Three Years Later…

…we were able to cross the line into Canada for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas Dinner/Party.

We drove the couple of hours from Bothell to Abbotsford crossing at the Sumas Border Crossing and arrived at Anneliese and H’s home. They had graciously reached out offering us their guest room for the night and a ride to the party in Chilliwack.

On the way to the party at Judy and Elmer’s we made a surprise stop but that’s not my story to tell.

Here we are, 7 of the 10, Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Our two Manitoba Girls and Kathy could not make it to the party.

It was so good to see these ‘Girls’ face to face after 3 years.

Lovella and Anneliese brought the appetizers.

Judy’s punch was festive.

Speaking of Judy, the hostess with the mostess, she single handedly cooked us the main meal portion for the evening. Her hubby Elmer is always available to lend a hand, help serve and wash up the dishes!

She set a beautiful table and created the live runner.

She sewed the napkins and made the place cards.

Marg brought the salad and she had help plating it from Bev.

Bev baked the buns.

Judy’s Saucy Cranberry Chicken was the main event on our dinner plate, delicious. Get her recipe here.

She also made the sides, carrots and peas, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad and a cranberry gravy.

Our sweet ‘captain’, Lovella!

The wonderful dessert finale to our meal was this trifle that Julie made. Refreshingly delicious! I did not get a photo of the Black Forest Trifle that Judy made. When I lived in Western Washington I would contribute to the menu but because of the extra traveling this year they let me slide.

After our meal the guys headed upstairs to play Crokinole and chat while us girls exchanged gifts and did some catching up downstairs. We finally wrapped up the evening shortly after 11:00 PM!!

Here’s the gift I brought home from our exchange.

We count ourselves blessed and fortunate to be able to meet up again for this wonderful yearly event.

You can now look away for the saga part of the story of Dear and me getting from Colville to Abbotsford. For those of you who are more curious here goes…

Originally we had flights out of Spokane to and from the Seattle area for our Saturday to Tuesday trip. We booked a hotel room at the Spokane airport for Friday night since we had an early flight on Saturday to Seattle (7am). It takes us 2 hours plus to get to the airport from our home in Colville. Our flight back home on Tuesday was scheduled for 7:30am getting us back to Spokane at 8:30am.

On Friday we had a leisurely morning and packed for our trip. We left our home at noonish with a stop at the post office to pick up a package that was too big for our mailbox. My haircut appointment at 1:00 got cancelled at the last minute so we decided to just carry on down the road to Spokane to have a meal before we checked into our hotel. We tried The Elk in The Browne’s Addition neighborhood of Spokane. The food and service was good and we enjoyed our time there. The drive to the airport from the restaurant was short and we checked into the hotel.

We woke up very early on Saturday morning and discovered both of us had never thought about bringing our passports even though we knew the purpose of our trip was to travel into Canada. OYE and BOTHER. We as a couple are not firing on all our cylinders. Every flight on Saturday was overbooked with one flight before ours cancelled which put even more pressure on the remaining flights. We made the decision to cancel our tickets for our 7am flight and drive back home (2 hours) and get our passports and make the 5+ hour drive to Bothell instead of flying. Driving the roads back to our home we gained confidence that the roads were in good shape and the drive would be okay. We made it home, grabbed our passports, had breakfast and packed a few more things in the car for our trip.

Back on the road at 8:30am we had an uneventful drive through the eastern and central part of Washington and over the Cascade mountain range into Western Washington. We made a stop at Chateau Ste Michelle in Woodinville for some wine to take with us to Canada and then filled the gas tank at the Woodinville Costco on the way to our kids’ home in Bothell. We were at our kids’ home at 3pm. (BTW: since Greg’s stroke I’m the sole driver)

Saturday night we had a nice meal out with our Western Washington kids to celebrate Laura’s birthday. On Sunday we worshipped at Josh and Laura’s church, grabbed some lunch items at Central Market, ate our meals and got ready for our drive to Canada. Our route to Abbotsford would take us about 2 hours. We stopped at a carwash in Bellingham to get all the dirty snow off our car before heading into Canada. The Border crossing and banter with the Agent was pleasant and once across the border we found our way to Anneliese and H’s home.

We drove with Anneliese and H. to the party in Chilliwack (a 20 minute drive) and the winds were blowing across the valley and it was frigid. We were welcomed into Judy and Elmer’s warm and festive home and enjoy our long anticipated party. After the party we slept fast. Monday morning we were served a delicious breakfast and we set off back to the USA. We were at the Border bright and early and had another pleasant encounter and crossing.

