Author Archives: Ellen

A Prairie Favorite…

…McNally Robinson Bookstore!

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I was so impressed with this store and all they have to offer.

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The store had our spot all ready for us and the staff was ready to take care of anything we needed during our 2 hour signing.IMGP0163

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This was our first signing in Winnipeg and we were so happy to meet so many wonderful people. It was fun to be seated by the Canadian Biography section of the bookstore.

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What fun to meet the Wreathmaker, Millie and her husband. I’ve visited Millie’s blog so it was great to meet her in person.

 John Toews, took such good care of us while we signed books at the store!

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We had a little competition with the evening book talk on 300 Years of Beer. I got a kick out of our book sharing the feature case with the Beer book.

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The big thrill of the evening is when we realized that Prairie Ink Restaurant located in the bookstore was serving 3 dishes from our cookbook for the evening that we were there! Lovella’s Maple Glazed Salmon and Prawns, Charlotte’s Vegetarian Black Bean Taco Salad, and Kathy’s Chicken sliders with Pineapple Salsa!

They gave us a taste of the pineapple salsa. Delicious!

They served Charlotte’s Vegetarian Black Bean Taco Salad in a tortilla bowl.

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When we were done with our signings we sat down in the restaurant to have dinner. I ordered Kathy’s Chicken Sliders with Pineapple Salsa.

A huge thank you to McNally Robinson and Prairie Ink Restaurant for giving a special welcome to our book and our recipes!

My Dear is coming home on Saturday and I’m excited. We are postponing Father’s Day celebrations to let him recuperate from his international travel. What are your plans for the weekend and Father’s Day?

My Party Ride…

On Tuesday my son called me to say that his company had an extra ticket to the U.S.A. World Cup Qualifier Game against Panama at Century Link Field. He asked me if I’d like to meet up with him and go to the game. What do you think I said!? Yes, thank you. Off I went to a hotel in Bellevue to meet up with the rest of the group. Joshua’s company had reserved a party bus to take everyone across Lake Washington to the stadium. They also had booked a private suite for the game.

 

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Josh was able to represent well with his USA warm-up. He and I were probably the most excited of the bunch to be going to the game. Soccer is a joy for me to watch and I understand that for many it would just make you yawn. We caught the “soccer bug” after going to World Cup games in the U.S.A. in 1994.

 

It was a beautiful day in Seattle and as we crossed Lake Washington it was fun to see all the sail boats out in force. What fun to just let someone else do the driving.

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When we got into the stadium they were handing out complimentary scarves to everyone. We were very excited to receive these!

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We headed to the elevators to go up to the Suite Level. I had never been on the Suite level before.

 

You have to have a ticket that shows a Suite # to be admitted onto this floor.

 

We looked down to our usual level when we come to a game. Our Club level is pretty sweet, too.

 

Here it is…Suite 16. We were very happy to see we were not far off from the 50 yard line! Woohoo!

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Wow…this is going to be fun and comfortable!

 

Food and drinks included and 2 private restrooms.

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We picked our seats and hung our flag and got ready to cheer the U.S.A. to victory!

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The excitement was mounting and I sat ready to enjoy it all.

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This is the Centennial year for soccer in the U.S.A. Our Seattle fans are the best and unfurled these banners to celebrate 100 years of history!

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#6 Brad Evans and #18 Eddie Johnson are players from our own Sounders Football Club here in Seattle. Brad Evans scored the winning goal for the U.S.A. against Jamaica and Eddie Johnson scored a goal in this game against Panama. We’re proud of our Sounders!

 

At Half time we took the time to take some posed photos.

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What a great group of people from all over the Western States that work for our son’s company. I met folks from Arizona, Utah, California, Idaho, Denver and Washington.

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I was able to spot and zoom in on the Space Needle from our suite.

 

Great views all around. Scoring first made for a wonderful atmosphere in the stadium and the chants “We are going to Brazil” made for a lot of excitement. It’s not a given for a country as large as the U.S.A. to qualify for the World Cup. We won this game with a 2-0 result.

