Published: June 15, 2009 07:05 am      

Amish Cook: Funeral means visits with family

We spent the past weekend in Indiana. My Aunt Barbara's funeral was held on June 6. It was exactly one month after her sudden death.

Uncle Henry was dismissed from the hospital June 3 after being admitted May 8.

The funeral had been postponed until he was dismissed from the hospital. He still looks very weak. We wish God's blessings to the family as they go through this trial in life. We started out on Saturday morning at 4:30 a.m. to attend the funeral.

While at the burial we could also saw where my father and mother's graves were in the same cemetery. We drove past my parents' old home place, but things looked very different. There are two more sets of buildings on it and also several hog barns have been added.

We stopped in at the place where Joe and I lived for eight years before our move to Michigan. The young Amish couple who lives there now were very nice and let us look around. It is hard to believe that only our three oldest children seem to remember the place. Benjamin was 4 at the time and barely remembers any of it. We appreciated their hospitality while we were there. They have a 2-week-old baby and had company coming for supper, but they still took the time to let us look around.

After visiting our old home-place, we stopped in to see where niece Susan and her husband live and meet little Susan, who was born in May. Afterwards, my brother Amos and his wife Nancy invited us to come for supper. We had an enjoyable meal outdoors. They made soup in the kettle over the open fire and also cooked sausage links and made hot wings on the grill. Everything was very delicious.

Joe and I and our six youngest children spent the night at my Uncle Joe and Aunt Betty's house. Betty fixed a very good breakfast for us. After breakfast we drove around visiting families.

Meanwhile, daughters Elizabeth and Susan went to Joe's sister Ruth's house to spend the night with their cousins. They attended church with them the next day.

We arrived back home in Michigan on Sunday evening safe and sound. Everyone was tired and ready for bed.

\We had not all been out to our old Indiana community for more than a year. With gas prices soaring again it affects us when we have to hire a driver to take us. Then, if we stay the night, we have to pay for the driver's hotel room, making it quite an expensive trip.

We are enjoying strawberries out of the garden. I have June-bearing strawberry plants, but I am sure we will enjoy plenty of strawberries. We are also enjoying lettuce, radishes and onions from the garden. Looks like it won't be long before the peas are ready.

Try this delicious recipe for using up your fresh strawberries.

Homemade Strawberry Bread

2 eggs

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 c. sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. almond extract

1&2/3 c. flour(stir or sift before measuring)

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1&1/2 c. chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen and lightly drained

1/2 c. chopped nuts, your choice

Preheat oven to 350Ëš. Beat eggs until foamy. Add oil, sugar, vanilla and almond extract to eggs and mix well. Stir well or sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Add to previous mixture and stir until just barely moistened.

Add strawberries and nuts and lightly mix, being careful not to overmix. Pour into greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes until nicely browned and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. May need to put foil over top if browns too quickly.

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.