Our kids were busy with work and other events during the day on Monday so we contacted some dear friends to meet us for lunch at our old stomping grounds. We had a leisurely couple hours with them over delicious Mexican food and then made it back to our kids’ home. Laura made dinner and we packed up to leave on Tuesday morning. On the road again at 8:30 Tuesday morning (our anniversary). It took us an hour to get to traffic free I-90 and off we climbed over Snoqualmie Pass again. The roads were clear with no restrictions. (Thank you, Lord). Once over the pass we stopped in Cle Elum for a break which included breakfast. Back on I-90 we made it to Spokane by 1:30pm. We stopped at Costco to pick up a few items and were back on the road lickity split. Got another snack in Deer Park and started the final leg home arriving at 5pm. Whew! Greg figured out that we were driving for a total of 22 hours all told. That 22 hours didn’t count the stoppage times.

We are still covered in snow here with no melting in the forecast. In fact we have more snow in the forecast for Thursday and Saturday.

Greg is continuing with his Occupational Therapy. We’ll be traveling to Spokane again on Monday for his follow-up with the surgeon.

And that’s the rest of the story.

Banana Coffee Cake

A while back, I had one ripe banana and wanted to find a recipe that would work using it. This is what I came up with. It turned out lighter, more moist, and fluffier than banana bread. That was my husbands analysis! Delicious!

Ingredients:

4 oz. of sour cream
1/4 cup softened butter
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/8 Cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Topping:

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, beat the sour cream, butter and sugar until blended.
Add egg, beating well.
Add the banana and vanilla.
Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda;
Gradually add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.
Combine topping ingredients; add half to batter.
Transfer to a greased 9-in. x 9-in. baking pan.
Sprinkle with the remaining topping.
Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.
Yield: 6-8 servings.

Quinoa Salad

This hearty salad has a nice flavor and is naturally gluten free. You can add or delete ingredients to suit your own taste buds, too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dry quinoa
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped fresh mango
1/2 to 1 cup garbanzo beans drained and rinsed (Chickpeas)
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped green onions
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

In a small saucepan combine quinoa with the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Once it boils reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Fluff with a fork and set aside to cool completely.
You can set it in the refrigerator to speed the cooling.

While the quinoa is cooling prepare the rest of the ingredients. I left the amounts of beans and green onion to your discretion. We enjoy green onion so I added the full 1/2 cup. Mix together all these ingredients with the cooled quinoa and enjoy as a side dish or a meal. You can easily make this a vegetarian dish by cooking the quinoa with water or vegetable stock instead of the chicken stock.

Although I’m going to try to create some posts during our travels I cannot guarantee that and I will be hit and miss with visiting blogs over the next two weeks. Cheers!

Asparagus-Pancetta Phyllo Appetizers

This is a simple appetizer with a pretty presentation. I used mini Phyllo cups that come frozen in the freezer aisle of the grocery store. The sky is the limit on what filling combination you could use. We had these at Easter so the Asparagus was my go to choice with added ingredients that I thought would go well together.

Ingredients:

2 Packages of Mini Phyllo Pastry Shells (30 total)
15 stalks of Asparagus, washed and chopped into small pieces.
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Shallot, chopped
1/2 cup diced Pancetta (you can substitute bacon)
1/4 cup white wine or chicken stock
1 Tablespoon White wine vinegar or Sherry Vinegar
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Added Optional Ingredients:

2 egg whites from 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped. Discard the yolk.
1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice

Method:

Defrost the Phyllo Shells in refrigerator overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat and cook the asparagus for 2 minutes. Set aside in a bowl.
In the same saucepan, cook the chopped shallot for 2 minutes.
Now add the Pancetta to the pan and cook for 1 minute. (If you choose to use bacon instead precook it before this step and add it to the mix when you add the egg whites.)
De-glaze the pan with white wine and reduce by half. (Shallots and Pancetta stay in pan for this step)
Add the white wine vinegar and reduce by half again.
Pour over the Asparagus.
Add the chopped egg white solids to the Asparagus bowl.
Mix gently and season with salt and pepper.
If you want to add the grated cheese do it now and mix gently.
Place thawed Phyllo shells on a cookie sheet that is large enough for the 30 shells.
Fill each cup full with the Asparagus mixture.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Just long enough to warm all ingredients through.

Set out on pretty plate and watch them disappear!

We enjoyed these at an Easter Celebration a few years back but these or a variation of these would be good for an afternoon tea or before any meal. Whatever is fresh and available can be adapted to these cups. I’m thinking of trying a sweet custard bite using these shells.

A Quartet of Sisters Hodgepodge

It’s Wednesday and time for the Hodgepodge questions this first week in August! Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond!

1. Do you have a sister? Tell us something about her. If you don’t have a sister, tell us about a friend who has been like a sister. Or tell us about a sister-in-law if you have one who is extra special.

