Recipe of the week : Saucy Meatballs

Saucy Meatballs

Mix ingredients. Shape into 1½” balls. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 400° F. until light brown, about 20 minutes. In a casserole, mix cream of chicken soup, milk, and nutmeg. Add meatballs. Bake at 350° F. for 30 minutes of until done. Stir in sour cream and bake for 10 minutes longer.
Yields about 20 meatballs.
1 lb ground beef
1/2 c dry bread crumbs
1/4 c. milk
2 T. finely chopped onion
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
Sauce:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 c. milk
1/8 t. ground nutmeg
1/2 c. sour cream

Fix up your favorite meal and enjoy the beauty of quilts at the same time with the new Amish Quilting Cookbook. Its 130 pages are packed with 316 favorite recipes from 58 of Lone Star Quilt Shop’s quilters. Twenty of their finest quilts are featured in color throughout the book. The book is wrapped in a concealed spiral binding to help avoid spiral tangles while it keeps all the conveniences of traditional spiral. Fourteen sections from Amish wedding foods to snacks. 136 pages.
Amish Quilting Cookbook . To order this book, please see our friends at http://www.Amishshop.com. Richard from Amish Stories.

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North Lancaster/ old order Mennonites

Old order Mennonites are for the most part a little over- looked compared to their Amish cousins.So i plan on featuring them on some up coming post of Lancaster county.The 1st image was taken on a road which had a fair amount of old order Mennonites living on it. On the 2nd image is one of a handful of Mennonite buggies that were going by me on that day in north Lancaster. I have some interesting images coming in future post of this area, and also a short story about Lester, an old order Mennonite dairy farmer who was very nice and accessible to me on this day. So ill post a few images of his home and a few of his buggies. Of course its always interesting in seeing Amish one room school houses, and this one was taken close to where the small town I visited in north Lancaster. Always a fan of barns, I think this one in the last image pretty much summed – up how I was feeling on that day. And with so much natural beauty around, how could you not feel happy. And speaking of old order Mennonites, look for Jeans post coming this Tuesday only on Amish Stories. Richard from Amish Stories.

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A quite day in Lebanon county’s Amish community.

On the top image, this Amish boy seems to have created his own amusement by playing with the family buggy. I wonder if he realizes that it might be handed down to him in later years as he becomes a young man. And on the 2nd image, how many of you folks still hang your cloths out to dry?. There’s something to be said about the fresh smell of cloths just dried by the sun, and a warm country breeze. On the 3rd image, these little guys had me waiting patiently for them to do something interesting. Watching goats or sheep, or even lambs is always a bit amusing to me. And as you can tell we all know who the leader is in this group. I was able to play with the settings on my camera with this farm field, and I was able to take some very interesting shots in this Amish area of Lebanon county. I’m a sucker for red barns, and I’ve admitted that more times than I could remember on Amish Stories. What I really love about Lebanon county’s Amish settlement is that its for the most part free from commercialism, and I’m pretty sure the Amish settlement here prefers it that way. Which leads me to these questions, is some tourist activity good for the community and its Amish?. Or is it helping to destroy the Amish way of life in those communities that cater to the tourist trade?. In my opinion you can have both, but its going to have to be a balancing act between non -intrusion, and capitalism. What’s your opinion, can we have both, and can the Amish still preserve their way of life in the process?. Richard from Amish Stories.

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Amish fiction novels: How close are they to actual Amish life, and are the movies based on these novels really worth watching?

Amish themed novels are extremely popular today, and I’m sure the bulk of its readers would be woman. I may not be a reader of these novels, but i have read some reviews of a few movies that were based on some of the more popular books, especially from author Beverly Lewis. And some of the biggest complaints have been that some of these movies have not followed the novels from which they were based on, or they were not an accurate depiction of Amish life. In your opinion, which movie based on these Amish fiction novels has successfully followed the storyline from the book to television?. And which one more closely resembled true Amish life?. From Richard of Amish Stories

