The Essential Amish Cookbook Book Review

Everyday Recipes from Farm & Pantry

SUMMARY:  Taste the goodness of Amish life.

     Bestselling cookbook author and food columnist Lovina Eicher brings together the best of Amish cooking as she shares traditional Amish recipes along with her own kitchen tips and secrets.

     These easy-to-follow, authentic recipes are prepared every day in countless homes in Old Order Amish communities.  In this richly illustrated cookbook with step-by-step photographs, learn Amish cooking just as if you were in Lovina's kitchen.  Make the hearty, similar dishes that the Amish cook together and serve at home, church services, and weddings.

                         Peach Muffins                                   Shoofly Cake

                         Caramel Pecan Rolls                         Grandma's Butterscotch Pie

                         Amish Macaroni Salad                      Fresh Corn Salsa

                         Asparagus Egg Casserole                  Sweet Dills

                         Homestyle Pot Roast                         Hot Pepper Butter

                         Lovina's Homemade Bread               Green Tomato Jam

                         Oven Crusty Chicken                        Amish Wedding Nothings

REVIEW:  I love cookbooks.  This one is no exception.  As stated, the recipes are easy to read and follow.  The pictures, not only of food but life in general within the Amish community, are beautiful.  I like the little tidbits Lovina added to each recipe about favorite recipes, tips, and cute stories.  Some of the recipes are for large quantities so you to make sure you read the recipe closely beforehand because you may need to make some adjustments BEFORE you start cooking.  I like how in the back there are recipes that are for VERY LARGE groups of people.  So, if you are ever in need, you already have some recipes to choose from.

     The recipe my daughter Hannah and I chose was Banana Cookies.  They were similar to banana bread but much lighter and covered in icing.  They were delicious.  Unfortunately, they were really soft but I think that was from the substitutions my daughter and I had to make.  We didn't have any shortening so we used butter instead, in addition to the butter that was called for.  We ran a little short of flour but we made due.  We used fresh and frozen bananas.  My oven and stove are giving me fits so I ended up baking them longer to make sure they were complete cooked.  I ran out of milk so I used buttermilk in the icing and thought it works perfectly. 

     There are a few other recipes I want to try: homemade bread, breakfast casserole, egg dutch, overnight French toast, squash casserole, outrageous chocolate chip cookies, and many more.  Can't wait to start cooking more.

This book was provided by Herald Press for review without any compensation.

 

Lovina Eicher is author of the syndicated column, Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, which appears in 40 newspapers around the United States and on a weekly blog maintain by her editors. She is the author of several cookbooks. Lovina and her husband have eight children and live in rural Michigan.

A Farmer's Daughter Cookbook Review

Recipes from a Mennonite Kitchen

SUMMARY:  Over 200 mouthwatering recipes - fresh from the farm

     I'm Dawn Stolzfus.  Welcome to my kitchen!  I was raised on a Mennonite farm where simple, wholesome food was a key ingredient of the good life.  Now I'm opening up my recipe box,wiping away the crumbs and wrinkles from the well-loved recipe cards, and sharing them with you.  From Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls and Strawberry Shortcake to Old-Fashioned Beef Stew and Chicken and Herb Dumplings, all the best comfort food I learned to cook from my mother are here, along with some dishes that may surprise you!

     In addition to the simple, wholesome recipes for starters, main dishes, sides, and desserts, I share favorite stories from my Mennonite upbringing, tips and tricks for easy meal planning and preparation, and ideas for serving with flair.

     If you enjoy feeding your family hearty, wholesome meals made with fresh ingredients and lots of love, please join me in the kitchen!

REVIEW:  I love cookbooks and this looks to become one of my favorites.  The recipes are ones that sound delicious and look like they might be relatively easy to make.  There are quite a few I've marked for future meals.

     One of the recipes included was one to make your own cream of chicken (celery or mushroom) soup from scratch.  Since I am always looking for ways to make my family's meals healthier, this is one I wanted to check it out, especially since I needed a can of cream of chicken soup for my recent casserole dish. The recipe was easy to follow and tasted really good, even though I left out some of the seasonings.  It has since been added to my mix.

Cream of Celery, Chicken, or Mushroom Soup

2 cups powdered milk

3 tbsp reduced sodium chicken bouillon

3 tbsp onion flakes

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 1/2 cups cornstarch

2 tbsp diced celery (or 1/2 cup freeze-dried 

mushrooms or chopped cooked chicken)

Mix together all ingredients except celery, mushrooms, or chicken, and store in an airtight container.  This makes a bulk version, so tape the instructions on your container so they'll be easily accessible when the time comes.

