Countdown! 10 days left until my daughter Lovina and Daniel's wedding! This week is shopping week – my least favorite part of a wedding. It requires a lot of brainpower to calculate the exact number of eggs, flour, milk, butter, sugar, and other ingredients needed to feed 1,000 people. Not 1,000 people, but how many people are coming for lunch, how many are coming for dinner, and then add those numbers up.
My friend Ruth has come to help me again. She is a great help in this business. Not only does she take me to the places I want to shop, but she also checks prices. It makes a big difference in price when you buy more than 40 pounds of butter. Or 40 loaves of bread, 500 pounds of chicken, 400 pounds of potatoes, etc.
No, I haven't sewn Lovina's wedding dress, cape and apron yet. My goal is to finish that on Wednesday and go shopping on Thursday. Once I get started, it will be done in one day. Daniel's family is coming over to help me today, so there will be even less work.
We accomplished a lot and crossed off a lot of items from my list last week when Sister Emma and her family, Sister Verena and my daughter all came to visit.
We put over a dozen egg yolks into noodles, canned 28 quarts of rhubarb juice, made four batches of strawberry jam to put in the freezer, cleaned the windows and doors in the basement and back porch as well as the back porch (entrance area).
Everyone worked a little later than usual to help make the remaining noodles.
Late Wednesday afternoon, my sister Verena, my sister Emma and her sons Jacob and Steven, Joe and I, my daughter Verena and Danielle Ray, our sons Joseph and Grace, and our sons Benjamin and Kevin left for Kentucky. We arrived at the motel around 11:30 p.m.
Jacob, Steven, Kevin and Verena all use electric scooters, so figuring out how to pack their gear was a bit of a challenge. We had a cargo hitch that hooked onto the van, so we loaded two and a half scooters onto that. The scooters can be disassembled into four pieces, so we were able to fit a few pieces into the 14-seater van. There were only 12 passengers.
We only had to unload the scooter once before we got to the motel because we stopped off once for dinner, and did the same on the way back. By the time we got home on Friday evening, Benjamin, Joseph, and Daniel Ray were pretty fast at loading and unloading everyone. It was good to have everyone together.
We had a delicious meal at the wedding and saw many friends and family.
I'll try and see if I remember everything that was served…potatoes, gravy, buttered noodles, dressing, mixed veggies, layered lettuce salad, chicken, cheese, bread, and some sort of peanut butter spread. For dessert, there was pecan and custard pie, angel food cake with glaze, and yogurt parfait.
When my cousin David told me we were having KFC for lunch, it took me a few seconds to understand that it was fried, or rather, deep-fried, by the men in the family at KFC, and sausages and chicken wings in the evening.
Friday, June 14th marks the 30th birthday of our oldest daughter, Elizabeth. Happy birthday, my dear daughter. You are already in your 30s. I can't believe it! Wishing you many more happy and healthy years ahead. You are a wonderful wife, daughter and mother! May God continue to bless you in the future. I will never forget the moment you made us parents for the first time. How did 30 years go by so quickly?
On Friday evening, when I dropped my sister Verena off at her house, my sons were so happy to see that someone had come and mowed and trimmed the lawn. It was their nephews, Ben and Crystal. This was a real blessing for us in terms of eliminating extra work. Thank you!
Last night, my neighbors Joe and Suzie brought me dinner, which was so much appreciated. Also, a couple of the ladies from the neighborhood helped me do what I've always done at church the last few times. May God bless them and all of you!
be careful!
Easy to make homemade noodlesAbout 4 pounds flour2 cups egg yolks (about 2 dozen eggs)1 tablespoon salt1 1/2 cups boiling waterIn a storage bowl (I like Tupperware Fix-N-Mix), add flour so that it weighs 4 pounds including the bowl. Mix egg yolks with salt and boiling water until foamy. Make sure the water is boiling and stir quickly. If you want yellow noodles, don't overmix. Pour this mixture into the flour and stir until stiff. With your hands, form into a ball. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Knead a little.
Roll the dough into small balls and run through a pasta maker, rolling it out to your desired thickness. Then use the cutter attachment to cut noodles from the rolled dough. Allow to air dry. Cook as you would any other noodles. Yields 4 1/2 to 5 pounds of noodles. Noodles can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month, or frozen for 3 to 6 months.
(Editor's note: The Illinois State Extension Office recommends not drying noodles at room temperature for more than two hours to prevent the growth of Salmonella. An alternative is to use a food dehydrator to dry them at 135 degrees for two to four hours. Contact your local extension office for more information.)
Lovina's Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, an Old Order Amish author, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her three cookbooks, The Cherished Table, The Essential Amish Cookbook, and Amish Family Recipes, are available wherever books are sold. Readers can send a letter to Eicher at Lovina's Amish Kitchen, PO Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a stamped self-addressed envelope for return mail) or email her at LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org. Your message will be passed on to Eicher and she will read it. She does not respond personally to emails.
