Category Archives: Mennonite Girls Can Cook

The Highways Less Traveled

On Friday the 6th of December we left our home early to drive to the Coast via highway 25 and US Route 2 in Washington State.

U.S. Route 2 is a component of the United States Numbered Highway System that connects the city of Everett in the U.S. state of Washington to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, with a separate segment that runs from Rouses Point, New York, to Houlton, Maine.

The only hazards on the roads that we encountered 4 separate times on highway 25 were flocks of wild turkeys that decided to cross the road in a line and not in a hurry.

We passed through many small towns miles apart with limited services.

When we finally got to US Route 2 we found a great little Corner Cafe in Creston, Washington.

Now we were starting the climb over the Cascade Mountain Range.

Leavenworth was decorated and ready for their annual Christmas tree lighting. There were many people milling about. We drove right through without stopping.

We arrived to Josh and Laura’s home for the late afternoon and night. On Friday evening Josh and Laura took us out for our anniversary to a new spot to us, Emory’s on the Lake. It’s such a blessing to have a home base on the other side of the Cascades where we are always welcomed.

On Saturday we met up with friends for breakfast and then packed up the car for our trip to Chilliwack, British Columbia for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas celebration. I’ll save that for a separate post.

On the way home from the Coast on Monday we stopped in Spokane and purchased our Mystery Tree for 2019. It’s still in the car while I type and as soon as we put it in it’s spot we’ll have the reveal and see what it looks like in it’s stand.

We made it back to our country bungalow before dark after stopping for Linner in Chewelah at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Our drive back from the Coast was on Interstate 90 and we encountered several miles of fog which was hard on our eyes. We were so happy to see some clearing after Ritzville. We did not see blue skies until we came down into the valley before Chewelah. That was a welcomed sight for sure.

Now that we are home for the rest of December my Christmas decorating will begin in earnest. Are you all decked out yet? I’m working on our Christmas letter. When that is copied off I’ll be able to send our Christmas cards. I’m happy to say they are all addressed already. Do you still send cards?

I’m headed out the door to a Bible Study and lunch. I hope to make some visits to blogs this evening.

A Full Sunday and Goodbyes…

 

Sunday breakfast was more casual and simple since we were all getting ready to go to church together.

Herb captured this photo of our breakfast gathering. Yogurt, granola, bran muffins and cinnamon rolls.

I drove the “girls” to church and Dear drove the guys. Lovella captured this selfie of the “girls”. Pastor delivered an inspired message on the Preeminence of the Word that motivated many good conversations through the rest of the day. “We know where we are headed, Being real is Not an excuse for sin, We wrestle until we are transformed, we submit ourselves to an Absolute Standard” Once again we were in awe on how the Holy Spirit delivers congruent messages all across the globe.

After church we all gathered at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Chewelah, El Ranchito. The waitstaff entertained us and took good care of us. Straight from lunch Herb and Anneliese said goodbye and headed to their border crossing which would close at 5PM. The rest of us took a more scenic route home to enjoy more of this part of Washington State.

Home again to our front yard campground we were all talking about all the food we had enjoyed and decided a hike would be in order.

We headed to nearby Douglas Falls Campground and hiked. Back home we refreshed and later enjoyed leftovers from our previous meals.

Monday morning dawned with pack up activity as all the campers would be heading out after breakfast. We enjoyed an egg scramble, some leftover bran muffins and toast.  Bev has taken up sketching and we got to see some of her art work. She is gifted.

We suggested copies of this work of art for Christmas!

Final conversations and goodbyes.

It was sad to see all the campers head out to the road.

Dear and I had our cup full from all the good times. Our guests left us gifts that will remind us of our epic camping experience with these Mennonite Girls and their hubbies.

We have found some perfect spots for the barn wood, barbed wire cross, the windmill bird house and ceramic plaque.

We were also gifted certificates for a couple more meals at El Ranchito! This is a generous and thoughtful group. Having this group at our home was gift enough but we appreciate their thoughtfulness that goes the extra mile.

