Editor's note: Lovina Eicher is taking this week off to prepare for church services to be held in her home. Her column will return next week.
The process of getting The Amish Cook column from notebook paper to newspaper used to be much more involved. In the column's first year, back in 1991, I was 18 years old and the Internet and e-mail were, for most people, still relegated to geeky corners of universities.
In those days I would use a fax machine and one-by-one dial the Amish Cook to its destination. That was considered pretty cutting-edge. Fast-forward almost 20 years and how times have changed. What once took two hours now takes two minutes. I simply type in and e-mail the column to newspapers. And my futuristic fax machine sits on a shelf under an inch of dust, long rendered useless by the Internet.
In one of the early columns, Elizabeth Coblentz -- Lovina's mother and column predecessor -- mailed her handwritten column to me as usual. Her penmanship, like Lovina's, was typically beautiful. But in this particular column her recipe for homemade strawberry jam was a little difficult to decipher. And I couldn't just cross-check a similar recipe on the Internet like I can today. Calling Elizabeth was out of the question -- for her, the nearest phone was miles away.
So I did what any 18-year-old might do -- I guessed. And so went in the annals of Amish Cook history one of the biggest recipe disasters ever: What should have said "add some" salt I typed in as "epsom salt." Even worse, some readers actually tried the recipe at home. Epsom salt is great for treating shingles and as a laxative, but not so good in strawberry jam.
On another occasion, I erred by instead of typing that Elizabeth served "fried chicken" at a wedding, I typed in "fried children" which breezed right through my spell-check, past some copy editors and onto newspaper pages. There are probably still a few readers who quit reading the column in disgust if believing that was a typical Amish wedding menu.
There have been other missteps through the years, but hopefully the column has grown and improved with the times. One technological leap I'm excited to introduce this year is AmishCookTV. For information about how to subscribe to AmishCookTV, visit www.amishcookonline.com.
Because Lovina is taking this week off to prepare for church services to be held at her house, I will share a recipe that is always served for the occasion.
Amish Church Peanut Butter Spread
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1/4 c. marshmallow creme
1 c. light corn syrup
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, marshmallow creme and corn syrup. Stir with a rubber spatula until the mixture is smooth and evenly combined.
Place the mixture in a covered container and refrigerate overnight. Allow the spread to come to room temperature before serving on bread or over ice cream. Makes 1&3/4 cups.
Lovina Eicher is Old Order Amish. She hand-writes this column from her home in southern Michigan. Anyone with cultural or cooking questions can send them to: Lovina Eicher, The Amish Cook, P.O. Box 2144, Middletown, OH 45042. Read all of her columns online at www.record-eagle.com/amishcook.
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