Category Archives: Mennonite Girls Can Cook

A First For Me…

On Thursday morning I boarded a plane to Fresno, Ca. to meet up with Lovella, Anneliese and Judy to attend the MCC West Coast Mennonite Relief Sale and Auction.

Mennonite Central Committee was established in 1920 to provide relief for hungry families in southern Russia. Since then it has sent food, clothing, medical supplies and more to suffering people around the world. MCC works in partnership with local churches, community associations, government agencies and international organizations. All is done in the name of Christ.

Local farmers donated some of their crops of raisins and almonds to sell. Pies were baked from scratch with fresh ingredients from the area to raise money. Apricot, Rhubarb, Boysenberry, Peach, Cherry and Apple pies were tempting us all day long. Handcrafted cheese and jams were also available for sale. Frozen Vareniki and German Sausage was sold frozen by the dozen.

Hundreds of people gathered on the main campus of Fresno Pacific University to bid on handmade quilts and other hand made items.

A variety of ethnic foods were available for purchase including many Mennonite favorites like Zwieback, Borscht,  Vareniki and Portzelky.

Vareniki with a meat sauce and German sausage. Pluma Moos is in the bowl (a cold fruit soup).

So what were the Mennonite Girls doing while they were in Fresno at the sale?

First off we were being amazed at the downpour of rain on Friday. The out of the ordinary deluge put a damper on the beginning of the sale with many events being cancelled and others brought indoors. We presented our story on Friday night and signed books for anyone who was willing to brave the flooding streets and soggy grounds.

On Saturday morning things looked brighter and we had a very good turnout for our cooking demonstration.

We demonstrated another Mennonite favorite called Rollkuchen and served it with watermelon which is a classic summer treat.

We met many wonderful people and were treated so kindly by the couple who coordinates the event and makes it run smoothly. Kevin and his wife Rose were amazing. In the midst of everything they were in charge of they made us feel like we were their top priority. How they pulled that off put us in awe of their work ethic and dedication to this volunteer job. This is Kevin’s wife Rose with us along with their extended family. Rose made the aprons for all the girls in her family. Here’s Kevin introducing us to the crowd in the auction hall.

We were blown away when some of our books were auctioned off for a direct donation to the Good Shepherd Shelter in the Ukraine (a MCC project). One participant bid $1000 for a book. At least $2000 was raised for our Green House Project at the Good Shepherd Shelter.

We also had so much fun talking to people who came to our table to get their books signed.

My friend and cousin by marriage lives in the area and I got to spend some time with her. She and I were Home Economics Majors at Cal State L.A. and became good friends and then she married my cousin. One of my good friends from our former Seattle church texted her cousin’s family who live in Fresno and told them to make sure to look me up at the sale. It was so much fun to meet them.

When we weren’t busy at the sale we had some good brain storming times for some future obligations. We also had time to enjoy some good meals out. We all were on the same plane from Fresno to Seattle and sat together and debriefed. I left the girls when we touched down in Seattle and they rushed off to catch their connecting flight to Vancouver.

It was a rewarding 4 days and we are thankful to God for our safe travels in the air and on the ground in Fresno, especially during the rain storms that flooded many streets in the Fresno area. Here’s a photo Lovella took from the car on Friday on the flooded streets! Judy from My Front Porch has a wonderful recap with a great flood shot, too. One more recap to share with you. Here’s Anneliese’s story…

I’m adding some of the other girls photos to my post so I have them all here together for my memory of this event.

It’s good to be back home again. After Dear picked me up from the airport we headed north to La Conner for lunch and some time at the tulip festival. I’ll show those photos later.

I’m linking up with Mary for Mosaic Monday. I hope to be around soon to see what everyone has been up to.

A Treat For You…

Head over to MGCC Blog to get the recipe for these date balls. They can be made gluten free if you use the new Gluten Free Rice Krispies. Enjoy!

We are busy doing the last minute fresh food shopping for our all day event before the Wedding. Andrew is flying in tonight and Katie is more excited about seeing him than she is for the wedding on Sunday! Life is rich!

2 more days!

FFF ~ Food, Friends, Fun

Friday is here and it’s time to join Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to share our favorites from this past week.

Uno ~ Oh my what is it about clean windows that make me happy. Makes me want to stop and sing “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone…” Dear washed the windows in our new spare room (formerly Katie’s room). I want to sing every time I walk in there. Since it is the new office, too, and I was going to see the Tax man this week, I had a lot of time in there enjoying the clear views.

Dos ~ A good long walk with one of my walking buddies. We had a stretch of beautiful dry days up here in the Pacific Northwest and that made the walk even more pleasant.

