Friday Friend recipes #276 and #277 --Seafood Pasta Salad and Zucchini Cake

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 21 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 #276 and 277

Tracy's Seafood Pasta Salad and Zucchini Cake

This sound so good to me--I want it right now!

I love a good pasta salad--maybe more than a potato salad and that's saying a lot, as I really love a potato salad.

But this is just so good.

Pasta salads just seem summery to me.

As does zucchini anything. Because that's when zucchini is in season.

Garrison Keillor, of a Prairie Home Companion, had an essay about zucchini and how in late summer, you'd wake up to 2 or 3 zucchini on your front porch and if you left your car unlocked and/or windows down to run into the store, you'd come back and find a couple zucchini on your front seat.

It was a Midwest story, of a time gone by, I feel, because people don't have home gardens as much anymore and we don't 'reach out' to our neighbors as much anymore either.

Unless---unless you are in the Post Office in  Winnemucca, Nevada on a hot, sunny, August afternoon and some random gentleman in line before you starts asking everyone if we want zucchini!  He had a bunch in his car and needed to get rid of them.

It was like 1965 all over again!

If someone offers you a zucchini take it!

And make this great zucchini cake.

I have a few more recipes of Tracy's to add, but my stories and mostly my photos of Traci are slim.

I worked with Tracy over 20 years ago when we taught pre-school, and I didn't have a cell phone to snap, snap, snap at a moments notice, so I have ended up stealing a few photos from Facebook when I needed them, BUT today I went to look and they have taken her Facebook page down.  Tracy passed away a few  years ago, so it's only natural, but still it was kind of sad to me to not be able to find it today.

So I'm using a photo that I used previously.

And my story is that she made a mean pasta salad and zucchini cake!

And these my friends are

recipes #276 and 277

Only 90 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 90- it's more like 77. 

Which would make me very happy, but for now....I'll stick to the 90 until it gets closer to the end and I'll recount what I have left.  

Friday Friend Recipes #230 - Artichoke Pasta Salad

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook? I 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 19 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 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... recipe #230

My mother-in-law's Artichoke Pasta  Salad

It tasted good.

The photographs do not do it justice.

The balsamic vinegar I used was very  dark and the pasta soaked up the color, SO if that offends you for some odd reason, don't use a hearty balsamic, but something lighter.

This is easy and good--a little different take on a pasta salad.

So, this is my favorite mother-in-law Teresa's recipe, her 8th one in the countdown.

I was going to do this write up about what a great time we had at the wedding of her son and daughter.  What a great mother of the bride--and groom, she was.

Yes!  Her son and daughter. 

It was a double wedding--they married other people, they just had a double wedding. 

The Handyman likes to say 'the day my brother and sister got married'.

It kind of freaks people out and we laugh and laugh before we tell them.

We're kind of weird.

They had the best wedding!

I'll write all about the next time one of 'my' recipes comes up.

But for now--I'll just show you a photo of the Handyman and his mother (my favorite mother-in-law) at said wedding.

You can tell by the photo that they had the BEST wedding, but that's a tale for another day.

This story just took a turn of its own--- because of the mystery of the coconut bra.

It is missing!

The coconut bra is property of our friend Shelly and she loaned it to the Handyman for his wedding attire and she says she hasn't seen it since.

Seen below with Barbara Brown, the editor and publisher of the original Friday Friend cookbook (meaning she typed all these darn things out, made copies, punched holes, put in notebooks, etc)

Barb was at the wedding, but never wore the bra.

(but apparently had enough to drink to bravely point out a coconut nipple)

Much later Shelly is seen at book club with coconut bra on over her clothes.

Thank goodness the Handyman has proof he returned Shelly's bra.

Much, Much later a coconut bra is seen on Debbie E at Cooking Club.

Shelly is not concerned because this is not the same coconut bra.  Not hers. 

Still hers has not been seen since book club.

What does that mean?  That book club was wilder than the wedding reception of the Handyman's brother and sister?

That book club was so wild another coconut bra had to be purchased for Cooking Club?

What happened at book club? 

What happened to the coconut bra?!

Stay tuned to find out!

Also-- we love a theme apparently!

My friends I bring to you recipe #230!

Only 137 left to go!