I’m Susan, Lovina’s second oldest daughter. I decided to write the column for Mom since I haven’t been doing too much since baby Ryan joined our family. He’s doing a good job with breast feeding which I’m thankful for. Today I’m spending the day at my parents’ house.

Jennifer, 18 months, is still trying to get used to being a big sister to Ryan. She’s a daddy’s baby so she doesn’t like it when Mose holds baby Ryan. It’ll take a while for Jennifer to adjust to having a little brother.

Mose’s brother Alvin and his wife Suzanna, also their two little boys Caleb and Isaiah, brought supper in Saturday night. She made homemade pizza and salad to bring along.

Sunday Mose’s two sisters and their families brought lunch in. They brought chicken to grill and also a burrito casserole. Mose’s sister Hannah and Leroy have five children: Loren, Jayden, Alissa, Lillian, and Jared. Mose’s sister Esther and Wayne have one child, Darren. Mose is from a family of 12 and a lot of them still haven’t seen Ryan, so we are expecting more company yet.

Mose’s single brother Roman came to see baby Ryan before he headed out to Montana. He’s moving out there, so it’ll be so different to not see him when we go see the rest of the family. He used to live an hour and a half further north, where two of Mose’s other brothers and families live.

Sisters Verena and Lovina helped me out a lot with my laundry and other house work. They also help me with keeping Jennifer out of trouble. They are really good with children. I’m going to miss them when they go back home. Seems the day goes a lot faster when you have somebody older to talk to and not just the babies.

Mose and I had our third anniversary on August 5. Sister Loretta had to remind us because we both forgot. It doesn’t seem like we’ve been married for three years already. Life flies by way too fast. Seems it gets busier the older I get.

Mom and my sisters are canning sweet dill pickles for me so I have enough for next year. Mose and I didn’t get any planted in our garden this year so Mom had plenty for us.

Sister Elizabeth and children are also here at my parents’ today, so she is helping too. They also are helping me with my freezer corn. I’m out of freezer corn so it will be nice to have more. Corn is always good with mashed potatoes and gravy. Our sweet corn we got free from a local farmer that farms the fields beside our place. They furnish it for us so we don’t plant any. Since they plant seed corn beside us they don’t want the corn cross-pollinating with sweet corn. I remember as a teenager detasseling seed corn. We would walk the long rows in the big field and by the end of the day we were tuckered. We only were allowed to detassel the female rows. There were four rows of female and one or two male rows all through the field.

I want to can some pizza sauce and tomato juice this year yet. I’m hoping our tomatoes do really good. I’m out of pizza sauce since I use it a lot. I love to make my pizza casserole. I think Mose gets tired of it, but I haven’t made it in a while now.

Mose does a lot of my gardening so I have been spoiled. He does a pretty good job. He’ll bring the stuff in when it’s ready. I’ll probably be canning red beets since they are ready. I haven’t canned red beets yet since I have been using Mom’s.

Mose’s Mom and Dad have church Sunday. Lord willing we are hoping to attend. Sister Verena said she’ll go with us to help out which will be really helpful. It’ll be fun to take little Ryan to church for the first time. Mom gave me a lot of little boy outfits for Ryan. I was glad she did because I didn’t have many boy outfits.

We used cousin Joseph’s wife Amanda’s recipe she had in the family cookbook for freezer corn. I will share it with you this week. This is now later, and supper is ready here at my parents’ house. Sister Elizabeth and Tim and children, and Mose and I and children will have supper here. We are having goulash and cucumber salad, cheese, and tomatoes for supper.

After supper sisters Verena and Lovina will go home with us and wash laundry for me tomorrow.

It’s been a long but enjoyable day. I will share the freezer corn recipe with you readers. God bless you!

 

Freezer Corn
4 quarts fresh-cut corn, uncooked
1 quart water
4 heaping teaspoons salt
3/4 cup sugar

Simmer corn, salt, and sugar in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes. Then immerse pot in cold water right away. Put corn and water mixture in containers and freeze.

 

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook, is available from the publisher, Herald Press, 800-245-7894. Readers can write to Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply); or email LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.