JEAN'S TUNA BURGERS

JEAN'S TUNA BURGERS

1 7 oz can tuna, drained and flaked
1/2 Cup fine fresh bread crumbs (2 slices of bread)
1/2 Cup celery, chopped
2 Tablespoons minced onion
1/3 Cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoon chili sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 hamburger buns, toasted
lettuce and tomato slice

Combine tuna, bread crumbs, celery and onion.  Blend mayonnaise, chili sauce and lemon juice.  Stir into tuna mixture.  Form into 4 patties.  Fry in lightly oiled skillet over medium heat about 5 minutes or until browned.  Serve on hamburger buns with lettuce and tomatoes.

During lent, I know, many people eat fish on Friday.  This is a quick dish you can make anytime of year. 

Be With God,
Jean

FRIDAY IS JONATHON EICHER'S FARM\

NEXT WEEK WE HAVE SOME GREAT POSTS

JEAN ANSWERS SCHOOL QUESTIONS

 

I don't know if I can answer all the questions you asked about the school in one post, but I will start.  It takes Susan and the other children abour 20 minutes to get to school from Martha and Joseph's house.  They go in a carriage and stop along the way to pick up some of the other children that go to school.  It is too far to walk.  Some of the other children live right down the road or near the school and they can walk. 

 

Our teachers do not have a college education to teach.  If  a young lady would like to be a teacher in a school, she starts as a teachers's assistant when she is about 16.  She also goes to teacher meetings with the current Old Order Mennonite teachers that they have three or four times a year.  When a teacher position is open, then the assistant teacher can apply likes ours did when our teacher retired.  So our previous assistant teacher is now our teacher. A teacher's assistant can not become a teacher until she is at least 18 years old.

 

Yes, Old Order Mennonite conserve and reuse as much as we can like we did in the construction of the new school.  If it can be fixed up or refinished and use, why waste the money to replace it?  On  the other hand if it is dangerous, we would not keep it to injure someone especially one of the students. Of course in books, teaching supplies, have to be kept up with the State of New York so old ones are replaced as needed.

 

In most of the subjects the students have to follow state regulation as far as what is taught and they do have to take certain exams that are given by the State.  Our grades one through eight must match that of the state of New York's same grades. They are both the same grade level although when tests are given it seems that Old Order Mennonite and Amish students get higher marks than many of the public schools students of the same grade do.  We believe it is do being in a one room school each student get special help or put up a grade in one subject.  Like Susan reads in fourth grade level even though she is in second grade-so the teacher has her reading on a fourth grade level while the rest of her subjects are on second grade level.  Also if a child has problems with a subject like say math (as the high schools call it), they may be on a lower grade while the rest of their subjects are in their regular grade.  Also teacher, teacher's assistant and older students will give special help to a student that needs it to bring them up to the levvel they should be.  I don't think special help or time are given to students in the public schools like is given in ours. 

 

I believe I answered this, but will again, Old Order Mennonite 8th grade education has to be at least as high as the State of New York's.  We believe ours is a little higher than the states, but our grade level does not go to high school level.  We feel that education after the 8th grade level is not needed for our way of lives.

 

There are still more questions and I will continue to answer these questions in a coming post. 

 

Be With God,

Jean

 

 

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE COURT RESULT WAS REGARDING THOSE TWO AMISH THAT KILLED THOSE PUPPIES?  I HAVE TRIED THE NEWSPAPER AND THE TV STATION WITH NO RESULTS.  IF YOU KNOW PLEASE CONTACT ME AT:

lincolnlady1121@yahoo.com

 

Marilyn

 

 

 

OLD ORDER AMISH AUCTION-PART II

That you Teresa for these beautiful pictures of the auction.  Teresa told me she took over 300 pictures of the auction-these are just a few of them.  It is so kind of you, Teresa, to share them with us.
Marilyn

OLD ORDER AMISH AUCTION-PART I

 

Teresa from Indiana says: The Amish husband and wife were holding the auction to get rid of their excess household and farm items, that were no longer needed.  They had moved into the Dawdy House at their son's farm.

 

When the Amish are older and no longer have children living at home, they move into a smaller house which is called a Dawdy House.  Usually the youngest son,  purchases the farm from them.  This way, in their senior years, they are cared for by the son's family.

