Tag Archives: amish recipes

Lemon pie recipe from Lovina’s next cookbook, Amish Family Recipes: A Cookbook across the Generations

A big thank-you to all you readers who came to my book signing at the Nappanee Public Library last Saturday. Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement.

Thank you to my great friend Ruth for furnishing the transportation and always being so helpful in any way she can. Thanks also to my daughters Verena, 21, and Lovina, 15, for attending with me. Their support and help always mean so much.

I want to thank Brittney from the library for hosting the event. Before leaving for home we had a nice fun time with a reader named Jessica, her mother, and her three children. Jessica’s grandmother is battling that dreadful disease dementia, but always finds comfort holding my columns in her hand. May God be with her and her loving family as they go through a heart-breaking trial in life.

Son Kevin, 14, went hunting Saturday with son-in-law Mose as his guide. It was youth season and Kevin shot a doe which provided us with quite a big amount of meat. My husband Joe cut it up and got it ready for the freezer. Last year Kevin also shot a deer during youth season. Mose also was his guide last year. With his disability Kevin appreciates the help from Mose in making it possible for him to hunt. It gives him a happy feeling to be helping with providing food for the table as well.

I want to share the great news of my next cookbook, coming in April 2020. My family and I have worked hard on these recipes and had photographers here for four days taking photos of food. I appreciate their respect in keeping us out of the pictures except for our hands. My friend Ruth also worked hard in getting the cookbook typed for the publisher and helping test recipes or having others help test them. My daughters spent many hours preparing food for this cookbook. The cookbook will be called Amish Family Recipes: A Cookbook across the Generations and  published by Herald Press. I am excited to see the finished result and hope you readers will enjoy the many recipes included in this book. I will share a recipe this week from the new cookbook.

Daughter Elizabeth and children Abigail, 3, and T.J., 9 months, and daughter Susan and children Jennifer, 20 months, and baby Ryan, 7-1/2 weeks, came for the day. Fun, fun, fun for this Grandma but I admit I feel tired tonight. It is always so sweet to see the little rays of sunshine. They grow so fast and I want to treasure every moment I can spend with them. As I was hanging out laundry, Abigail trailed behind me asking one question after another. Such sweet innocent children. She loves to say her prayer out loud when we eat. Jennifer also likes to bow her head and pray, peeking up to see if we are seeing what she is doing.

Tuesday is already the wedding day of nephew Marvin and Lori. We have plans to attend. It will be different not to help cook at a family wedding, but they do things differently there than we do in Michigan.

A reader asked several questions about our weddings. They wondered if the cost of our weddings is high. I would think the highest cost is the food and the rented wedding cook wagons and cooler. Our clothes are all sewn at home so the cost of that isn’t as much, and we have weddings at our homes so there’s no cost for that. All our help is free too, although we do buy small gifts of appreciation for the cooks, table waiters, etc. These gifts are tools, Tupperware, towels, dishes, kitchen items, bedding or just anything useful. More questions will be answered in future columns, but space is limited for now.

God bless all of you!

 

Lemon Pie

 3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
3 eggs (separated)
1 1/2 cups boiling water
6 tablespoons sugar
1 regular 9-inch pie shell, baked

In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, 1-1/4 cups sugar, lemon juice, and lemon rind. Separate eggs from yolks, then beat yolks and add to cornstarch mixture. Slowly stir in boiling water. Over medium heat, bring mixture to boiling and cook on slow boil for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into pie shell.

Separately beat eggs whites until stiff but not dry. Beat in 6 tablespoons sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Spread the meringue over top of pie, spreading to the edge to seal in the filling.

Bake in 425-degree oven for 4 to 5 minutes or until meringue is browned. Cool on rack away from draft. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

 

Recipe is from Lovina Eicher’s forthcoming cookbook, Amish Family Recipes: A Cookbook across the Generations, and can be preordered from Amazon or wherever books are sold.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook, is available from the publisher, Herald Press, 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 email LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.

Grandchildren add fun and happiness

We have entered the month of July. The year 2019 is halfway in the past. July 1 was daughter Loretta’s birthday. She turned 19 years old. Son Benjamin is also 19, until his birthday on July 14. It always brings back memories from that year they were born. My dad passed away at age 69 six weeks before Loretta was born. Then we had church services at our house when Loretta was five weeks old. With Loretta being our fifth child and my oldest only being six at that time, I do not know how I did it. I do remember that I said never again would I host church services with a five-week-old baby. I depended a lot on my mother and five sisters to help out and get my cleaning done for church services.

Loretta’s boyfriend Dustin, Loretta, daughter Verena, and son Kevin went fishing out on a nearby lake on Dustin’s pontoon. On Loretta’s birthday the girls helped get laundry washed before they left. In the evening, Tim, Elizabeth, Abigail, and baby Timothy, Mose, Susan, and Jennifer also came in honor of Loretta’s birthday. Pizza and chicken wings were on the menu.

Tim, Mose, Dustin, and son Benjamin are all on vacation this week. Son Benjamin is gone for three days fishing on Lake Erie with a few friends. They are camping in tents close by the lake. They planned to go walleye fishing out on the lake. I’m sure he’s having an enjoyable time, but the house seems empty without him around.

Yesterday, Tim and Elizabeth left Abigail, age two, and six-month-old baby Timothy (or T.J., as little Abigail calls him) here, as Tim and Elizabeth were heading to town with horse and buggy. We had fun watching them. Abigail likes to follow Kevin around and ask him one question after another. Kevin does pretty good entertaining her.

When she heard Loretta had a birthday, Abigail said, “My birthday is September 10 and I will be three.” I was surprised that she knew that.

The little grandchildren add so much fun and happiness to our life. My dad would always joke around and say if he had known the grandchildren would be that much fun, he would have had them first.

Tomatoes grow tall in Lovina’s garden.

We are having more goodies from the garden, although it seems later than other years. We had quite a few days of 90-degree weather with the humidity really high. Tonight we had a shower, so the rain makes it more bearable. The garden was in need of rain.

Today I went with my husband Joe to the doctor. They did an EKG and found he has fluid around his heart. He has an open wound on his leg that doesn’t want to heal, and his legs and feet are swollen bad. The doctor gave him a few antibiotics and wants to see him in a few days. They also did some more tests and blood work, which will probably let us know more when we go back. But meanwhile, the doctor ordered him to keep his feet elevated and to stay out of the hot sun. Joe sees the garden get more weeds and thinks he should go work out there. A big garden is nice to have, but it requires a lot of labor.

We traveled to Bryant, Indiana, to Aunt Lizzie’s funeral last week. We saw many uncles, aunts, cousins. It was different to not see Uncle Elmer with Aunt Emma. I’m sure it refreshed everything with losing her husband not too long ago.

Cucumber vines begin to stretch across the garden. 

After the funeral the six of us sisters walked through Aunt Lizzie’s house reminiscing of long ago. How well I remember when Uncle Chris and Aunt Lizzie packed up their belongings and we helped them move to this home. Only a pole barn to move into, but now the property has two houses, a big barn, two chicken barns. Their daughter Lovina and husband Pete and family live in the big house. I’m sure with Aunt Lizzie gone the little house will seem really empty.

Life goes on, changes are made—God helps us accept these changes, but it all takes time to heal.

God’s blessings to all!

Old-Fashioned Cucumber Salad

1 large cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1–2 tablespoons sugar, if desired

Combine cucumber, bell pepper, and onion in a bowl. Combine water, vinegar, salt, and optional sugar, and pour over vegetables. Refrigerate for a brief time before eating, or make ahead for the next meal.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook, is available from the publisher, Herald Press, 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 email LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.