Amish Cook, Week of January 30, 2012

Highlights and Discussion:  Looks like Kevin (I can't call him Baby Kevin, like I used to..he's too old for that!) supplied Lovina with the "cute quips" this week. He is a cute kid and it's so hard to believe he is 6!   And what about that buggy ride?  Sounds harrowing!  I remember when Rachel and I were in North Dakota one year we were leaving Bismarck headed for Minot...I thought I could make the long, dark drive before the predicted blizzard arrived.  It was snowing in Bismarck, but not terribly, so I thought we could make it.  Wow...as soon as we left the Bismarck city limits, we were nearly pinned down in this howling, wind-whipped white-out.  Only thing that saved us from being stranded was I was able to somehow do a quick U-turn and make our way back to a four-way yellow caution flasher that we had passed on the edge of town....once in the city the buildings blocked the wind a bit and we got to a hotel...But apparently dozens of North Dakotans had to be rescued by National Guardsmen during the night after becoming stranded..glad we were not among them!   What's the worst snow you've ever been caught out in?

 THE AMISH COOK

 

BY LOVINA EICHER

 

Last Monday it was rainy and warm and now this week we have snow and cold again.  Kevin, 6, is home from school today.  He has been running a fever since yesterday morning.  It is not a high fever but just enough to make him feel miserable at times.  He also has a cough and stuffy nose but otherwise no other big symptoms.  Everybody else is the family seems OK so far.  Daughters Verena and Loretta stayed home from church services yesterday to take care of Kevin.  On our way home from church it was snowing so hard we could barely see where we were going.  The snow stuck to the buggy windshield so every once in awhile we’d have to stop and open the window to reach out and brush off the snow.  This still beats driving in an open buggy, though, like we used in Indiana before we moved here to Michigan.  Some people have windshield wipers on their buggies but the wipers have to be flipped back and forth by hand by turning a knob on the inside.  As fast as this snow was coming down it would have been hard to keep up.   The horses have a special shoe that gives them a good grip on snow and ice but the buggy slides back and forth on ice especially going around corners.

 

We brought Jacob and Emma’s son,  Steven, age 4, home with us from church.  We told Jacob and Emma to come for supper later on.  Steven sure felt proud for all of the attention from us and he was like medicine for Kevin.  Kevin was looking out in the window when we came home.  When he saw we brought Steven   with us he started jumping up and down with excitement.  Daughters Verena, 14, and Lovina, 7, played Aggravation with Steven and Kevin.  It was so cute to see Steven act so grown-up while playing.  Jacob and Emma arrived around 5 p.m. to pick him up and to have supper.  Joe had grilled 20 pounds of chicken which was more than enough.

 

It was put to use in today’s lunches for whoever wanted chicken .  Joe said he will take the leftover macaroni and cheese but he does not want chicken.  He would much rather have macaroni and cheese or soup  or something like it than meat in his lunch.  On the menu for Sunday supper besides barbecued chicken was mashed potatoes, gravy, macaroni and cheese, corn, bread and butter, onion slices, hot peppers, ice cream and chocolate cake.  Emma brought the cake.

 

The roads were really icy and we weren’t sure whether there would be school today but there is.

 

Kevin doesn’t want to let the fever keep him down.  After he has medicine and his fever goes down he says “Mama I am better.”  I told him  “your forehead still feels warm. “ So he comes back with his hair damp and says “now feel my forehead.”  He has been in the bathroom holding a cold washcloth to his forehead.  He asked if he could take his temperature by himself and he said “the score is 100.”

 

We have a huge laundry waiting to be washed.  Daughter Elizabeth is starting so I best go help her.  Susan is washing the dishes and going to mop the floors while we do laundry while also keeping an eye out for Kevin who keeps going even with a fever.  Kevin told me yesterday when we came home from church he said “Mom, I think Susan really cares for me because she told Verena and Loretta to keep an eye out for Kevin while we are at church.”  Needless to say he is keeping us entertained even though he is running a fever. I will share the apple dump cake recipe that Verena mad3e at school and now makes for us here at home.

 

APPLE DUMP CAKE

 

4 cups peeled and sliced apples or 2 pints of canned apples

 

4 teaspoons cinnamon

 

3 /4 cup brown sugar

 

1 box of white cake mix

 

1 /4 cup butter

 

Grease a 9 X 13 inch cake pan.  Mix cinnamon and apples in a bowl and then spread evenly out in a cake pan.  Layer the cake mix on top of the apples.  Melt butter and drizzle over the cake mix evenly.  Then sprinkle the brown sugar on top.  Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes or until apples are tender.  Cake mix will still appear white after baking.

 

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