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Pick Up A Six-Pack....(cookbook special)
For those not on amishcookonline's emailing list, I wanted to let you know about a cookbook special going on this month. There are six softcover Amish Cook titles available for a sale price of $85. The books make great gifts throughout the year. To order, just go to click the “donate” button on the right side of the page under the photo of the coffeemug. Type in $85 and your address and your books will ship before the end of the month. Additional sets can be purchased for $70 a set. The titles included in the sale are:
The titles are:
The Original Amish Cook Cookbook: First published in 1993, this is a classic written by Elizabeth Coblentz and Kevin Williams with recipes, stories and Amish artwork.
The Best of The Amish Cook, Vol 1 : chronological collection of all Amish Cook columns and recipes from 1991 – 1996.
The Best of The Amish Cook, Vol 2 chronological collection of all Amish Cook columns and recipes from 1996 - 2001.
The Best of The Amish Cook, Vol. 3, chronological collection of all Amish Cook columns and recipes from 2002-2007.
The Amish Cook’s Family Favorites & Facts: 2003 by Lovina Eicher and Kevin Williams, collection of recipes, facts about Amish life
The Amish Cook’s Treasury: a book of recipes only from Amish, Mennonite and German Baptist kitchens.
You can see the books covers by going to amishcookonline.com/books The cookbooks will come to you from Amazon.com, but to get the sale prices you have to use the "donate" button and then I'll place the order through Amazon.com for you using my author's discount. Enjoy!
Amish Classic: Banana Cake
This cake is delicious and easy if you like bananas. I sometimes add 1 1 /2 or even two cups of bananas to give it an extra "banana-y" taste. So feel free to go bananas!
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mashed bananas
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 1 /2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Blend in mashed bananas. Dissolve soda in buttermilk and set aside. Ub a separate bowl, sift together baking powder, flour, and salt. Blend dry ingredients into banana-egg mixture alternately with buttermilk. Beat well. Pour into a 9 X 13-inch pan and bake at 350.
Speaking Schedule...
The show must - and will - go on, regardless of my crazy life. So I am really looking forward to a slate of speaking engagements coming up. My programs are called a "Questions & Answers With The Amish Cook's Editor." The programs consist of a short talk, but then I just spend time taking questions about any aspect of Amish cooking, culture, or the column. It's a fun time and I really hope to meet as many of you in person as possible at these events. You all make this column possible and I'm grateful beyond words, so I hope my talks can provide you with some education and enjoyment. And I do think I'll be making one stop, courtesy of my publisher, in the Pacific Northwest sometime soon, so site visitors from there, stay tuned
. So here is the schedule, I hope to meet many readers!
March 29: Carnegie Library of Steuben County, 322 South Wayne Street, Angola, Indiana, 6:30 p.m.
March 30: Noble County Public Library, 813 East Main Street, Albion, Indiana, noon
March 30: South Whitley Public Library 201 East Front Street, South Whitley, 6:30 p..m
April 17: Farmland Cultural Center, 1:30 p.m.
May 4: Distinguished Speaker Series, Bartholomew Co. Public Library, 536 Fifth St, Columbus, Indiana, 6:30 p.m.
Vaccines, Flu, and a Neat Photo....
SIGH, I've deliberately steered clear of this topic (vaccinations) forever because I'm not a doctor or a scientist so I just don't feel I know enough to have a cogent conversation. The Amish are often paraded out as evidence of the link between childhood vaccines and autism. The argument goes that autism is allegedly more rare among the Amish who, as a group, supposedly don't vaccinate their children. This definitive statement that the Amish "don't vaccinate their children" just isn't true. That I can say with certainty. It is true that some don't, but I know first-hand plenty of Amish that do. If we've learned anything from all the stories posted on this website is that there are very few "absolutes" that apply to all Amish. Read here about the Amish and vaccines, I found this accurate based on my experience. The mounting pile of evidence points to no conclusive link between vaccines and autism. Again, though, I am not a scientist...which is why I have steered way clear of this topic. People have pointed to mercury in vaccines as being harmful and I don't like that...I also don't like petroleum being part of the plastic bottles I drink soda out of and aluminum being in the deoderant I use....so I think people who complain about chemicals everywhere are not nuts...I don't like it either...but scientifically speaking using the Amish as evidence for an autism link is tenuous.
Anyway, I'm talking about vaccines this morning because of a groundbreaking study conducted on Hutterite colonies about the impacts of flu-shots given to children. It appears that vaccinating the colony children protected the entire community from flu outbreaks. Click here and, really, the main reason for calling this topic to anyone's attention is the great photo with this that - in a single shot - shows the communal aspect of Hutterite life.
Mennonites on the Move...
This is a strange story, but also fascinating because it is an illustration of the many "splinter groups" that have developed on the edges of the Amish and Mennonite churches. While splinter groups do occur in every church they tend to happen less in churches where the structure is more centralized. The Amish and plain Mennonite churches are so decentralized that fragmentation and splits can form for the seemingly smallest issues. So for a fascinating window into another world, click here to read. And if you're in rural Kentucky, this church is headed your way!
