Click over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook to get this recipe for my Creamy Pear Bake!
We had lots of pears this year!
Creamy Pear Bake…
Category Archives: Mennonite Girls Can Cook
There and Back Again…
Yesterday I put a dress on (gasp!) and grabbed my passport and headed to Chilliwack B.C. to attend a tea planned in honor of our own dear Kathy of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Kathy’s Mother-in-law Eileen invited us all to her lovely home and treated us to a very special time. What a wonderful example to all of us girls Eileen is as she chose to bless her daughter-in-law in this special way!
We missed our Manitoba girls, Betty and Charlotte!
Every detail was well thought out and chosen. Beautiful china, silver and 100 year old crystal goblets graced the beautiful table.
After we gathered Eileen shared some thoughts about Kathy using the letters of her name to describe some of Kathy’s attributes. Kind, active, thoughtful, honest, and youthful were just some of the words to describe Kathy. We raised our beautiful glasses to toast our dear friend.
Have you ever seen or enjoyed one of these sandwich loaves? This was my first and I was in awe!
I set aside my de-fluffing regiment on this day because it truly was a day for feasting not fasting!
We found our spots at the table and Eileen offered a blessing on our food and time together. Before we filled our plates for our main course Kathy’s father-in-law, who was our gracious butler for the afternoon, served us our soup course which was a lovely cold Raspberry soup…delicious and refreshing. After we filled our plates and enjoyed our main course there was a light and fluffy Pavlova with strawberries for dessert. Did I mention feasting not fasting?
Kathy is in the center of the collage and her mother-in-law Eileen is above her. Lovella, Eileen, Anneliese, Judy, Kathy, Bev, Marg, Ellen and Julie.
We all reflected on how nice it was to be served in such a special way. It was a wonderful time of catching up with each other. A great time of witnessing Bill and Eileen working together as a couple to help and honor each other and to be a great example of hospitality in action. We were all blessed and our cups were filled to overflowing.
I wanted to share this post before I’m in full swing wedding mode! Prayers appreciated for the blessed event coming up!
True Confessions…
…this will be my last confession of 2014…
I have not had much experience in working with yeast doughs or doughs of any kind. I’m going to work on this in 2015. Today on Mennonite Girls Can Cook I posted my first attempts on recreating one of my mom’s wonderful Pirog пирог recipes.
The standard shape for my mom’s pirog is rectangular. They can be closed or open-faced with no crust on top.
Sometime in 2015 I will share a savory pirog that my mom used to make with a closed presentation.
Click here to get to Mennonite Girls Can Cook and my Sweet Apple Pirog пиро́г.
Without the Guests…
…the preparations are in vain. It’s because of the long-awaited guests that the preparations were completed. This time of year as we remember our long awaited Savior who came to earth on that first Christmas, the preparations for my guests had more significance. Most of my guest photos were taken by Anneliese and Lovella. Thank you for sharing girls!
Lovella brought this very cute flower arrangement as a hostess gift and I found the perfect spot for it next to my sign that Katie wrote on. It was time for the party to begin and for everyone to eat, drink and be merry!
Kathy and Lovella prepared an Antipasti Platter for us all to enjoy before we sat down to dinner.
Our daughter Katie came to help with the serving.
It was time to find our places at the table.
When everyone found their spot we sang Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow. This has become a tradition for our gatherings.
Katie made sure the soup was hot before she served each person their cup.
Between the courses we sang Christmas Carols. O Tannenbaum and Silent Night were the two chosen and sung in English and German. I wasn’t surprised by the choices my “German” guests made.
It was time to get the dessert plates ready.
After dessert we had fun popping our Christmas poppers and wearing our crowns.
Before the girls retreated to another room to open the little gifts purchased for each other, Judy handed the guys their gift for the evening.
They each got their very own apron…
I’ll add the shout out to the young man who makes these to sell once I get the information from Judy. Since we let him use our logo he gifted us with the aprons for our “boys”.
By this time my eyes were drooping but my heart was full. I’ll leave you with a few closeups and cameos…
I got a kick out of this wine bag that Bev and her guy brought us a bottle of wine in.
What a wonderful world God opened up to us “Girls” over these past several years. I’m so thankful that God brought us together and has deepened our “love for one another”.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2: 1-4)
Praying you are feeling the Joy this Christmas!
The Preparations…
On Sunday December 14th our long awaited Christmas Party with the British Columbia Mennonite Girls and their husbands began at three in the afternoon. My preparations had been going on for a while.
Joy was the theme and red and gold were the color choices I picked. I had red glassware but only had a total of 10 pieces so I was on the hunt for 6 more goblets or glasses to fill the 16 place settings we would need for our party. When we traveled to our son’s home in eastern Washington in early November we shopped at some thrift stores and found a set of 8 red goblets for a real good price. Yippee!
We do not have an open concept home by any means and to be able to fit 16 around tables we had to get creative. We decided to empty out some of the furniture from our living room so we could fit two round tables that would each be set with eight place settings.
Where there’s a will there’s a way. I saw a package of red and gold Christmas Crackers at Costco and knew they’d be a fun addition to the table. The red and gold sparkly chargers came from HomeGoods. I already had a stash of cloth napkins in red and gold tones and napkin rings that worked nicely with the color theme. I found flat Christmas wreaths and red candle holders for my center pieces.
