Marcia Adams: More Cooking From Quilt Country

Why. The. Funding for this program is provided in part by Oneida. One of America's established names in table where makers of professional quality cookware bakeware and cutlery including contour a soft grip cutlery at Oneida your table is ready. And buy replacements limited with over five million pieces of china crystal and silver intended to help recapture the memories of dinner at Grandma's. And by the Fremont company.

Makers of snow Flossie and Frank sprout. From our family to your family. And out of there. I'm Marsha Adams and welcome to my kitchen. And this really is my kitchen right here in my home in Fort Wayne Indiana. This new series is based on my latest cookbook new recipes from quilt country and it's all about Amish and Mennonite cookery. They're lifestyle and they're very distinct if you will. So I had the opportunity during production of the series to travel and personally visit Amish and Mennonite community all over the United States. I think it's very very good to know a bit more about the background of these people for it in Abel's us to view the way they live with more understanding. Later we will be visiting the mental health center in Shipshewana Indiana

the third largest Amish community in the United State. And today we have some very enticing food air for you. And later as always a stunning quilt and some really fascinating antiques. And here is now the first recipe. It is called Amish filling with chicken. You're going to need one to one half loaves of white bread with crusts removed. Throw those out to the birds. Do them a favor. You could use a good quality bread in. Actually you should not. The soft top two pounds or a little bit more chicken thighs or mix pieces. One baby. But the dressing or feeling you will need one fourth cup final and diced carrots one cup diced potatoes one half cup but her three eggs two cups one tablespoon rubbed sage two teaspoons celery seed 1 have teaspoon salt

one half decent pepper one half cup finally chopped celery one fourth cup minced pressed parsley and two tablespoons of melted butter. Now three days before you plan on preparing the filling you will need to cut the bread one and a half loads of white bread into Q3 and spread it out on a baking sheet to dry. Cover it lightly. You will need two quarts of cubes and as I mentioned that's about one and one half a loaf of bread. Now we have melted one half cup of butter in here earlier and toasted the cubes for about three minutes. Watch them closely because they do burn rather quickly. The chicken pieces are placed in a stock pot covered with two inches of water with the bailing from the salt and pepper. You cover and cook it for 20 minutes until it's tender. You know how to do that cool slightly and strip the meat from the bones while it's warm because it easier to do it then chop it coarsely and set aside. You could all be done in a couple days in advance. Meanwhile cook the one forth cut carrot and one cup diced potato

covered with water in a small saucepan for 10 minutes. Now here we have the precooked chicken and the pre cooked vegetables all ready to go. In a rather large bowl also could be messy. You want to. Create together this into the broken are not frothy. 3 eggs and then add two cups of milk plus all these delicious seasonings that are going to make this such a distinctive distinctive dish. The sage to table to sell reseed salt and pepper. Now General that settles to together a mystery going together like this I have time because that way the cubes will all be seasoned evenly when I add. Now. You can go these delicious toasted bread cubes. Actually if you toss bread Humes and nuts etc. you will have more flavor in a lot of your things such as the good. No toss that in because that way the spices are getting into every one of those single little toasted cubes. It's

important you do use the dry cues not to soften it a totally different texture. Now most of us would probably call this a dish dressing but the Amish prepare it and they add these big hunks of chicken like this. And then the added vegetables. So you see they're really stretching this here. Here are the carrots and the potatoes that are prepared. And the sell rate and the parsley. You will find when you go into Amish country that this dressing again I call it dressing but it's filling. This Amish feeling is on the menu of every Mennonite and Amish restaurant. You will go to. They also serve it at all of their barn raisings and their funerals and their weddings. And you can see why it's economical. It stretches it goes a long way. We have melted two tablespoons of blood her in this nine by 13 pan or its equivalent you need a three quart play on and then tore it in. The

