Cooking from "Scratch"

When my husband retired our income "downsized". So I decided to do what I could to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the family food budget and make it fit to our monthly income. As long as the "basics" are in the cupboard its not too difficult to make meals.

For example I cook BBQ Pulled Pork. I freeze the extra to use for another meal. (I'll post the recipe at the end of this article.)

Growing up on the farm, we had a garden to help with the groceries. My back yard is too shady to grow veggies. Since I live in town I use the farmers market downtown and I discovered a produce stand about 2 blocks away on 8th Street which is very good.

We eat our main meal at lunch and our light meal in the evening. Over the winter I made many different kinds of soup. Delightful! Baked bread, yummy. I do use the all grain frozen rolls too. Very good and easy to use!!! With our stove in the living room we use to help heat the house; I set the rolls to raise and bake in time for lunch. Plus the house smells good too.

It takes some planning meals out and watching the weekly sales in the local grocery stores. We hardly eat out any more and don't miss that luxury either.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

1 onion
2 garlic
1 hot pepper (smoked) *I never used this in my recipe
1 small bunch cilantro
I can tomatoes (fire roasted tomatoes) I use whatever
4 pounds pork shoulder (I used whatever I have around)

Cook on high 6 hours

Sour cream cuts the spice

*We use Sweet baby rays bbq sweet ‘n spicy sauce on sandwiches

Spring is on its Way!

With a day like today, I know that spring will soon be here! Yeah! Its been 6 months now since my husband retired. I have not found a job so I have been trying to cook, bake and keep the house clean. Be a good wife, do the laundry, make the bed every day. (Even though I have been making the bed daily for years now.) It made sense to put that sentence there.

We made it through another winter in Wisconsin! I was hoping to escape this past winter but I ended up being thankful for this winter! I am thankful that we had a warm, nice house to live in! Since we haven't sold our house; this was the place to be! Its been fun visiting our friends, having time to spend with them, with no agenda! Since my job was Volunteer Coordinator, no one needed to run when they saw me coming. :-)

Life is Good!

My husband retired after 29 years of pastoring at Praise Fellowship last September. Our lives have changed dramatically from what it used to be. Since my job was at the church along with my husband, I am now unemployed. I thought I would go and get a job right off, but the economy crashed last fall. I applied for holiday jobs, nothing! In hind sight, jobs came across my desk last summer that I should have applied for, which were gone by the time I got around to looking for a job.

With my "Amish" upbringing, I slipped right back to how I was brought up. I am cooking all of our meals, shopping wisely, etc. Its hard to tell what this receipt says, but on Wednesday shopping at our local grocery store I saved $ 29.01. (I spent around $60) I would say that was wise shopping! The clerk checking me out commented on my savings! This was my best week by far, but with double couponing I usually save in the twenty dollar range.

Its been interesting and a challenge cooking. Lately we have been trying to eat breakfast and later in the afternoon for our main meal with a light supper. We are getting older and don't need as much nourishment as a younger more active person. :-)

I started baking all of the bread we eat. I found all grain frozen rolls, that we love. That supplements my baking. I baked Banana Bread the other week, which turned out wonderful but we ate it within a day or 2 so my husband instructed me not to bake that again! It was yummy.

My chili soup has been perfected! This winter has been great soup weather which included Zesty Vegetable soup, Beef Barley Soup, (I supstituted lintels), very good! If any one would like to try any of my recipes, just let me know. I went online and found some great recipes such as; Split Pea Soup. I always thought that was for old people . . . I guess that's me now!

I started cooking up our beans for soup, (instead of canned beans), instead of the overnight soaking, I do the quick cook, boiling them for several minutes and letting them sit for an hour before cooking them until they get soft. We planned for around a hundred dollars a week for food allowances, but I think we have done much better then we expected and we have been eating well.

We have been walking at the Mall for our exercise because of all the snow and ice on the sidewalks. Making it unsafe for walking. It has finally melted and we have been walking down at the lake again! Yeah! I love the lake, especially early in the morning!