     To make the equivalent of one can of cream soup:  mix 1/3 cup dry soup with 1 1/4 cups water.  Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat and cook for 3-4 minutes or until thickened.  Add celery, mushrooms, or chicken.  Stir constantly so that soup will not burn or stick to bottom of pan.

This book was provided by Revell for review without compensation.

Available October 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Dawn Stoltzfus is a wife, a mother of two sweet little boys and one precious baby girl, and a lover of anything creative.  She started and ran The Farmer's Wife market until 2008, when she sold it in order to stay at home to raise her family.  She loves to cook, for one or three hundred.  Her love of cooking was inspired by her mother and developed as she cooked for her family of six on their active, working dairy farm in Ohio.

Mike's Birthday

Today is Mike's birthday!!  He opened his presents this morning at breakfast.  The kids and I got him a pair of sandals, a red patriotic t-shirt, the newest Newsboys cd and Casting Crowns' "Altar and the Door" cd.  For dinner, I made his favorites: salmon with asparagus and carrots.  For dessert, I made him a strawberry pizza.  He really enjoyed everything, especially dessert.

For the salmon, I combined a couple of recipes.  I cut up a lime and lemon and squeezed the juice over the fish.  I seasoned it with salt and pepper and topped it with lime slices, lemon slices and onion slices.  Wrapping it in foil, I baked it for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.  Mike and the kids gobbled it up.

Hannah did the asparagus for me.  After she rinsed and snapped off the ends, I sprayed a pan covered in aluminum foil with cooking spray and laid out the asparagus.  Hannah sprinkled it with salt and pepper after I sprayed it with cooking spray.  We then broiled it for 10 minutes on 400 degrees.  The kids also ate it up.  It was rather good.

All's Quiet on the Southern Front

This weekend has been great and quiet so far.  It is the first weekend in about two months we haven't had basketball games to go to.  The kids played their last games last Saturday and their Awards Ceremony was last night.  Of course, the kids were up early (even though they didn't have to be) so I made scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast.  Usually I make a big breakfast on Saturday mornings but, because of basketball, I haven't been able to for a while.  In fact, the last time I made a big breakfast for the family was pancakes about two weeks ago, and I was able to do that before school one morning.  Tonight, Mike is taking Hannah and Will to the hockey game with some of the other Dads at our church.  Andrew and I get to hang out together and enjoy ourselves. 

Last Friday was Grandparents' Day at Will's school.  Mom called him that morning and gave him a suggestion.  Since she wasn't feeling well, she asked Will if it would be okay if she missed going to school with him.  Instead, she would take him out to eat anywhere he wanted to go Saturday after his ball game.  Will agreed with the plan.  So, Saturday he got dressed up and Mom picked him up for their date.  His first choice was Chuck E. Cheese's but when they arrived, they found out there was an hour and a half wait just to get a table.  So, Will's second choice was Texas Roadhouse.  He had received a coupon for a free kids meal with his last report card and was begging to use it.  He and Mom had a great time and he felt like a big boy.  Mom let him order anything he wanted, including dessert, and eat all the peanuts he wanted, too.  Afterwards, they went back to Mom's house and Will played by himself (without any other kids competing with him) for a couple of hours.  When he came home, it's all he could talk about.  In fact, the other day we were getting ready to sit down at the kitchen table and he mentioned how much fun he had and the food he ate too.  I'm glad he had a great time.  Mom wants to do it again with one of the others soon.  I know they will enjoy themselves.

Kids and Food

What is it with kids and food? Does anyone else have this problem with their kids? You make something you think (and are pretty sure) they will enjoy and it takes an act of Congress to get them to take just one bite. Most of the time it's not anything new. It's something they have had numerous times before and even liked but, for some reason, they won't touch it now. Then, you just throw something together and you think it tastes just okay but they rave about it.

One day this week I was in the mood for soup. The only meat I had available was smoked sausage so I cut it into small bites, sautéed it and made vegetable soup. The kids gobbled it down and raved on and on about it. Mike and I thought it was okay but not as good as what the kids made it out to be.