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When the game was over we headed down to find The Party Ride bus to take us back to the East side of Lake Washington.

 

We spotted the Party Ride just where they let us off. There were a lot of people who wished they could hop on that bus with us.

 

What a great experience for this soccer lover to enjoy with my son. If you ever have a chance to enjoy a game in a suite I would highly recommend it.

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The party bus was fun, too. I got home late and was happy to know I had nothing on my calendar until noon on Wednesday. It was nice to just relax the morning after all the fun I had on Tuesday night. Thank you dear son of mine for thinking of your soccer lovin mom! You are the best!

Today is Friday and if the weather is decent I’m headed to Edmonds for their annual Art Festival. I worked hard on Thursday clearing out the free standing cabinets in our kitchen to get ready for the new floors being installed in July. I cleared out our island cabinets as we will have to remove the island completely so the floor can be replaced under it. We have prep work to do before the flooring contractor can come in so I’ll be living with the bare necessities in my kitchen. I told Dear that if I’m too limited we might just have to eat out every night!

I’ve been so sad to see the news about the fires in Colorado. I do hope things come under control soon. Hope all is well where you live.

I’m joining in with The Tablescaper for her meme called “Oh the Places I’ve Been #9” since I’m home alone this week and have time to come and visit all the participants.

Welcome Here!

Everywhere we went in Canada I was struck with this greeting “Welcome Here”. It’s not a greeting used across the board in the U.S.A. but I’d love to start using it at my house. This post is about the places were were “welcomed here” apart from our book signing locations. I’ve already shared about Charlotte’s home and our wonderful lunch there.

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We were also treated to a wonderful meal at the home of Betty’s sister, Norma. What fun we had as Norma’s dear husband served us the meal she planned and prepared. (The Photo above is from our Women Refreshed at the Well Lodgings)

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Jack and Norma

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A lovely table set for all of us with appetizers before our main meal began.

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Not only did Jack serve us but he also washed up all the dishes while we had dessert in the Sun Porch. A great example of a servant that we are all called to be…

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All Eight of us tried to trick Norma into giving us the recipe for this delicious pasta dish she made but she held her ground and kept her secret…so far. Time will tell if we can replicate it!

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We were going to take these great little pudding/yogurt pies home with us to have at our retreat center but it turned out that we had time enough to eat them in the Sun Porch. Delicious! Aren’t they packaged nicely? That little pouch on the side is granola.

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We were so glad to be able to spend time with Betty’s sister and Jack. Thank you so much for welcoming us here! Aren’t these sisters beautiful!?

Dear called from France today and it was so good to hear his relaxed voice. Things are a little quiet at his conference since so many travelers were delayed because of air traffic strikes in France. He’s eaten some Octopus and a Risotto dish that he sent me photos of. He sees me take so many photos of food that it has rubbed off on him. Here’s a photo that he took just outside the conference center.

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Marseille, France

Tuesday night I was able to do something that qualifies for my bucket list and I’ll be sharing the experience really soon with lots of photos.

I’m watching and praying for many of our blogging friends in areas of extreme weather and in areas where wildfires are raging. May lives be spared and damage minimal. Blessings and remember you are “Welcome Here” anytime…

Refreshed…

What a difference a good 8 hours of sleep makes. Monday was such a contrast to Sunday in body and mind. While we were in Winnipeg and Steinbach we were able to stay at Women Refreshed at the Well. The retreat center is the vision of the owner Joy who lives up to her name.

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Oh here I am getting ahead of myself. I’m showing you the inside common living space before I even show you the front door but it’s hard to take a photo of the front door when you are toting in your luggage to get settled in…

 

It was a very welcoming door and the view as the door opened was just as welcoming.

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We entered and met the owner Joy and were shown our rooms. Four of the rooms were decorated for each of the seasons.

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My room was Spring which I enjoyed.

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Marg was assigned to Summer and it suited her well.

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Bev had the Autumn room and again I think it was just right for her.

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Judy embraced her Winter room and even modeled her winter halo for us!

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Lovella was assigned the Restore room with the ensuite. I think it was perfect for her.

I’m sad to say I did not take a photo of the Chapel where our Betty slept next door to me.

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You can see into Betty’s room on this shot upstairs at the end of the hall through the door with what looks like blue walls..

 

We had some great prairie views from the windows at the retreat.

 

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Kathy and Marg relaxed quickly and then kept us all giggling for different reasons throughout our time in the Prairies.

 

We were all thankful to Joy and the refreshment we were able to enjoy at her retreat center. I’ll be sharing more in another post about the wonderful food we were served, too.

I’ve been paying close attention to the Air Traffic Control strikes that are scheduled in France. Dear is traveling there as we speak and we are waiting to see if his flight might be cancelled into Marseille. Update: Dear is in Marseille. Many other conference participants were delayed in getting to the meeting so sessions this morning had to be cancelled. Maybe with his extra time he’ll be able to take some photos of the area. Time will tell.

In the meantime I’m working on emptying out some cabinets as we are getting ready for new floors to go in this old house and we have to move cabinets out of the spaces where the floors will be going in…

What’s going on in your neck of the woods as we approach Father’s Day weekend?

Traveling With Girls…

What a fun way to travel. We had a very girly time everywhere we went. Once in a while a great guy would pop in either cooking for us, organizing something for us, taking photos for us, or getting his book signed by us. We know there are lots of guys out there that love to cook and do it well!

I’ve never flown in Canada before and I enjoyed the laid back security and fun flight attendants on Westjet.

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We are approaching summer fast and furious but there still is a lot of snow capped mountains in the Cascade Mountain Range. I was happy to get a glimpse of the Mighty Columbia River that flows close to where our son lives in Eastern Washington. He might have even been fishing in that river the day I flew by…

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I found out real quick that for Canadians Tim Horton’s is the place to stop for a coffee and snack. We girls really made a statement early on in our traveling as 4 out of the 6 of us ended up at the wrong gate in Calgary. When we finally realized it was boarding time and nothing was happening we found out our plane had boarded everyone but the 4 of us at a different gate and we high tailed it hoping they wouldn’t leave us behind! Oye! The gate agents said “you must be the Mennonite Girls Can Cook” didn’t you hear our pages for you? We laughed and said we hadn’t heard anything on the loud speakers in the wing we were sitting in. Onward and upward we went…

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After we arrived in Winnipeg Betty, her daughter Alison, and Charlotte met us to take us to our first stop. We arrived at Charlotte’s home for a wonderful meal. Charlotte’s husband Tony made us his special Campers’ Stew from page 145 in our new cookbook. Delicious! We enjoyed all the lilacs that were in bloom in Winnipeg and Steinbach and we also saw lots of rhubarb plants. This one is Charlotte’s. From lunch we would head off to our lodgings for our nights in Manitoba. I’ll share about that soon.

Today Dear is at the airport waiting for the first leg of his flight to Marseille. I hope he’s at the right gate. He just called to say that they have been alerted about an impending strike at all French airports. Double oye! Now he’ll be checking at the airport in Chicago and London to see if he should continue on or book a flight right back home. Shhhh…don’t tell but I’m really hoping he has to turn around and come home…

Traveling ThroughTime Zones…

 

I’m a bit dizzy headed and hope to have some clear thoughts soon to share about all the wonderful people we met and places we saw while in Winnipeg and Steinbach. We arrived from Winnipeg back to Abbotsford late on Saturday night and after a quick sleep at Judy’s I drove home to Seattle. I pulled into my garage at 6:30 a.m.

 

A doctored up shot of the sunrise from I-5 this morning. After a full nights sleep tonight I’ll be catching up with what I’ve missed while traveling cyber free.

Driving, Flying, Signing…

…and I’m sure we’ll be eating, too.

I wonder if these gals will be hot on our trail? We never know where they might show up.