 

 

Thank you Teresa for the beautiful pictures.  I was going to let this be the only post, but there are so many more beautiful pictures that she sent me of the auction.  I was going to be greedy and keep them for when I needed a picture-but I can't do that with all of them.  So tomorrow is Old Order Amish Auction - Part II.

 

Marilyn

 

 

 

FAMILY LIFE & YOUNG COMPANION MAGAZINES

Just thought I would let everyone know that I have the Family Life Magazines and Young Companion Magazines on.  I think that is all I have, but I may find some more later.  I moved from upstairs down to the first floor and I wasn't there when the moving company moved me-so I might have some hid away somewhere.  I've been in my new apartment for a  year, I am still finding items. 

I will try to get the Amish and Mennonite made dresses on this week and the kapps (caps or hats).  Also, I have a couple of other things I want to put on. 

If you live in the United States and purchase more than one item, I give a discount in postage.  Outside the United States, please advise what country you live in so I can figure postage. 

TOMORROW AND SATURDAY ARE AN OLD ORDER AMISH AUCTION PICTURES

If anyone has any Amish or Mennonite pictures, recipes, etc. that you would like to share with us, please let me know at lincolnlady1121@yahoo.com

Marilyn

LOWELL'S VINEGAR CUSTARD PIE

I thank you Lowell in Michigan, for sharing this recipe with us.  His story behind this recipe is:  My Mother used to make it and years after she died, I wanted to make it, but I had no recipe.  Then one day, I was going through her recipes.  Well, her recipes, for the most part, consisted of the ingredients, but no amounts.  Then she had writen to bake something in a hot or warm oven.  Well, that didn't mean anything to me.  So I went on the internet and between that and my own ingredients, I figured it out.  My grandson and I like it.  Try it.  You just may like it to.  Then again...

Lowell's Vinegar Custard Pie

1 unbaked pie crust
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1 3/4 cups waater
6 TBS cider vinegar, or less if you prefer a less vinegary flavor
2 1/2 TBS butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
1 - 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Place pie curst in a 9 inch pie plate.  In a 450 degree oven, bake pie shell until it is lightly browned (about 8-10 minutes).  Remove from oven and set aside to cool. 

In a medium mixing bowl sift together sugar, flour and nutmeg.
In another mixing bowl, combine other ingredients.
In a medium saucepan, combine all wet and dry ingredients and cook until thick.
Pour into prepared pie crust.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
Filling may be thin when removed from oven, but will thicken as it cools.  Allow to completely cool before cutting.

Jean wanted to try this recipe so I gave it to her.  She said it has a different taste-which was enjoyed by all.  Jean liked it so well, she said to put it where her recipe would go this week-which I did.

I thank Teresa from Indiana for the beautiful picture of an Amish Farm at sunset, that she took and shared with us.  It is really appreciated.

AMISH & MENNONITE ITEMS IN MY EBAY STORE

 

Just want everyone to know that I'm putting lots of Amish and Mennonite items in my ebay store.  Right now I have Family Life Magazine for the 1970's through the 1980's.  I plan on putting the 1990's today and the 2000's tomorrow.  I still have to scan all the 2000's yet. 

 

Family Life Magazine and Young Companion, which I will also be putting on, are by the Amish and Mennonite for the Amish and Mennonite.  There are articles, Health Questions, Homemaking,  poems and more.  If you want to know about the real Amish and Mennonite, these are the magazines to read.

 

Also, I have more Amish and Mennonite made dresses to put on which I hope to have on by the end of this week.  I also have a few prayer Kapps.   I have some other items to put on, too.  Just go to Family Life on the right and press it to get to my store.

 

Also, I have been looking to see if any of Jean or Martha's family would like to sell some items in my ebay store.  I got a call from Bridget, last night, Kevin's wife.  She does many crafts but loves to knit.  We are wondering if people would be interested in knitted ladies or children's slippers, scarfs, pot holders, etc.  that she makes.  I told her I would ask here.  As she is married, she can no longer work outside of the home except for bake sales, vegetable sales, etc.  As they don't have their home, and bake sales already have people-she thought of taking my offer to sell here.  All her items would come to me, I would put them on ebay and mail them out when they sold.  These items would be handmade by Bridget.  This is just talk right now, but she has lots of yarn.  What do you think folks ?????

 

So keep an eye on my ebay store.  It will be getting larger with more items.

