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.

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.

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

My room was Spring which I enjoyed.

Marg was assigned to Summer and it suited her well.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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…

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…

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….

Thursday June 6
Winnipeg McNally Robinson 6-8

Friday June 7

Steinbach Heritage Museum 11-1

Steinbach Ten Thousand Villages 3-5

Saturday June 8

Ten Thousand Villages Winnipeg ~ Henderson 11-1

Ten Thousand Villages Winnipeg ~ Plaza Drive 3-5

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.

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:

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

Rhubarb Coffee Cake ~

In April I visited the Skagit Valley Tulip festival and after I walked through the beautiful tulip fields I stopped at a fresh road stand market in the valley on my way back home. They had fresh rhubarb from their fields available so I decided to buy some to take home. I ended up making a Rhubarb Coffee Cake.

I’ll admit that I had never used rhubarb in my kitchen before but was pleased with the lovely color and result.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Filling:

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
4 cups fresh washed and chopped rhubarb
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

Optional:

You can add 1 cup fresh blueberries and 1 cup fresh strawberries or 2 cups fresh strawberries and then cut down on the rhubarb to 2 cups.

Cake:

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cold butter
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (I used powdered buttermilk mix)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal

1/4 cup cold butter

For the filling:

Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a sauce pot and add in the rhubarb.
Cook over medium heat until the sugar and cornstarch dissolves with the liquid that is extracted from cooking the rhubarb.
Cook for at least 2 minutes. This helps the cornstarch break down.
Remove from heat and add the lemon juice. Allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9 x 13 baking pan by lightly greasing it.

Method for Cake and Topping:

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda together in bowl.
Cut in the butter.
Beat eggs, buttermilk and vanilla in small bowl and add to the the other ingredients until moistened.
Put 2/3 of this batter into prepared pan.
Spread the filling on top of this layer.
Add the remaining batter on top spreading it as evenly as you can. Don’t worry if you can’t cover it all. Also the batter will be sticky to deal. You can grease your fingers with a little butter to help spread the batter.
In a small bowl combine the dry topping ingredients.
Cut in the butter until crumbly.
Spread the topping over the top of the last layer of batter as evenly as possible.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes or until tester comes out clean and top begins to become golden brown. Ovens vary, so check after 45 minutes and don’t worry if it takes longer than 50 minutes.

And That’s A Wrap!

Another busy day for Lovella and this time Kathy is joining her for an morning interview on Global BC News . Click on the link to see the interview.

Steve Darling will be interviewing them on the 9-10 am hour. Lovella has been on a nonstop schedule for more than a couple weeks now and I’d just like to ask for some prayer for her especially as the week winds down with this interview. So if you are a person of prayer that would be really appreciated.

Anneliese and Lovella just got back from Toronto where they had an interview on 100 Huntley Street that will be aired today. Click on the link to see the interview.

All the B.C. girls were also busy last night doing a presentation at Sardis Fellowship Baptist for their Spring Tea.

I’ve had it easy this week for sure compared to the rest of the girls. But I am missing stuff like this…

I keep looking on the kitchen counter to see if someone left platters of food out for me. These platters were from our Sunday evening Faspa last weekend at Lovella’s where lo and behold these old gals showed up again…

We’re going to have to find out who keeps tipping them off as to where we are celebrating!!

Have a wonderful Friday everyone.

Today I’m headed to a WOW luncheon at my church where I get to hear an old friend from my first church in the Seattle area. She’s speaking on Laughter and Gratitude. Tomorrow Dear and I are participating in World Concern’s Free them 5K to help raise awareness about Human Trafficking. Our DIL is part of a team that has worked tirelessly this week to make this event a success.

Hope your weekend is filled with laughter and gratitude!!

From the Farm…

…to the Farm Market!

We so enjoy the relationship the Mennonite Girls Can Cook have with Charlotte at Lepp Farm Market. Many of our girls were raised on farms and now live off their farms. We are always treated well at Lepp and Sunday was another great day here. Our day started with a very good and challenging message from Lovella and Anneliese’s pastor on being sacrificially generous. After the service we all headed to Lepp Farm Market to enjoy brunch before our book signings began.

Lots of delicious options plus ingredients to choose from for the chef to make your own personal omelette.

The weather was gorgeous and Charlotte had tables set beautifully for our outdoor brunch.

While having brunch I looked up and spotted Josh and Laura walking up to the market. I was busting at the seams with joy to see their faces and to know they trekked all the way from Seattle to bless me with their presence. It was so much fun to introduce them to all the girls and the husbands. Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart.

Our Josh is a real “people person”, can you tell? I’m glad Marg captured these moments! Thank You Marg! Josh and Laura joined the men and Amy on a grand tour of Lepp Farm Market while the girls got busy signing books.

After the farm market tour Josh and Laura picked up their books that were all signed and headed back across the line.

Then we had a another special visitor arrive!

Marg’s 101 year old Father in law arrived to see what we were up to.

I think he is quite pleased with his daughter in law.