Tres ~ Experimenting with foccacia bread to make a pizza sandwich. It was interesting flipping it to get both sides of the bread nicely baked. Even though the experiment isn’t something I’d be too keen on trying again it was real tasty and satisfying as a meal! The thing we didn’t like was how hard it was to eat without all the innerds squirting out.

Cuatro ~ On Sunday and the reason for all my Spanish numbering this week we were invited to a party by our favorite waitress at the Mexican restaurant we frequent. We were honored that she’d even think to invite us and more honored when we got to the party and we were the only fluent English speaking people there except for her 20 year old son. Everyone made sure we were comfortable and had enough to eat and drink. Her son kept us in the loop explaining who everyone was. Her parents are visiting from Mexico for 2 months and one of her nieces was being baptized that day so this was a party in honor of that occasion. A Mariachi band came later and that’s when all the dancing and singing started. Such suave dancing with twirls and steps and turns with smooth transitions. It was kind of like watching dancing with the stars.

Cinco ~ Decorating a little for Valentine’s Day and  Chocolate Fondue! If you’d like to see the recipe hop over to Mennontie Girls Can Cook! It’s a good treat to serve for Valentine’s Day!

Our weekend looks pretty free and laid back. Hope your weekend is relaxing and rejuvenating!

Sassy at Sixty!

Well I for one am thrilled that a couple more of our Mennonite Girls are joining me in the Sixties Club! We still have 4 young-uns among us that help keep us in line and in style. Eight of our Ten girls converged on Harrison Hot Springs for Judy and Marg’s party on Monday. You’ve seen photos from some of the other girls and here is my contribution to our wonderful day of laughter and celebration.

Marg and Judy made the cutest place settings for us with our personal apron patterns to lead us to our seats. Sixty jelly beans in a vintage 1952 jar with a photo of Marg and Judy were at our setting also. Here are the party guests…

Guest of honor and one of our hostesses, Judy.

 Judy with Bev.

Kathy and Lovella

Julie and Anneliese

Guest of honor Marg with me

Time for some gifts…why not it is a birthday party after all. We had to take a break from gifts to order our food.

Lovella decked me out in a fascinator she purchased for me…

The hot pools were calling out to us and if you’d like to see photos from the pools you’ll need to visit Lovella, Judy, Marg, Anneliese or Kathy’s blogs. My camera stayed under cover during this time of our afternoon.

After the pools it was time for cake! Marg made a special gluten free dessert for our dear Julie to enjoy while we had cake.

Of course we sang the Happy Birthday song in harmony for our birthday girls. They got to sing, too, since they were sharing this birthday party.

There is still a mystery afoot as to the maker of this beautiful cake. Time will reveal the truth…

I don’t know when the last time was that I had 2 desserts in one seating but hey…2 birthday girls=2 desserts…right? I knew you’d see it my way.

As the sun started setting it was time to leave the beautiful Harrison Hot Springs Resort and head back to our homes. We give permission and encourage Judy and Marg to keep celebrating this milestone birthday the rest of the year. Happy Birthday girls! I’m so happy that God brought you into my life!

Happy Trails to You…

…until we meet again.

The Roy Rogers Show (“Happy Trails”) 

Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It’s the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here’s a happy one for you.

Happy trails to you,
Until we meet again.
Happy trails to you,
Keep smilin’ until then.

Who cares about the clouds when we’re together?
Just sing a song, and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to you,
Til we meet again.

I grew up watching this great show on T.V. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were lovely people. Monday I spent the day with 7 of the Mennonite Girls to celebrate Judy and Marg’s birthdays. It was a wonderful time together. I’ll be sharing more photos later of our time together. Until we meet again Girls!

West Coast Women’s Show

On Friday I traveled North to British Columbia to meet up with some of the Mennonite Girls for the West Coast Women’s Show. Anneliese offered me a room for the night so I headed to her house after I crossed the border. She showed me to my comfortable quarters for the night where I changed into my show clothes and we headed to Tradex next to the Abbotsford Airport.

The Mennonite Girls Can Cook authors were invited to be a part of the Winks’ booth at the West Coast Women’s Show in Abbotsford, B.C. Wendy the owner of Winks has a very generous approach to her business and her customers. Besides all her fabulous wares she decided to feature our book. We divided up the time to be at the booth between the girls that were available this weekend. Anneliese and I were on duty from 5 till 10 P.M. on Friday night.

Saturday we were on again from 10:00 A.M. till Noon. We met a lot of great ladies throughout the show and we signed a lot of books.

Part of our time there was spent on the cooking stage. We had 2 presentations. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. At noon on Saturday we headed to the kitchen stage to prep before our presentation.

We were happy to see a lot of friendly faces in the crowd.

Judy, Lovella, Anneliese, Julie, Marg and I were part of the kitchen crew on Saturday. We made Anneliese’s Waffles with Vanilla Custard Sauce and Mixed Berry topping. We also made Judy’s Ham and Egg cups. Chef Dez introduced us and joined us on stage.

After we were done I headed back home to the U.S.A. I drove for two hours in pouring rain. It was wonderful to finally pull into my garage and even better to walk into my family room to see our son Dan. He lives 6 hours away and I hadn’t seen him for several months. We all went out for dinner and came home again for some Rock Band and then we watched the Sounders Soccer Team play their last season game against Chivas on T.V.

Dear, Me, Dan, Katie, Laura, and Josh. (The only family member not in this photo is Andrew who is serving in Afghanistan right now)

It made me smile to see that Dan has really acclimated to his new surroundings out in the country. He’s really enjoying riding horses out into the wilderness and now he’s wearing these…

So another weekend filled to the brim with friends and family. Life is rich. How’s life treating you?

Mini Book Tour Mosaics ~

The Mennonite Girls had a very busy Saturday with 6 Canadians traveling across the border from Canada to the U.S.A. Saturday morning.  6 Canadians plus 1 American traveling across the line to Canada Saturday afternoon and 1 American traveling back to the U.S.A. Saturday evening.  Did you follow that?

First stop was at the Bellingham, Washington Barnes and Noble store. I drove north from the Seattle area to join my Canadian friends who traveled south across the border. It was a nice relaxed time of signing books and talking to old friends and new friends. One of our bloggy friends who we had never met face to face, Debora from(Whatsovever Things Are Lovely), stopped by and we had a great time chatting about blogs and adventures we’d like to have in the future.  A dear friend of mine from our former church who lives in the Bellingham area stopped by to have her book signed. Such a fun surprise to see her. Kathy had 2 elderly relatives stop by. They were so sweet and it was so much fun listening to them.

Debora is standing with me behind the girls. In the lower photos in the mosaic are Kathy’s relatives and my friend Cindy.

After our time at Barnes and Noble we decided to stop at the Olive Garden in Bellingham and have some lunch before we all headed across the border to Canada. We had the all you can eat soup and salad. What a great deal for a good meal. Next stop Ten Thousand Villages in Vancouver, Canada.

This and the next mosaic are a combination of both of our book signing stops. The employees at both venues were wonderful. The new friends we met that have enjoyed cooking the recipes in our book were very encouraging. We were blessed to hear stories of courage and success in coming to a new country and thriving. We also heard of goals in the future that were an inspiration.

In this mosaic the top photo is from Ten Thousand Villages on Commercial in Vancouver and the bottom two are from Barnes and Noble in Bellingham.

While we were busy out here in the West our two Prairie Girls were signing books at the Henderson Ten Thousand Villages.

It was a full wonderful day of fun and fellowship.

The girls dropped me off at my car in Canada at a little after 7 P.M. I headed for the border and had one of my best border crossings ever. I stopped at the booth and handed the U.S. Border Agent my passport. He asked me the typical questions. When he asked me why I was in Canada I said I was at a book signing at Ten Thousand Villages. He asked me if I was an author. I told him I was one of 10. He asked me what the name of the book was. I told him Mennonite Girls Can Cook. He smiled real big and said, my wife follows you girls and has made a lot of good stuff. He then patted his Kevlar vest and said he’s put on some weight. I smiled and said, me, too.  Ha! He said wait until I tell my wife…

I’m joining with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

I am continuing to have a problem posting comments on some blogger blogs. I’ve been working down the line on Mosaic Monday links and there are several that will not accept my comments. If you don’t see a comment from ellen b. that is probably why…so sorry.

A Little Book Tour ~

I’m getting ready for a special road trip on Saturday.

If you live in Washington State come on up to the Bellingham Barnes and Noble on Guide-Meridian and join several of the Mennonite Girls at our book signing.

The girls and I will be there from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon. After that we are hopping in our cars and crossing the border for a book signing at Ten Thousand Villages on Commericial in Vancouver, B.C.

Did you know this year marks the 65th Anniversary for Ten Thousand Villages? Yes, it has been sixty-five years that Ten Thousand Villages has been changing the lives and well-being of disadvantaged producers by linking and promoting Fair Trade organizations and speaking out for greater justice in the world.

To mark this great occasion the staff and volunteers at TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES on COMMERCIAL DRIVE invite you to come and help us celebrate the 65th Anniversary of Ten Thousand Villages this SATURDAY, October 1st. All day, from 10am-9pm, we will have lots of music and cake! Plus, there will be tattoos and balloons for the kids. At 4:00pm some of the authors from Mennonite Girls Can Cook will be at the store to sign copies! How awesome is that?

We hope you will come and celebrate with us! Please help us continue the mission that was started 65 years ago by one woman. Support Ten Thousand Villages this Saturday. Support fair trade. Make a difference.