Hello, Amish Readers! Here is a delicious breakfast treat from Georgia Varozza’s The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook.

Amish Breakfast Casserole

1 lb. bacon, cut up
1 onion, chopped
6 eggs, beaten
4 cups hash browns, thawed and shredded
2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1 1/4 cups Swiss cheese, shredded

In a large skillet, brown the bacon and onion, stirring, until bacon is crisp; drain.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients and then stir in bacon mixture. Transfer to a greased rectangular baking dish and bake, uncovered, at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until eggs are set. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

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Frequently for our Free Recipe Fridays we take from The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook by Georgia Varozza. It has hundreds and hundreds of treats in all areas and is a fine addition to any home. Maybe you’d want to buy it? check it out here

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Hello, Amish Readers! Based on earlier this week’s poll results, this month we will be doing both breakfast treats and salads/dressings. This first installment comes from Georgia Varozza’s The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook.

Fruit Salad

4 apples, pared, peeled, and cut into bite-sized pieces
4 oranges, peeled, sectioned, and cut into pieces
1/2 fresh pineapple, cut into pieces
2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut into pieces
3 bananas, cut into pieces
1 small bag pecans

Mix together all salad ingredients and set aside.

Dressing

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 egg, beaten with fork
1 cup whipping cream, whipped, but not stiff

Cook the sugar, lemon juice, and egg until thickened, about 5 minutes. Cool thoroughly. Fold mixture into the whipped cream, and then mix into the fruit.

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This is a popular meal!

Yum-a-Setta

2 lb. hamburger
salt and pepper to taste
2 T. brown sugar
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 can tomato soup
1 16-oz. package egg noodles
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup Velveeta cheese

Brown hamburger with salt, pepper, brown sugar, and onion; drain off grease. Add tomato soup to the meat mixture and mix.

Meanwhile, cook the egg noodles according to package directions; drain. Add cream of chicken soup to the noodles and mix.

Layer hamburger mixture and noodle mixture in a 13 x 9-inch casserole dish with Velveeta cheese between layers. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

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Simple Joys of the Amish Life by Mindy Starns Clark & Georgia Varozza & Laurie Snow Hein.

People are fascinated by the Amish in their simplicity, graciousness, and tradition of preparing great, hearty food. This beautiful hardcover is the perfect marriage of all things Amish with interesting facts from Mindy Starns Clark’s popular A Pocket Guide to Amish Life, favorite recipes from Georgia Varozza’s The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook, and radiant paintings from artist Laurie Snow Hein.

This charming book captures moments of Amish family and farm life and showcases features like “Georgia’s Amish Table Tidbit” alongside intriguing and often inspiring details about the

-blessings of a simpler way
-unity of community and faith
-value of celebrations and ceremonies

This will be a treasure for all who enjoy the fullness of good living and for every foodie, mom, or potluck participant ready to add chocolate sauerkraut cake, potato soup, and Amish dressing to their recipe repertoire.

To purchase, click here!

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Ira Wagler has posted a new blog on his experiences writing “Growing up Amish”. Published by Tyndale. Both the blog and the book are well worth the read. The book is due out July 1st.  http://www.irawagler.com/

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“A Baby for Hannah”, the last book in the “Hannah’s Heart” series, (the book that almost was not), hangs in there at the #6 spot on Christianbook.com’s “Amish Fiction page. It is an honor indeed. http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Hannah-Hannahs-Heart/dp/0736943366/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1308950632&sr=8-13

Please note that the original titles for this series were released as “Hannah’s Dream” and “Hannah”. Harvest House has now brought the whole series together in an improved version as “A Dream for Hannah” – “A Hope for Hannah” – and the all new “A Baby for Hannah”.

A reviewer of, “A Hope for Hannah”, wrote, “Although I’m not Amish in reality, I feel Amish at heart. I am a Christian and worship our Lord and Savior and have spent the last ten years longing for the Amish simplicity in life. My wife and I are both reading “A Hope for Hannah” by Jerry Eicher and have fallen so deep into the story that it almost feels like Hannah and Jake are real and in our lives. We are happy when Hannah is happy and pleased, and sometimes feel like crying when Hannah is hurt. The saddest page of the book is the last page because we know that we will be losing our friends that we have grown to love. Most interestingly though is that we were considering relocating to Whitefish, Montana prior to ever reading this book. Now we wonder if this book is God’s way of telling us that there are true and wonderful people in that area awaiting to be our friends. We now wish we could make the move and find the real Hannah and Jake just down the road waiting to sell us a new table and chairs and become our friends.”

Another reviewer wrote, “This story is so good, like real life. If you can trust God, everything will work out for the best. Thanks so much for putting your heart into the story. I want to read the other two books about Hannah. Please keep up the good work.” Sandy in TN.

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Hello, Amish Readers! Doesn’t chocolate sound good right now? I thought so too! Check out this week’s treat courtesy of Georgia Varozza’s The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook!

Super Easy Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 T. (slightly heaping) baking cocoa
1 1/2 cups milk
2 T. butter, melted
2 eggs

In a large bowl, with a large spoon or spatula, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the milk, butter, and eggs and mix well. Pour into a greased 8-inch square baking pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.

Serve with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

If you are feeding a lot of people, simply double all of the ingredients and bake in a larger pan.

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Hello, Amish Readers! Amish courtships are secretive. Weddings are sometimes not announced until a few days beforehand. Would you be able to keep quiet?

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I recently heard from a reader of The Amish Nanny, who loved the book but said that she had caught an error, a reference to an Amish farmer with a tractor.  She said, I’ve been told that the Amish don’t use tractors.   

She was somewhat misinformed, so I was glad I was able to respond to her with more complete information. Just in case anyone else is curious, I thought I might address the issue here as well by posting the following excerpt (tractor info in bold), which comes from page 80 of A Pocket Guide to Amish Life:

Evaluating Technology

When a new technology becomes available to a district, church leaders will evaluate its potential for causing harm to Amish life and values and then decide whether to accept or reject it. No technology, regardless of how labor-saving it may be, is permissible if the leaders determine that it will be spiritually detrimental to the community.

Though the rules vary widely from district to district, many items are often approved for use without adaptation in Amish homes and farms, including calculators, flashlights, manual typewriters, gas grills, chain saws, inline skates, and more. Some districts allow manual lawnmowers only, though others permit gas-powered lawnmowers and even weed whackers.

In many Amish homes and farms, other items are allowed as long as they have been adapted to work with non-electric fuel sources, such as propane or batteries. These include refrigerators, lights, shop tools, fans, copy machines, sewing machines, smoke alarms, some farm equipment, hot water heaters, washing machines, and more. Tractors often must be adapted for off-road use only, lest they provide the opportunity to go too far from home. This usually means steel tires rather than rubber. In many communities, tractors are not allowed in the fields at all but instead may only be used inside or near the barn as sources for high-powered needs such as blowing silage to the top of silos, powering feed grinders and hydraulic systems, pumping liquid manure, and so on.

In most cases, hay balers can be used in the fields as long as they are pulled by horses rather than self- propelled.
_________________________________________________________________________

Here’s a photo I took a few years ago of a tractor in an Amish barn in Lancaster County.  Note the steel tires, which are the practice for that district:

I hope this info clears up any confusion about the Amish and tractors!  I always love to hear from readers, but especially when it allows me to clear up any misconceptions and provide more info about Amish life and practices.

Blessings,
Mindy

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