Raclette for a Worthy Cause

I managed to take a few photos of the Raclette Meal in progress. We served Steak, Shrimp, Asparagus, Red Bell Pepper strips, Mushrooms, Thinly sliced Onion, Pickles, Cheese, Boiled Potatoes, bread and butter. It was up to our guests what they would cook on the top of the grills and melt in the individual melting pans that fit under the grill. The usual item placed below the grills is the cheese or something else cooked with a little butter like mushrooms.

For dessert I served the Strawberry Ice Cream Cake that I posted the recipe for on Wednesday Hodgepodge.

The Raclette Meal was a hit and it was a first for all 6 guests. This was a meal that we offered up for an auction item at our church to raise money over and above our usual monthly support for our missionaries to the Ukraine. The couple that won the bid donated $450.00 for this meal for them and 4 of their guests. We enjoyed serving them. The Missionary Auction brought in $16,000 from items donated by our church members and then bid on by people in our church.

This week I’m very busy both helping out by watching the grands during the day and then in the evenings helping with our Vacation Bible School which runs from 6pm until 8:30. I won’t have much leisure time for visiting blogs. I’ll visit when I can.

Easter Monday!

I like that Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand have Easter Monday. Here in the U.S.A. it’s not a holiday. I’m getting my Easter fun posts sorted and hope to have a cohesive way to store them here for my memories. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Hope all of you who have an extra holiday today will enjoy it to the full!

Here is how our festivities started on Friday…

We decided to hide eggs for our adult kids to find.

The hunt began…

It didn’t take long for them to find all the eggs. There were 6 large plastic eggs with each of their names on them and one large golden egg. Then there were several little plastic eggs filled with candy for them to find, too. The large eggs had cold hard cash in them. The golden egg had cash, too. Our new daughter in love found the golden egg straight away!

For dinner on Friday we enjoyed a Raclette meal together. Our whole little family all together. We don’t take these times for granted since Dan and Jamie live 6 hours away from us with a mountain range between us!

It was a wonderful start to a full and beautiful weekend despite some of us falling into tissue mode because of the head colds going around!

Hope the drip drip drip hasn’t caught up to you! Happy Monday everyone!

We Gathered First at the Table…

The sisters from youngest to oldest, Lana, Ellen, Vera, and Kathy.

There is so much to share from our sister weekend so there will be several posts to document our time together. On Friday I picked up my two older sisters from the airport. Even though they flew with two different airlines they coordinated their flights so that they landed within a half hour of each other. We came home to enjoy Marg’s overnight french toast which was delicious. I was so consumed in serving my sisters and all the schedules in my head that I forgot to take a photo. After our brunch we spent a couple hours at Goodwill and a Persian market and bakery.

For dinner we decided on sharing the Raclette eating experience with them.

Our youngest sister, Lana, arrived later in the afternoon from southern California. Her home is in Washington but she works in California (long story). Lana and her husband Steve got to our house for dinner and we all gathered around as our daughter Katie explained the Raclette method to everyone.

It didn’t take long for everyone to get involved in the grilling experience and we had a leisurely time grilling meat and veggies, melting cheese and enjoying our food and conversation. For dessert we had good ole fashioned banana splits! I introduced my sisters to Fixer Upper and enjoyed some episodes. We made plans on a starting time for our full day of fun planned for Saturday.

My next post will be all about our garden stop in Mount Vernon!

Today my sister Vera and I did a little shopping and enjoyed a meal at a Persian restaurant before I dropped her off at the airport. Tomorrow will be a recuperating day for me. Hope all is well in your world…

Thirty Years!

Our youngest turned thirty today. We started celebrating yesterday.

Our daughters and I went to the Queen Mary Tea Room to celebrate birthdays on Boxing day.

Laura and Katie have birthdays in December and Jamie, Dan, and Josh have birthdays in January.

It was Jamie’s first time to enjoy a formal tea. Pinkies up!

Later on boxing day Katie had some old friends over to celebrate with a Raclette meal and we had cake!

We gave Katie her gifts at breakfast time this morning before she and Andrew headed out to an early showing of the new Star Wars movie. The fun just goes on and on…

We’re enjoying the last few hours with Dan and Jamie before they fly back to Eastern Washington tonight.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

Raclette for Six…

We were inspired to buy our own Raclette grill after being introduced to this meal idea at Bev and Harv’s for our Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas party.