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The Amish Cook

THE AMISH COOK

By old order Amish: LOVINA EICHER
Easter Sunday turned out to be nice and sunny here, which made for a more enjoyable day. We attended church services at our neighbors, which we were able to just walk to. Now this morning we are having rain again. It sure will give my garden a boost. The peas, radishes, and lettuce are growing very nicely. They survived the late-season cold spell and the snow we had. A week ago it was snowing and the ground was covered with a layer of white stuff but it did not stay long. It was chilly enough in the house last week that we started our coal stove again.
Our children colored 10 dozen eggs on Thursday evening, it is just something fun for them to do, but we never let them lose sight of the real meaning behind Easter.
My husband Joe and I made some horseradish from our own plants this past week. We used Joe’s Uncle Solomon’s recipe and it turned out really good. Uncle Solomon lives in Ohio but we wish we could have him try our homemade horseradish. He brought us the roots to start our own plant several years ago.
Joe’s grandmother passed away on April 13th after a lot of pain. She was 97 years old and a widow for almost 23 years. She had eight children but two have passed away including Joe’s mother who died at age 54. She had 70 grandchildren, 387 great-grandchildren, and 95 great -great grandchildren. Everyone remembers her as a friendly sweet person who will be missed by many. May she rest in peace. We were thankful that our daughter Verena was OK to attend the funeral. Verena had written back and forth with her for quite a few years. We left for the two-hour drive to Berne, Indiana at 5 a.m. on Saturday, April 16 to attend the funeral.
We took all eight children along to the funeral and also Elizabeth’s friend Timothy. The funeral was held in a shed and also in a basement. It was a cold day for the funeral. We saw sister Liz and Levi and family at the funeral. And, of course, sister Emma and Jacob and family were there as this would also be Jacob’s grandmother. In the afternoon we stopped in at sister Leah and Paul’s house. I wanted to wish them a happy 30th anniversary which was on the 16th also. Leah popped popcorn for us and Jacob’s, who had also stopped in. We saw where Paul and Leah’s daughter Elizabeth lives in a shed on her parents farm. The shed had fixed up into nice living quarters. Elizabeth and her husband Levi have a 1 1 /2 year old son, Amos. From there Jacob’s and us headed to brother Amos and Nancy’s house to visit with them before starting for home. When we arrived there Nancy and her daughters were already preparing supper for us. They were looking for us to stop by and wanted us to stay for a meal. So we had delicious supper of barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, lettuce, salad, cake, pudding and fruit.
We arrived home at 9:45 p.m. and everyone was ready to call it day. We were home all day on Good Friday. Jacob and Emma didn’t have any plans for that day so we told them to come for dinner. For our lunch we had a brunch. I made a casserole with scrambled eggs, shredded potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. I pull apart the biscuits and layer everything and then bake everything until the potatoes are tender. The gravy moistens everything up and this is a really good breakfast casserole.
Uncle Elmer and Aunt Emma and cousin Sovilla, Leroy and family and cousin Martha and husband Merlin stopped in from Berne for a visit on Friday afternoon to see where we live. Aunt Emma is my Mother’s sister. They all had had dinner at my sister’s Susan and Verena. Joe was starting the grill to make hot-wings and fresh ham when they drove in. We made them sample the wings before they left for home. It was nice to get to visit with them again. We always enjoy home-grilled chicken wings. Do any of our readers have good homemade marinade recipes they’d like to share?
EDITOR’S NOTE: We are seeking 100 new readers to join The Amish Cook Friend Club at any level between now and May 6. As of April 25, we have 10 new members. To move the Amish Cook forward, we need to strengthen our connection with loyal friends and followers and make new friends along the way. Our first step is to re-open the AMISH COOK FRIEND CLUB to new members. Membership includes:
SUPPORTER: A personalized snail-mail thank you note and a discount code for future soft cover cookbook purchases. $25.00
FRIEND: A personalized thank you note, discount code, and a photo of Lovina’s kitchen at mealtime. $50.00
AMBASSADOR: All of the above plus the Limited Edition cookbook, “AMISH COOKBOOK USA” (a collection recipes from Amish settlements across the United States). $100.00
OTHER: Create your own level.
To join The Amish Cook Friend Club, send to: Oasis Newsfeatures, PO BOX 157, Middletown, Ohio 45042 or to join online visit http://www.oasisnewsfeatures.com/special A video message is also available for viewing at http://www.oasisnewsfeatures.com/special The Friend Club drive goes through May 6, with percentage of goal reached to appear after Lovina’s column until then. Of course the main benefit of joining the Friend Club is knowing that you’re helping to keep The Amish Cook column on sound ground for a long time to come. Percentage of goal reached: 10 percent. Try this recipe:

My rhubarb is ready to use so that will be another spring goodie I can start using. This is a really neat recipe to use up your rhubarb.
RHUBARB PINWHEELS
Dough:
2 cups flour,
1 tablespoon sugar,
4 teaspoons baking powder,
1 /3 cup shortening,
1 egg, beaten
1 /2 cup milk,
1 /2 teaspoon salt
Filling: 3 /4 cup sugar
3 – 4 cups diced rhubarb
Syrup: 1 1 /2 cups water
3 /4 cup sugar
few drops of red food coloring (optional)
Mix dough and roll into a 12 X 10 inch rectangle. Sprinkle with sugar and top with rhubarb. Carefully rioll up dough jelly roll style starting with shorter end. Cut into 1 inch slices and put onto a 9 X 13 inch pan. For syrup bring all ingredients to a boil, cook and stir until sugar dissolves. Pour hot syrup over pinwheels. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until done. Richard from Amish Stories.

