THE AMISH COOK
BY LOVINA EICHER
October 17 is always a reminder to me of my parents anniversary. They were happily married for 42 years before Dad’s passing away in 2000. We still miss them dearly but they left us many good memories.
Meanwhile, we received the sad news of the death of Joe’s cousin Ben’s wife Salome. She was only 46-years-old and that dreaded cancer overtook her. Our sympathy goes to the family. They lost a son some time ago from a fall while working on construction. The funeral is on Wednesday and we hope to find a way to attend.
Lots and lots of leaves have been raked around here. Saturday was a windy day and blew away a lot of our leaves which made us all happy. Last week, Kevin, 6, brought home a pumpkin from school and wanted me to carve a face in it for him. I told him I don’t have time but he didn’t give up until I took time and carved one in for him. I lit a candle inside and he was proud of his little pumpkin.
My husband Joe shelled all the remaining popcorn from our garden. The harvest wasn’t as much as we thought it would be. I think maybe I planted it too close. This is the first year we tried growing popcorn. Do any of your readers have suggestions on how to grow the best popcorn? We still have plenty to enjoy for quite a few times. Joe popped some on Saturday to see how it tastes and it tasted very good.
Friday afternoon Uncle Joe and Betty stopped in for a short visit. Betty always brings bananas for Kevin. She knows that he likes them and when he got home from school and saw the bananas he said “Joe and Betty were here!“ Joe and Betty planned to spend the weekend here in Michigan. They were here on Saturday evening for supper.. Also here were my sister Emma, Jacob, and family, my sisters Verena and Susan and my daughter’s friend, Timothy. On the menu was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy, corn, cheese, green peppers, and hot peppers, bread, butter, green tomato jam, chips, ice cream, watermelon, and peanut butter dessert.
Our winter supply of coal was delivered on Friday. It is always a relief once you know you have coal to keep the house warm during the winter months. We have been hearing that we might have a bad winter so it is good to be prepared. We heat our house from a hopper-fed coal stove in the basement. We heat all 3 stories of our house so it takes a lot of coal for a winter. I am glad that the basement is heated during the winter months to help dry the clothes. So far we have not had to start our stove yet. We like to try to put it off as long as we can. The heat from our propane lights feels good on these chilly mornings. It usually puts off enough heat to take the chill out of the house. The thermometer this morning shows 42 degrees but it looks like the sun is coming up now which should warm things up. We are hoping for a nice laundry day today
This afternoon we plan to pick potatoes up out of a big field close to Emma and Jacob’s. We are hoping we are going to be able to pick up enough to supply us for most of the winter.
With the harvesting of pears wrapping up for the season, I thought I’d share this delicious pear bread recipe with you readers.
HOMEMADE PEAR BREAD
3 cups flour
1 /4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 /4 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups peeled and grated pears
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecans
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
Preheat oven to 350.In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients until evenly mixed. Then in a small, separate bowl, combine liquid ingredients together and then blend in with the dry ingredients. Pour into two lightly greased loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Yield two loaves. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans.reprinted with permission from www.amishcookonline.com. Richard from Amish Stories