We’ll be doing lots of this at the following locations…

Celebrations Book Launch Events

Manitoba
Eight of the Authors….
Friday June 7 
Steinbach Heritage Museum 11-1
Saturday June 8
If you live in this area, we would love to meet you!
I’ll mostly be off-line until Sunday. Hope your week ends well!
Photobucket replaced many of my photos with blurred out versions and photobucket stamped versions. They are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Cottage Lake Gardens

A lovely Woodland Garden in Woodinville, Washington was at the end of my camera lens on Saturday morning. The garden was open for 2 hours for a plant sale.

Susie Egan has a very impressive collection of Trillium. Trilliums are endangered wildflowers that appear in the woods in the Springtime. Their native habitats are shrinking and they are becoming more rare and hard to find. Cottage Lake Gardens currently has all 48 of the world’s species of trilliums! How amazing is that!? They are working toward establishing a National Trillium Collection. Trilliums are known for having 3 flower petals and three leaves and come in many colors including white, yellow, pink, red, brown and green.

Come along with me as I walk the garden paths and snap away at things that catch my eye.

Hope you enjoyed strolling through this lovely garden with me. I’m hoping to be able to attend one of the gardens Trillium tours next Spring!

We are enjoying a stretch of sunshine and dry skies. I’ve even had to get out early in the morning to water. I planted my two Trillium starts yesterday and they are so delicate. I do hope they survive and enjoy the spot I chose for them.

Yippee! Dear will be home at noon today. While he is unpacking I’ll be packing for my trip. Hope your week is going well.

Fancy Egg Scramble…

 

Fancy eggs with no fuss the morning of. This was a go to recipe years ago and I decided to revive it and make it for a Sunday meal. It worked out great for inviting someone from church for brunch. We go to the 9:00 a.m. service. By the time our company found our home the egg dish was in the oven and half way done. Before church I washed the fruit and mixed it together. The other way I simplified the meal was to have muffins that were purchased. We were able to sit down and enjoy a meal and conversation with no fussing over the meal.

We enjoyed this make-ahead breakfast dish years ago and I finally revived it for brunch recently. Everyone enjoyed it.
  • 1 cup diced ham
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onion (scallions)
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 12 eggs beaten
  • 1 6oz. can diced Green Chiles

Cheese Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Method:

  1. Melt butter in heavy large skillet. Saute ham and green onions in butter.
  2. Add beaten eggs and diced green chilies.
  3. Mix ingredients and cook until eggs are just set. Remove from heat and prepare cheese sauce.
  4. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy bottom pan.
  5. Add flour, salt and pepper to butter and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes.
  6. Add the 2 cups of milk gradually and blend well. Cook to a gentle boil.
  7. Add the grated cheese and mix well until cheese is melted. Add the cheese sauce to the egg mixture and fold in till combined.
  8. Pour mixture into lightly greased 9×12 casserole dish.
  9. Cover and refrigerate overnight until 30-40 minutes before you want to serve the dish
  10. Cook uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Serve with fruit and muffins or toast.  Serves 6

We had this meal on Memorial Day weekend so it was also fun to set the table ahead of time and enjoy it all weekend.

This is a traveling week for me. Dear has been away since last Thursday and he arrives home tomorrow. I’m very excited to be reunited with him before I leave for Canada to fly to Winnipeg with the “girls” for some book signing events. I’ve never been to that part of Canada and I’m looking forward to seeing where our Betty and Charlotte live.

Hope you all have a good first full week of June!

Alleluia, Fairest Morning

Alleluia, Fairest Morning

Alleluia, fairest morning,
Fairer than our words can say!
Down we lay the heavy burden
Of life’s toil and care today,
While this morn of joy and love
Brings fresh vigor from above.

Sunday full of holy glory,
Sweetest rest-day of the soul!
Light upon a world of darkness
From thy blessèd moments roll!
Holy, happy, heav’nly day,
Thou canst charm our grief away.

In the gladness of His worship
We will seek our joy today;
It is then we learn the fullness
Of the grace for which we pray,
When the word of life is giv’n,
Like the Savior’s voice from Heav’n.

Let the day with Thee be ended,
As with Thee it has begun,
And Thy blessing, Lord, be granted,
Till earth’s days and weeks are done;
That at last Thy servants may
Keep eternal Sabbath day.

Words: Jonathan Krause, 1739.