ANNA'S KEY LIME PIE RECIPE

Seeing we are in Florida, I thought I would have Anna put on a southern recipe.  As Key Lime Pie is a favorite down here and back home, she gave me her recipe to put on.  Elmer

ANNA'S KEY LIME PIE

9 inch graham cracker crust

3 egg yolks

1 (15 ounces) can sweetened condensed milk

Grated rind of 1 lime

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1 cup heavy cream, whipped and sweetened to taste (Anna sometimes uses Cool Whip)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk egg yolks, condensed milk, rind and juice together until smooth.  Pour into pie crust.  Bake for 7 to 8 minutes.  Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes, then refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours.  Spread top with whipped cream and serve.  Serves 8

NOTE: Key lime pie is NOT suppose to be green.

ELMER FROM PINECRAFT

Today I am answering some of your questions again.  One of the questions is if we retire here what does the church say about the different rules and lifestyle in Pinecraft than what we have up north.  Really, they don't say anything.  It is odd that the church will allow things at Pinecraft that they don't back home.  I guess they look at Pinecraft like an adult rumspringa.  Things that are not allowed at home are allowed here.  But, of course, there are no wild parties, drugs, liquor,  etc.   It is also a whole group of Amish, Mennonites, Englishers, all together.  The Lord is still the center of our lives here, just a little different. 

 

Do I think the Pinecraft lifestyle would influence John to leave the church and go the English way?  Not really.  I think that the north is more of an influence on him than Pinecraft here.  If John had done something that was not correct, in our views, in the outside world while he was here - Anna and I would have known by ten people before he got home.  In Pinecraft, the young people are more or less kept on an eye on.  People don't patrol the young folks, but you can't do anything at Pinecraft that you don't want everyone to know.  Even outside of Pinecraft, if he was to do something wrong there, we would know it.  Up north, with us doing our work, and being spread out in a wider area, we can't watch young folks as we can here.  Also, there are more evils up there than here - like drugs, liquor, etc.  Yes, outside of Pinecraft, these evils are here, but I don't think young folk would try something like that here as easy as they would up north.  I am sure there exceptions to both in both places.

 

Am I allowed to wear zippers in my jean's here?  Yes, I am.  How do I wear different jeans in Pinecraft?  Both legs in them.  No, really, different clothes are allowed here.  They must be presentable.  You won't find any Amish wearing shorts, sleeveless clothes or alike.   I wear my straw hat here, but some don't - except at Sunday service.  The day, we leave for home, we will dress as we do up north.  In our suit case, we pack all the jeans, flip flops, etc. that we are not allowed at home.  We won't wear them until we arrive in Pinecraft next year, Lord willing.

 

What do we eat?  Food.  Seriously, oranges and grapefruit are  easier to get down here at this time of year.  So, in addition, to orange juice and pieces are orange pies,, cakes, muffins and more.  Key Lime pie is another recipe that is know down here.  Pecans are in reason so pecans pie, pecan butter and more are here. 

 

As, I said in my post last week, I am trying to keep Anna from cooking as much as I can, so we are going out to eat a lot.  Sometimes we get a big breakfast and dinner with maybe a sandwich for lunch.  Also, we go to the benefit  meals that they have here.  We also walk to Olaf's Creamery as do many of the other Pinecraft people.  Olaf's has the best ice cream.  They have sundae's banana splits, floats, milk shakes, malts and alike.  Olaf's is a very popular place. 

 

Do we get a lot of tourists trying to take pictures?  Not to much at Pinecraft .  It is sort of known that pictures are not wanted here. 

 

As far as booking the bus to come here, we usually do it by family and not as a group although there are exceptions to every rule.  We decide when we go usually a year ahead.  Then we call the bus company and make reservations for going and when we plan to return.  The space is limited to how many people the bus can hold.  If something comes up, we can change the reservations. Like we are staying an extra month, so we had to change the return reservations. We do advise out Bishop when we are leaving and returning so he knows we will not be at church.   In our case, our Bishop owns the cottage we stay in, so we have to make sure it will be available when we want to come.  As our Bishop is also my friend, he would like us to buy the cottage we stay in for our retirement.  Then we would be side by side when we retire.  Anna and I are thinking about it.  If we lived here full time, we would want to take this cottage down and build another one.  It's just in the thought stage right now.

 

Hope I have answered some of your questions regarding Pinecraft.  If you have more, please ask.

 

Trust God's Wisdom,

Elmer

RUSHVILLE OLD ORDER MENNONITE MEETING HOUSE, STANLEY, NEW YORK

 

 

Bishop Joseph said that because I was kind and did not take the pictures at the house that had the viewing, if I would pick him up, he would show me where the Rushville Old Order Mennonite Meeting House was, where the funeral was held.  Since Jean and David moved,  it is also the meeting house they go to.  Bishop Joseph is Bishop of this meeting house and the one Jean and David use to attend.  I thank Bishop Joseph for letting me pick him and Martha up and directing me on how to get here. 