Come again, come often! God be with you till we meet again.

Birthday Fun on Saturday…

When Herb and Anneliese arrived to our camp on Saturday morning we all greeted Anneliese with Happy Birthday to You in song. It was a good beginning to a very full day. The day was full of food, fellowship, music, playing, shopping, more food, and it was all capped off with so much laughter that many of us were in tears, happy tears!

Dear made his famous Swedish pancakes on Saturday for breakfast and the pancakes, smoky links, fruit, sour cream and real maple syrup hit the spot.

Our Colville kids arrived late morning to meet our campers and Addy and Lovella delighted us with beautiful piano music, well mostly Lovella. We enjoyed singing some hymns and Sunday School songs that Lovella played from heart and from hymnals and other sheet music we had on hand. Glorious! Addy was very comfortable with each of the girls and invited them to play with her in “her room”. We hope she realizes that the room is JJ’s, too.

The guys enjoyed peppering our son Dan about his work. There are always tales to tell. Bev captured the following photos of me and Addy. Thank you, Bev.

The guys jumped in their car and the girls jumped in our car and we headed to downtown Colville to do some shopping. The girls enjoyed the end of the Farmer’s market and a few other shops on Main street before we headed home for appies. The guys ended up in Kettle Falls and enjoyed a “snack” at Backyard BBQ before they headed back to our campsite.

Harv and Bev made their famous Coconut Prawns for our Saturday dinner appetizer and Lovella added her mango salsa.

 

Forgot to take a photo of all the goodies we had for dinner. Marinated Chicken thighs off the Traeger along with an amazing rice, bean and veggie salad that Anneliese, the birthday girl, made. Lovella made scalloped potatoes and Judy made coleslaw. Judy also made a beautiful Raspberry Ripple cake for dessert.

We sang again to the birthday girl and then the laughter started. Terry got us going with hilarious stories recounting the day and other stories from days gone by, some real and some fictitious.  Pretty soon we were drying the laughter tears from our eyes.

Laughter is good medicine and we had an amazing jolt of that medicine this night. I’ll never forget it.

So happy that Anneliese’s birthday was filled with the best kind of fellowship and laughter!

Here we go into the last week of August. Are you ready for September?

Mennonite Girls Can Camp or…

…glamp.

Glamping: Glamping is a portmanteau of glamorous and camping and describes a style of camping with amenities and, in some cases, resort-style services not usually associated with “traditional” camping.

Dear strung a clothesline between two of our trees out front and I gathered up every apron I own to hang on it along with a welcome sign for four of the Mennonite Girls who would be arriving along with their husbands from British Columbia for our first MGCC RV Resort Camp in our front yard. It was so much fun to see the campers turn into our driveway.

The three with campers/trailers picked their spots and set up their sites. Anneliese and her husband stayed at the nearby Comfort Inn but joined us for all the festivities.

They pulled into our drive shortly after the campers got settled.

Once we had everything set up hands came together for appies. Anneliese threw together a big bowl of guacamole. She also had some spreadable brie with hot jelly for crackers. Bev put out some sugared salmon.

We enjoyed our appetizers out back on the deck and under our sunshade.

Then it was time to fire up the Traeger.

Dear prepared and grilled tri-tip.

Lovella made a Capreze salad. Judy shared some buns. Bev prepared asparagus with garlic and a buttermilk dressing along with Parmesan cheese. It was clear that no one would be hungry on this camp out!

Lovella finished off our meal with piroshky baked in her trailer oven. The meal was a great collaboration and it was delicious. Definitely glamping!

And that was just the end of our first partial day together!

We were full to the brim with good food, good friendship and good fellowship. We said goodnight with plans on breakfast starting at 9 AM Saturday morning.

Eleven Years and Counting…

On Wednesday, June 5th, eight of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook gathered at Lovella’s for a luncheon to celebrate our 11th year together.

