cheese | Lovina’s Amish Kitchen

Daughter Susan had her 22nd birthday on January 24. We had cake and ice cream for Susan after supper.

I will never forget how glad I was when my midwife (Joe’s aunt Sylvia) arrived the day Susan was born. It was blowing snow, and the roads were drifting shut. Susan was born at 2:37 pm, and she was 6 pounds and 19 inches long. After Susan was born the storm continued, but we were finally able to find a ride to get Aunt Sylvia home.

Aunt Sylvia was a very good midwife and always by our side when I had my first six babies. She had a lot of patience. I think having quite a few children of her own made her an understanding midwife. One of the hardest things when we made the move to Michigan was not having her for my midwife and her good advice.

Susan has a January birthday—along with her new daughter and others in the family—which she celebrated with some beautiful birthday flowers.

Baby Jennifer is ten days old today. Her checkup with the doctor shows that everything looks good. She is a few ounces below her birth weight, but that’s normal. She grew an inch and is 21 inches, 8 pounds, 6 ounces now. We are still having so much fun having her at our house! They are staying here while Susan recovers from toxemia. Susan is doing better every day and gaining her strength back. She needs to go get a blood test in a few weeks and another checkup at the doctor to make sure everything is healing okay. Jennifer is nursing well, and is very demanding when feeding time comes. Mose is finding out how babies keep you awake at night. He is a good daddy, and enjoys spending time with their firstborn.

The church ladies have a birthday basket that is passed from one lady to the next when a birthday comes. On your birthday, you take out what is in it and fill it up with whatever you want to give to the person who has the next birthday after you. Edna brought the basket to Susan yesterday and took a peek at little Jennifer. Susan needs to have it filled by tomorrow for Karen’s birthday. A covered cake pan is also passed with the birthday basket. Susan received chocolate bars and now needs to bake something for Karen. The girls will probably do it for her, since she has her hands full with the baby.

Sister Liz’s 49th birthday was yesterday also. So Susan was born on her 27th birthday. We wish her a happy birthday also and good health and God’s blessings in the year ahead and always!

Meanwhile sister Emma, Jacob and family are preparing to host church services Sunday. They all had the flu after they were home from Jacob’s father’s funeral.

Daughter Verena and I went to help Emma on Tuesday. Emma has brand-new oak cabinets now and is having fun finally getting her dishes back into cabinets since they started remodeling their house.

On Saturday Joe wants to help son-in-law Timothy get some work done that he needs to do before they host the next church services. I will go along and help Elizabeth with her work. The next two weeks will go fast for them.

Son-in-law Mose went to their own place last night to check up on everything, and discovered a broken water pipe in their laundry room. It brought the ceiling down and made a huge mess. Now they will need to get that repaired before they can move back home. It seems when it rains it pours, but it could be lots worse.

Loretta is waiting on me to go help wash laundry. We hang the clothes on the lines in the basement during these cold winter months. We let it hang until the next morning before we bring it up, fold, and put away.

I was hoping to go help sister Emma again tomorrow. Time will tell if I get that far.

Stay healthy everyone! The flu is making its rounds, and I wish everyone the best of health through this flu season. God bless!

Scrambled Egg Muffins
1/2 pound pork sausage
12 eggs
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1/4 cup green peppers, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Brown the sausage; drain. Beat eggs in a bowl. Add onions, green peppers and seasonings. Stir in sausage and cheese. Spoon by 1/3 cupfuls into muffin tins that are either greased or hold cupcake liners. Bake at 350 degrees for 20–25 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Yields one dozen.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife and mother of eight. She is the co-author of three cookbooks; her newest cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook, is available from 800-245-7894. Readers can write to Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply) or at LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org.

This column will wrap up my columns for February 2015. This year is going way too fast for me to keep up. I remember Mother telling me that the older your children get, the faster time goes. I see that is very true!

I often would be glad to have one more conversation with Mother. God had other plans, and I need to accept His will. Mother always had good advice. Especially when the children were sick, she would come over and take care of everybody. Memories—I’ll treasure them always!

Lovina’s daughter Susan is looking forward to warmer weather so that she can train her miniature pony, Prancer.

We are all well again here at the Eichers. So many blessings to thank God for! Susan is still under a doctor’s care but is back to work. The chiropractor says she has pinched nerves in her neck. Susan is active and always full of energy. She is looking forward to training Prancer, our miniature pony, as the weather warms up. Prancer will be two years old in April. Benjamin is also glad to be going back to work.

Tonight we are getting a milk cow. This has been all the boys have been talking about. We sold our cow when we lived in Indiana. Since our move to Michigan almost 11 years ago, we have not had a milking cow. We go through so many gallons of milk in a week so the milk will be good to have. I would also like to make our own butter. Another thing I would like to try that I’ve never done is making cheese. If any of you readers have a good recipe for cheese, I would be happy to have it.

Susan’s pony, Prancer, soon after he was born.

Sunday our family, Timothy, and Mose attended the baptismal services in Nappanee, Indiana, for niece Salome. Her special friend, Myron, was also baptized with her. What a blessing to the family and church!

We were all able to meet Henry and Loretta’s sweet little Damaris. The girls and I had fun holding her during church services. She was really smiling. She’s just a tiny bundle of joy, but her smile lit up the whole room.

Niece Verena and Melvin’s little Micah is already 11 months old. He is growing fast too. He’s a sweetie! Joe’s sister Christine, husband Jake, and nine children from Hershey, Michigan, were also there. It was good to see Melvin and Verena and Jakes again.

We also met Myron’s family. Everyone was friendly. We appreciated the hospitality. It’s always nice to visit other church districts in other communities and meet new people.

Friday evening we are invited to the local community building for Salome’s 19th birthday supper. Salome was born on February 29. Jake, Christine, and family have plans to come for this. It sounds like they might come to our house to sleep on Friday and Saturday evenings. Daughter Verena has some friends coming for the night as well. Somehow we will find room for everyone—the more the merrier!

Son Kevin and Jake and Christine’s son Matthew always have so much fun together. On Sunday after church, Kevin and Matthew were walking beside each other. Both were talking at the same time. I don’t think either of them was listening to the other! We had to laugh as we watched them. Seemed like they had so much to catch up on.

I’ll share a recipe for a favorite soup of ours this week.

Vegetable Cheese Soup

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup onion, minced
1/4 cup flour
4 cups milk
pinch salt
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 10-ounce package mixed vegetables, cooked

Melt butter in saucepan. Add onions and sauté until onions are clear. Blend in flour, milk, and salt to taste. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add cooked vegetables. Let simmer for a while. You can add your own vegetables from the garden, such as corn, peas, or carrots.

Lovina Eicher is an Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife and mother of eight. Formerly writing as The Amish Cook, Eicher inherited that column from her mother, Elizabeth Coblentz, who wrote from 1991 to 2002. Readers can contact Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply) or at LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen

Tag Archives: cheese

Birthday basket full of goodies makes its rounds to the Eicher house

Eichers anticipate spring training for the pony, and homemade butter and cheese