Yesterday I cooked a pot roast in the crock pot, made loaded mashed potatoes, and heated up a can of green beans. I also cooked a can of biscuits (Hannah refuses to eat ones I make from Bisquick) and made a gravy from the liquid left over from the roast. Hannah and Will both gave us a fight about eating. Andrew ate pretty well but it took some time (nothing unusual). At first, Hannah ate okay and raved about the potatoes. Then, all of a sudden, she turned into Ms. Hyde, refused to eat her meat and gave us a fit. Will, on the other hand, took very minute bites and took forever to eat half his plate of food (he didn't have a lot to begin with).

This morning, I made a homemade Orange Coffee Cake, the same one I made for Dick and Daphne while at their house. When I made it the first time, the kids all ate a bite and seemed to like it. What they didn't like was that it was called a coffee cake. No matter how many times I told them that it didn't contain coffee but you traditionally ate it with coffee, they did not believe me. I figured they would eat it (it was still hot and fresh from the oven) but they wanted frozen waffles instead.

UHGH!! It would be nice if they were consistent with their likes and dislikes and try new things without complaining. One thing I do, and generally have good results, is to bluff them. If we are eating something new or if they are giving me fits about something they don't like, I tell them they ate all of it the last time I made it, they loved it and asked for more. Something else I did was to tell Hannah that her friend Layne liked a particular meal. Most of the time, if not all, she would eat it all and ask for more. That tactic worked when we were eating a lot of Homemade Gourmet meals since Layne's mom is a consultant for the company.

Happy Independence Day!!

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Independence Day!! Thank you to all the service men and women who are (and have) protected our great country while serving in our armed forces. The sacrifices you and your families made have not gone unnoticed.

Our celebration this year is going to be small with just Mom and the five of us. Melanie and Nathan are on their way home from a baseball tournament; Patti, Alyssa and Matthew are working at a tournament in Horn Lake; Susan, Todd and their boys are in Roswell, NM visiting family; and Dad and Joan are camping with friends. I have some ribs cooking on the stovetop right now and will finish them up on the grill along with some hot dogs for the kids and some fresh corn on the cob. We are also having cole slaw, baked beans and strawberry pizza. If it doesn't rain, we are planning to go to see some fireworks at either Latimer Lakes in Horn Lake or Snowden Grove in Southaven.

Mike is working on our master bathroom. It took him about 12 hours to remove the wallpaper. He is patching the walls where the wallboard came off when we were taking the wallpaper off. We are going with a medium green paint and brown tiles, like in the hall bathroom. He is going to tile half the wall behind the toilet and the back wall. I can't wait. It already looks bigger with the pink paisley wallpaper off. We are taking pictures of it so show the progress. When I get them downloaded off my camera, I'll post them here for all to see. Can't wait for the finished project!!!

Dinner

I have to brag a little. Tonight I made a chicken spinach quiche with a homemade pie crust that was awesome!! I found the recipes at www.allrecipes.com last night while looking for dinner ideas. Even if you don't like spinach, I would recommend you try this recipe. The pie crust recipe was very easy to make. I've never made a homemade pie crust before. It is a little intimidating to even think of making one. The recipe I found online has ingredients that I keep on hand. It is really good. If anyone is interested, I am going to post them both here.

Easy Pie Crust
(submitted by B1BMOM)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps white sugar (I used 2 1/2 tsp instead)
1 tsp salt (I used 1/2 tsp instead)
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place all ingredients in a 9 inch pie pan. Stir together with a fork. Pat mixture into bottom and up the sides of the pan. Poke holes in bottom and sides of crust. Bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven or until light brown. Use as directed in favorite pie recipe.

(For the quiche, do not bake the pie crust beforehand.) While looking at the recipe reviews, I noticed quite a few people said the crust was a little too salty for pies, but would work in quiches and other items. They all suggested reducing the amount of salt and increasing the sugar. I did both and it turned out great. It was flaky too.

Chicken Spinach Quiche
(submitted by Barbara McCalley)

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 40 minutes Servings: 6

Ingredients:
1 c shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1 9 inch unbaked pie crust
1 c diced cooked chicken (or more if desired)
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 c finely chopped onion
2 eggs
3/4 c milk
3/4 c mayonnaise
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
(I added some garlic powder too)

Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese into the pie crust. In a bowl, combine chicken, 1/2 cup spinach, onion and remaining cheese (save remaining spinach for another use). Spoon mixture into pie crust. In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over the chicken mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.

(We ate it about 5-10 minutes after coming out of the oven and it was fine.)

