Hostess enjoys surprising her guests
Veg Weber knows how to do old-fashioned hospitality and she enjoys having people sit around her table. A few years ago, this hostess from Hawkesville, Ont., came across a recipe that gives her guests a surprise dining adventure as well as nourishing food. When Veg serves Frogmore stew, she invites her guests to sit…
Vegan Mennos
Type the words “Mennonite vegans” into your search engine and you likely won’t come up with much. But being a Mennonite vegan is very doable, whether you are culturally Mennonite or not. And with a birth name of Carrie and a married name of Steven, I am clearly not culturally Mennonite. Why did we go…
Easy Beans recipe
Vegan cooking can be as easy or challenging as you want to make it. I’m a “10-minute—five ingredient” kind of gal so here is a crockpot bean recipe that takes minutes to make. If you put it together in the morning, it will easily be ready for supper. (Read the accompanying Gathering Around the Table article, “Vegan…
Wacky Cake recipe
This cake is so good and easy; it is my favourite! Because it has no eggs or milk it is suitable for those who are vegetarian or vegan or those with an allergy to eggs. (Read the accompanying Gathering Around the Table article, “Everyone loves Wacky cake.”) 1 ½ cups flour (do not use…
Everyone loves Wacky cake
I love to bake and cook. Some years ago, while I was studying at Redeemer University College in Hamilton, Ont., money and time were in short supply, but there was a free television channel called WNED Buffalo/Toronto. When WNED announced it was putting together a potluck cookbook as a fundraiser, I submitted my Wacky cake recipe.…
‘To the heart through dal’
During my year of living in Canada as part of the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP), sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), I made dal (lentil soup) a number of times. In my country, India, dal is a basic everyday food. My IVEP placement was at Thrift on Kent, an MCC thrift shop in Kitchener,…
Ashisha’s spinach lentil soup
In 2018 Ashisha Lal, a young Mennonite from India, worked at the Mennonite Central Committee thrift shop in Kitchener, Ont. This spinach lentil soup (Palak dal) reminds her of her mother who died of cancer. Read her story here. Ingredients: ¼ cup pigeon pea lentils or yellow split peas ¼ cup red lentils 2 cups…
Oma’s Peppernuts
This recipe for Pfeffernusse (peppernuts) is from my Oma (grandmother) Maria (Wiebe) Kroeger and my mother Helen. (See more at “Family tradition goes back 500 years.”) Ingredients 2 cups butter or margarine 2 cups white sugar 2 cups Rogers Golden syrup 1 tsp ginger 2 tsp star anise or aniseed 1 tsp mace 1 tsp…
Family tradition goes back 500 years
“Pfeffernusse,” Dora repeated after me in amazement! She couldn’t believe that my Christmas treats were the same as hers. It was Nov. 7, 2002, and we were sitting around the pool at Toddy’s Backpacker Hostel in Alice Springs, Australia. Nostalgia crept among us; we had wandered far and wouldn’t be home for Christmas. At the…
Following my mother’s example
Growing up in a Mennonite home, I cherished baking and cooking as integral parts of my life. As a young girl, I was often surrounded by the smells of delicious homemade baked goods—bread and zwieback, perishky and platz (rolls, fruit pockets and fruit squares, respectively). My mother expressed her loving service through baking and cooking,…