filling. So how colorful this is. Just because you're using plain ingredients doesn't mean that. The dishes can be attractive. Then bake for one hour until the top of the filling is a browned and puffy this wonderful dish appears on most Amish and Mennonite restaurant menus and it's sold in some specialty regional groceries. I know we will want to prepare this in your very own kitchen. Now we're going to go visit the mental hot center. And I know that you're going to enjoy this as much as I did. We've just completed a tour of the medal hope center in Shipshewana Indiana and this is the most marvelous the Celica. I want you to meet Tim the qty who is the director. And Tim would you tell me what the mental health actually is. Well mental health is an interpretive center that a number of church leaders in the United Church decided to build to respond to the thousands of tourists that are coming through our community asking questions of who Mennonites and Amish are.

And we felt we needed to have a place to help us tell our story. I understand that you call it an interpretive center but it also has a feudal museum it has the feeling of a museum in the way we shy away from using the term museum is because as a as a story Center we don't have a lot of the exhibits that utilize artifacts but we use multimedia and various kinds of communication tools in which we try to interpret our story in a more modern way. Well it's it's really breathtaking now. Want to know how this came into being I have heard that both the Amish and Mennonite groups worked on this facility. That's correct that's correct we started with a barn raising very typical of what you would find in our communities when a disaster strikes and they raise a barn and they are to raise this facility in six days.

So you sort of followed the biblical schedule of six days of work and then on the seventh day you rested out rested in worship opiates and pie. Well it is extremely about that. Extremely well done. Thank you. I know that you don't plan on having artifacts in the museum persay but these suspiciously look like Amish artifacts to me. Well they're not historical but they are comfortable would you like to have. Yes I adore the Amish rockers I think they are so comfortable. But if they were at the chair now for a person coming through the center What will they actually see. Well we've created environments in which we tell stories. So we've created a Swiss courtyard. We've taken dungeon and created a place where we talk about persecution. With. We have a harbor in Amsterdam complete with a sailing vessel. The interior of a

selling day also where we talk about the migration patterns and stories coming across to the new world in about 16 83. In following years then we have an area where we come to North America and we have a meeting house in which we talk about worship practices. We have a tornado theater which we talk about Moon a disaster for us. To as a mission came to the Indiana area when in about 1840. And this is recognized of course in the exhibits that you have here as we talk about that. What brought them here and how they arrived at this circular kind of scouting that they did all the way to the Mississippi River and decided that this was the place they wanted to migrate to next. Wells always had a wonderful time when it come to the new center. I do

encourage you to come to the center. The very first thing when you arrive in Shipshewana Indiana which is really sort of the entryway to Amish and Mennonite country in northern Indiana this is a most comprehensive glance of these very outstanding people. Don't miss this place. It comes as a surprise to most people to find out how much the Amish and Mennonites suffered religious persecution in Europe before they came to America. They endured so many hardships. Even if you are a regular visitor to Shipshewana just for fun you should see the middle Hoff center. It's very unique. In a more cheerful vein. I want to talk to you about our next recipe. It has a charming nostalgic name. It's called grandmother yodelers potato salad with sweet and sour boiled dressing. And believe me it's just as good as it sounds. And here are the ingredients for the dressing. You will need three eggs one fourth cup sugar one fourth cup

cider vinegar three fourths teaspoon salt one teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper or more to taste one. Why do you have tea spoons prepared mustard. One third cup coarsely chopped sweet pickles or some pickle relish and three fourths Cup bottled mayonnaise. For the salad ingredients you will need four to five medium potatoes healed and have two teaspoons of cider vinegar one half cut chop celery one half cup chopped parsley one fourth cup minced onion 1 have teaspoon celery seed 2 hard cooked eggs chopped. Now again what makes this recipe special is this old fashioned salad dressing baits which is both Tang and sweet and over here we've already cooked together the eggs and the sugar and the salt and the pepper together for about two three minutes it looks a bit like gravy. At this point an end to this we're

going to add the mustard and you can use any kind of base for mustard or John mustard whatever suits your taste buds. The sweet pickle relish and then mix that together. And then. Add the bottled mayonnaise. Now you will want to let this mixture cool 10 minutes before you fold in all of these other things. And actually the whole dressing itself can be made two or three days in advance so I kind of like to do things in advance like that in steps. And that's called the Swiss cheese method of time management. In Believe me it works. Now. Let's assemble the salad itself. When you boil the potatoes for any salad at all add two teaspoons of vinegar for every four or five potatoes and the potatoes remain very firm and they don't get mushy. It's perfect for potato salad. They should be cut into about a three fourths shot.

