The Amish Cook at Home: Simple Pleasures of Food, Family, and Faith

It has taken me some time to review this book because I wanted to make a few of the recipes before I did. I will comment on the individual recipes farther down. The book is gorgeous with lovely photographs of Amish life and food. The text is a wealth of information about Amish life in general and many specifics. Some of the author's children even contributed to the book. The story of the Amish Cook is interesting in and of itself. Lovina Eicher's mother, Elizabeth Coblentz, was approached by Kevin Williams about fifteen years ago to do a column for newspaper publication. She agreed and it grew to reach a huge readership. She also published a cookbook with Mr. Williams, The Amish Cook. In my research for this book I purchased the first volume of Elizabeth's columns and her cookbook. Her daughter's book follows the same pattern. Amish cooking by nature is simple and nourishing. Mrs. Eicher has eight children so you can imagine no time for fussing and prinking. Her food is easy to prepare and, for those of us with smaller families, provides wonderful leftovers. It was a surprise to me to find many Mexican culinary influences among the recipes. This is explained in the book by the fact that Amish and Mennonites have been settling in Mexico since the 1920s. Mexico at that time offered them a country which would not insist on conscription as the Anabaptists are all pacifists. Over the last couple of decades many Amish have travelled to Mexico for medical treatments unavailable in the U.S. They are also less expensive as most Amish do not have health insurance. Lovina's book is structured around the seasons - from Spring to Winter. She has a huge and varied garden and, along with the recipes, provides tips for cultivation and preservation. The Amish Cook At Home could be read simply as a history of the Amish without using the recipes but I recommend you give some of them a try. Parmesan Chicken on page 25 is similar to a dish I have been making for years. Lovina's version makes tender and juicy chicken and I will be adapting her technique in the future. Some of us found the dish bland but, again, this is plain, simple food. You could easily spice up the flour mixture with whatever flavors you love. The process is simple and the result is delicious. The Pumpkin Bread on page 129 is heavenly and disappeared like magic around here. Think zucchini bread but moister and more flavorful. It made some lovely Christmas gifts as well. I used little loaf tins and kept a close eye on them as they cooked much faster than the larger ones. This is a simple recipe and sooooo delicious my mouth is watering as I write this. Pizza Casserole on page 119 is another I will be adding to my repertoire with a few tweaks. It is made with ground beef, mushrooms, spaghetti, pizza sauce and mozzarella. It fed four people with enough left over for two or three others. This was a fast dish to assemble and bake and very tasty and fulfilling. The only thing I would change for us

This is a beautiful book and I am giving them as Christmas presents this year. I went ahead and gave my daughter her copy. She and two of her young daughters are choosing various recipes and then spending quality time in the kitchen making them.