Amish Cook, Week of July 29, 2013

THE AMISH COOK

BY LOVINA EICHER

3:15 a.m.  The alarm goes off. Time to start another day. I pack my husband Joe’s lunch. We close the windows that were open during the night. It’s 50 degrees and the house feels cold. After all the hot weather last week this is a quite a difference. It makes for nice sleeping weather.

3:45 a.m. Joe leaves for work. I go back to bed.

4:50 a.m.  I get up again. Daughter Elizabeth is packing her lunch.

5:15 a.m.  Elizabeth leaves for work.  It’s difficult to believe next week she will have worked there a year already.

5:30 a.m.  Daughter Susan and son Benjamin wake up.  Susan packs her lunch while I help Benjamin with his.  They like meat and cheese roll-ups instead of sandwiches for their lunch. The bread gets soggy so the roll-ups taste better. We take a  burrito shell, put ranch dressing on it and then either bologna or ham.  Next we put cheese on it and then roll up. Some of us will add tomatoes, green peppers, or lettuce to ours. Son Kevin likes peanut butter and jelly rollups.

6:15 a.m.  Susan and Benjamin leave for detasseling. They wear coats this morning.  Usually they wear a poncho in the mornings until the dew dries off of the corn. Verena is  staying home. She hasn’t been feeling well.

7 a.m.  Time for the rest to wake up.  Joseph is bright awake.  He has looked forward to this day for a long time. It’s his 11th birthday and he is having some school friends over tonight. He does the morning chores and fills the horses tank with water.

8 a.m.  Breakfast is oatmeal and coffee soup.

9 a.m. Joseph and I leave for town.

NOON – We are back from town after the groceries are put away we make roll-ups for our lunch

1 p.m. Verena is mopping the floors. She says she can’t relax to rest if she knows we have work to do. Loretta is cleaning the bathroom. I can 11 quarts of dill pickles. Earlier this week I made 16 quarts of freezer pickles. I pack them in ice cream buckets for the freezer. They will be used for our next church services.  We also canned 14 quarts of green beans this week. Next week looks like it will be tomatoes to can.

2 p.m.  Joe came home a few minutes ago. Now Susan and Benjamin are home too. It’s easy for them to be home at this time.  Now Susan and Benjamin are home too. It’s early for them to be home at this time.

3:50 p.m.  Elizabeth is home from work. I am making meatloaf to put in the oven. Verena is making cupcakes as Joseph wants cupcakes instead of a cake.  The boys are doing chores. Joe is picking cucumbers and tomatoes in the garden.

5 p.m. Joseph’s friends come and also nephews Jacob Jr., Benjamin and Steven come with their pony and cart.

6:30 we all eat supper which is mashed potatoes gravy, meatloaf, green beans cucumber salad, tomatoes, cheese, ice cream, strawberries, cupcakes and cereal bars. We put 11 candles on the cupcakes for Joseph to blow out.

7:30 p.m. Joe and all the boys go outside to play croquet while the girls and I clean away supper dishes.

8:30 p.m. Joseph’s friends left for home. They all had a nice time. Jacob, Benjamin and Steven will stay for the night and drive their pony home tomorrow morning. For those of you that do your own canning try this pickle relish recipe

PICKLE RELISH
1 gallon ground cucumbers

1 pint ground onions

1 /2 cup salt

6 cups sugar

3 cups vinegar

1 cup water

3 teaspoons celery seed (optional)

3 teaspoons dry mustard (optional)

3 teaspoons turmeric

Take ground cucumbers and onions and add salt and mix well. Let set 3 hours then drain well. Boil together water, vinegar, and sugar. Add celery seed, dry mustard, and turmeric. Pour this over drained pickles and onions. Put in pint jars and cold pack.