On Friday night we had some friends over who also happen to be our former worship leader and the real estate agent who we bought this old house from. Before we sat down to eat we gave them a tour of this old house to see all the improvements made since we bought the house with Stephanie’s help back in 1999.

A table of six is an easy table to set. I was able to use one of my random sets of silverware that I only have six place settings of.

Boiled potatoes, cheese, and bread are the main ingredients along with meat for a Raclette and then pickles and other pickled sides. The skies the limit or what you can fit on your table is the limit of other fun things to eat cold or to grill. We chose rib-eye steak, red peppers, mushrooms, onions, endive, beets, and baby corn. We also a made a nice garlic, chive and butter mix, a little goes a long way.

I had a major photo fail and didn’t take a photo of us cooking at the table or a photo of our special guests but here is one from last Christmas of Aaron, Stephanie, and two of their daughters and one of their nieces.

It was a very fun and relaxed time cooking our food at the table.

On this last Sunday before Christmas Dear and I were at church at 6:45 a.m.! We volunteered to help make donuts for the early service which starts at 8:00 a.m. Since Dear can’t sleep past 4:00 it wasn’t a struggle for us to get to church so early. The doughnut production line worked well with mixing, pouring, frying, and frosting and sprinkling and then out to the lobby to serve the people arriving. I manned a mixer and Dear was at the hot stove flipping doughnuts! There were many who thought they were the best doughnuts they’ve ever had. Fresh is good!

I’m all done wrapping the gifts for under the tree. We drew names this year for our immediate family so the wrapping was a lot easier. I even wrapped the birthday gifts for Katie since her birthday is December 27th. When you have December and January birthdays I’ve found that you need to get those gifts before Christmas or the selections are pretty dismal in January.

How are things going at your house?

Raclette and the Mennonite Girls…

ra·clette (rä-klĕt’) noun

1.a dish, of Swiss origin, similar to a fondue, consisting of melted cheese traditionally served on boiled potatoes and accompanied with pickles

Raclette is a Swiss Cheese dish that has been popular for centuries. There are different opinions about who started it. Some say shepherds in the mountains, other say it was the grape harvesters in the vineyards of the Valais region of Switzerland. No matter who, the fact is that after a hard days work, they gathered around a campfire and enjoyed a Raclette.

Everybody agrees, that it took place in the Valais region of Switzerland and that the original cheese was made there.

Raclette has more than one definition. Raclette is a Swiss cheese dish, a cultural land mark, the name of a cheese, a table top appliance, a dining experience, a great time!

This past Friday Dear and I joined the British Columbia Mennonite Girls for an early Christmas Raclette party at Bev and Harv’s beautiful home in Chilliwack. For most of us it was our first experience enjoying this type of meal where meat, cheese, vegetables, and pickled accompaniments are provided but each individual is responsible to cook and melt their choices for themselves on an electric Raclette grill.

We had thinly sliced and marinated flank steak, shrimp, sausage, jack and cheddar cheese (instead of the raclette cheese), mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, scallions, dill pickles, baby gherkins, pickled onions and of course the boiled potatoes and fresh baked french bread.

But…first things first.

We all sat down in the Russian style with the men together on one end of the great huge table and the girls on the other end!

Instructions were given on how to use the grill and melt the cheese. We sang Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow for our Grace and the new culinary adventure began.

We started with a delicious salad that Bev put together for all of us, greens, pineapple, beets, goat cheese and nuts with a homemade dressing that was so bright and delicious.

Anneliese baked the bread for our evening.

My messy plate full before I scraped the cheese onto my bread.

There was lots of busy fun around the whole table.

We had to make room for two desserts, too. This one was a delicious gluten free caramel cake that Julie baked.

And Anneliese made a Beautiful Black Cherry chocolate trifle.

We ended the evening with our gift exchange. A wonderful variety of thoughtful gifts were opened and enjoyed.

The celebrations went late and Dear and I were happy that Judy and Elmer provided us with a room for the night. When we woke up on Saturday morning we were served a delicious breakfast before we hit the road for the U.S.A. on Saturday. It was another hearty and hardy experience for us with our Mennonite friends!

As soon as we crossed the line from Canada into the U.S. I turned my phone back on and researched where we could buy a Raclette! We’re still celebrating at our house as today is our 41st Anniversary. I’ll share our anniversary celebrations later in the week…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

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