I have 3 sisters and 4 brothers. My sister-in-laws are extra special, too. The photo above is of us sisters in age order, youngest on the left and oldest on the right.

My oldest sister Kathy is a gifted teacher. Vera has the gift of hospitality. Lana is an amazing organizer. We all challenge each other to follow Jesus closely. We all sing and have sung in choirs, trios, duets or in a ‘rock’ band. We all can cook for a crowd.

2. Resister, assister, insister, persister…choose one of the words listed and explain how it relates to you and your life lately.

Right now since I’m working on dropping unwanted pounds I would say I’m a resister. It’s interesting what a great resister I am in the morning up until about 3pm and then it gets tougher for me to resist so I switch to insister, telling my brain I do not need to have this or that as it will derail my plan. I’m working on some healthier eating habits, too. I want to be able to walk in England in September without huffing and puffing and sweating more than I need to because of excess weight.

3. Share a favorite song, book, movie, or television program that features sisters.

How timely as we pulled out BBC version of Pride and Prejudice on Monday evening and are watching all the episodes again with the 5 sisters who are all quite different from each other.

4. August 3rd is national watermelon day…are you a fan? ~ Yes

Do you like watermelon flavored candy? NO

Besides eating the melon as is, do you have a good recipe made with watermelon?

This Watermelon Cucumber Salad is perfect for a summer get together.

5. ‘Tis August…what are three things you’re looking forward to this month.

Our Coast kids are hopping over for a long weekend visit, Addy starts soccer this month so I’ll enjoy watching on the sidelines, and I’ll be helping a little with Vacation Bible School.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m making this dessert again this week for a dinner we are having here on Saturday evening. It has a few steps but is pretty easy to make. It’s a dessert you can make a few days ahead. I think it would easily serve 10-12 people. I’ll give you the link so you can see how much prettier you can make it look with whip cream and fresh strawberries on top. I only used a large carton of good Strawberry Ice Cream. My carton was not 1/2 gallon so my version is not as tall as the showstopper…

I used vanilla wafers and regular Strawberry Ice Cream.

To see the showstopper version of this cake and get the recipe click below!

You can find the recipe here.

It’s called Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Cake because she used Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream. I call mine Strawberry Ice Cream Cake since I didn’t find the shortcake version of ice cream to use. It is not overly sweet. Hopefully I’ll remember to take a photo of the cake decorated with whipped cream and Strawberries on Saturday.

Mango Jicama Slaw

This slaw is a fresh alternative to traditional coleslaw for a barbecue. You can use a store bought dressing or mix up Anneliese’s dressing. Anneliese also has a tutorial on how to cut a mango at that link.

Ingredients:

1/2 Small Jicama, peeled and julienned
2 Mangoes, peeled and julienned
1/2 small cabbage julienned
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
2 green onions/scallions sliced thin
Salt and Pepper to taste
Store bought mango dressing or Anneliese’s dressing

Method:

Mix all fresh ingredients together.
Add enough dressing to coat.

Serves 6

You can double or triple this recipe for a large crowd using up a whole Jicama, whole head of cabbage, adding more mangoes and increasing the dressing. An easy tip is to use equal parts Jicama, Mango and Cabbage.
If you don’t want to bother with whole mangoes you can buy peeled and pitted mangoes at your grocery store. I bought mine at Costco.

Mocha Toffee Dessert

I got this recipe from my mother over 45 years ago and have no idea where she got it from.

serves 4

Ingredients:

1- 3 or 3 1/4 ounce package regular vanilla pudding mix
1 Tablespoon instant coffee powder
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
2/3 cup of evaporated milk
2 chocolate covered English toffee bars (5/8 ounces each) coarsely crushed
whipped cream

Method:

1. In medium saucepan, combine pudding mix and coffee powder.
Gradually stir in 1 3/4 cups milk till mixture is blended.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil.
3. Remove from heat and cover surface of pudding with waxed paper or plastic wrap, cool and chill.
4. In small saucepan combine chocolate pieces and evaporated milk. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture boils and chocolate is melted. Cool and chill.
4. Remove paper from pudding mixture.
5. Spoon the pudding mixture equally into 4 parfait glasses.
6. Sprinkle crushed candy onto top of layer.
7. Top with a good portion of chocolate sauce and top with more crushed candy.
8. Finish off with whipped cream and a sprinkle of crushed candy.

If you use taller and narrower glasses you can make more layers before you top it off with whipped cream.

I found the smaller containers to work better as this is a very rich dessert.
Instead of crushing two candy bars I found these packaged toffee bits that worked real well.