Lovella provided all the oh so delicious food except for that beautiful cake that Anneliese made and brought to share.

Prayer For Friendship

You have blessed us, O God,
with the gift of friendship,
the bonding of persons
in a circle of love.

We thank you for such a blessing:
for friends who love us,
who share our sorrows,

who laugh with us in celebration,
who bear our pain,
who need us as we need them,
who weep as we weep,

who hold us when words fail,
and who give us the freedom
to be ourselves.

Bless our friends with health,
wholeness, life, and love.
Amen.

This poem by Vienna Cobb Anderson was shared with us by our dear Betty who lives in the same Province as Charlotte so neither of them could be with us for this celebration at Lovella’s home. The weather did not hamper our wonderful time under the tent. Our time and our ongoing friendship is all this poem expresses.

Aebleskiver

This is a recipe and method I posted on Mennonite Girls Can Cook a while back and I wanted to have the post here on my personal blog, too. Just recently, on the Great British Baking Show these were a technical challenge for the bakers.

We first enjoyed these novel pancake balls when we visited the picturesque Danish village of Solvang, California. My husband bought his own pan to make them at home before we were married. We still have that pan.

The next time we make them we will experiment with our own flour mix instead of using Bisquick but for now here is the Bisquick recipe. We are also going to try putting in an apple filling which is a little trickier next time, too.

Ingredients:

  • 5 eggs, separated
  • 2 cups Bisquick baking mix
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • Butter
  • Confectioners Sugar (Icing Sugar)
  • Applesauce
  • Fruit Syrup or Maple Syrup (optional)
  1. Separate your eggs.
  2. Beat egg whites in large bowl on high speed until stiff; set aside.
  3. Blend egg yolks, baking mix and milk in mixing bowl on low speed. Fold egg yolk mixture into beaten egg whites.
  4. Butter each cup in Aebleskiver pan. Heat pan over medium heat.
  5. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
  6. Cook until bubbly; turn carefully with small spatula or fork.  Cook other side until golden brown.
  7. While warm, sprinkle with sugar.
  8. Serve with applesauce and syrup if you desire.

Notes: You can try turning them with a chopstick or wooden skewer if the fork or spatula don’t work for you.  Next time we thought it would be nice to add a little vanilla and or sugar to the batter.

Across the Line…

…for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas gathering.

For Christmas 2018, Terry and Lovella hosted us at their warm and inviting bungalow.

The birch tree candle holders were made by Lovella’s beloved after their beautiful birch tree was felled in a storm this year.

Everyone contributed to the meal. Judy and Marg brought and assembled the Charcuterie Board.

Once I sat down at the table my photographing went out the window so I don’t have photos of the delicious Potato Leek Soup that Julie made and brought. The fresh citrusy pomegranate salad was brought and plated with care by Kathy. Bev baked fresh buns. Lovella prepared a stuffed Pork Loin that Terry barbecued to perfection along with sides of noodles, gravy, and broccoli salad.

Before we sat down at the table and while we were enjoying our appetizers the “girls” had their gift exchange. This year we were instructed to bring something that was consumable or used up by Christmas. There were a few varieties of fresh baked cookies, the promise of a hazelnut sponge roll to be delivered, coffee beans, candles, and my choice was a fresh baked razzleberry pie all wrapped up beautifully by Judy.

Two of our husbands were missing, Dear and Kathy’s husband Scot.

Anneliese brought the desserts.

We all got up from the table before dessert and it was the perfect time for me to head back across the line to the U.S.A. before my coach turned back into a pumpkin. At the border crossing I declared my pie and continued south to our kids’ home in Bothell making it there, safe and sound by 10pm. We enjoyed Judy’s pie the next evening for Laura’s birthday dessert and all 6 of us declared it perfect with no soggy bottom!

Hope all is progressing well toward Christmas at your house. We will go out back on our property and find a tree that will work for our Christmas tree this year. We think we spied something that will work well. We were going to get a permit to cut one down on National Forest property but opted for the easier route.

