Small Town Tuesday: Chicken noodle dinner

This is my weekly installment of Small Town Tuesday. If you have a small-town story (with pictures is even better! ) please send me a message at vash_ii@yahoo.com or on Facebook.

I'm so proud to be involved in a long-running tradition at my church. As part of women's fellowship, every year we make home made, from-scratch noodles for a Sunday chicken noodle fundraiser.

This is the 6th consecutive year, though it was done many years before until there was no one to run it. The super nice lady who runs it now told me the other day, "I asked why we didn't do it anymore and they said no one wanted to head it. But I realized I just needed to delegate."

I've never made my own noodles so this has been an education for me. All the ladies gather for a quick dinner of soup, bread and dessert on a Wednesday night.

We all have different jobs like wrapping napkins and silverware, mixing dough, rolling it, putting it through a flattening press, putting flat pieces on the table to rest, putting them through a second cutting press, then laying the noodles on a table to dry overnight.

Then the noodles have to be bagged and frozen the next day, and the Friday before the dinner they are cooked with chicken - provided by fellowship members - and other women provide mashed potatoes, desserts, bread, pickles and veggies. Still more volunteer the day of the fundraiser dishing out food, serving coffee, tea and water, cutting desserts and cleaning up. 

It's quite a process!

A person could make their own noodles at home and simply press and cut by hand since the amount would be so much smaller. Here's the recipe:

The finished product! YUM!

Homemade noodles

2 eggs
2 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/3 c. milk

For the fundraiser, we used 11 dozen eggs, 1-1/2 gallons of milk and 50 pounds of flour. It's our main fundraiser and always benefits someone in our community. Last year it went to a fire victim and a missionary.

This year it will help a teenage boy with brain cancer who is the grandson of one church member and great-grandson of another church member (I didn't realize these ladies had a child and grandchild who had married!).

It's a wonderful cause and tradition, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it. The camaraderie and fellowship with these ladies is good for my soul. And look, I even made the town paper (I'm in the middle!). Woot!

We had a lot of fun making the noodles! Can you tell?

First step, mix the dough. This was my job this year!

Next step, dough ball.

Press into flat strips.

Lay them out to rest for awhile.

Cut into noodle strips.

Let them dry overnight.