Tag Archives: laundry

Birthdays and Rhubarb Custard Pie

We are having a cool May, making it a challenge to put any plants out in the garden yet. Yesterday the temperature hit the mid-60 mark, but the air had a chill in it.

Son Joseph doesn’t have to work today, so I will probably go to town with him this morning to get him new shoes and a few other things he needs for work. It is a little after 4:00 a.m. and son Benjamin left for his job. Everyone else is still in bed, so I am going to take advantage to write this column while all is quiet. Tomorrow Benjamin will be home, as they are on four-day work weeks, and Joseph will go to work. Hopefully it will be a nice day to do laundry again.

I received new cable-coated wash lines and new laundry baskets for my birthday, which is next week (May 22). I was very happy for the new lines, as I had a few lines break on me recently. It isn’t fun when your clean clothes need to be rewashed. I didn’t have cable-coated lines before, so the lines would break, and I would patch them up with wire. I think these lines should hold out for many years. It’s nice to hang up blankets and not have to watch so that they don’t touch the ground. My husband Joe and son Benjamin put the new lines up and put a fence stretcher on the end of each one so the lines stay in place.

I was also spoiled with flowers and meals brought in from my children on Mother’s Day. I felt honored and so unworthy of it all. It makes me so glad to be a mother to eight wonderful children. Each one holds a part of my heart and I can’t complain about any of them. They treat me like a queen and I thank God each day that he made me their mother. So often I fail as a mother, but I keep on doing my best, which is all we can do.

My sister Susan had her 44th birthday on Sunday, May 10 (Mother’s Day). The girls and I spent yesterday at her and sister Verena’s house. Sister Emma and her two daughters were also there. My sister Susan loves making cards and so do a few of the girls, so there was a table set up for that. Emma and I helped set up a flower bed for Susan outside, and just sitting around spoiling our grandchildren was enjoyable! I do not have enough patience to sit and make cards, but it’s nice to see the ideas they come up with. Abigail really took an interest in it.

Daughter Lovina’s 16th birthday will be in a few days, on May 18. Is it possible that 16 years went by so fast? She will be with the youth group now and son Kevin will be the only one of our children still not with the youth. That makes us feel older. Next year Kevin will also be in the youth group. Time goes much too fast.

We are enjoying many meals of asparagus and also rhubarb fixed in different ways. I still haven’t canned my rhubarb juice.

A reader has asked how we run electricity to use our vacuum sealer. We use a generator to run the meat grinder, slicer, and the sealer on the days that we butcher meat. Our solar power would not power all this, so we rely on the generator to do jobs like that.

I will share my mother’s recipe for rhubarb custard pie. This is for a 9-inch pan. When making and testing recipes for my cookbook, we discovered what a big difference it is to say “9-inch pie plate” rather than “9-inch deep pie plate.” Thus, the rhubarb custard recipe in my cookbook is a little different than my usual recipe, as I normally use the flat 9-inch pie plates. The rhubarb custard pies I made did not last long.

God’s blessings to all!

 

Rhubarb Custard Pie

1 1/2 cup rhubarb
2 tablespoons flour
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cream or whole milk

 

 

Mix all ingredients and pour in unbaked 9-inch pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

 

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, Amish Family Recipes, is available now 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.

 

Winter chores and celebrations

Son Kevin just left for school. Our driveway is really icy and slippery. I’m always afraid he will fall going out to the bus when its icy like this. One morning I saw him fall and was glad he didn’t hurt himself. Hopefully, it will warm up above freezing today so it will melt off the pavement. Yes, we were blasted with a winter storm on Friday and Saturday.

Saturday morning our family, sisters Verena and Susan, and sister Emma, Jacob and family had a late Christmas gathering at Jacob and Emma’s house. We enjoyed a haystack breakfast which is crumbled biscuits, scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, bacon, ham, smokies, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheese sauce, sausage gravy, and salsa piled up on your plate like a haystack. If you want to sample a little of all the toppings, you better not take too much of each or you’ll end up with a big plate of food. Orange juice, apple juice, chocolate milk, coffee, and donuts were also on the menu.

When we four sisters and families get together, we now total 30. The table was set in their attached garage. Dishes were washed and then we played swap bingo. Everyone brought a gift to swap. Our five grandchildren and Jacob and Emma’s granddaughter had exchanged names with each other so they also each had a gift.

After that we played games and had snacks such as veggies and dip, cheese ball and crackers, fruit and dip, pretzels and dip, venison summer sausage and jerky, chips and salsa, meat and cheese roll-ups, candy popcorn, etc. There was plenty there and we didn’t need another meal that day.

Yesterday daughters Elizabeth and Susan came here for the day with their little ones. Daughter Lovina went to Tim and Elizabeth’s house on Tuesday to help with household chores. Tim helped her do laundry after he was home from work. Lovina stayed there for the night and came home with Elizabeth and her children yesterday morning with the horse and buggy. Daughter Susan brought her horse and buggy too. It was a cold morning so the children were bundled up nice and warm. They have it so much nicer traveling in covered buggies than I did when I was their age with children riding in open buggies during the cold winter months.

Baby Allison will be a month old on Monday already. She is so precious! Such a tiny little girl but she has the most wonderful smile.

Tomorrow, January 24, is daughter Susan’s 24th birthday and also my sister Liz’s 51st birthday. Our plans are to go to Mose and Susan’s house for supper in honor of Mose, Susan, and Jennifer’s birthdays. Jennifer’s was last week (January 15) and Mose’s will be February 5.