We all decided we should take a photo with our oldest supporters that came to Lepp Market. Along with Marg’s Father in law and Helen, Bev’s dad who is 90 drove over for the event, too. What a blessing!

Another sweet moment from the weekend that made me tear up was when Marg’s grandsons came to Wink’s with their personal cookbooks in hand.

They had marked their favorite recipes in the book and wanted us authors to sign on the page where their favorites were pictured.

It seems little Silas really likes my Blintz recipe and requests them at Oma and Opa’s house. For the record Marg and Silas call them crepes. Don’t tell my Russian friends! This little guy made my day!! Thank you to Judy for capturing these moments!

Another guy that’s going to make my day shortly is Dear. He’s on his way home from the airport right now. It’s been a long 5 days without seeing him. Blessings on your day!

Afternoon and Evening…

…on Saturday in Chilliwack and Abbotsford.

Wendy at Winks along with her staff welcomed us with a most beautiful setting for our 2nd book signing of our weekend.

If you haven’t visited her store yet you really need to put it on your list and you won’t be disappointed.

Many books had been pre-sold and were waiting for us to sign so we got busy.

Anneliese’s daughters both played a part in our day here with one sharing cupcakes from her own cupcake business and the other blessing us with her lovely violin serenade.

It was so much fun to meet the “girls” families. Judy’s DIL brought her children to see their grammy. Anneliese’s granddaughter is sitting on the chair watching with interest. I’ll share more in another post of one of my sweetest moments at Winks.

The patio was filled with beautiful flowers.

How Great Thou Art was on my heart and mind all weekend.

Some of us stole away to do a little shopping.

As Anneliese’s daughter played her finale we packed up and headed to our next event.

This is the peaceful drive up to Sweet Dreams Luxury Inn in Abbotsford.

This is where we would wrap up our evening signing books for each other and for our publisher and then having a lovely dinner served to us.

We took some time to take a few more photos donning our new aprons that Julie sewed from material chosen by Lovella and Kathy.

On our way out we noticed that our Betty matched the beautiful flowers that were centerpieces on our tables at dinner.

Another full day complete we headed to our homes and hotels full of good memories of our day. On Sunday we had one more full day starting with a church service.

Today is Tuesday and I’m still trying to get back in my normal groove. Seeing how it’s noon already that groove seems to be escaping me. We started out today in a cloudy pattern instead of our several bright sunny days. The sun is breaking through as I finish this post. Dear has one more full day in San Diego at a conference and I’m looking forward to him coming home tomorrow. Are you looking forward to anything?

A Year of Preparations…

…calls for more than one post!

Hope you will bear with me as I chronicle the events of this past weekend.

On Friday I packed up my car trying to choose the right clothes for 4 main events that were scheduled for the weekend. Of course there was a little gift for each of the other girls that had to be packed, too. I always wonder if my car will be randomly chosen at the border to be searched. I think the agents would get a kick out of the things I pile into my trunk. When I approached the window and handed off my passport I again had a nice smile and was waved on with no problems.

I arrived to Judy’s Front Porch a little after four in the afternoon. She had planned a nice meal for us before we set off to our first signing of the weekend.

She made her delicious Santa Fe Chicken salad on page 60 of our first cookbook. If you haven’t prepared this dish yet I would highly recommend that you do. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take a photo of Judy’s lovely rustic rhubarb tart that she made for dessert.

Judy and I changed into our dresses and headed to Abbotsford for our first book launch event at House of James bookstore.

Everything was all prepared for us and they even had baked treats from our book that everyone who came was able to enjoy. The ten of us were happy to finally be together again and we took our seats ready to sign our books. House of James has been on board with us since our first book and we appreciate their promotion of our book and support. They had drawings throughout the evening and we also had opportunities to speak about the mission work our Celebrations’ author royalties will be donated to. This next photo is of the Menno Media staff that has been part of our support team, Russ Eanes the director of Menno Media is in the center flanked by Ben Penner our marketing manager and Amy Gingerich our Editor. We were happy that they could travel to be a part of the weekend.

We left with thankful hearts to rest up for our next full day of activities.

Bright and early Saturday morning Judy and I headed out for a little walk on her country road before the rest of our nonstop day. Elmer, Judy’s husband was concerned that because I was a city girl I might not be able to stand the eau de perfum wafting off the freshly manured fields. I managed just fine by concentrating on the beauty that goes along with it. When in the country it’s good to just enjoy all you get!

After our walk we got cleaned up, donned our next outfit and headed off for the rest of the day starting with an early lunch at Planet Earth in Chilliwack just down the street from Winks where we would have our next signing. I’ll share more about that on another day.

I made it home from Canada later last night and am still just sitting around taking it all in. The lawn is several inches high and asking to be mowed but it will have to wait for another day yet. I wish high school kids were still of the mind to work hard for some pay. I would hire one today! I’m slowly making the rounds on what I missed while in Canada without my usual internet connections. Hope all is well where you are…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Mennonite Girls Can Cook