.

He shaved for their daughter's wedding and then he grew the mustache back.

Quite handsome both ways!

And it stuck!  Getting married at 18 is a gamble.  Well, any age is really--

But they will be married 45 years in the fall.

I love long love stories.

"He" "Larry" really is her person---not me.

He's the one who knows her better than she knows herself.

(LOL that was a question once asked in the FF Forum.  I can't find his answer. We'll just say he does.)

I am just including this pic of Traci and her dad.  She loved him very much, he passed away shortly after they got married if I recall correctly.

He's a handsome man too!

It's a great picture.

And these my friends are

recipes #288 and #289

Only 78 left to go!

I can do it!

WOO HOO!  I am below 100 recipes now.  Yay!  Yahoo! Whoopie!

Altho.... do you remember when I counted wrong before?  I think I did it again.

I keep counting what I have left by recipe AND by person and it does not add up to 78- it's more like 65. 

Which would make me very happy, but for now.... I'll stick to the 78 until it gets closer to the end, and I'll recount what I have left.