Tag Archives: Mennonite Girls Can Cook

My Cup Was Filled…

…to overflowing yesterday!

I keep thanking God for his goodness to me expressed in so many ways yesterday through family and friends. Truly it was a day full of joy and gladness for me from start to finish and I still get to celebrate today!

 

Our day started out with an invitation for brunch at Josh and Laura’s. What I didn’t know was that Dan had taken an extra day off so he could drive over the Cascades to help celebrate my birthday. I was so overjoyed to see him when he walked in the room. I just had to keep saying his name. Thank you Josh, Laura and Dear for surprising me! Thanks Dan for driving the 6 hours one way to celebrate my birthday. The last time we had seen Dan was at Christmas. Tonight the 5 of us are going out to dinner downtown.

From brunch Dear and I headed North to meet up with 5 of the Mennonite girls and their guys for dinner at the Chuckanut Manor.

 

We had a room to ourselves overlooking the Chuckanut Bay.

 

What fun to meet all the husbands. Thank you Anneliese, Marg, Lovella, Judy and Kathy for driving across the line with your husbands to join Dear and me for a wonderful evening. I’ll never forget it…unless old age messes with my brain.

 

The food was delicious and the conversations were lively.

 

There were songs sung and candles silenced. And if that wasn’t enough I got showered with cards and gifts from Canada and Africa. I also got showered with Loonies and Toonies to send to Willow for a classroom assignment. You might be wondering about that loaf of bread. It’s the Mennonite Girls Can Cook traveling loaf that began it’s journey the day the Mennonite Girls all met for the first time at the Abbotsford airport. Yep! It’s harder than a rock but it is traveling on…

 

The rain subsided for our dinner time and we were afforded some beautiful views.

 

 

 

Seriously I was overwhelmed in a good way and I don’t take for granted the gift of family and friends that God has blessed me with!

Sixty is looking real good!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes 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.

FFF ~ Fun in the Midst of Slumps…

Time to get your favorites together to share. Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is our hostess for this event. Click on over and see what events, products, people, books, made the list!

I shared earlier this week that I’m in a bloggy slump of sorts but even in the midst of slumpiness there are lots of good things around me. The Light always shines I just need to see it. So here are my favorites from this past week.
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1. Soccer is my favorite sport in general but I have to say that the Seahawk football game against the Saints makes it on my favorites this week. Mostly because of this unbelievable run that you all probably have heard about already. The Seattle fans even made the Seismic charts.
Seattle is all a-buzz and on Sunday they’ll play the Chicago Bulls Bears to see if they keep their amazing run alive.
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2. I’m happy to report that my big toe was not broken last week but just bruised badly so I was able to go to Zumba on Monday morning. I’m really enjoying this form of exercise and have met some fun ladies my age and younger who keep me going. Here’s how Zumba is described: “Zumba Fitness® is the only Latin-inspired dance-fitness program that blends red-hot international music, created by Grammy Award-winning producers, and contagious steps to form a “fitness-party” that is downright addictive”. At first I felt like I had 2 left feet but the routines are the same every time you go and before long you can do the steps automatically.
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3. The blower/fan in our fireplace insert died. Dear had to take the whole thing apart to figure out what part we needed. We ordered it online because it wasn’t available locally. It finally arrived on Wednesday and Dear put it all back together and we now have heat in our living room area again. This is our 2nd major heat source so we were pretty chilly for a few days and cuddled up in the family room where our little cast iron stove kept us warm. I’m happy Dear could fix it for a fraction of the cost to replace it.  $150 instead of $1500. Now Dear thinks he should be able to buy himself something for $1350. There is something suspect in that reasoning…
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4. Dear and I went to our local Mexican Restaurant this week and it was a great relaxing time with good conversation and debriefing on things that were on our minds this week. Sometimes it is just good to get out of the house so you aren’t a slave to your normal routines. We know the waitstaff by name here and they always make us feel welcomed. That’s Carne Asada and I’ll share the recipe closer to summer time on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog.

