Homemade Mennonite Noodles and White Sauce

Until the last couple years, I've always aimed to have dinner ready by around 6pm. You know, normal dinner time. And I never thought I'd do this, but since having kids, I've had to change dinner time to more like 5pm. I feel like Seinfeld's parents in Del Boca Vista, but you do whatever you have to in order to keep the kids from endlessly whining.

So today at 4:40pm - 20 minutes before the usual planned supper time - I called my sister.

Quick. I need your recipe for pinchy noodles. I haven't made them in forever and I don't have time to try to find the recipe.

So... these didn't turn out to be pinchy noodles and... the recipe she gave me was - she mentioned much later - for semolina flour and not all-purpose... but... here is a recipe that works for all-purpose.


Also, I should mention the very important fact that this is a Mennonite recipe. So it includes a cream gravy, which you can make with butter or sausage drippings. Using sausage drippings will make this dish more authentically Mennonite (the low German for the sauce is shmaufat) but using butter is perfectly acceptable.

I should also note that these noodles are one of those meals our kids eat and then ask for seconds!

Mennonite Noodles and White Sauce

For the noodles:
1 ½ C flour
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs

Stir together flour and salt. Add eggs and mix together, using hands if necessary. Turn onto floured surface and knead until dough is smooth.

Roll dough on floured surface until quite thin. Sprinkle with flour. Starting from a long end, roll dough like a jellyroll. Using a knife or a pair of kitchen shears, cut coils of dough 1/8 -1/4 inch thick.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until done, about 3 - 5 minutes. Drain and toss with a pat of butter or glug of oil.

For the sauce:
2 tbsp butter or drippings from sausage
2 tbsp flour
1 to 1½ C milk
½ to 1 C sour cream

Melt butter in saucepan on medium-high heat, or if using sausage drippings, heat up in saucepan. Add flour and stir with a whisk. Add milk slowly, whisking constantly until sauce is quite thin. Allow sauce to come to a boil, stirring quite frequently. Once sauce is thick, finish off with sour cream and heat through.

Serve with noodles and farmer sausage.

Enjoy!

Hawaiian Beans - A Quick Weeknight Chili

It's 4:30, the kids are starting to whine: I'm hungry! You look around the kitchen and you've not only forgotten to thaw some meat, but you have no idea what to make.

You start flipping through fast supper ideas in your head.

YES. Hawaiian Beans. That's it.

I think every household has a few of these quick recipes stored away for last-minute suppers. So this is one of my easy meals - I usually have the ingredients on hand, it doesn't require a lot of prep and it's one of our family's favourites. If you've forgotten to thaw out the ground beef, you can cheat (as I sometimes do) and thaw it in the frying pan, and/or start it out in the microwave.

This recipe came from my blessed mother-in-law. For my wedding shower, she gave me this big binder which she'd filled with their family's (and especially my husband's) favourite  recipes. I use that binder a lot.

I like to serve this with a starch (usually potatoes or buns, or sometimes cornbread if I have time) and a simple side salad.

Hawaiian Beans

1 tbsp canola/olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 lb extra-lean ground beef
1 can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1 can brown beans
1 can tomato soup
1 can pineapple tidbits, drained
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp prepared mustard


Preheat oven to 350º. Pull out a casserole dish and a frying pan. 

Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat until shimmering, add onion and cook until soft. Add ground beef. Break up chunks and cook until just brown with a little pink remaining.

Meanwhile, add kidney beans, brown beans, tomato soup, pineapple, brown sugar, vinegar and mustard to the casserole dish and mix together. Add ground beef & onion and stir until combined.

Bake, uncovered, for 20 - 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve.