"B" is for Bazaar . . .

"And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi,

Let me now go to the field,

and glean ears of corn after him

In whose sight I shall find grace.

And she said unto her, Go, my daughter."

Ruth 2:2  KJV



Welcome Table -
just inside the door

"B" is for 'Bazaar.' Now I hadn't planned on including 'bazaar' in my Quaker Alphabet blog, but last week as I was writing my post on 'appleblutter' that little voice in my head strongly suggested that I do so, and I've learned to listen to that voice . . . as I didn't want it to start screaming at me, and writing about our 'Bazaar' seemed appropriate, since I did mention it in my last post on 'applebutter.'



'Bake Shop'

I attended my first Bazaar at Mooresville Friends in October of 1984 - just a few months after meeting my husband and I have attended or worked during the bazaar up until the last few years when I started having a conflict with a Girl Scout training event held the same day and time. In the past I have enjoyed baking banana bread (hummm, now I could have written about banana bread for 'B') & a coffee cake from my mom's recipes, painted ceramic Quaker dolls - something I miss doing and seeing at the bazaar, as well as a number of stitchery projects - folded star hot pads, gift card holders, Kleenex box covers, small gift bags, fabric necklaces with marbles inside the fabric and pony beads on the outside in between the marbles, just to name a few.



'General Store'

The USFW (United Society of Friends Women) from Mooresville Friends Meeting uses the funds raised during our annual Fall Bazaar to support missions of the USFWI ('I' being International). In the past there have been local needs of the Meeting and community that have come up that the USFW has also supported - such as some of the decorating for the new parsonage that was built in 1991 (for our Pastor) and the new carpet for the Narthex & Sunday School hallway - just this last year, to name a few. While this is a huge fundraiser for our USFW, it is also the only fundraiser we do.



'Miscellaneous'

The whole Meeting gets involved - not just the ladies or members of our USFW, from the Young Friends to those 90+. Members of the Meeting help with all sorts of tasks from making the applebutter, baked goods, crafts, rugs, gift baskets, scrubbies, lunch - cooking/serving/clean-up, cheerfully greeting customers the day of the bazaar, cashiers, advertising, set-up and clean-up. Many hands do make light work!





'Rugs'

In the 'bake shop' you will find a nice variety of items from fresh baked breads, rolls, cakes, cookies and candies of all shapes and sizes. On the 'stitchery' tables you will find a large variety of handmade items for the picking - machine & hand embroidered items, knit & crochet items, jewelry, paintings, baskets and lots of items that have been lovingly stitched by the members of our sewing & quilting groups. These two areas, lunch and the applebutter table are the busiest.

 

'Stitchery'

Lunch, ever since I can remember, has been 'Hot Crunchy Chicken Salad' - the recipe came from a member of the Meeting, a very popular dish. This recipe has been in several of the cookbooks that our Meeting has published. This is served with a variety of 'set salads' (Jello), a roll, dessert and a drink. We get quite the crowd during the time that lunch is served. As you could imagine lot of fellowship happens around the lunch tables. Friends from many of the other Meetings in the area come over to shop and have lunch. That evening, Fairfield Friends Meeting, just up the road and around a few corners, has their Chicken & Noodles dinner with a craft sale. Local Friends have been known to go from one to the other!
 



'Gift Baskets'

I mentioned fellowship around the lunch tables, but the fellowship and conversations happen throughout the entire bazaar and at various areas around the Friendship House. With Friends who are working with visitors and amongst themselves and sometimes amongst the visitors - who happen to run in to old F/friends.

 

'Applebutter & Scrubbies'

I've got a lap quilt/wallhanging that I have all ready to quilt that was a group project - I did a crazy quilt block with our quilting group and after I collected the blocks from the others I sewed them together and added a couple of borders to it - now I just need to do the crazy quilt embroidery stitches between all the pieces and add the binding . . . I hope to be able to get that done before this year's bazaar, I was way too busy this last year to get to the quilting part. I'll be using a lot of the fun stitches on my sewing machine to do this, so it really shouldn't take too long - except I plan to keep changing stitches and thread colors a lot along the way! 




'Fellowship'

Mooresville Friends Meeting's Fall Bazaar goes back quite a ways, and is currently the first Saturday in November in the Friendship House.



And now, for those who might be a bit disappointed that I didn't include the applebutter recipe with that post, I'll include one of my favorite childhood recipes for you here - one that I've made a few times in the past for the bazaar, but more often for our Easter Breakfast. So here's my mom's recipe for 'Quick Coffee Cake.' I know it starts with a 'Q' but I've got other ideas for 'Q,' when I get there.

 Quick Coffee Cake

 

1 1/2 cups flour                              1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder             1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg           2 Tablespoons oil

1 egg, large                                    2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Grease 8x8x2” pan.

 

Measure and sift together dry ingredients. Beat egg till light and add milk and oil. Mix together quickly and spread in pan, it will be a bit lumpy and that's OK.

Mix topping:

3 Tablespoons white sugar               1 Tablespoon flour

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon        2 teaspoons oil

Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon; add oil and mix. Crumble over mixture in pan.

Bake 25 minutes, toothpick will come out clean.

Can easily be doubled, and baked in a 9x13x2” pan for 25 minutes.