Category Archives: Mennonite Girls Can Cook

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.

Pasta Carbonara ~

 

Head over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook for the recipe.

I’m happy to report my son got Katie and me off the couch last night and we walked over to the local high school and had some exercise. Mostly I walked while Katie and Josh did some jogging and running around the track. After the football squads ended their practices we played a little soccer. I managed to record 7245 steps.

 I hope to get walking back into my normal routine. I have already changed up the way I eat and since June 12th I’ve manged to drop 13 pounds and boy does my body appreciate it. I’ve got another 10 pounds to lose before I shop for a Mother of the Bride dress.

Three Years…

 

The Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog is celebrating 3 years today. Head on over and enter a chance to win a cookbook. My mosaic shows some memorable moments from this last year. The Welcome sign was purchased at Wink’s in Chillawack during our book release celebration weekend in British Columbia. It is now gracing the entry to our home in Washington. We hope you always feel welcome at our blogs and at our tables. Blessings!

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and 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.

My Cookbook Winner!

Thank you, thank you to everyone who entered the chance to win our Mennonite Girls Can Cook cookbook! It was great to read something about each of you and see where you are from. If you have a blog I hope to visit you soon.

 

Rosemary lives in Colorado right now but will soon be moving back to her home state of Wisconsin.

Rosemary, I’ll contact you soon requesting the correct address to mail the book to! Blessings…

To those of you who didn’t win keep watching the MGCC blog for more giveaways in the future.

Speaking of giveaways head over to Feminine Farmgirl for a review and giveaway.

Mennonite Girls…

…not only can we cook but we can eat!

 

For the 2nd time the 10 authors from Mennonite Girls Can Cook got together in Canada last Friday. This time 9 of our husbands were able to join us.

 

The reason for our get together was to celebrate the release of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Cookbook. What better way to celebrate a cookbook than to have a meal together.

 

What a great evening. We prayed in High and Low German then in Russian and sang Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow together before our meal. After our meal we signed cookbooks for each other and for our publisher.

 

On Saturday we split up in shifts to sign books at Winks Gift Shop and Lepp Farm Market.

A huge thank you to Lovella and her great husband who treated us to a wonderful meal at their home and to all the girls who added to the meal and showered us with gifts! What fun we had with each other and meeting many people who have purchased our book!

I’m linking up at Mary’s Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and 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.

Buh buh buh buh B!

It’s time to present something for the letter B at Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursday. I was scratching my head wondering what to post and then I thought why not bore all of you with some brief bullet points about ellen b. I hope by now you’ve noticed the letter b‘s in this post are highlighted in blue!

 

I’ve always been ellen b. My maiden name and married name begin with the letter B. Here I am in my predominately blue apron doing a cooking demonstration with some of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook at Lepp Farm Market in British Columbia.

I’m not Mennonite but the Mennonite Girls adopted me because many of our recipes are similar since my heritage is 100% Russian. We started with a blog together and now we have our very own cookbook!

 

This is one of my recipes in the book from my mother Nadia Bagdanov for Blintzes! You can order the book at Amazon! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have some recipes in a published cookbook but blogging has a way of taking you to places you never dreamed of.

Speaking of being published, another brief story I wrote was published in this book…

It’s the story of my father coming to Christ at the Billy Graham Crusades in Los Angeles in 1963 and the impact that had on the Bagdanov family. You can read my post about that here.

 

After my father came to Christ we stayed in a church he was raised in until he decided to be baptized. At that point the group we were part of ostracized him and we joined the Russian Baptist Church where my Babushka attended. Babushka is the name for grandmother in Russian. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful lady who raised 3 children and was an amazing embroiderer even though she only had one hand. She lost one of her arms from the elbow down when she was a little girl in Russia. My mother had been raised Baptist but left the church when she married my dad and then we all ended up rejoining the Baptist church. Here’s a photo of my little maternal Babushka. We all really loved her!

 

Funny side note: There was a rumor in the Persian Village where my parents were married that my father could not have children. Well that rumor was put to rest when my parents ended up having 9 children. You might be wondering how my parents ended up in Persia since they are Russian. Both of their families fled Russia separately in the early 1930’s because of religious persecution. They traveled on foot into Iran and settled in villages outside of Tehran.

Russian Baptists can sometimes be quite legalistic. No dancing, drinking, smoking, playing cards, or going to movies. Thankfully my parents weren’t strict Legalists. They even took us to the drive-in theater to see all the great Walt Disney Movies growing up. But they’d still be surprised to know their daughter enjoys one of these every now and then.

 

A Bloody Mary. Maybe I’m on the carefree, wild side because of my birth order. I was #4. I have 2 older sisters and an older brother. The fact that I was the baby of the family for 7 years before 3 more brothers and a sister were born into our family might have something to do with my “who cares” attitude!

Before I stop my babbling I wanted to share that we are planning a wedding for our daughter and her Marine husband Andrew in January of 2012, after Andrew returns from his first deployment. We booked the wedding venue today. We chose Blue Ribbon on Lake Union in Seattle because of their total package weddings and the fact that they have a military clause that will allow us to change the date if we have to. Andrew and Katie got married in a civil ceremony on March 11th of this year in North Carolina. Our friends and family will come together to celebrate that union at a wedding ceremony to offer belated witness to their vows. One of my younger brothers who is a pastor will perform the ceremony next January.

 

Hope you made it to the end of my bullet point post. I’ll be coming around before you know it to see what you’ve been up to with the letter B! Thank you Jenny for hosting this meme!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and 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.