German Sausage

I finally pulled the German sausage out of my freezer this weekend, fried up some potatoes and make my stomach happy with this comfort food. I did not make any other Mennonite comfort food to go with it as I had originally planned, but the sausage and potatoes were enough for now. I put the sausage in a large frying pan and cooked it in beer before frying the potatoes in butter and onions, then adding the sausage.

The leftovers have been terrific!

Slideshow on Youtube

I made a little slideshow video of last Sunday's service at Bergthal Mennonite Church. You can view it here. Please note that when I was recording the singing, I did not realize how loud my voice would be, and I was shocked ;-) that sometimes my singing was not *ahem* pristine. However, I decided that with all the flaws, the remembrance of the service outweighed the perfection of the music.

Bergthal Mennonite Church - Pawnee Rock, Kansas

The primary reason for my trip to Kansas over Memorial Day weekend was to attend the Memorial Celebration Sunday at Bergthal Mennonite Church in Pawnee Rock. In the 1950s, my maternal grandfather pastored this church, and my mother graduated from high school during this time. At its height, the congregation boasted about 250 members in this rural community, but today only about 15 people make up the church. Couple this with the fact that the building has a black mold problem that is cost prohibitive to take care of, and after several years and heart-breaking discussions, the congregation has decided to tear down the building later this summer. 

Street Sign Kitty-Corner to the Church

In preparation for this sad event, the people decided to hold one final big church service and invite people who have a connection to the church to return. My parents planned on going and asked if I wanted to attend with them. Since I had never seen the church (except as an infant), and I am interested in my mom's heritage, I jumped at the chance to visit Kansas in May. It seemed that I was not the only one who wanted to come. The sanctuary was overflowing with about 350 people, including descendants of the founding families and a handful who had never even been to the church, but had some kind of reason to travel there.

We were in for an entire day of activities starting with breakfast. After the worship service and the noon potluck we had the chance to bid on a silent auction of various items from the church building. People shared memories of their time at the church during an afternoon service and the official day ended with more food - dessert and coffee.

On the dedication day of the church building (the third building for this congregation), people stood outside in front of the church for a group photo. (You can see this photo on a blog post about Bergthal on another blog post here.) On Sunday we all came outside for a final group photo with the photographer on the top of a tall, tall ladder on the other side of the street with four people holding the legs so it would not blow over in the wind.

Table decoration in the basement

Breakfast buffet

Gathering for church

Rules for the silent auction

Offering Plate up for auction

Taking a group photo can be dangerous

But this is the end result!

MCC Relief Sale

Last May I went to the MCC Relief Sale in Upland on Friday, and found out that all the good stuff was happening on Saturday. This year we went on Saturday. One of the big events is a quilt auction, and there are many, many quilts available for bidding, from small to large.

My favorite part of the sale was the chance to buy German sausage (imported from Fresno) which comes frozen. We bought our little bundle (apparently this sells out quickly) and carted it home to our freezer for a special occasion. When I'm feeling the need for some comfort food, I will pull it out, fry up some potatoes, make some zwiebach and maybe some plumamoos for dessert, and I will be happy.

Spirit of Women - As Exhibited in the Arts

Celebrating women at church yesterday included the morning service with litany derived from the poetry written at the women's retreat, an anthem sung by Joyful Voices (the women's choir) and a hymn composed by one of our members.

In the evening, the Spirit of Women dinner featured a presentation by one of Claremont's artists, Eleanor Scott Meyers.  She showed us a number of her paintings, some of which can be seen at her beautiful website. Her art style of Plein Air comes from the French "in the open air" as the French impressionists who paid particular attention to the effects of light in their paintings.

Eleanor Scott (the name Scott is part of her first name, not last) is another example of the tremendous talent at Pilgrim Place, and another reason why it would be great to retire there. I would not mind owning one of her works.

Borscht

Tonight I reconnected with my Mennonite roots and made borscht for dinner. My ancestors were of the Russian Mennonite variety - the group who came from the Netherlands, through Prussia and into what is now the Ukraine. Although they tended not to integrate into the Russian culture, the Mennonites did pick up some of the local food, including red winter wheat and borscht.

I still have a slight stain on my hand from peeling and chopping the beets, but it was worth it. This recipe is not quite what I ate growing up since it is vegetarian, but with the beets and potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes, it was pretty hearty, and the sourdough roll on the side and the plain greek yogurt on the top were perfect complements.

MCC Relief Sale

I recently found out about an MCC Relief Sale happening in Upland (Arrow Highway and San Antonio) today and tomorrow.  MCC is code for Mennonite Central Committee, an organization dedicated to relief, service and peace, comprised of various Anabaptist churches.  These relief sales and thrift stores support the work of the MCC around the world.  There may be such sales and stores in an area near you.

I think that we got there a little early since some of the booths were not yet occupied, but the thrift store portion of the sale was in full swing, and we spent a goodly amount of time browsing the many books.  I suspect that more will be available tomorrow, so we may have to go back to see.... I was hoping to see some quilts and maybe peruse canned goods.