 

Marilyn

JEAN STARTS ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS

Thought I would start by answering some smaller questions this week.  One of the first is Michael legaly our son?  Yes, he is.  We went through adoption and he has taken our last name as his own. The adoption is recorded in the State of New York.  How will this work out for school?  We can legaly take him out of public school because he is 15 years old and has completed over the eighth grade, but because Edward,  has to be in the Public School, Michael asked if he could continue and we agreed.  We are also in the process of adopting Edward.  When that goes through in October or November of this year, we will take both of them out of the Public School.  Neither of them wants to continue in school.

Another questions is: Have I sold apple bread at the farmers market sometimes?  Yes I have.  What are the most popular items that folks buy?  The two most popular are donuts and bread.  I believe we sell many donuts because we have a coffee maker and one for hot water.  So we can serve coffee and tea.  When people are done setting up and earlier buyers like a cup of coffee and a donut.  Our next biggest seller are breads-white bread, and banana nut are the top sellers there.  Apple bread sells, cranberry sells, but you have to be carefull with what kind-people won't buy something they haven't tried or never heard of.  After bread comes pies and cakes.

Does anyone in our family or other Old Order Mennonite write stories, poems or songs as a hobby?  The only one I know of that does any of these is Edward.  He likes to write poems now and then. Although Edward lives in our home, he isn't Old Order Mennonite-yet.  I am sure other Old Order Mennonite write things to, I just don't know about them.

What is my attitude about taking over the counter medication?  If the doctor advises us to, we do use take it, but I feel if they are going to subscribe over the counter items, my own herbal remedies are better than items sold  over the counter.Of course is depends what it is and what it is for, too. 

Yes, we do have Old Order Mennonite shunning, but it is different than the Amish.  We can associate with the people that are shunned, eat with them, do business with them, welcome them in our meetings (church), but they are not allowed to receive Holy Communion the twice of year that we have it. 

I think I will end answering my questions here, for this week.  Now I have a question.  People have asked butchering poultry-do you want to know how to do it?  What we make of it?  Or what?  Also canning-do want to know how to do it?  I don't understand the questions?

Be With God,
Jean

SNOW ICE CREAM RECEIPE FROM KYMBER

SNOW ICE CREAM RECIPE FROM KYMBER

Ingredients

2 cups of milk
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 egg
A small bucket of snow (6-20 cups depending on how you like your ice cream0

Directions

1. Whisk you egg in a bowl until bubbly
2. Add the milk and keep whisking until bubbly
3. Add the vanilla-and yes, keep whisking to keep it bubbly
4. Add the sugar - keep whisking
5. at this point start adding snow, one cup at a time and keep whisking
6. Add maybe 6-12 cups of snow depending on how watery or thick you want your ice-cream
- you'll know when it's reached the perfect "state"
7. Put bowl of ice cream out in a snowbank, or in your freezer (but a snow bank is more fun !) for a few hours to completely chill
8. Enjoy !

P.S. I have heard of people adding all kinds of stuff to their snow ice cream: like melted chocolate or mint leaves and all kinds of crazy stuff-you can whatever you thibk will taste good.  I like it plain with just vanilla.

I hope you that you enjoy this recipe and I hope that you make some-it really is fun !!!!

Kymber

Thank you Kymber for sharing this recipe with us.  I wanted to get it on New York State of Mind while we still have snow or some coming our way. 
Marilyn

SEASONING CAST IRON POTS AND PANS

 

In answer to the requests, I am telling my way to season cast iron pots and pans.  There may be other ways, but this is the way that I have used since I got mine 60 years ago. 

 

If the pots and pans are used and have rust on them or food cooked to them, you need to clean them before seasoning them.  This will mean taking a SOS pad or some other scrub pad and scrubbing the rust and cooked food off the pans.  DO NOT try to scrape it off with a screw driver or anything sharp like my husband  was about to do after buring something on the stove.   I came in and caught him just in time.  You MUST clean down to the surface-as I say until it shines inside and out.  Get everything off of it.  Remember you will be cooking and eating the food that comes out of these pots and pans-you want them completely clean.