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Northern Lancaster county : Beautiful red barns and farm house at the start of spring

While I was traveling around in northern Lancaster county, I had passed by these 2 beautiful deep red barns and a stone farm house. So on my travels back I stopped to take some pictures. These pictures don’t really do its red color any justice, The red was almost blinding when you got right on top of it. It was also very obvious that to me that the owners are taking very good care of the place, with even the grass being close to perfect. As inviting as it seems in the images, this home has a series of fences around the whole property.So when walking around it had that feeling of look but dont touch anything kind of feel. The wagon at the bottom was off of route 897, and added a little color to the landscape with all its flowers for sale in this very early stage of spring. Richard from Amish Stories.

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Recipe of the week : Corn Fritters. A Lancaster county favorite.

Corn Fritters
1 15 oz can Cope’s Heat & Serve corn, drained***
2 Tbsp flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
2 eggs

Mix unbeaten eggs, flour, salt, and baking powder with drained corn. Fry in shortening or butter. Serve with butter, syrup, or apple butter.

***Note: Corn Fritters may be made with Dried Corn as follows: To one cup (5oz) dried corn, add 3 cups boiling water. Let soak 2 hours. Cook ½ hour, drain. Then add 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 egg, beaten, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 Tbsp flour. Mix and fry in shortening or butter on both sides until brown. Serve with syrup or butter.
Makes 8 servings.

. John copes dried corn has been a local Lancaster favorite since 1900. In fact i would say that most of the restaurants serving Amish style fare In the Pennsylvania Dutch area serves their dried corn. I’ve been eating this corn now since i was a child, and if you were to look in my kitchen cabinet, you would see a few cans and a packet of their delicious corn. Amish Stories recieved permission to post all of the companies corn based recipes from the John Cope foods company. If your area of the country does not sell their products, feel free to e-mail me and ill give you the information on how to order. Amishstories@hotmail.com Richard from Amish Stories.

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Lebanon county, Pa : The last days of winter 2011

These images were taken on the last days of winter . And since these pictures are the last of my winter series of Lebanon county, I’m really glad that they came out well. It seemed that the pictures were coming to me instead of me looking for them, this day was really the first time that I could say with a straight face that spring was imminent and was being felt. On the image of the Amish farmer moving the large wagon of hay on to the main road from his farm, I was in my car with the camera ready on the passenger seat. A habit that I’m learning is working in my favor because you never know when something will just come out from nowhere, so I’ve learned to be ready at a moments notice. And its paying off for me with images like that one.As we passed one another, we both gave each other a quick look of acknowledgment . I stopped my car a little after that to see how all of the images looked so far in the camera, and then i started to wonder a little if that Amish Farmer whose image i had just captured a few minutes before thought about why i was taking his picture in the first place?. If he were to give it a thought at all, he might have been saying to himself, “why would someone bother to take a simple Amish farmers picture whose only out doing farm chores”?. And i would have told him “that’s why I’m doing it, because of the simplicity in it all”. I think that’s one of the quality’s that keeps drawing me to the Amish in the first place, its that view of how we were in simpler times so long ago. I do understand living simple comes with a price. I only wonder if its us that will be paying that higher price in the long run, and maybe losing some of the joys in life that are so very simple. I really love that picture of the water pump outside that lovely stone home In the Amish settlement of Lebanon county. And when I moved to Pennsylvania I was able to take a restored pump from my house that I had in the front of my home in Florida. Its smaller than the one in this post picture, but still retains the same charm and quaintness as its larger cousin. And the last image of the Amish farmer working the land is very fitting because its my last winter shot of the set. I was outside my car, waiting for him to come a little closer and into my frame. The Amish brought the method of crop rotation practice with them to America from their home land, and its something that has served the Amish and non Amish alike even today. Crop rotation helps farmers control disease by confusing pest that are prevalent when growing crops in soil. so this method is a farming standard over mono-cropping, with the end result being a much more healthier farming soil. (crop rotation source Cornell university. Richard from Amish Stories.

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Lancaster county: On what was a cold day still in winter. My last winter images.