Now to this we're going to add a half cup of chopped celery the parsley one half cup and one fourth cup minced onion and the celery seeds and the two high cooked eggs that gives a beautiful richness. This has some versions for potato salad you know. My mother always fried out a little bit. I don't know a generous a bit of the. Bacon and added that to the potato salad. So. Good. Now. For this over the potatoes. And isn't this good. We used to take this kind of potato salad to family reunions I'm sure you all have had family reunions and I'm sure that some of you were there with pleasure and some maybe with not so much pleasure but I always had fun at mine. We had when I was growing up most a century aunt and her name was Oni and she was we thought so peculiar. Of course I was only five or six. But what made her peculiar to us. She always brought her thermos bottle of water with her and we'd say

I'm afraid rather naughtily laughed behind her back. But I actually just think how far ahead of time she was. It may have been pelligrino for all I know. Now this homemade dressing really is just tip top. It may feel a bit grainy to your tongue when you taste it by itself out of the pan but when combined with the other you greedy it's not noticeable at all. This is really terrific salad for family reunions or picnics or dinners at home. This is one of my family's favorites. Be sure to try it. It's out of this world. Oh. If there's one thing that the Amish excel at in their kitchen is their pie baking. There are numerous interpretations of pies are made of what they already have on hand in their cupboards. Flour or sugars cream butter

eggs and spices. And this particular prime going to show you today falls into the classification of what we call in the Midwest sugar pies. This is one of them. I'm a Chanel a pie. And are you going to like it. Here are the ingredients. Pastry for one crust. NINE INCH pies one egg one tablespoon all purpose flour 1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 1 1/2 cup white corn syrup 1 cup of water one teaspoon vanilla one fourth teaspoon mace one eighth teaspoon salt then for the chrome topping you will need the following 1 cup flour 1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 have teaspoon baking soda one fourth teaspoon ground meat one eighth teaspoon salt one fourth cup cold butter. And the cool part incidentally is important. Now

this measure can be done in a food processor. Which of course the Amish would not have since they have no electricity at all in their homes but they would probably use utensils like this. This is called a pastry fork and you notice how heavy it is and it's on an angle and it's perfect for working in fat into flowers. This is more readily available and this is just a conventional pastry blender but today as I mentioned I'm going to use the food processor in the food processor. We have one cup of flour and to this we're going to add one half cup of dark brown sugar. Then to this a teaspoon of an oil extract and I'm just going to guess glug glug. All right and the cream of tartar baking soda mace and salt. Put that all in. Then we're going to put that together really quickly just to combine it because that will of course but you know

better. So I take this off. And in goes the butter. This. Actually the I mean you use butter and not margarine and it's hard to tell what's more healthy for you today. I really think you should just drink bottled water according to the food mavens are complaining about living well. Now this pie. Community has another name. It's very confusing in Iowa they call it the Montgomery I love the names that the Amish people give their pies like Baba and I always assumed that that was probably a team of horses and then there's one called Here's all your pill pie. I like that one too. Never going to make it feel like to do this you are going to want to risk one is pissed off and then this add one tablespoon of flour and blend it in. I always thought the bobbin and I just came about because

probably some tea and some farmer came in and ate this dish pie and said you know this pie is almost as good as my team Bob and Andy and I mean how else would you do that incidentally. Sugar should always be very firmly packed and I call this my Stonehenge trick. It should always be stiff and straight like that. But that isn't a half a cup of corn syrup in a way in and just a little bit of a way this is like a pecan pie only it does have a totally different flavor. Then we're going to get a couple water. And another splash of Nella. And mace. And. Salt. With this together. And. Let it. Come to a full rolling boil over medium heat. Don't forget I almost did the mace and the salt truck. Even if that would happen to you when you're making the pie you could sprinkle on top of feeling. Now that has to of course cook and cool. So what we're going to do is pour aid.

