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.

Friday Friend Recipes #247 and #248 Chicken Vegetable Bake and Carrot Pudding

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 closest friends and family (from all over the county) on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends . At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 20 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. (plus so much more....)

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 thinks he 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... recipes #247 and #248

My Chicken and Vegetable Bake and my mom's Carrot Pudding

The Chicken and Vegetable I actually got from my mother-in-law.  It is the most comforting winter Sunday afternoon dinner there is. Roasted chicken!  Roasted veggies---look at that little teeny roast mark/scorch on that carrot.  So yummy!

Put some butter and salt and pepper on there and it's so good!

You could probably add in any veggies you want--and I added some kielbasa this time. It's also the easiest thing to do when  you are pressed for time, but still want a comfort type of supper.

(LOOK!!  I need a spreadsheet---I already marked this as posted, but I can find no evidence of it anywhere in/on my blog.  Not with the tags, chicken, Friday Friend Cookbook, me, mom B.  OR the date in April 2019.  So I will cross that off and wonder what I did make that didn't get marked off in my book.  sigh.)

Now the carrot pudding?

It's my mom's recipe.

Does anyone even make a steamed pudding for dessert anymore?

I had to purchase a special steamed pudding cooker thing from Amazon to make this one recipe. 

And you actually 'steam' it in a pot on top of the stove.

It's a weird process, but it tasted good. It's very similar to a carrot cake, altho a very moist--VERY MOIST carrot cake.

(moist is a weird word when you say it over and over. I just had to point that out)

We liked it, the carrot pudding. Would I make it again?  I'm not sure, maybe for a special occasion or something.

It was a fun, old-fashioned, comfort kind of day when we had this meal.

I have a confession to make--I stole my mother-in-law's recipe box.  

For many  years, I've been wanting to make a memory book/cookbook for my sisters-in-law, with their mother's memories and recipes, so....when we were with her in October,  we were visiting about recipes and she mentioned a tamale pie that she used to make and the recipe was in her recipe box inside a cabinet behind the pasta.

I never knew she had a recipe box  (she actually had 3) and I thought I'd been thru all of her recipes/books etc.  I've been married to her son for almost 42 years!  I thought I knew everything about her.   I don't even know if her daughters know she has recipe boxes!

I stole 2 of them!  My secret is out now.  (okay, okay, I'm going to give them back.  I'll just place them behind the pasta and be like "oh look what I found!")

She used to make menus for every week and I love her notes!

She would write:

The vegetables were always buttered  and parslied in her menu lists.

And the salads were always 'tossed' or 'green'.  I wonder if there were in a difference in her mind back then?

There was no evidence of  Jell-O salads as were commonplace on my own tables growing up.

I think that once the cookbook countdown is over, I will make her menus.  We will eat as they did in the 60's and 70's.  As a new challenge!
😊

At this time in her life, she will never know the recipe boxes are missing from her home--she was in a senior living apartment for a while (but she still owns her house, so us out of towners can have a place to stay when we come to visit--and she's very lucky to be able to afford to do so) but at the moment she is in a rehab facility recuperating from a foot surgery.

So, she'll never know---but her daughters will!

I am going to blame their brother!

(and I better get to working on those memory books for them)

Because these two recipes were actually my mom's and mother-in-law's, I thought I would share my story of Cooking Club.  Because the very first Cooking club we ever had, had the theme of:  cooking like mama used to do.

Before I go any further, I wanted to say that we still do get together a 3-4 times a year and have a great time.  Many fun themes have been experienced from Cajun Cooking to Famous Chefs to Breakfast for dinner--next week we will be doing Jewish Deli Cooking.

Now back to our Mama's Cooking in 2015 -- taken straight from my blog!

*****

 Cooking Club #1

March 22, 2015

WE DID IT!!

We finally started The Cooking Club!

You might think it just looks like a normal dinner party, 

BUT

It is not.

It's our Cooking Club.

I tried to get everyone's attention to take a photo....

April's eyes are closed (sorry April), and I caught Debbie mid-bite (sorry Debbie) but at least every one is looking my way.

Everyone but the Handyman, that is.

(He's busy buttering his bread or something.  He must eat, has no time for photos)

a disclaimer--this was when Shelly and her husband Lorin were just substitutes for Cooking  Club, they later became permanent members. So, no photos of them. (this time) even tho she is a best cooking friend too.

 I picked my best cooking friends and we had a great time!

Gina and Sally

  Debbie and April

There is no picture of me.  Maybe next time.

This is what we did --- 

we drew names for a dish.

for example:   appetizer, salad, side, main dish and dessert.

And then we decided on a theme.

Tonight's theme was: cooking like mama used to do.

You had to make a dish that your mother used to make.  

Then you had to come talk about it and 'justify' it if need be.

We had so much fun talking about the dishes our mom's used to make.  Even the guys got into it, they started telling stories of  mom's cooking and food memories when they were growing up. 

Gina brought her mom's old recipe box.

It was fun to see the old typed ones?  It seems we all have some that were typed on note-cards. As well as all those hastily written on the backs of envelopes and stuff.

And you notice the 'old momish' type of appetizers?  Stuffed celery and olives and gherkins? 

Those were from Debbie E. she even served them in her mother's old serving dishes.

 I should have taken a photo of everyone's dish, but I didn't.

(what was I thinking???)

But our menu for our Mom's Cooking Theme was:

Stuffed celery/olives/pickles-- Debbie E

Mini Meatloves -- me

Vegetable Salad-- Gina

Scalloped potatoes-- Sally

Cream Cheese Brownies -- April

Just like our mom's used to make!!

Oh...and I put the type of bread on the table like my mom use to:

white bread slices on a plate!

(Sally's husband Paul was very excited about that! )

At the end of the evening, we drew from a hat  (Okay it was a basket-- that basket on the table there) and our theme for next time is

Cajun Cooking!

And I just happened to have a cookbook I got out for everyone to look thru.

 (see that book shelf in the background --- those are all cookbooks.  I have a problem)

My friends I bring to you recipe #247 and 248

Only 119 left to go!

Woo Hoo!