 

5. Speaking of the Mennonite Girls, we’ve had fun news about our upcoming cookbook this week. A few weeks ago the cover was released. This is what the cover will look like. Some of the gals have been interviewed by their local papers and this week one of the T.V. stations in Canada is interviewing a couple of the gals on their Sunday show. We keep pinching ourselves. Our Royalties from the sale of the book will be going to an organization in the Ukraine that feeds children. You can click on the cover to see more information on the book.

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Hope you are doing well. I’ll be coming around today or tomorrow to see your Faves…
Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes 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.

Oh Canada!

Growing up I was immersed in a Russian Community that used cousin, aunt and uncle loosely. We always had more “relatives” then a proper genealogy record would prove. I just inherited 9 girl cousins from Canada. Our cousin connection comes from our love for each other, similar upbringing, blogging, and recipes that our ancestors brought out of Russia and Germany. I will be sharing the wonderful bonding experiences we had during our 3 days together soon.

 

Here are the Mennonite Girls (MGCC) minus me and I now know first hand they really can cook! Starting in the back, Judy from My Front Porch, Marg from Home Again, Lovella from What Matters Most, Julie from Pearls in A Nutshell, Betty,  Anneliese from For Everything a Season, Bev from Kaleidoscopes, Kathy, and Charlotte.

Here’s the same photo with me in it. I borrowed it from one of my cousins who happened to post this same photo spot on her blog. Thanks Judy!

Thank you girls for all the good food, laughter, prayers, and fun we had! Till we meet again…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes 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.

Apple Walnut Crisp…

I went out to my apple tree and picked a few apples…

 

Then I tweaked a few apple crisp recipes and I’m happy with the result.

 

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes 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.

She is Strangely Silent…

 

I’m headed East over the mountains on an overnight with this cute guy. Don’t tell my husband! Oh wait…that is my husband.

 

 

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes 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.

FFF ~ A Few Of My Favorite Things…

A time to reflect on the past week and consider your favorites. Please visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story who is our hostess for Friday’s Fave Five.

 

1. We had a family taco night last Friday to celebrate my nephew Caleb visiting from California.

2. On Sunday before church Dear painted our guest room. He gets up real early. Then after church we re-decorated the room and we are thoroughly enjoying it! This is also the room where my computer lives most of the time. One of the great things about the changes in the room is the fact that the desk with my computer on it faces a window now and I get to see birds on the bushes outside the window.

3. These Irises have made me smile all week and they only cost $3.99.

 

4. Seeing the first ducklings of the season in our neighborhood. This mama duck and her little ones were crossing the street.

 

5. Last but not least, being a part of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog. I’m enjoying getting to know my Canadian friends more and more. Head over to the blog on Friday and see the ingredients I put together for my Mexican Rice Bowl…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes 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.

It Was So Much Fun…

…to laugh and talk with these girls!

 

6 of the 10 contributors on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog.

 

Julie, Bev K. , Betty R., and Charlotte were unable to join us.

 

It was my first face to face with all these ladies. You know these girls are even thinner in person. I forgot to ask them their secret on how they stay so slim while cooking all that great food!!  And for the record…Kathy, I think you are great!! I feel so blessed to have been adopted into the fold even though I’m not Mennonite. Many of our Russian recipes are similar to the Mennonite favorites.

 

Before eating we got a little shopping in. After lunch we parted ways. I headed South and they headed North with a stop at the Tulip Fields.

 

I brought home a food gift and the prize I won on Judy’s blog giveaway a while back.

My own Vancouver Olympic Mittens and a Canada Pin! Thank you MGCC for a wonderful day and thank you Judy for my prize. I love the mittens and the pin.

Before I met up with the girls I had a quick stop at the tulip fields and I’ll show more of those photos later.  Blessings!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Seeds of Friendship ~

Today I’m heading North to La Conner and I’m meeting up with 5 of the Mennonite Girls from Mennonite Girls Can Cook! We’re going to have lunch together at Seeds. I am so looking forward to meeting these blogging friends in person. My camera is all packed and ready to go!

 

Seeds of Friendship

I planted some seeds of friendship
All nice and neatly in a row
I tended to them with love and care
Then watched them sprout and grow

I’ll be sharing more about our meeting later in the week. Happy Tuesday to you all!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.