Backyard Birds

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26

We are spending a long weekend on the western side of the Cascade mountain range. We drove over the pass on Saturday with mostly clear roads for the 365 miles. We are staying with our oldest son and our dear daughter-in-law. While here we are celebrating her birthday.

On Sunday I traveled north to Canada for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas party/dinner. Dear was supposed to go with me but alas we realized we both forgot to bring our passports with us across the mountains. Oye. I have an enhanced license so I’m able to travel across the Canadian/U.S. border with that. It was a very sad realization that Dear would miss out on this event. I made the 2+ hour drive each way by my lonesome enjoying my new Lauren Daigle CD. Dinner and time with the “girls” was rich and wonderful. Lovella and her beloved created a beautiful setting for us all to enjoy. Everyone contributed to the meal and it was over the top delicious from the Charcuterie board appetizer, Potato Leek soup, plated salad, stuffed pork loin with noodles and gravy, roasted carrots, broccoli salad, fresh rolls and a beautiful layered cake dessert.

While I was in Canada Dear had dinner with our Western Washington Kids (WWK). For Monday we will meet up with dear friends for lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant on this side and be able to hug our favorite waitress! This evening we will gather together with our WWK to celebrate Laura’s birthday. My take away gift from the MGCC party last night was a beautiful home made pie that Judy baked and we’ll enjoy that as Laura’s birthday “cake” after dinner. Photos to follow sometime soon….

Quotes of the Week 6

My quotes this week are taken from the writings of George MacDonald and a current quote from a blog.

George MacDonald (1824-1905), Scottish Victorian novelist, began his adult life as a clergyman and always considered himself a poet first of all. His unorthodox views resulted in a very short career in the pulpit, after which he turned to writing in earnest. He initially attracted notice for poetry and his adult fantasy, Phantastes, but once he turned to the writing of realistic novels in the early 1860s, his name became widely known throughout Great Britain and the U.S.  You can read more about him in this article I’m quoting, here.

Here are some quotes from some of his books or from him…

The things that can be shaken, said Andrew, as if thinking with himself “may last for a time. But they will at length be shaken to pieces, so that the things which cannot be shaken may emerge as what they truly are. Whatever we call religion will vanish when we see God face to face.”

From The Landlady’s Master ~ George MacDonald

The Curate of Glaston, by George MacDonald

“But perhaps even then you had more knowledge which, they say, only life can give.”

“I have it now in any case. But of that everyone has enough who lives his life. Those who gain no experience are those who shirk the King’s highway for fear of encountering the Deity seated by the roadside.”

From Lilith by MacDonald, a book I had trouble understanding. This quote, however, I understood and stand convicted by it…

“I sighed – and regarded with wonder my past self, which preferred the company of book or pen to that of man or woman, which, if the author of a tale I was enjoying appeared, would wish him away that I might return to his story. I had chosen the dead rather than the living, the thing thought rather than the thing thinking! “Any man,” I said now, “is more than the greatest of books!” I had not cared for my live brothers and sisters and now I was left without even the dead to comfort me!”

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.  ~George MacDonald

I definitely related better to his more realistic novels but I’m no C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. 🙂

A quote from the author’s of the blog Take Them a Meal about our Mennonite Girls Can Cook Celebrations:

A beautiful cookbook for your coffee table as well as a practical resource for real life events. The cookbook includes devotional reflections, personal stories and recipes divided into sections to celebrate life’s events. A few of my favorite sections are recipes for celebrating birth, milestones, hospitality and a life well lived. Author royalties go to nourish children around the world.

Shared from the book, ‘When we face illness in the family, find ourselves housebound, or lose a loved one, there’s nothing more appreciated than a meal prepared with love and delivered to our door.’

This was fun to see on this popular blog called Take Them a Meal. Our cookbook, Mennonite Girls Can Cook Celebrations, is one of their 7 favorite gifts for 2018!