 

Once you have all the rust and food off or if they are new pots and pans, wash them in hot water with a little detergent.  Don't use a strong detergent.  Remember that you want these pots and pans clean almost steralized.  Wipe it completely dry with an old, clean kitchen towel because the pans will leave a stain.  I have a set of kitchen towels that I use just for my cast iron pots and pans.  After I clean and or season the pots and use the towels, I throw them in the wash.  When the towels are clean, they are used strickly on the cast iron pots and pans the next time. Also note that if the pots and pans are not completely dry-they will rust again.  So make sure they are completely dry.  If they are still not dry after your wipe then, you can either put them on a burner and turn it on low for a few minutes or put then in the oven set at low for a few minutes.  Before the seasoning they must be completely clean and  dry..

 

Season them immediately.  Don't put the pots and pans away and say you will do it another day.  This could cause rusting or dirt on the pots and pans which means you would have to clean them again.  It could be rust or dirt that you can't even see-so season immediately.

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and put a LIGHT coating of lard (that's what I use) but you could also use shortening on the pots and pans covering them completely inside and out. Do not make it thick as I knew someone that set the pots and pans on fire in the oven because of the thick grease.  Also you do not want the pots and pans greasy after you get done.  Next put the pans up side down on the top shelf of the oven with a cookie sheet or baking pan underneath on the bottom shelf to catch any dripping grease.  I leave them in the oven for two or three hours, but I know some people only use one hour.  Then you shut the oven off and leave the pots and pans in until the oven and pans cool. 

 

Over my years, I have heard many ways of cleaning the pots and pans after they are seasoned.  I use a light soap and water to clean them and wipe them dry immediately.  I don't let them sit in the dish drain.  As soon as I wash and rise them I  get out my kitchen towels for the cast iron pots and dry them immediately.  I have heard of people never using soap and water on them just running water in them and drying them.  I don't think that gets them clean and you must also consider food poisoning if the pots and pans are not clean for the next cooking.  That is my view. 

 

How often to reseason them depends on how much you use them.  I don't use them every day, but I still season them at least twice a year.  When I had the farm with the children I did it about every two or three months. 

 

I have received some questions already and will try to answer as best I can.  I have never put cast iron frying pan in the fireplace to clean it.  Over the years people have told me lots of ways of cleaning them: using oven cleaner (just the thought of that in food upsets me), put them in camping fires, using soft drinks and more.  I have never tried any of these and don't plan on it.  The way I gave is the way I use-I am sure people have other ways , but I worry about some of those other ways of cleaning the cast iron pots and pans.  

 

Follow God,

Olive

 

 

The picture at the top I took of my cast iron frying pan on my modern electric stove.  As you can see it needs seasoning.  I thought it would be nice to have some cast iron in the picture.

Marilyn

 

TOMORROW IS SNOW ICE CREAM RECIPE

 

MONDAY JEAN ANSWERS QUESTIONS

 

WEDNESDAY IS LOWELL'S RECIPE

 

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ARE OF AN OLD ORDER AMISH AUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

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Beauty Under The Snow: Lebanon,Pa

Images provided by: Richard from Amish Stories

    Amish School  

 

JEAN'S SOUR CHERRY FRITTERS

 

 

Jeans Sour Cherry Fritters

 

1 cup flour, sifted.

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tblsp sugar

2 eggs, separated

3 tblsp water

1 cup pitted sour cherries

 

Sift together the four, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Combine the beaten egg yolks with water and mix until smooth.  Fold in the siffly beaten egg whites and add the cherries.  Drop by spoonfuls into hot fat (360-f) and cook 2 to 5 minutes until browned.  Drain on absorbent paper and serve with powdered sugar or fruit sauce.  Other fruits or berries may be used. 

 

Being that this is Ash Wednesday and the day before Valentine's Day, I thought this would be a recipe for either day.

 

Be With God,

Jean 

 

TOMORROW, VALENTINE'S DAY IS RICHARD FROM AMISH STORIES POST

 

FRIDAY IS JEAN'S GRANDMOTHER

 

SATURDAY I AM PUTTING ON ANOTHER RECIPE; SNOW ICE CREAM RECIPE BY KYMBER

 

 

 

JEAN'S BACK-GOOD BYE OLD HOME !!

I am so happy to be back. Missed doing my posts every week.  First, I would like to thank Martha for filling in for me during our move.  Also, her, Joseph, and their children helped us get  moved and are storing some of our items for our new house in their attic.