Christmas 2008

Christmas will be different this year. After we celebrated Christmas last year we packed and moved all of our (Christmas) stuff to PA anticipating selling our house and getting moved. Well, it didn't happen that way and so we are celebrating Christmas without all the trappings this year. Josh and us are going to Raleigh to celebrate with Chris, Holly and our grand children. Than back to Sheboygan to celebrate with Brent & Tracy and Andrei our grandson in Sheboygan.

We didn't get our house put on the market until mid July and the city decided to dig up 6th Street and they worked on it until the end of August. We had an "Open House", mid September and had several people walk through but by than the economy had gone sour and our house didn't sell. Its not like we have a "starter" home.

God gave me a promise several years ago and now I need to live out these promises. It's one thing to tell others how to live and another to live it our myself! "Do not be afraid; I will lead you into green pastures; trust and you will see the glory of God." So that's what I cling to regardless of what's going "out there".

As a child growing up we always celebrated Christmas. When I was very young my grandmother lived next door and we'd go to her house and she would give us small gifts. I remember getting a dainty hanky. Way back in those days (before kleenix was invented) using hankies was a daily part of life. To have a pretty hanky to use was special.

For several years my parents would give us an orange on our plates at the table. We'd set a plate on the table before we'd go to bed. Our parents would give us an orange. We'd receive one gift each and my dad would hide it. It was fun playing "hide and seek" looking for it. I soon learned to ask for things that would last and last. I enjoyed coloring books and treasured coloring the pages. Soon I started asking for chalk and a blackboard, that would last even longer than the coloring book.

Mom and my older sisters would bake cookies and make candy, yummy! I have always loved Christmas and having family get together.

Ed and I made some great family traditions which I love and hope to continue to celebrate for years to come. God has been good, we have 3 great children, with 2 married to wonderful people! We have a great family and I am grateful to God for all his blessings in my life!

Baking Bread

So how has retirement been so far? I am keeping busy as you can see. I have been baking all the bread we eat. I am cooking up a storm too. Today I baked rolls. Not how I started baking bread, but the new way is the best! After they came out with bread machines, I told my family I wasn't interested. Finally one year I said OK and started using the bread machine. We must have continued to gain weight because I got rid of it. :-) Now I started up again.

I bought this bread machine from the church rummage sale several years ago for two dollars and it didn't have the recipe book along so I have been going online to find recipes. I think I have finally fine tuned this one recipe. My husband wants more grain in the bread so I'll experiment with that too.

I am going back to my Amish days and cooking from "scratch". Fortunately my husband enjoys soups which is easy to make and have on hand. I made a pot of soup this week; Zesty Vegetable Soup. I didn't like it too much, it had a clear broth base and I prefer a tomato base for my soups.

Growing up we baked a batch of bread every week, or maybe every 5 days? I can't remember for sure. But with our large family a little bread machine wouldn't begin to make enough. We had this huge pan and I think we used at least a quart of water for starters. (I use 1 1/4 cup water). It would be an all day process! Summer and winter! I got sick and tired of kneading the dough! It was a big batch and my mom had me start baking early on, I could have been 7 or 8 years old. I was always interested in whatever they were cooking so I got put to work. It was fun when I started but after awhile it got pretty boring and repetitive! We baked at least 6 or 7 loaves of bread each week.

So what do I do as a mom? I didn't make my children help me in the kitchen. When Holly was growing up I told her she should never tell anyone that her mother grew up Amish! Because I didn't make her cook or sew. But the good daughter that she was told me that she had more important things to do with her life, like study and play the piano! She has turned out to be a good cook and she's a great mother too.

For lunch today I made Enchiladas. Yummy! Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll send it out.

Living a life that makes a difference

Ed and I took a trip to PA this month and I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my sisters. (The Amish & English). They have their own families so they pick a date in the fall to get together. It so happened that I emailed Liz and ask her if they had a date picked out yet. Since I haven't been available to celebrate with them, she doesn't check with me. So this picture was taken several decades ago but to show you how mixed up we are. 8 out of 12 were at my sister Anna's house this fall. The day was interesting - my oldest sister said that since "the English" don't bring things to do with their hands, she decided to be like us and not do anything, just sit and visit. I have needle work I wanted to finish up but forgot to take it along. We had a nice quiet, interesting afternoon visiting with each other. Families are gifts from God!

