The Event ~ Making Fleischkuechle

Fleischkuechle is a type of meat pie wrapped in pastry dough. The dish is traditional Volga Deutsche/Germans from Russia recipe, and through immigration became an addition to the cuisine of North Dakota.  It is primarily made in the Beulah, Hazen, Zap North Dakota area.

My grandparents lived in Hazen and I remember Grandma Gallwas making these alot.  Tim remembers Grandma making them the first time we visited them in Hazen early in our marriage.   I remember making them once or twice early in our marriage.  My kids did not grow up with these, which is a shame.  I don't know why I didn't continue to make these a part of our cuisine. 

Thanks to all my relatives on Facebook, fleischkuekle has been resurrected again.  It seems many of my cousins are making these, which prompted me to make them again.  My recipe is in the church cookbook from the church Grandma and Grandpa Gallwas attended in Hazen.  My mom gave me that cookbook when I was a senior in high school. 

I need to really make these more often.  So good and so easy.

FLEISCHKUEKLE

Dough:  3 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup evaporated milk.  Knead together to a soft dough.  Form balls the size of ping pong balls or walnuts.  Roll out into 6" circles.  Flatten spoonful of meat mixture onto half the circle into an oblong shape, and fold other half of circle over the meat, seal edges, and trim with pizza cutter.  Deep fry in hot oil till golden.  If meat doesn't get cooked through, they may be finished in the oven for about 5 minutes.  (Another dough recipe:  3 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 3/4 cup evap milk, 3/4 cup water.)

Meat:  1# hamburger,   1 med onion diced fine, 1/2 cup water, salt, pepper, and garlice powder  to taste.  Mix thoroughly.

After making these, I had an urge to also make Blachindla, another recipe Grandma Gallwas always made.  I made it a few times, but then quit.  These, too, are so easy and so good.  I definitely will make these more often.    They are like a pumpkin turnover.

BLACHINDLA

Dough:  4 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 cup shortening, 2 eggs beateh, 1 cup milk.   Knead into soft dough.  Make into about 20 balls.  Roll each into 6" circles.   Place filling on one half side and fold dough over filled half, seal edges and trim.  Place on cookie sheets.  Bake about 30 minutes at 350 until light brown. 

Filling:  2 15 oz cans of pumkin, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, dash pepper. 

Recipe can be cut in half.  These freeze very well.

These old recipes bring many memories back of the time I spent at Grandma and Grandpa Gallwas's house in Hazen.  I remember riding the bus to North Dakota in the summer time and spending about two weeks with them.  I can just see Grandma cooking in her kitchen.  I vividly see her cutting knifla rope into chicken soup.  Knifla is a noodle dough, rolled into long ropes and cut with a scissor into pieces dropping them directly into the boiling pot on the stove. 


Grandma Gallwas and my mom in Grandmas' kitchen, probably in the late 50's early 60's.



Me in Grandma Gallwas' kitchen - 7 yrs old.

Yes, those were eventful days in my childhoood.  Eventful memories worth preserving, as are Grandma's recipes.

The Event ~ Confirmation

On March 2 we travelled to Lincoln to attend the confirmation of grandson Jonathan.  Confirmation is an important event in many churches.  However, many churches are choosing to eliminate this event, along with many other traditions, all in an effort to try to make God and religion and church attendance more appealing to the "new, trendy society of today's modern America".    Whatever is removed from the churches by man, the one constant is God who always was and always will be. 

Jon on his confirmation day.

Confirmation is a ceremony whereby young people proclaim and confirm their belief in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Confirmation is defined as a sacrament, a ritual or service performed by man ~the shepherd, minister, priest ~ within a church, normally carried out through annointing and prayer for the purpose of confirming a young person's knowledge and faith in Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior.  In some traditions, the sacrament of confirmation is the ritual by which a young person also becomes an official member of the church.  Those who participate in confirmation believe it to be a personal, mature aceptance of their faith.

When one accepts Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the heart and gives assurance that Jesus is present and that we are new creations in Christ.

That being said, it is not the act of confirmation that insures salvation, nor does it insure one will follow their confirmed faith through life.  It is the confirmation from within the heart acknowledging and accepting Jesus as Savior that one can confirm eternity with Jesus, a confirmation between the holy spirit and one's heart, not to be judged by any other.  This doesn't necessarily happen just from going through the rite of confirmation, because many go through confirmation as an obligation and expectation of the parents and the church.  The real  confirmation may not happen until a later date when it truly comes from desire within the heart to follow Jesus.  Only the individual can truly confirm his/her personal relationship with Jesus and can know with assurance the hope of eternal life in heaven.

In essence, confirmation is not to be taken lightly.  It is an important event in the life of a young person who is priviledged to participate in this sacrament.  We have previously attended the confirmation of our two oldest grandsons, Jakob and Joshua.  We pray they hold tight to the truths learned through this education.

Jakob's confirmation



Joshua's confirmation

I went through confirmation in the Lutheran church as an eighth grader.  That seems to be the common age of a confirmand ~ 7th or 8th grade.  It was a two-year class for me, starting as a 7th grader.  





My Godparents (sponsors) Uncle Arnold, Aunt Bertha Kilbur



Confirmation Day with Grandma and Grandpa Gallwas.



My childhood days of attending Sunday School, followed by Confirmation, gave me a foundation and instilled in me many Bible stories that I hold dear to my heart today.  However,  attending and going through the rituals didn't insure eternal life and salvation.  Only when I realized I was missing something in life, feeling empty and void, not complete and full, and a stirring within my heart and soul, did I learn I was lacking the personal relationship with Jesus that completes a person and makes one whole.   I accepted Jesus as my personal savior in 1981.  My life has been complete since.

Each of my children went through confirmation, also as eighth graders. 

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is older and departs from it, he will have the foundation to return to."  That is my version of  "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6

Confirmation ~ an event not to be taken lightly, an event to be reverent, an opportunity to latch on to the one really important element that brings fullfillment in life now and forever.