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Quick Update

This will be quick because it is after midnight. I wanted to post this before I forgot AGAIN. The beans I cooked the other night turned out great. Mom came over for dinner and said they were very delicious. I cooked them on high heat all day. Today, I decided to get adventurous and make chili in a crock pot with dried beans for the first time. (Usually I make it on the stove top using canned beans.) Everything smelled great. When dinner time arrived, I tasted the chili to make sure it was seasoned right. It was, but there was something majorly wrong: the beans weren't done. I cooked the chili for six hours on LOW!!! This being my third attempt, you would think that I would learn to cook dried beans on high. Oh well, at least dinner is ready for tomorrow night.

One More Time and Field Trips (part 2)

Well, I am attempting to cook dried beans again. This time I put them on high heat instead of low. I hope they cook all the way through and taste good. They certainly smell good. The smell has permeated the whole house. I think I know one of the reasons why the last batch didn't do so well. I have two crock pots. The one in which I cooked the last batch of beans has been messing up. A few months ago, I cooked a pot roast in it while my in-laws were here. It wasn't cooked all the way through even though it had been in the crock pot for about 8-9 hours. This has happened on a few occasions but not all the time. Sometimes it works fine. Thank goodness I have two crock pots and the other works great (even though I have had it longer). I'll let you know how they turn out.

Hannah had her first field trip of the year. All of the Second Grade classes went to a local farm called Cedar Hill Farms. There, they rode ponies, saw the chicken put on a show, watched pig races, walked through a corn maze, petted animals in the petting zoo, played on the playground and ate a good lunch. I didn't get to go on this trip with her because I had Andrew and Mike had to work. It's probably a good thing because it was really muddy and dirty there. It rained all day yesterday and was really foggy and a bit chilly for most of the morning. Gracie's mom, Alicia, went and said a lot of the kids were muddy after going through the corn maze. Since I went on Will's field trip and wasn't able to go on Hannah's, I told her that either Mike or I one would go with her on her next trip out. I can't wait!!

Update on Cooking Beans

I found the secret (or maybe y'all already knew this) to cooking dried beans in the crockpot: cook them on high. After we tried eating them Friday night, I put them back in the crockpot for a few more hours on low. They were still hard when I turned them off. The next morning, I put them back in the crockpot on high and cooked them until dinner. Boy, where they good!! That did the trick. You would think that they would have been all mushy after cooking all day Friday and all day Saturday but they weren't. I made a note on my recipe to follow the directions and cook them on high, even if they cook all day. Silly me!!

I have some pictures I took of the kids this weekend. After I get them downloaded from my camera, I will post them here on the blog. Make sure you check back later today to see them. The kids are cute, if I say so myself.

Cooking Dried Beans, Children and Sleep

Tonight I tried a new recipe using a package of dried pinto beans that have been in my cabinet for a couple of months. The one and only other time I cooked dried beans they turned out okay. This time, instead of being nice and soft, they were still hard, even after cooking in the crock pot for nine hours on low. The recipe sounded good and looked easy. Maybe I should have cooked them on high. I put them back in the crock pot on low to finish cooking. Hopefully, they will be soft before I go to bed. If not, I wonder if I should let them cook all night.

In my last post, I mentioned that my kids LOVE, absolutely LOVE water. This love of the wet stuff got them into trouble yesterday. Well, you would think that after cleaning all my lower kitchen cabinets that Will might think twice before getting the hose out again. Not a chance. He was good for a little while, playing in the backyard and painting my back door with water from the dog pool. Before long, the pull of the water hose was too much for my little man and he gave in to temptation. My lawn and patio, as well as the basketball stand, were well watered. At least this time, he wasn't drenched.

Andrew, after a hard day of play yesterday, went to sleep around 7 p.m. He woke up a couple of times when we got onto the kids and when we put them to bed. At 5 a.m. (yes, you read that right), he was wide-eyed and bushy tailed. We put off getting him up out of bed until 6 but finally had to get him out of the room before he woke up Will. Mike tried rocking him, thinking he might go back to sleep but Andrew wouldn't have any of it. He was wired for sound and going full tilt. After a little while, Mike got Andrew a small bowl of Cheerios to eat. Before Mike knew it, the Cheerios were all gone. Andrew ate every last one. Mike got him a Pop-tart too and he ate half. He did take two naps instead of his usual one. I laid him down this morning around 10:30 and he slept until 12:30. He was acting sleepy this afternoon so I laid him back down about 4:30 and woke him up for dinner at 6. Since Mike and I usually go to bed really late, like between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., these early mornings are for the birds. Let's hope this does not become a habit.