(Note new images and comments added to finish all winter images of Lancaster county) I thought id mix things up a little, and add a few pictures from different days that I was in Lancaster Pa this past winter. Those Amish buggies in a row were parked in a restaurant parking lot in Bird in Hand, so they may have been having a lunch meeting perhaps.As ive said before, im seeing more and more of the Amish using solar panels around their homes, and can you blame them?.On the last image, there must have been about 6 or 7 Amish teens riding in the smallish buggy, with one hanging on the back because there was just no room for him.Im not sure if they were trying to break any records, like in the 1960s or 70s in VW beetles. Does anyone remember that?. On another day I was at the green dragon market, so I thought id include a few food items like the biggest pretzel’s that I’ve ever seen in my life. And of course I had to take a picture of some whoopie pies that were front and center in most of the food booths at the market. The green buggy outside had me scratching my head a little, and as I was leaving the market a woman jumped in and went right past me on her way out. For anyone thinking about going to a large flea market in the Lancaster area, id recommend going to this market and a market called Roots. At both of these markets you will find both the Amish and Mennonites are featured prominently in selling their wares, especially when it comes to food. And if you’re a pretzel fan, you must try a large one , just make sure your hungry or have someone to share it with. Richard from Amish Stories.

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The Amish Cook

AMISH COOK
BY old order Amish : LOVINA EICHER
Our house seems extra quiet after a week with the whole family being home. The children were home from school for spring break and my husband Joe was off from the factory. Once the children left for school this morning it was pretty quiet. Verena, however, wasn’t able to go today because of another post-concussive spell. We had a warm weekend after a rainy, cold week last week. We enjoyed our first meal of dandelion greens. I always make ours into salads with diced hard boiled eggs and homemade sour cream poured over it. The sour cream is something I make with Miracle Whip, vinegar, and milk. We like to eat our dandelion salads over boiled potatoes and bacon. Green winter onions also taste good to eat with the salad.
Joe finally managed to get our manure spreader fixed. The boys and Joe hauled a lot of loads of manure and spread it across our fields. Kevin, 5, was so proud to help with little forkfuls of manure on the spreader. Benjamin, 11, and Joseph, 8, said Kevin didn’t help too much but they let him think he was really helping. I guess that is how they learn. We managed to get one coat of primer on the walls and ceilings in an upstairs bedroom. Our bedrooms are big so it takes a little longer. I put the painting off until this week since I pulled a muscle in my right shoulder. My neck also felt sore but it feels a lot better now. I think it all came from doing too much overhead painting. Elizabeth, 16, left around 9 p.m. on Wednesday last week and traveled to Mays Lick, Kentucky. She went with her friend Timothy and family and they traveled with a charter bus full of wedding guests. All went to the same wedding in the Amish settlement at Mays Lick, Kentucky. The wedding was held on Thursday and around 8 p.m. that evening they all boarded the bus for the return trip home. Elizabeth arrived home a little before 5 a.m. Friday morning. It was good to see her arrive home all safe and sound. I was surprised to hear she met up with some of my relatives and some of Joe’s who live in that community.
We recently purchased a used single buggy at a local consignment sale. We really would have liked to buy the Queen buggy but the price was not in our range. A Queen buggy also just has one seat but has space behind the seat to store groceries. Our single buggy has some room under the seat and in back but not as much as a Queen. When Joe and I went to get groceries and fill gas jugs we used our new buggy trailer, which gives us extra room to carry items. The trailer has bicycle wheels and is really light weight for the horse to pull. We can fit a lot of groceries in that small trailer.
Loretta, 10, and Lovina, 6, had dentist appointments one day last week. I took them in the single buggy. There were a lot of cars there so I was glad for a smaller buggy to park. The dentist office does not have a hitching post so I tied the horse to a tree. It makes it a little hard where there is not a place to tie your horse at some of the doctor’s offices. Our children’s medical doctor has a hitching post which I have been so blessed for already. With gas prices going higher it is cheaper to take our buggy instead of hiring a driver to take us into town.
At the same sale where we bought our buggy Jacob and Emma bought a horse. We needed a way to get our buggy home and Jacob’s needed away to get his horse home so they borrowed a harness. They hitched the horse to our buggy to bring it home. Jacob asked what the new horse’s name is and found out her name is Rose. It is funny because they have one other horse and her name is Rose also.
Try this delicious candy recipe for Easter!
CHOCOLATE EASTER EGGS
1 pound butter, softened
Dash of salt
1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
6 to 8 pounds of powdered sugar
semi-sweet chocolate, melted
In a large bowl, mix together the butter, salt, milk and enough powdered sugar to make it easy to handle. Work together with hands. Divide into portions and add different flavors, cherries, or nuts. Form into egg shapes and dip into melted chocolate.

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