Friday friend recipe number 295--Theda's Carrot Cake

 I am under 75 recipes now--I must get this done!  At least to prove something to myself if not the Handyman...

 because...

...about 21 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 us to Theda's 

Carrot Cake

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

I just need to hurry up and 'get 'er done'

Then I'll show him!

And as always, it's not about the quality of the photos, it's about the family, friends and fun we have all had together!

As far as carrot cakes go--this is the best bar none!

Bar none!

I'm not kidding.

It's so good and moist and yummy!

***

This is Theda's 17th appearance in the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown.

You can check out all her recipes (which are fabulous) by clicking here.  Right here.

If you recall, 2 posts ago, I left off with a 'to be continued...

It was a story about my mom and her not so nice treatment of her date.

I said this--

It's a good thing that this isn't hereditary!

Or.... is it?

Hmmmm----to be continued.........

because she said this--

(about her first date) my first date was when I was a freshman in high school.  This boy picked me up in a dirty work pickup that his older brother was driving!  We all went to a dance at the school that was held in the hallways of our school.  Your father asked me to dance, and we snuck away and went into a stairway, which was open, and talked and talked.  I guess that was the beginning of your father and my courtship.

Hmmmm.  

You all know my Theda story/history, right?  She's my oldest friend.  She's an old, old, old friend!  We go way back---

--way back to Jr. High School. 

(she'll say freshman year of high school, I say 8th grade--whatever!  That's a lot of history--lots of time to have 'the dirt' on another person!)

Like the dirt of us actually ditching one carload of guys for another in the A&W parking lot in Pasco, WA.

We did. I'm sorry to say we did, but we did.

We had left my little white Chevy Vega in the Zips parking lot (a local to the Pacific Northwest, hamburger joint) and climbed in a car with some friends, who happened to be boys from our rival high-school in Kennewick, WA and went cruising with them.

We did this all the time--went cruising. We'd make a big loop of a couple main drags in town, meet up at Zips and then cruise over the old bridge to Pasco, and see what was happening in the A&W parking lot.

And back and forth and back and forth--all night long.

On one loop at the A&W, I jumped out to say hello to friends, who also happened to be boys, from Pasco High school, and I got in their car. All of the sudden, Theda showed up with our coats and purses and got in too.

And off we went.

That is our ditching story!

I am happy to report that we remained friends with everybody.

just like my mother did.

It is hereditary. 

(we were so innocent back then--it was then 70's--and we really and truly were.  also, it wasn't unusual to carhop at different hamburger places. 

LOL carhop!)

Theda and her family came to visit us once here in Winnemucca. 

I would venture to say it was about 15 years ago and we took them on a whirlwind day trip of Humboldt County.  

Paradise Valley

the top of Winnemucca Mountain

The Chamber of Commerce office

We know how to entertain!

In front of my office.

I miss those old doors and that old sign! 

(where IS that sign?)

The husbands in Paradise. Valley, that is.

Such a sweet family!

Sorry to interrupt, but

One more Theda story...

I want to get all the stories I can in, because I'm drawing nearer and nearer to being done.

No, this is not Theda's goodbye post, but--I just have two stories.

So, sue me!

Today at 62 years old, and after searching for "my drink" for years, I have come to the realization that a Gin and Tonic is it for me.

But way back in 1978ish, when Theda and I were young, very young, I was dating the Handyman and she was dating his roommate Steve.

We thought, as young girls often do, that if we cleaned their apartment, they would really appreciate it and like us all the more.

Like us all the more!!

(hahahahahaaa!!)

(Apparently this is true of the Handyman as he is still hanging around, but not so of Steve, since Theda dumped him not soon after this and sailed off to college where she met John (who actually went to high school his senior year with us--they just reconnected in college).  

Anyway, all these years later I am still cleaning up after the Handyman!  WTH??? )

So, picture us cleaning. 

Listening to Barry Manilow.  YES, Barry Manilow.  On the stereo.

And we decide to take a few sips of some alcohol they have.  They (Handyman and Steve) were not home at the time.

Well, we chose a bottle of gin.  Little did we know that drinking a swig, sip, swallow of straight gin was like swallowing your own tongue!!

IT WAS SO HORRIBLE!!

HORRIBLE!

When the Handyman and Steve got home, we were a bit tipsy, (from one or two sips of straight gin!  We were not drinkers) crying over Barry Manilow love songs.

Yes, we were really crying--I mean, how can you NOT cry over songs like "Looks like we made it" and "Mandy" or "Somewhere in the Night" when you've had a bit of gin?

The apartment was not so clean.

I really thought for a minute that I had swallowed my tongue!! 

I don't know what Theda thought, because we couldn't talk for about 15 minutes afterwards.

 She is not a gin drinker to this day!


Now back to the regularly scheduled post...  the rest of the photos.

And this my friends is

recipe #295

Only 72 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 72- it's more like 66. 

Which would make me very happy, but for now....I'll stick to the 73 until it gets closer to the end and I'll recount what I have left.