Ed and I had a big surprise last Sunday, we had a lunch planned with the Sonnentag's and Kramers, but what they didn't tell us was that they invited Dennis & Joanne Willcott to lunch too. Dennis was a board member and Joanne helped me with Missionettes and Bible Studies. So we had a fun reunion. They moved to PA in the 90's job related and now are back in Wisconsin. Life has interesting turns of events. They moved back home to Wisconsin and we are planning to move home, back to PA. (I wish we would have taken a picture).

Another big event in my life this week was joining the modern age and signing up for Face Book. So I have all these friends out there. This should be more fun! Brent our son tries to keep Ed and I current with all that's going on out there in cyber space. :-) It takes time for me to adjust and change . . . but its coming along! From Amish with no modern gadgets to computers and online . . . .

So next week Ed and I get to travel to CA and enjoy a week of vacation with the Assistant Superintendents of the Assemblies of God. Ed has had this title for several years now which gives him meetings to attend in Waupaca monthly. Our life has slowed down considerably which is nice. We get to enjoy and experience life as it comes down the road. I am looking for a job, partime hopefully. While we are here in Wisconsin, I would be happy to work full time. Especially with the holidays that would be exciting to be in the excitement of things.

Things will be different this year. In years gone by we were serving the church and working with them and now whatever God brings into our lives. My devotional today give talked about how to make life meaningful 1) How to line up our priorities, 2) Lighten up your attitude, 3) Look up to God. This is what I am working on in my life - honoring God in everything that I do.

God's Promises

Years ago my father in law was visiting us in Sheboygan. We were having a conversation at our kitchen table, just him and I. He was trying to decide what to do with the family farm. He purchased this farm from his parents years ago. I never met his parents, just his brothers and sisters. Anyway, he asked if I wanted to live in Transfer when we retired. Well, I was only fifty that year and the "r" word was not in my vocabulary! I felt indignant thinking about retirement at that time. Realizing that retirement was something that I would need to think about in the future and make adjustments for.

God gave me Jeremiah 29:11 years ago; for I know the plans I have for you. . .plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. I go back from here and read verse 10 . . . when seventy years are completed . . . I will come to you . . .and bring you back to this place. We are waiting for our house to sell before we can go back. :-)

I am living out that life right now. My husband retired after 29 years of ministry here in Sheboygan. I am very thankful that God allowed us to stay put for these many years! Its not that usual for a pastor to only pastor 2 churches in his lifetime! (We still have many more years left?!) So I don't know if this will be the only churches . . .

I am finding life interesting. . . I need to find a job to pay for my health insurance. Its interesting that we bought into a life that spends money for "just in case" . . . but that is how we live life today. Its not that I am against it either. The Amish way is that when disaster strikes a family the community get together and either take an offering or have an auction.

Several years my oldest sister and her husband had an auction to sell their machinery they didn't use anymore and their children didn't want. The food service they used donated their profits to a local Amish family that had something tragic happen in their home. I don't remember the details anymore.

The community I grew up in Lawrence County PA has a very large group of Amish. They have taken families and moved from there to go and establish other communities in other states. I had uncles when I was still Amish move to Michigan. I don't remember any details anymore.

Anytime I want to remember things I ask my older sisters for information. I think my husband gets a kick out of having these Amish as relatives . . .

My parents have been gone for a long time now and I was never "shunned" so they can (are allowed) to do business with me.

In thinking about my parents, when they passed away in the early nineties. When a person is "shunned" by the Amish they aren't allowed to be buried in an Amish cemetary. When my dad passed away they let it be known to us that he could be buried inside the fence. I didn't realize I had such deep feelings but my answer back to them through my sister Emma; they shunned him since the early sixties, I did not want him buried in their cemetary! So both my parents are buried in a Mennonite cemetary. (Is this really better?) Anyway, that's what we did.