Poblano Boats

These Poblano halves are filled with a mixture of Blue Cheese, diced apples, and walnuts. The heat of the Poblano pepper adds a nice kick to these crunchy boats of goodness. Serve as a salad or an appetizer. You can increase the recipe if you’d like to serve more than two people. You can also leave the Poblano whole, cutting a slit in it when you remove the seed instead of cutting the pepper in half, then stuffing it with the filling.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

1 Poblano Pepper, roasting over open flame, peeled and seeded, some instructions to follow
1 cup finely chopped diced apples
1/2 fresh lemon, juiced
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup mixed salad greens
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Methods for roasting peppers:

If you have a gas stove top you can turn one burner to medium and hold the pepper over the open flame with tongs, turning until all sides are blackened and blistered, make sure your oven fan is on.
After roasting the pepper place in brown paper bag and seal the bag to keep the steam inside the bag.
When it cools put disposable gloves on and take the pepper out of the bag.
The peel should come off easily at this point, you can use paper towels to rub the skin off.
After peeling it, cut a slit down one side and using your gloved hands remove all the seeds.
At this point place on a paper towel and refrigerate the pepper till you are ready to stuff it.
Another method is to roast the peppers under the broiler of your oven for 5 minutes.
You can also use your outdoor grill to roast the peppers.
Whichever method you use, don’t forget step 2.

Method for the filling:

Place the apples in a ceramic bowl and lightly coat them with the lemon juice.
Combine the cheese and walnuts with the apples and toss.
Cut the chilled pepper in half and place on top of a platter of salad greens.
Fill each half of the pepper with the mixture of apples, walnuts and cheese.
Whisk together the olive oil and red wine vinegar well and drizzle generously over the filled peppers.
Serve immediately.

Tip: If you want to make more of these to serve 4-8 people you could roast 4 peppers ahead of time and keep them refrigerated until you are ready to serve these as an appetizer or salad. Just double the filling portion of the recipe.

Polenta with Mushroom Sauce

First you’ll want to cook the mushroom sauce and then you will saute the Polenta cakes assemble and serve.

Mushroom Sauce:

2 shallots sliced thinly
3 Tablespoons butter
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 Cup dry white wine
6 ounces cream
1/4 cup Gorgonzola cheese (optional)
2 fresh sprigs of thyme to yield 1-2 teaspoons thyme leaves

Polenta
Olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley to garnish.

Mushroom Sauce:

Melt the butter over a medium low heat in a medium sized saucepan.
Add the sliced shallots and saute for 3 – 4 minutes.
Add the garlic and saute for another 2 minutes.
Add the sliced mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.
Stir all of the ingredients together and cook until the mushrooms have softened and darkened in colour.
Turn the heat up on the stove and pour in the white wine.
Stir the ingredients and cook until the wine has reduced by two-thirds.
Turn the heat down and stir in the cream and heat through. If you are using the Gorgonzola cheese stir it in now and heat through.
Stir in the thyme.

Polenta:

Cut the Polenta into 1/2 inch thick rounds. Heat pan with Olive oil and saute Polenta over medium heat for approx. 4 minutes per side or until golden brown and crisp on the surface.

To serve pour a little mushroom sauce on a serving plate. Arrange 2 slices of Polenta on the sauce and then pour more sauce over and sprinkle fresh chopped parsley to garnish.

Other ways to serve Polenta: With a zesty spaghetti sauce of your choice. I’ve also seen it served fried in small cubes and used in place of croutons on a salad.

Polenta is available in grocery stores in the states. I purchased this chub of Polenta at Trader Joe’s. In reading up about Polenta you can make your own using cornmeal. If you are interested in doing that just google “How to Make Polenta”. I just bought the chub that has been prepared already.

Later this week I’ll share about our Easter Weekend that includes JJ’s 3rd birthday party.

Open House in April

We had a very busy weekend and full to the brim Sunday.

Back in the end of 2021 we invited several folk from our church to come over for a Happy New Year get together on January 3rd of 2022. We had to cancel that event because of snow and icy conditions with a promise to reschedule when our front area would be safe for walking without anyone breaking a hip on the ice! Well that day finally arrived and we rescheduled the event for April 3rd!

Twenty Five folk from our church stopped by after church for food and fellowship. It was a houseful with all possible seats filled in three different rooms. The food was enjoyed and I forgot to take one photo of the spread! We had pulled pork sliders, coleslaw (Kathy’s recipe without mayo that you should try, delicious), Vinegret (Russian Beet Salad), baked beans, and Applesauce Spice cupcakes for dessert. Some folk went back through the buffet line for thirds so we knew the food tasted just fine.

Everyone left by 3pm and then our kids and grands came over for leftovers at 5:30. We prayed that our food would be enough to feed all and it did with lots to spare. Thank you Lord.

Not expected at all but fun to receive these hostess/host gifts from some of the folk who came.