Friday Friend Recipe #184 -- Zucchini Brownies

Come with me as I continue to countdown my Friday Friend Cookbook!

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 19 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 me to recipe #184

Tracy's Zucchini Brownies

These are so good!  Like a Texas sheet cake kind of good.

You all remember my posts about my friend  Tracy-- she passed away a couple of years ago, so she never got to see herself as a  celebrity chef . HA!  That's what she'd be saying right now...HA! AS IF the Friday Friends Cookbook was famous.

But, this is not so much a Tracy story, but an Evalynn story.

Evalynn is my granddaughter.  She told me last summer that she hated zucchini and would never eat it anyhow, anyway, anytime.

She was 10.

I fooled her!

And she loved it.

I don't know how she felt about being tricked tho.

Actually she's a pretty good sport about being tricked. Game playing is another story.  She's a rule follower. Do not deviate from the rules!

Every summer we have a cousin camp up at our cabin in Oregon.

(photo from last summer---missing a couple of cousins)

Yes, a rule follower.  The previous summer she had a little trouble with the miniature golfing outing and her younger cousins... so this time I told her, *'Ev, play your own game of golf. Just concentrate on you and have fun, because in this group, we have poor sportsmen, cheaters and 2 four year olds---it's not gonna be pretty.  Just play your own game of golf and have fun!'

She tried.  She really did.

It's just so hard when people don't play by the rules!

I think she might have lagged behind and pretended she was with that family--the ones without any other kids.

~grins~

Speaking of any other kids..

this was the night her parents told her she was going to be a big sister.

Zucchini AND having to share your dad from now on?

2 big things for one girl to handle.

She's doing just fine tho....

great big sister and will eat zucchini if it's concealed within brownie batter.

Those cousins tho.... that's another story.

*disclaimer:  the cousins don't actually cheat, they were just learning the rules of the game and she's a bit older than they are...and let me just say, a couple of her uncles (and maybe her dad) aren't out of the realm of trickery or bamboozeling when it comes to game playing!  The cousins learned from the masters!

Who knows how many I have left to go?

I've been on a little Friday Friend Cookbook break for awhile--so much so that a friend on Facebook asked me if I was done posting my stories about what I cook.

See Tracy!!  Famous! You can quit smiling down from heaven about that one!

We are famous, I tell ya!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Outdoor Wednesday

I have been so amiss lately (note to self, be sure and check & understand what amiss really means before I hit publish), here on my blog.  I pretty much disappeared for the past few months.  I guess I just needed a break. BUT most bloggers feel the need for a break and tell people.

They state it here:

I'm taking a break from blogging for a while.

But not me.

I just disappear.

I don't know that I feel like a break until I quit writing.

Then one week turns into 2 weeks and then---3 or 4 months have gone by.

Yikes!

Well, welcome back me. (I guess)

Here is my Outdoor Wednesday thought---

I guess I should give the book "The Shack" another try.

I'll be honest it wasn't my favorite.  It was a DNF for me, an abandoned book.

All my friends loved it tho! It was just not for me.

Perhaps it was because at the beginning of the book, a murder took place (not  a spoiler). And this murder took place here:

My home, my heart--a place that makes my soul complete!!!!

No one really has been murdered there!!!

I think it set the tone for the whole book for me --  I had a grudge.

(but to be fair, I didn't like "the Five People You meet in Heaven" either.  Maybe I just don't care for 'weird' heaven people and places?) I don't know why I can't get past that feeling of betrayal and get on with the book.

The movie comes out this weekend and everyone is so excited.

My mind is closed.  Stupid book, stupid movie.

But, perhaps I should give it another try (sigh).

The Handyman had a meeting for work, up north, so he took a quick morning trip to our cabin at Wallowa Lake while he was close. 

There has been a lot of snow this winter and we were all a bit worried about damage, but there seemed to be none.

He took these "outdoor" pictures on  Saturday.

No murders dear reader, but bears. Yes! And cougars, bobcats and lots of deer. Ornery raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks and birds.

(the Handyman saw footprints in the snow of a mountain lion, who had visited our cabin)

Here is how you get rid of them.... make yourself BIG!

The Handyman and a couple of his granddaughters, learning how to act big to scare away a bear if you meet one on the trail.

Evalynn must be thinking "there is no way this hand is going to scare away a bear!"

So, my outdoor pics are of a place I love. Which is featured for a moment, in a book,  where a bad thing happens.  Don't judge.

(this is so silly -- Stephen King uses the whole state of Nevada as an evil setting for some of his books and I don't mind that!! )

The real Wallowa Lake.

Not fake!

(I also have a grudge that they didn't film in the real place)

(I will get over this--I promise ~grins~) 

Outdoor Wednesday

I've been off the blogesphere for almost 2 months.  No reason really--just busy and time goes by so fast!!

Oh..and we had grandkids the whole month of July, 2 and 3 different sets but still, the whole month of July.

We are kind of tired this month.

OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY is as good a time to jump back in to the blogging community--don't you think?

On Wednesdays I'll sometimes join A Southern Daydreamer and her Outdoor Wednesday meme to share some pictures.

Stop by and check out other great photos of the outdoors!

Since I'm jumping back in after 2 months of being gone, I'm just sharing a few photos of my Grandchildren and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians.

We have a cabin close by this lake and there is a lot of history (as there is in any place).  The Nez Perce Indians used the lake and the Eagle Cap Wilderness as their winter campgrounds.  And Old Chief Joseph died here. 

The Statue is of Young Chief Joseph (the "I will fight no more forever" Chief. You all know your Native American history, right?), the grave-site is his father's.

The cute kids are mine.

And that is where I was during the month of July!

Outdoor Wednesday

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by

A Southern Daydreamer.

Click here to play along.

This summer, we took a day trip and stopped at Thunder Mountain Indian Monument.

Thunder Mountain is very unique.  Very Interesting.VERY  Strange.

I think the story goes like this:

A Native American had a vision and began to build.  He built from sticks and sagebrush and mud... whatever he could find in the desert around him.  He kept building and building and building -- it was a never ending project.  He passed away some time ago and it has fallen into disarray.

So now the State of Nevada is going to try and restore it.

Here is a little background on the "real" story, just click if you'd like to find out.

I read the words "hippie artisans" in the article while glancing thru it, so maybe he wasn't a Native American?  I guess legends are part truth, part made up or exaggerated stories.

I really can't find the words to describe it.

I think the 'Very' in VERY strange does a good job.

But it's also worth trying to restore -- it's unique little things like this you find on a road side that makes traveling fun!

If you come my way---you'll travel right by it.

There are parts that are fenced off, so vandals can't get close.

(I guess if you are a vandal, you do whatever you want tho)

 And then....there are certain things you can get close to.

Just a collection of --- old, odd stuff.