Prepared one. As you know I have all these wonderful people who do a lot of work back stage. This is the feeling that looks after cooks. And then. Sprinkle the cum topping over the top. Now I always use a pike crust pastry that's in all of my cookbooks and it's called the perfect pie crust. And it is that it has a yellow vegetable shortening base. And I'm telling you it is so tender and it remains tender. A Mack truck could run over it. There we are to keep the crust from. Browning too much. Put these on or use for oil. Bake the pie at 350 degrees for 25 minutes then remove the pastry saver or the boil and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Now the feeling will be shaky but it firms up as it cools. In my business we call those nervous pies but actually I think what they mean is it's nervous cooks. Now this is a most unusual and

appealing dessert you might want to put cream or ice cream on the side. But admittedly that is gilding the lily. And. Speaking of feeling really in just a second we will leave the kitchen and look at an antique quilt. Oh. As always we end the shows with a few antique accoutrements and as I did Amish quilt the quilts from this series were loaned to us by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and they're just a little glimpse of their very fine extensive collection. Now women themselves would not have a matched set of dishes thinking that would be too worldly. However she does buy in occasional attractive piece at a flea market or an auction but only if she can use it. And before I begin I want to explain my drugs. These are

worn to protect the quilt and the antiques from the acid in my hands. That's natural but acid Incidentally let me tell you now this Rockingham cider pitcher with a bell handle is distinguished by its brown glaze that resembles a tortoise shell produced from 1840 to the 1800s actually Rockingham was made in England and some imbedding in Vermont. This cream we're mixing bowl with panda decoration is known as Mocha. When acetic colorant is applied in blobs it results in a feathering see plant decide. This precious hanging box which used to store salt and certainly here we have a very rare Crow blue ironstone pitcher made by Wedgwood in the latter half of the 1900s. Very expensive when it was manufactured. It's now worth many hundreds of dollars. This is putting mold is a glazed Pennsylvania Dutch red where there's an ear of corn in relief on the bottom and a sweetened corn meal putting would have

baked in the mold. Then it was turned out and the corn design was on top. This brown field is most unusual. And again very rare. It was probably the first water bottle or thermos jug. Notice this is a teeny spout for what you can drink. And isn't this quilt a stunner for a day. It takes my breath away. It's the basket pattern which is a favorite of mine personally it's made of cotton and it was created by using small triangular shaped fabrics in the form of an anvil is generally done in two colors. But as you can see we have several here. Now the common basket serves as a most useful function for Amish women for egg gathering for fruit for laundry marketing measuring. And so it and for the American and the Amish culture the most important basket of all was the fabric scrap basket. This could also be called an album quilt since it signed. And here we have the name of the town Portland Indiana.

Thank you ever so much for joining in my very own wood kitchen. I hope you come back again until next time. Ehsan goot. Good. Savor the charm of the Amish and Mennonite communities with Marsha Adams latest book new recipes from quilt country to order call 1 800 9 1 8 3 600 or write to the address on your screen. This 300 page volume with more than 100 color photos features a crop of heirloom recipes and observations on the land the people and their traditions. You'll also receive a copy of Marsha Adams heartland Journal newsletter. The number is 1 800 900 3 600 credit cards are accepted. Funding for this program is provided in part by Oneida one of America's

established names in table where makers of professional quality cookware bakeware and cutlery including immaculate stainless steel cookware. I don't night at your table is ready. And my replacements limited with over 5 million pieces of china crystal and silver intended to help recapture the memories of dinner at Grandma's. And by the Fremont company makers of snow flossed out. From our family your family.