Feb. 17 would be my dear father's 77th birthday if he were still here with us. May he rest in peace and we hope to someday meet him in heaven above. He left this earth almost eight years ago, but our good memories of him remain strong in our minds. He was a great father and a good husband.
We have been very busy the past few days working up the big beef we recently butchered. I still have quite a bit of meat left to process, but the canned jars now total more than 100 already. How thankful we are for all this meat. I had run out of all home-canned meat except chicken. What a relief to once again be filling jars!
We also put a lot of steaks and hamburger in the freezer. We cooked the meat off the beef bones into the big butchering kettle. I want to make vegetable soup with that meat and also get that into jars. Canned vegetable soup is a quick easy meal when you are in a hurry.
Butchering meat is a lot of work, but well worth the time for all you get from it.
It was nice to not have to do the greasy mess of butchering in the main part of our house. We have the basement and the back entrance to work it up in. Along with butchering, we are once again enjoying the "rare beef" we make. We slice the red most tender steaks real thin and then deep fry the slices after putting salt and pepper on each side. The trick to getting it tender is to have your oil real hot and take your piece of meat and stir it one time and then flip it. Then stir it one more time again and take it out right away. It is always best to eat it right after it is done. We call this "rare beef."
Wednesday evening the men from our church had a "church singing" here. Every two weeks, they get together to practice the hymns from our German Ausbund songbook. (Editor's note: The Ausbund is the name of the church hymn book that all Amish use at services. This is the oldest continually used Protestant hymnal still in use.) It was relaxing to hear them sing the songs. Daughter Elizabeth popped popcorn and I made coffee and punch to serve to them. We had opened the kitchen table to its full 10-foot length and put chairs around.
This is now early Monday morning and I have two pressure cookers going with hamburger. The children are home from school and they were also home on Friday. We hope to get laundry done today and to keep the pressure cookers going.
Congratulations are in order on the engagement of my editor Kevin Williams to his fiancée Rachel. They both seem like family to us and so we are so happy for them. May God bless them with a long, happy married life together.
A reader in Olympia, Wash., asked for this traditional Amish recipe. It is like a soup and very easy to make.
Knepfle
1 egg
Broth or water
2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
Beat egg in a cup and fill cup up with water or broth. In small bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking powder. Add egg mixture and stir well.
Put one quart of water or broth in a two- or three-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil. Hold the bowl with the dough over the boiling water or broth, dropping off the dough in as small pieces as you can with your spoon. Dip the spoon into the water or broth often to prevent it from sticking. Let cook for 5 minutes and then serve.
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Amish snowbirds? Yes, there is one place where Old Order Amish go to escape the cold, harsh Midwestern winters. This "Amish Shangri-La" is the community of Pinecraft, Fla., tucked away in a quiet corner of Sarasota. It is currently peak season in Pinecraft as Old Order Amish, Beachy Amish and plenty of Mennonites find a little refuge under the warm Florida sun.
Log on to amishcookonline.com to read about life in Pinecraft, a review of Yoder's Amish Restaurant, a short video tour by The Amish Cook's editor, and a collection of still photographs (in accordance with Amish beliefs, no people are in photos). All the material is free to read.
Lovina Eicher is Old Order Amish. She hand-writes this column from her home in southern Michigan. Anyone with cultural or cooking questions can send them to: Lovina Eicher, The Amish Cook, P.O. Box 2144, Middletown, OH 45042. Read all of her columns online at www.record-eagle.com/amishcook.
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