Here’s a photo the day of our gathering with all the last minute touches added to the table. This photo was taken by Lovella. The next couple of photos were taken by Anneliese.
Our front porch was transformed with a fake little Christmas tree that we had in our condo when we lived in Southern California for a few years. The vintage red step stool was a fun piece to put some of my lanterns on. The cedar branches and all the greenery with red berries, rosemary, and holly came from my yard. I had the large glass jars that I filled with the greenery and added a candle in to warm up the entry to our home.
I’m enjoying our new 3D star that we purchased this year that adds it’s light to welcome you to our front door.
My next post will show the people that made all these preparations worthwhile. Here’s the sneak peek of the girls and the guys.
More to come soon with some great photos from Anneliese and Lovella who clicked away while Dear and I worked on getting the food ready for everyone.
Since I finally set a table and took some photos I’m going to link this post to Cuisine Kathleen’s Let’s Dish for this week. If you’d like to see my guests seated at these tables click here.
The Clean-Up
Oh what a wonderful Sunday we had with lots of good food, good friends, good stories, generosity, singing, and some very good news. I’ll be sharing fully after I’ve recuperated and the dishes are all put away!
Our hearts are full. Hope all is good in your neck of the woods.
Turkey Pepper Chili…
Head on over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog to get the recipe for my Turkey Pepper Chili!
Happy Monday everyone. How was your weekend?
We had a calm weekend and got a lot accomplished. Lawns mowed or should I say fallen leaves vacuumed. We sold two of our old vehicles on Craig’s list. I finally went through all the stuff we hauled out of our bathroom before the renovation and threw out a bag full and filled the new cupboards and drawers with what we decided to keep. Have a great week!
Eggs-cellent
Click over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog to get the recipe for Gluten free Ranchero sauce for Huevos Rancheros and other Mexican dishes. We served this dish when my niece and her husband were visiting in June. My niece is Gluten and Lactose intolerant so I had to come up with a breakfast that would work for all of us. This recipe got the thumbs up from her and my son who is lactose intolerant and from the rest of us who don’t have to watch our gluten and lactose intake.
Last night my son, nephew and grand nephew attended the Seattle Sounders Soccer Game. My nephew got this photo of me with the few, the proud, the Marine Corp band. I enjoyed a fun back and forth with these Marines.
And here’s my son, nephew and grand nephew…
We had a good time in the sun even though our team lost.
Today at this old house the bath/shower tile surround is going in. Should be a full day of work here. Hope you all have a good Tuesday.
All Aboard!
Judy and I decided to pull together a trip to the Seattle area for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook who live in British Columbia. Judy came up with a plan for the 7 B.C. girls to drive to Bellingham, Washington and hop on Amtrak south. It’s hard to corral that many girls and come up with a good date for everyone but we finally did and Wednesday June 25th would be the day. When the day was finally here one of the 7 had to stay home. Life happens…
I made a sign so they couldn’t miss their tour guide and limousine driver for the day. The car the rental agency gave me seemed as big as a limousine. This photo that Bev took catches the big white limousine SUV in the background. Thanks Bev for the photos I’m stealing from you for this post.
Our first stop was the Queen Mary Tea Room near the University of Washington.
We each had a different china pattern on our tea cups.
The food was delicious and presented nicely. We finished up at the tea room and after checking out the Tea Emporium we drove to our 2nd stop of the day, University Village.
“University Village is an open-air lifestyle shopping center which offers a unique formula of locally-owned boutiques and signature national retailers. U Village is a regional destination for home furnishings, popular fashions and unique gift items with a distinct collection of restaurants and eateries.”
We all enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were blooming in hanging planters and large planters throughout the center. We gave ourselves a time limit and we managed not to lose anyone while we were here.
Next stop before our dinner reservations would be my humble home. A couple of the girls had been to my house before but it was new to the rest.
It was fun to have everyone in my home for a quick refreshment and tour.
We stole Dear away from his bathroom renovation work to take a photo of all of us together on our deck steps.
We made dinner reservations at the Beach Cafe on the Edmonds waterfront which was just a hop skip and jump away from the railway station. The girls wouldn’t want to miss the train.
Several of us chose the different fish tacos for our meal while others had shrimp and scampi dishes. We shared a couple desserts just to top everything off with. By this time in our day we were rather beat and forgot to take some photos of our dishes and desserts.
On to the station and our goodbye hugs.
A lovely day from beginning to end.
I’m already making plans for an Island getaway for the next MGCC girls day out.
Here’s our day through Anneliese’s lens.
Tonight Dear and I are meeting up with Josh and Laura to celebrate a late Mother’s Day/Father’s Day meal together. We will also celebrate the U.S.A. advancing to the round of 16 with our 2nd place finish in group G.
Trains and Automobiles…
No planes were required for my Wednesday tour group.
The train I was waiting for at the Edmonds Train Station arrived at 10:27 from the North. Some of you already guessed the group I’d be taking on a little tour on Wednesday.
Six of the Canadian Mennonite Girls were able to travel by train to my neck of the woods for a girls day out. We missed Kathy who was not feeling well enough for the trip and our Manitoba girls Charlotte and Betty. I will share more about our day when I get a chance to catch my breath after the U.S.A. v. Germany game tomorrow!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 