The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook (24 page)
Read The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook Online
Authors: Georgia Varozza
In the meantime, simmer together the gravy ingredients and spoon over the baked roll-ups when ready to serve, or plate the roll-ups and pass the gravy in a bowl.
40 saltine crackers, crushed
2 cups cooked rice
3 lb. hamburger
1 large onion, chopped
1½ cups tomato juice
¾ cup water
3 T. taco seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups lettuce, shredded
3 medium tomatoes, diced
½ cup butter, cubed
½ cup flour
4 cups milk
1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cubed
3 cups sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 can pitted olives
1 package tortilla chips (14½ oz.)
This recipe makes enough for 2 casseroles, so you will be dividing the ingredients into 2 baking dishes
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Divide crackers between two ungreased 13 × 9-inch baking dishes. Top each with rice.
In a large skillet, brown the hamburger and onion; drain. Add the tomato juice, water, and seasonings and simmer for 20 minutes. Spoon meat mixture over rice. Next, layer on the lettuce and tomatoes.
In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and continue stirring until smooth. Gradually add the milk. Continue stirring, bring to a boil, and cook until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and stir in Velveeta cheese until melted. Pour cheese mixture over the lettuce and tomatoes.
Top with Cheddar cheese and olives and serve with the tortilla chips.
1 lb. hamburger
¼ cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 onions, sliced
¼ lb. Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Press hamburger into the bottom of a 2½ quart casserole dish. Pour milk over the meat. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Next, layer on the potatoes, then the onions, and then the cheese. Mix about a quarter of a can of water with the soup and pour it over everything.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.
The Amish rarely speak English in the home, and young children usually learn English when they begin attending school. In the home, a German or Swiss dialect is spoken, but high German is used at church services, which is also taught at school. As a result, Amish children will not understand much of the service until they reach the fourth or fifth grade, but the Amish believe first comes discipline and then comes understanding.
1½ lb. round steak, cubed
2 T. butter
½ onion, diced
1½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. chili powder
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ tsp. cinnamon
½ cup celery, chopped
2 T. prepared mustard
1 cup water
cooked rice
Brown steak in butter. Stir in all remaining ingredients except rice and simmer, covered, for 1-1½ hours or until meat is tender. Add water if necessary. Serve over cooked rice.
1 beef bouillon cube
2 cups boiling water
3½ cups cooked beef, chopped, or cooked hamburger
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. pepper
1 package (10 oz.) frozen mixed vegetables
¼ cup flour
pastry (see below)
Dissolve the bouillon cube in the boiling water and add the beef, Worcestershire sauce, salt, sugar, paprika, and pepper. Add the vegetables and cook the mixture for 5 minutes. Combine the flour with enough cold water to make a thin paste and slowly stir it into the meat and vegetables. Continue stirring and cooking until mixture thickens. Keep warm. When you have made the pastry, spoon the meat and vegetable mixture into 6 individual oven-proof custard cups or ramekins that are about 6-8 ounces each. Do not overfill.
Pastry
1 cup flour
½ cup cornmeal
¾ tsp. salt
⅓ cup shortening
4 T. cold water
Sift together the flour, cornmeal, and salt. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the water by tablespoonfuls over the mixture and stir it lightly with a fork until just damp. Then, using your hands, work dough gently and as little as possible until the dough holds together and forms a ball. You might need to add a bit more cold water.
Divide dough into 6 parts and roll each to form a circle large enough to fit over the top of the meat and vegetable mixture in each baking cup. Turn under and crimp edges. Make several cuts in the pastry to allow steam to escape while baking.
Bake at 450° for 12-15 minutes.
1½ lb. hamburger
2 slices bread, soaked quickly in water and then squeezed dry
3 eggs
1 onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
6 cups boiled potatoes, cut into chunks
Sour Cream Sauce (see below)
Mix together the hamburger, bread, eggs, onion, salt, and pepper. Form into balls the size of walnuts and drop them into a pot of boiling salted water. (Use about 1½ quarts of water for cooking.) Cook the balls for 10 minutes and then place them in a roasting pan or casserole dish with the potatoes, reserving 1 cup of the water used to cook meatballs.
Sour Cream Sauce
1 cup strained cooking water from meatballs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
4 T. flour
salt and pepper to taste
capers (optional)
In a large jar with a tight-fitting lid, shake together all the ingredients for the Sour Cream Sauce, except for the capers, making sure there are no flour lumps. Heat mixture over low heat in a medium saucepan, and when hot pour over the meatballs in the roasting pan.
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with capers and serve.
1 lb. hamburger
2 cloves garlic or 1 tsp. garlic powder
2 T. oil
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1 #2 can tomatoes (2½ cups)
1½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. oregano
8 oz. lasagna noodles, cooked
½ lb. mozzarella cheese
¾ lb. cottage cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese
Sauté hamburger and garlic in oil. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, salt, and oregano. Simmer for 20 minutes. Cook noodles; drain.
In a greased lasagna pan, alternate layers of noodles, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, meat sauce, and parmesan cheese, ending with meat sauce and parmesan cheese.
Bake at 375° for 1 hour.
leftover turkey
leftover dressing
gravy or broth
flour
egg, beaten
bread or cracker crumbs
oil for frying
Cut up turkey into very small bits. Mix 2 parts turkey to 1 part dressing. Add a bit of gravy or broth to moisten. Form into patties and freeze until needed.
To use, thaw the patties and then dredge them first in flour, then in beaten egg, and then in bread or cracker crumbs. Fry in oil until golden brown on each side.
4 strips bacon
1 lb. liver
3 T. flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 cup celery, sliced
2 cups onions, sliced
2 potatoes, pared and quartered
1 cup tomato juice
In a large skillet, fry bacon until crisp and remove from pan; do not discard grease.
Coat liver with a mixture of the flour, salt, and pepper; brown liver in the bacon grease.
Arrange the vegetables over the liver and sprinkle with a bit more salt; pour tomato juice over the top and cover.
Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon when ready to serve.
Many Amish families rent locker space to store their frozen foods, but they also have an ice box at home for storing small amounts of food. The ice man still drops by Amish farms today to sell blocks of ice that are used in these old-fashioned boxes, but this wasn’t always so. In earlier times, for those Amish housewives who were not fortunate to live in an area that could sustain an ice house for the summer, they would resort to other methods to preserve their food. Canning, drying or dehydrating, “painting” whole bolognas with wax, burying pork ribs in fat, and putting eggs for baking in lime water are just some of the resourceful ways these women managed.
1 lb. hamburger
½ cup carrots, shredded
½ cup potatoes, shredded
¼ cup onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 can cream of celery soup (or another favorite cream soup)
1 can water
Mix together all ingredients except soup and water; roll into 1-inch balls. Brown in a skillet and then place meatballs in a casserole dish.
Combine the soup and water and mix well. Pour soup over meatballs and bake at 350° for 45-60 minutes.
4 lb. hamburger
1 cup celery, finely diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
4 eggs