Today we will wash laundry again. We usually wash clothes on Mondays and Thursdays. We fold clothes on Tuesdays and Fridays, so there aren’t many days out of the week that laundry isn’t a job to do. We hang the laundry on lines in our heated basement to dry. It will be nice once we can hang it outside and have it dried, folded, and put away all in one day.

This winter is going too fast for me. With the addition to the family and the holidays it seemed time just flew by. We still need to butcher pork and then get serious about cleaning. Church services will be here the first part of April if all goes as expected.

Loretta’s special friend Dustin bought our neighbor Irene’s house. It seems so different to go over there and not see Irene around. Irene died last year and we sure miss her. She was a good neighbor to us. Dustin will take good care of the place, so I’m sure she would be happy that he bought it.

Lovina enjoys baking for her family and this week she made several batches of Mother’s Sweet Rolls. She shares the recipe in her column. Photo provided.

I made several batches of mother’s sweet rolls this week. They are always a favorite around here. This is one of the recipes that will be in my new cookbook, Amish Family Recipes: A Cookbook Across the Generations, coming out in April.

God’s blessings to all!

 

 

 

 

Mother’s Sweet Rolls
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages dry active yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3 eggs, beaten
6 cups bread flour
butter, softened
brown sugar
cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine scalded milk, butter, sugar, and salt.

Add yeast to the warm water and let stand 5 minutes, then add it to milk mixture. Making sure the milk isn’t too hot, add eggs, then stir in 3 cups flour. Add remaining 3 cups flour and mix well.

Let dough rise until doubled in size. Punch down and divide in two. Roll each part out and spread with softened butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon as desired. Roll up lengthwise and cut into 3/4-inch slices. Place into baking pan and let rise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

 

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, Amish Family Recipes, will be available in April 2020 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.

Giving everything a thorough cleaning—but not without enjoying the company

Thursday morning and it’s almost 5 a.m. This column needs to be written, although my eyes still want to close for some more sleep. At least it’s not 3 a.m. That is the one thing I don’t miss from my husband not working at the RV factory. Son Joseph, 16, is waiting on his ride to go to work. Son Benjamin left for work at 4:30 a.m. The rest are still in bed. I feel extra tired this morning, but we did have a long day yesterday.

Yesterday my sister Emma, her daughters Elizabeth and Emma, and baby Jessica, along with my daughters Elizabeth and Susan and grandchildren, Abigail, Jennifer, and baby Timothy, all came here to assist us with cleaning for our upcoming church services. We will host here May 5. It will be communion services, so that usually lasts all day. We serve lunch halfway through the day, to a few tables of people at a time, until everyone is fed. Communion is usually around 3 p.m.

Anyways, back to my much-appreciated help . . . We accomplished so much yesterday but still had a nice day spent together. Walls, ceilings, furniture, etc. were cleaned from top to bottom in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Curtains were washed and quickly dried with the nice, breezy, sunshiny day. Everything looks so crisp and clean this morning, and the curtains look nice and white hanging on the sparkling windows. I love to admire the clean windows because I know before long they will be speckled by flies resting on them. They used white vinegar and water to clean them, and that works really good.

Last week one day, daughters Verena and Loretta washed out both my cupboards. On Saturday my sisters Verena and Susan came to help, so they helped my daughters clean out cabinets. I really appreciated their help too.

I still need to defrost the freezer on our propane refrigerator and clean out the refrigerator. Also, my gas stove and oven need a thorough cleaning.

Everyone came for breakfast yesterday so I made a casserole with shredded hash browns, scrambled eggs, crumbled bacon, chopped green peppers and onions, shredded cheese, and topped with gravy. My sister Emma brought cherry coffee cake that was still warm, so that went good for dessert.

We enjoyed the four little ones. They are so precious and so much fun. Abigail wanted to help me hang out the laundry, so I told her to hand me the washcloths and a clothespin with each one. That kept her entertained for a while. She wanted to swing on the swing that hangs from our tree branch, so I lowered the seat for her. Jennifer came outside for a while, enjoying the nice day. She kept picking up little twigs and bringing them to me.

The two babies, Jessica (almost 3 months) and Timothy (4 months), took a nap on Kevin’s bed, which is still in our living room since his first surgery. Timothy is quite active and was entertained rolling over and trying to grab Jessica’s face after he awoke. The baby swing bouncer also entertained the babies while their mothers worked.

For lunch, daughter Susan brought spaghetti and meatballs and we also had leftover tacos from last night’s supper. Along with the coffee cake for dessert, it made a quick, easy meal.

While we were cleaning my husband Joe was outside in the garden planting early red potatoes. He also has sweet onions he wants to plant and some more seeds to get out in the garden. Our radishes and lettuce are up from his previous gardening. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and let them survive. It’s all controlled by God, so we trust in Him. He knows best!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter! God’s blessings to all!

Hamburger Potato Casserole

2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 teaspoons salt, divided
2 cups macaroni or shells
1 pint pizza sauce
2 quarts cubed potatoes
3 cups milk
2 rounded tablespoons flour
1 pound Velveeta cheese, melted

Place ground beef and onions in a large skillet. Add pepper and 1 teaspoon salt (or as desired) and cook over medium heat until brown. Pour into a big roasting pan or two large baking dishes.

Cook macaroni until soft, drain, then add pizza sauce. Pour on top of meat.

Cook potatoes until soft. Drain, then add milk, 2 teaspoons salt, and flour. Add cheese and pour over macaroni. Bake in a 350 degree F oven until it’s hot. Feeds a family of 12.

 

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.