The Amish Cook: Beef Nacho Casserole

By Verena Eicher, Age 16

Hello!  This is Lovina’s daughter, Verena. Mom has been extra busy lately, so I wanted to help her out by writing the column for her this week.

Washing dishes, sweeping and mopping floors,  and watering flowers has filled my day.  With having sisters Loretta-13 and Lovina-10 home from school, they can help out a lot around the house already.  I like to send Lovina after my things when I feel a little lazy.  Smile!!

I enjoy helping mom keep her gardens and flowers watered.  She depends on me to keep the flowers watered, so I try my best to keep them looking nice.  They are nicely hung on our porch, making it look beautiful from the view on the road.  I want to help mom do some weeding in the garden if we get time tomorrow.  We want to also wash laundry tomorrow, if it doesn’t rain.

Sister Elizabeth has a Yorkshire terrier puppy.  She’s only had it for a week.  She is named Isabella.  We call her Izzy for short.  She is such a little ornery puppy sometimes.  She loves to play and all the attention she gets around here.  Elizabeth also has a Shih Tzu dog named Spikey.  Her boyfriend Timothy keeps Spikey at his house because he was way too lively in our house for mom.  Mom never allowed us to have pets in the house, but so far she hasn’t said anything about Izzy.  Izzy is most of the time a quiet puppy.  She stays quiet during the night and only weighs 1 ½ pounds so she can’t cause too much trouble.  Spikey would jump on our beds waking us up before it was time to get up.  Timothy brings Spikey along sometimes, so we still get to play with him.  I take care of Izzy while Elizabeth is at work.  She is pretty well litter box trained already.

Friday night our family was invited to Timothy’s brother JR and Rachel’s house for a birthday party for Elizabeth.  Elizabeth will be 20 on June 14^th.  Rachel baked and decorated a very nice cake for Elizabeth.  JR and Rachel have 10 children ages 11 months to 14 years old, so she is a busy mother.  We had a lot of fun with the little children.  On the menu for supper was homemade pizza, ice cream, cake and watermelon.

Saturday evening cousins Elizabeth-17, Emma-16 and I went to the community building where all the youth gather on Saturday evenings.  We took Jacob and Emma’s horse Silver and the buggy.  He is a big gray horse and seems to do a good job to let us drive him.  The youth play games such as volleyball, basketball and board games, etc.  There are usually 2 sets or more of parents at the building to chaperone us youth.  They bring snacks and drinks for everyone.  Ivan and Ruth and another couple that I didn’t recognize were chaperones on Saturday Evening.  They treated us all to pizza and pop which we all enjoyed.  Elizabeth, Emma and I decided to spend the night at our friend Rhonda’s house instead of driving home after dark.  We started for home the next morning after it was daylight.

Sunday night cousins Elizabeth, Emma and I took our horse Itty Bit and our buggy to the youth singing.  It was at Tim and Violet’s house which is probably around 8 miles from here.  For supper they had a casserole, hot dog sandwiches, salad, watermelon, strawberries, cake and ice cream.

I need to get busy and I hope I wrote the column okay for you readers.  Take care and God bless!

For a recipe I’ll share this beef nacho casserole:

Beef Nacho Casserole

3 pounds ground beef, browned

1 quart (32 oz.) salsa

1 quart corn

1 ½ cup mayonnaise

3 tablespoons chili powder

6 cups corn chips

6 cups shredded Colby-jack, cheddar or mozzarella cheese

Mix first 5 ingredients.  Put half in the bottom of a large casserole.  Then put in half of chips, then half of cheese.  Repeat layers.  Bake until heated through.  You may top with lettuce and tomatoes if you would like.  Note: Omit chili powder if using hot salsa.