Appreciate your kindness and questions for my Grandmother Olive.  I appreciate her doing the posts on the wood burning stove and preseasoning cast iron pots and pans which is coming up this Friday. 

We are finally living in Kevin and Bridget's new house with some items in a storage, Martha and Joseph's attic and in the barn.  Some of the boxes we will have to go through when we get to our new house as we just didn't have time to go through them when we moved.  We never thought we would go through this much to move-but with a house that has had three generations-there was lot in there.

I asked Marilyn if she could put in a picture of the house we lived in.  This is what the outside looked like before we had the fire.  After the fire we put on a different siding, so it doesn't look the same now, but this is the way we want to remember as we lived in it so many years.  I thank Richard for allowing me to have it on here and Marilyn for going all through Amish Stories previous posts to find it.  After she found it, she made it into a photo for our house.  We can't have pictures of people, but we can this house.

We didn't make the closing on January 15th as both David Sr. and Edward landed in the hospital with the flu  David told me to have Joseph, Martha's husband, call the people and explain the situation, which Joseph did.  The people were very nice.  They had decided when they get possession they were going to have the wiring taken out of the house and the new walls in before they moved in.  They are going to stay with their daughter and son-in-law until the house got done.  All they wanted was the barn for their animals.  So, we had our animals moved to Kevin and Bridget's-Kevin and his brothers took care of them until we got moved there.  Our barns were ready for the Amish people's animals.  The Amish lady spoke with me and told me that the delay was God's will and not to worry about it.  While staying with her daughter and son-in-law she was also going to be with her grandchildren.  They got to New York on January 14th and were at our house to help us on the 15th-even went to the hospital and visited Edward and David with me.

We closed the sale on January 22nd-a week later than we were suppose to-but Edward and David were out of the hospital.  The afternoon before the closing, we all made a final walk through.  In a way it was like losing a friend we had lived in for many years. The one who took it the hardest was Michael.  We hadn't given thought about the facts, that Michael had not had a stable home until he came here-now he was losing it.  David explained he wasn't losing the stability or our family-just the house.  We are a family in Kevin and Bridget's house, in our new house, and were in our old house.  After we got outside, he wanted to take one last walk through by himself and we let him.  He came back with tears in his eyes, which we got, too.

We spent the evening in Kevin and Bridget's house with  cocoa and popcorn talking about the memories in the old house.  The good times, bad times, funny times and just everything in general.  It was a nice evening and I think Michael felt better.  .

David, laughing, says he knows why Kevin wanted us to have the house before they did.  There have been several things that needed adjusted or enforced.  Our stove would not fit in where it should go.  It was off just a fraction of an inch-so David repaired it-now the stove fits.  A couple of the bedroom doors didn't close right and David adjusted them.  In the bathroom the cupboard wasn't attached to wall as solid as it should have been, so David fixed that.  Kevin does not like to do this type of work.  He prefers farming or something he can take apart and put back together again.

We notice in the new house, that many of the rooms are bigger in Kevin's house than in our old house-especially the bedrooms. Bathrooms are bigger, too.  Ours will be bigger in our house.  Of course our old house was built in the 1940's.  Things have changed since then.

After our new house is built, the Amish people that bought our farm are going to have our barns torn down and new ones built.  David's father build the original barn after the previous one burned down.  He and we have added on to that barn-so a new one would be nice.

I told David, I never want to move again, but he tells me, I have to move one more time.  I hope it is the last.  Really don't like all this moving-sorting, packing and unpacking.

Thank you for waiting for my return.

Be With God,
Jean

JEAN'S GRANDMOTHER WILL BE BACK FRIDAY ON HOW TO SEASON THE POTS AND PANS.

 A SPECIAL POST BY RICHARD OF AMISH STORIES,  IS COMING ON VALENTINE'S DAY

NEW YORK STATE OF SNOW

The top first two pictures were taken this morning.  The street wasn't even plowed and down comes the bus.  They go through anything.  Rest of the photos were taken this afternoon behind where I live.  We back up to the Erie Canal and there is a walk way back there.  With all the snow in the trees you can't see the canal from my apartments right now, but I thought the trees were beautiful and I wanted to share them with you.

 

I thought I would add some pictures today, Sunday.  This is what I get to look out of my window  and see while I eat my meals at the table.  I think it is more beautiful today than it was yesterday.  This is a gift of God's beauty.

Marilyn