 

The first pictures show the front and sides of the meeting house.  On one of the sides is a water pump for yourself or your horses.  Bishop Joseph wanted to know why I was taking pictures of the unpaved road and I told him to get pictures of where the horses came in.  On three sides of the meeting house are stalls to put their horses and carriages during meeting.  The last pictures are of the cemetery that is a long one of the sides of the meeting house. 

 

I had another church scheduled for today, but when I got these pictures yesterday, I moved them to get this one on.

 

 

CANAL TOWN DAYS CAR SHOW - PART 2

 

 I had a post of the Canal Town Days Car Show back on September 15th and said I would hold some of these cars for another post.  Well, here it is.  I still have more cars to put on in addition to these - so I may do another post sometime.  See what we have to look forward to in the summer. Somehow that motorcycle got into this car show. 

AMISH AND MENNONITE CLOTHES OUT TO DRY

I took these pictures last July.  In a couple you have to look real close to see them.  Every time I take a picture of the clothes at the farm in picture number four, their milk truck is there.  See what we have to look forward to  when Spring comes around.

JEAN'S DONUT RECIPE

JEAN'S DONUT RECIPE

Vegetable Oil

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour*

1 cup sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons shortening

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

NOTE: If you are using self-rising flour, omit baking powder and salt

Heat 2 to 3 inches of oil in deep-fry pan or heavy kettle until 375 degrees.  Beat 1 1/2 cups of flour and the remaining ingredients in large mixer bowl on low speed, scraping bowl constantly, 30 seconds.  Continue beating on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 2 minutes.  Stir in rest of flour.  Turn dough onto well-floured, cloth-covered board; roll around lightly to coat with flour.  Roll gently, 3/8 inch thick.  Cut with floured doughnut cutter.  Slide doughnuts into the hot oil with a wide spatula.  Turn the doughnuts as they rise to surface.  Fry doughnuts until golden brown, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes on each side.  Remove from oil; DO NOT prick doughnuts.  Drain on paper towels.  Serve plain, sugared or frosted. 

Jean: I have several donut recipes and thought that this one would be the easiest to make.  This is the one I use the most.  It came from a Betty Crocker's Cookbook many years ago.

ELMER FROM PINECRAFT

Today, we saw John off on the bus back home.  He says he was to get back home because he has jobs to do, which he does.  But Anna and I think he really has to get back because he is missing the lady he is courting back there. 

 

A few days ago, I asked him to take a load of dirty clothes to the laundry and put them in the washer.  He told me that was "women's work".  That just hit me the wrong way.  I strongly explained to John, that his Mother, my wife was not a servant or slave.  We are here enjoying our vacation.  We are not milking cows, plowing any land, or even working on our farm equipment for plowing season.  We are enjoying ourselves.  His Mother is also here on vacation which means she shouldn't be cooking meals all the time, cleaning, sewing, or running to the laundry all the time.  The clothes were John's and mine - none of Anna's clothes were in there.  Sadly, there are some men that treat their wives like slaves, but we don't.  He went to the laundry and did the wash.

 

Anna and I are here alone.  We love our family, friends, church members and more, but it is so nice to have time alone together.  We haven't had that in a long time.  Of course there are a lot of people here.  We are not locking ourselves away.  It will take us a couple of days to get use to this.

 

Yes, have been deep sea fishing.  Anna and I made it through just fine, but we thought that John might feed the fish, his breakfast.  The waves didn't set to well with him, but they weren't really that high.  I told him, he had better keep fishing from the dock and not on moving boats.  We did get some fish, which Anna cooked and we ate.  Unfortunately, we didn't catch any tunas or big fish like that.  Anna and I had a good time, but I don't think John did.

 

There were several young folks here, John's age, but many of them are working at Yoder's Restaurant or other places of business.  John, at first, thought it might be nice for him to come down here all winter and get a job next year.  But, I think his heart won out and he had to get home.

 

Someone asked what kind of activities are here at Pinecraft.  Of course there are the usual shuffleboard, chess, checkers, throwing horse shoes or bean bags, fishing, rook, volley ball, basket ball and alike.  We also have Farmers Markets, auctions, and yard sales.  Some more activities are benefit meals, music, Pinecraft meetings, riding bicycles and just chatting.  There are activities we can go to outside of Pinecraft like shopping, site seeing, going to Siesta  Key and alike.  Some even went on a cruise.  Anna and I are thinking of signing up for that next year.  These are just some of the activities I can think of.  You never know what activities they are going to come up with.  Here you can be as active as you want or just sit and watch the others.

 

No, we did not have to get permission from our Bishop to come here or how long we stay.  The only reason, I contacted our Bishop about coming here is he owns the place we rent.  I go to my Bishop more than some others because he is also my best friend.  We went to school together, played together as kids and still go fishing together and hunting together.  Many things I ask or discuss with him is not because he is Bishop, but because he is my closest friend - aside from Anna, of course.  When he became Bishop, he thought that might make a difference between us, but it never did.  We are still great friends.

 

Keep those questions coming in so I know what to answer. 

 

Trust God's Wisdom,

Elmer