Amish in the News: Millie's Scalloped Corn Casserole, Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, Amish Polaroid, Measles and More!

By Kevin Williams

Sanitation vs. Religion:  These church-state clashes between the Amish and local officials are fairly common.  A conflict over required septic tank systems in Fillmore County, Minnesota has pitted ultraconservative Swartzentruber Amish against the county.  This has been dragging on for awhile. Click here to read the latest.

PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH COOKING: William Woys Weaver has been on a one-made crusade to save and preserve authentic Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. I've spoken with Weaver before and he's very passionate about Pennsylvania Dutch culinary culture.  He's doing more, though, than simply saving recipes he's training a young generation of cooks about the intricacies and legend behind authentic Pennsylvania Dutch fare in hopes that they'll carry the torch.  Read more here.

Check out this new book from Willam Woys Weaver, packed with Pennsylvania Dutch baking recipes

PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH CRUMB CAKE:  Yummm....William Woys Weaver has a new book out called Dutch Treats.  The book is his compilation of Pennsylvania Dutch baking recipes from his journeys scouring the hills and hollows of Deep East Pennsylvania.  One of the recipes shared in an article about the book is for Pennsylvania Dutch Crumb Cake.  Other recipes in the book include one for Whoopie Cake, Beer Cheese Pie, Uncle Penny's Pie Crust and more.   Click here to read more about the book and to get a recipe from it for Crumb Cake.  If you would like to order the book directly from Amazon.com, click here.   One of these days I hope to catch up to William Weaver and explore Pennsylvania's Dutch recipe traditions with him!

PRECIOUS PHOTO:  This really is a neat photo....What do you get when you give a bunch of Amish boys a Polaroid to look at?  Click here to see.  I'd venture to guess that most of the boys in that photo are about my age now.  How time flies...can't remember when the last time I was around a functioning Polaroid.  20 years ago?

AMISH MEASLES:  Not sure why this story ran on the wires the past few days, the measles outbreak in Ohio's Amish country has long-since been over. I think this is just sort of a follow-up study examining what happened last year.  I actually talked on the phone with one of the Amish men who inadvertently brought measles to the community after doing mission work overseas.  Sounds like the measles was a scary ordeal for them.  Click here to read more.

MILLIE'S SCALLOPED CORN:  Illinois Amish columnist Millie Otto (who's work appears in a handful of Illinois papers) serves up scalloped corn this week. Check out the recipe and her latest column here.

WOW - DISTRACTED DRIVING LEADS TO CAR-BUGGY CRASH:  This is a rather garden-variety story about a car-buggy crash in Michigan.  What makes this story worth clicking over to are the photos of the mangled buggy after the crash.  It's not often a photographer makes it onto the scene before a buggy is cleaned up.  On one hand, yes, the bungle is mangled, but it also shows the craftsmanship involved in making a buggy that any of it held together at all.   And it is amazing the ladies riding in the buggy survived. Very lucky ladies. There are not seat-belts in buggies.  A Mennonite buggy-maker once explained to me that if you are a passenger in a buggy you WANT to be thrown out of the buggy.  That is the opposite of what you want in a car, but the crash dynamics are so different in a buggy versus a car.  Your best hope of survival if you are riding in a buggy and involved in a crash is being ejected and landing on something relatively soft like grass or a shrub.  Click here to see the photos and read about the crash in Michigan.