Mennonite Girls Can Cook (2 page)

“This delightful book is more than just recipes. It’s about the authors’ faith, families, and life experiences. Mennonite cooking is a wholesome, healthy, and economical way to feed your family, or to share the joy of hospitality with friends.”

—Lucy Leid, author of
Countryside Cooking and Chatting

“
Mennonite Girls Can Cook
sends you on an imaginary journey back into the lives of our ancestors. As the authors share their personal stories behind the recipes, you want to become part of this large Mennonite family of special cooks.”

—Esther Shank, author of
Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and Kitchen Secrets

“This cookbook is the culmination of a great virtual potluck that began when ten women started blogging their favorite recipes. These old favorites are now gathered along with new recipes in an easy-to-use book.”

—Marshall King, columnist for
The Elkhart Truth

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Mennonite girls can cook / Lovella Schellenberg … [et al.].

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-8361-9553-8

1. Mennonite cooking. 2. Cookbooks. I. Schellenberg, Lovella, 1959-

TX715.6.M46 2011      641.5’66      C2011-900519-0

MENNONITE GIRLS CAN COOK

Copyright © 2011 by Herald Press, Waterloo, Ont. N21 6H7

Published simultaneously in the United States of America by Herald Press,

Harrisonburg, Va. 22802. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011920439

Canadiana Entry Number: C2011-900519-0

International Standard Book Number: 978-0-8361-9553-8

Printed in the United States of America

Design by Reuben V. Graham

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

To order or request information please call 1-800-245-7894 or visit
www.heraldpress.com

Dedicated to the women in our lives who passed down
the recipes that we have come to love, and to our
families who inspire us every day to be women of faith.

All author royalties from
Mennonite Girls Can Cook
will
be donated to charity to feed hungry children.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Breakfast and Coffee Break

Soups, Salads, and Sides

Suppers

Breads

Desserts and Sweets

Gluten-Free Cooking

Glossary of Terms

Index

The Authors

I feel honored to have been asked to write the foreword for this wonderful cookbook. These Mennonite girls truly love their heritage, as I do my own Amish heritage. Our ancestors left us many treasures. Among them are recipes that come from our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers.

Just as these ten Mennonite girls are doing, I enjoy passing my own Amish heritage down to my children. I hope someday they will do the same. Our heritage is a very important part of our lives, and along with it comes the foods we remember and grew fond of as children. These favorite foods tend to find a way into our hearts.

In
Mennonite Girls Can Cook
I see similarities to my own favorite family recipes. The refrigerator potato rolls, except for the eggs, are very much like the sourdough bread that I make. The noodles in this book, too, are like my own. Then there are the recipes that I had never heard of but am now eager to try, like
Obst Moos
.

Some of the more unusual recipes in this collection reflect the authors’ Russian Mennonite roots, whereas my recipes show my own Swiss-German Amish heritage. Yet these authors and I share a similar Anabaptist faith heritage.

As I read each girl’s story I notice several things we have in common in our traditions. Each of us was taught that the most important part of our heritage is the wonderful conviction that God should always come first in our lives.

The hospitality that the girls write about was also taught to me. I still remember how, when I was a little girl, a homeless man would sometimes stop by our house. Mother was always willing to feed him. This man would walk from one Amish home to another to eat and sleep. My parents always taught us never to refuse anyone if they were hungry and asked for food to eat.

My mother would always ask friends or family who dropped in around mealtime to stay and eat with us. The authors of this cookbook share many similar stories of friends and family dropping in around mealtime and being invited to stay and share in the bounty.

From reading
Mennonite Girls Can Cook
I can tell that each of the authors has a welcoming home and a welcoming heart. I hope that this book will be a great success and that the royalties the girls have donated will help many needy children. I wish each one—Lovella, Anneliese, Judy, Betty, Bev, Charlotte, Ellen, Julie, Kathy, and Marg—God’s blessings.

—Lovina Eicher,
author of the syndicated column
The Amish Cook and cookbooks The Amish Cook at Home The Amish Cook’s Anniversary Book The Amish Cook’s Baking Book