Golden Wheat Chapter Christmas Party

The Christmas meeting of the Golden Wheat Chapter of the AHSGR began with Karen P. giving us God's Blessing. Everyone was invited to help themselves to all the wonderful snacks, sweets and punch. She shared with us a message from the Ukraine about their recent loss of religious freedoms.

Karen C. explained the cotton wrapped tree that she learned about at Round Up along with traditions that went with it.

Members shared stories about family ornaments.

Ella #1 read the Christmas gospel to us in German and then in English. Ella #2 read to us about the Christmas pickle ornament.

Then the drawings began for the door prizes.

Then it was time for our entertainment, Judy Wiebe Mace on her harp.

Judy read an audience participation story to us with a couple of the youth strumming the harp when they heard their cue.

Then who should appear! Why Santa Clause of course!

With gifts for the children.

Dennis read to us about the Volga tradition of Bells Nichols, quite different than our modern Santa. The Grand Finale was the drawing for the prizes from the fund raiser.

Another Wonderful Christmas Party for the end of 2016 

and Hopes and Prayers for 2017!

Tip from the Kitchen

LOVE my square silicon cupcake cups. I bought a gallon of cheddar cheese sauce and there's no way we will eat it all before it goes bad. I set my cupcake cups on a baking sheet and scooped the cheese into each, then froze. Once froze they are easily removed from the cups. I can heat a few to make nachos or toss them in a recipe to make it cheesy. I do the same with excess gravy. Then I can easily toss one or two into soup to make it creamy or add to whatever I want thickened. With pepper gravy a few frozen gravy cubes and a frozen biscuit heated up for a quick breakfast.

Golden Wheat Chapter Fall Meeting

October 16th was the Fall meeting of Golden Wheat Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. 

Today's meeting was special in that the chapter provided a bierock for each of those attending. 

As always there was plenty of food to go with the bierocks.

The desert table had a delicious selection.

It was a small group...

Everyone enjoyed visiting before the meal.

Karen welcomed everyone and returned Grace...

...then invited the children to begin the food line. 

We also had our bierock fund raiser going on at this time. Money being collected and counted, numbers crunched.

Good company and good conversation.

Karen began the meeting with her report from headquarters then Dennis gave a report from the Kansas Round Up of Chapters. 

Ella read out Mission Statement then presided over the Election of Officers.

Our program was a remastered film on Norka in the 1920's. 

Ella brought a map showing Norka and a village plat map.

Another successful meeting of the 

Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR

Golden Wheat Chapter Picnic

Saturday was our annual picnic of the Golden Wheat Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.

As you enter the room you see our registration table with a display of a sampling of books from our library.

We had a nice size gathering for our indoor picnic. 

 Karen welcomes everyone, especially our guests. The pastor of the church (in the black sweater vest) led us in prayer and blessings for our food.

Always plenty of the best food.

 Don't forget the desert table.

Sondra was there with her Watkins products with sales providing a percentage to the chapter.

Good food, good friends, good conversation. As part of our program we were asked to share a memory of our favorite picnic or family reunion. Some were able to combine both with a picnic at a family reunion. 

Dennis' daughter and her two sons were visiting from London England. What treat!

Ella provided a game having members bring pictures of themselves when they were younger and placed them on a board with a number attached to it. Members were to guess who everyone was and write it on a lined and numbered paper that Ella later graded. Two members were able to identify seven of the nine photos.

Karen gave a report from the library sharing with us two new books and a video that we will watch as a group at a future meeting. She then gave the Convention report.  

Dennis had laptops set up to help people online research at the AHSGR website.

Another successful meeting of the Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR!

Meeting adjourned on time.

Golden Wheat Chapter Genealogy Meeting

Sunday April 10th was the Genealogy meeting of the Golden Wheat Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.

Our meetings begin with a covered dish dinner and there is always a wonderful variety of tasty foods.

Great selections at the desert table, too.

Our president, Karen, asked for blessings for all present and those unable to attend. 

Then it was time to chow down!

Our Watkins table was set up to take orders to keep us supplied with their excellent products and contribute to our funds.

After everyone had sufficiently stuffed themselves we all moved over to our library (the bookshelves in the back) for our Genealogy meeting after a short chapter business meeting. Our featured speaker was Melvin Epp discussing his recent book on his Epp family history going back as far as he could trace them. 

His second book, "For the Children: Pursuing Religious and Political Freedoms." His ancestors joined the Anabaptists movement after the Protestant Reformation of 1517. Generations of the family relocated from Holland to West Prussia, to southern Russia, and finally to America in the 1880s in the continuing search for places where they could practice their Mennonite religion with freedom. By now his grandfather Epp has over 700 descendants living in the US enjoying the freedoms that the family sought through the years.

Then Dennis introduced everyone to the AHSGR website and what resources are available online for research. This was interactive and everyone was encouraged to ask questions about their ancestors.

Another GREAT meeting. 

What a Crock! Taco Salad & Soup

Cooking for two can sometimes be challenging. Most recipes are usually 4 servings. Leftovers can be a problem and eating it ALL is certainly a problem. That is why lately my favorite appliance has been my 1.5 qt. crockpot. (All pictures are from the web, I didn't think about blogging this till after the fact.)

Its only real setback is that it only has two settings, on and off. It's not what I would call a slow cooker because it does bring the food to a boil. I bought it years ago for little smokies in BBQ sauce and only recently have been using it for regular cooking. I thought I'd share the easy two meals I made the other day.

Easy Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients

• 1 lb of Chicken Breasts
• 3 Peppers (Green, Red & Yellow), sliced
• 1 Onion, sliced
• 1 Package of Taco Seasoning
• Flour or corn tortillas
• Toppings - sour cream, cheese, guacamole, etc.

Instructions

1. Slice peppers and onions then place them on the bottom of the crock pot
2. Put Chicken on top of peppers and onions
3. Sprinkle taco seasoning on the top
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hrs (or high for 3-4)
5. Shred everything up and mix together
6. Serve with tortillas and all the toppings - sour cream, guacamole, cheese, lettuce, etc.

http://eatathomecooks.com/easy-crockpot-chicken-fajitas/

That is the actual recipe^^^ that I more or less followed. I cut up onion and bell pepper to layer the bottom of the pot and placed three small chicken breasts (frozen) on top. I have a bottle of taco seasoning...

...that I sprinkled freely over the chicken. Put the lid on, turned it on and let it cook for 4 hours. Instead of making fajitas though, we had fajita salads. They're like taco salads except with chicken fajita meat and vegetables.

I added black beans but not corn or avocado. I think I like the salad better than a wrap. One of the granddaughters was here and she didn't care for the onions or bell pepper which left me with quite a bit of taco flavored broth, bell pepper and onion. Back to the web to search for a recipe for Chicken Taco Soup. I scoured through all the recipes for common ingredients and find I only need to add the half cans of diced tomato and black beans that I already had opened for the salad, then a can of whole kernel corn and a can of kidney beans. This made for a full pot. Later I added a little more taco seasoning and taco sauce.

Quick to prepare and easy to make. Full of flavor, I really like it. The only picture that I did take was of the nearly empty pot.

These two dishes will absolutely get repeat performances. Let me know if you give them a try and what you think.