The Amish Cook

By LOVINA EICHER

It is 5:15 a.m. and 18-year-old daughter Elizabeth just left for her job at the factory. My husband Joe left over an hour ago for his job. Elizabeth started at the factory a couple of weeks ago. She works 5 days a week. Her cleaning job didn’t have enough days of work each week for her. At the factory they make camping trailers. I miss Elizabeth’s good help here at home, but Susan and Verena are done detasseling corn now so they can help.

School doors will open in a few weeks. The six youngest will all be in school then. This will be Verena’s last year, Kevin will be in the first grade, Lovina in second, Joseph in 4th, Loretta in sixth and Benjamin in seventh. Time is going by too fast!

Yesterday was a long but enjoyable day as were attending the wedding of Albert Jr. and Louanna.

It is a little bit harder to get started today after such long day yesterday. I was a cook at the wedding. I was happy that I managed to get my new dress sewn before the wedding. We had to wear a hunter green colored dress. Elizabeth and her friend Timothy were table-waiters. She had to wear a dark sage colored dress. Makes it so much easier for me since she has learned to cut out and sew her own dress, cape, and apron. She worked on it afternoons after work.

We hired a driver to go the 22 miles to Albert’s for the wedding while Timothy and Elizabeth drove it with the horse and buggy. It took them a little over two hours to get there but they made it back home in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Seems the horse always knows when it is coming back home and wants to travel faster.

The cooks are all assigned different jobs and my job was to help make gravy. My sisters Liz and Emma were also assigned to this job. We made many gallons and gallons of gravy for the day. Then we also had to help the table-waiters at “table 9” wash their dishes after each setting.

The couple had 24 table-waiters to wait on the 12 tables. A boy and a girl were assigned to each table. 300 people could be served at one time. A delicious meal was served for both meals, the noon dinner and evening supper. On the menu was grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, mixed vegetables, salad, homemade bread, butter and grape jelly, grape jello pudding, mixed fruit, and pecan, peanut butter, and apple pie. For the evening meal they had baked chicken instead of grilled, ice cream and strawberries instead of mixed fruit ,with most of the rest the same menu as during the day.

It really rained around noon but it quit and was cloudy. Made the weather cool for us cooks who work in the wedding wagon. With seven stoves going in there it seemed pleasant with the nice breeze the rain brought.

Supper was at 5:30 for the adults and 7 p.m. for the youth. After the meal the youth sang songs the couple chose to sing. While singing, the wedding cake was cut and passed around. Our ride to go home came at 8:30. Certain couples were assigned to get the wedding dishes back into the wedding wagon. Wedding wagons sure make it a lot easier to not have to use one’s owns pots, pans, and dishes for the wedding, It also comes with tables, stoves and a cooler. The church benches are used for seating.

On Monday sister Emma and I went to Albert’s to make crusts for the peanut butter and pecan pies. Jacob and Emma had church services at their place on Sunday so the last two weeks have been extra busy ones. Today,washing laundry and canning tomato juice is on our list. I will share a recipe made for our breakfast recently. I like to try different recipes, this one is called country brunch skillet. I used peeled and cooked potatoes out of our own garden, but you can use frozen.

Country Brunch Skillet

6 strips of bacon
6 cups frozen hashed browns
3/4 cup chopped green peppers
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 eggs
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Large skillet over medium heat cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon, crumble and set aside. Drain, reserving two tablespoons of drippings. Add potatoes, peppers, onions, and salt to drippings. Cook and stir for two minutes. Cover and cook and drain occasionally until potatoes are brown and tender about 15 minutes. Make six wells in the hashed brown mixture, break one egg into each well. Cover and cook over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes or until eggs are set. Sprinkle with bacon and cheese.

A Special Thanks to PA Readers

We want to thank Prairie Advocate readers who have sent emails, letters, and cards of encouragement to the Eicher family after a terribly difficult spring of fire and illness. Many Prairie-Advocate readers – too many to respond to individually – have inquired about helping the Eichers. You can do so by joining The Amish Cook Friend Club by August 31. Here’s how:

BASIC ONE-YEAR MEMBERSHIP $10: thank you note and recipe for “marriage meatloaf.”ONE-YEAR SILVER $25: thank you note and a packet of 25 unpublished recipes from The Amish Cook recipe archives.ONE-YEAR GOLD $50 all of the above, plus an 8 X 10 photo of a suppertime scene at Lovina’s and a copy of The Amish Recipe Project Cookbook.SUPER SUPPORTER, $100.00: all of the above, plus a complimentary copy of the Amish-themed fiction book Abraham’s Redemption when it is released. To join, visit www.oasisnewsfeatures.com/friendclub or send to:Oasis Newsfeatures, PO BOX 157, Middletown, Ohio 45042 100 percent of the funds benefit Lovina by going to her directly or being reinvested in the column. Anyone who has joined or joins the Friend Club will receive rewards by the end of September.