Summer

Thursday on Amish Wisdom | Sherry Gore guest hosts | Summer in Lancaster with Joel Cliff of www.padutchcountry.com and the Sensationalization of the Amish with Brad Igou

Posted on May 15, 2013 Written by Suzanne Leave a Comment

Tune in on Thursday at 4:00 pm Central! To listen in – go here and just click on the player in the top right corner.

Sherry Gore has agreed to host the show this week in the midst of her busy book launch (TV interviews (including the Today Show), radio interviews and much fun! Be sure to check out all the goings-on over at her blog.) Two guests will be joining Sherry this week. The first half hour will feature Joel Cliff from PADutchCountry.com. He’ll be talking summer in Pennsylvania Amish country – what to do and where to go. Then during the second half hour, Sherry and Brad Igou will take a look at the sensationalism of Amish on TV. Should be fascinating.

Leave a comment {HERE} for a chance to win a copy of Sherry’s new cookbook, Simply Delicious Amish Cooking (or email ckrumm@litfusegroup.com if the comment box isn’t working. Winner will be notified next week via email.

More about Joel Cliff: Joel is the spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau, located in Lancaster County PA. Our organization is the official voice of Lancaster tourism, and our area welcomes about 10 million visitors each year.

Pennsylvania Amish Country is a picturesque landscape that must be witnessed in person to be fully appreciated. Rolling hills with lush grasses and crops, farms with windmills dotting the horizon and horse and buggies sharing the road remind you that things are simpler here in Lancaster County.

Plan your trip and learn more here: http://www.padutchcountry.com.

More about Brad Igou: Brad grew up in Lancaster City. As a sociology-anthropology major at Ithaca College, he lived and worked with an Amish family for three months in Lancaster as part of an independent study. His interest in other cultures took him to the Peace Corps in Costa Rica, where he worked in agricultural extension and taught English for three years. Following a one-year teaching stint in York, he went to Japan, where he taught English and wrote articles on Japan for numerous publications.

Returning to Lancaster in 1987, he secured a position with Amish Country Tours and is now president and a co-owner of the company. During Brad’s tenure, he has overseen the renovation of the Amish Country Homestead, obtained “Heritage Site” status for the Homestead, as well as having written the script for and piecing together the complicated puzzle of the Amish Experience Theater’s critically acclaimed special effects driven production of “Jacob’s Choice”. In addition to the daily tours of the Amish farmlands, Brad has developed popular theme tours for both individuals and groups, especially student groups.

As Editor-in-Chief, Brad is responsible for the editorial content and publishing of Amish Country News, with half a million copies printed annually. In his 25 years in this role, he has written 100’s of articles about Lancaster County for the magazine. His Amish Series has long been one of the most eagerly anticipated in each new issue. He’s been encouraged to publish a compilation of his Amish Country News musings and may yet consider doing so.

In 2005, working with the PA Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau, he was instrumental in planning and scripting the “Witness Movie Anniversary Tour,” which brought visitors to Lancaster from all over the world to see the farm where this famous Hollywood movie was filmed. More recently, he created the Amish Visit-In-Person Tour, which gives visitors the opportunity to personally meet and talk with the Amish where they live and work. In 2010, the VIP Tour was the first, and to date the only, experience to be designated an official “Heritage Tour” by the County of Lancaster, granting prestigious authenticity status to the experience. The year 2013 marked the debut of the Amish Mafia Tour, designed to separate Amish culture fact from fiction as depicted in the Discovery Channel TV series.

In 1999, his compilation of Amish writings titled THE AMISH IN THEIR OWN WORDS was published by Herald Press, and he is currently working on a “Volume Two.” He is a past Chairman of the Board of the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau. While Brad has spent over 12 years living and traveling abroad, he says that his heart always stayed in Lancaster, which he is now proud to call “home.”

More about Sherry: Sherry Gore is a scribe for the national edition of The Budget newspaper, a cookbook author and editor in-chief of Cooking & Such magazine.

Learn more at Sherry’s website, www.sherrygore.com.

More about Sherry’s new cookbook, Simply Delicious Amish Cooking (Zondervan): Unbeknownst to many folks outside the Amish Mennonite population in America, Pinecraft, Florida—a village tucked away in the heart of Sarasota—is the vacation paradise of the Plain People. Unlike any other Plain community in the world, this village is a virtual melting pot of Amish and Mennonites from around the world, intermingled with people, like author Sherry Gore’s family, who live there year-round. Gore has put together a cookbook that represents the people who make Pinecraft unique. With hundreds of easy-to-prepare recipes, 16 full-color photographs and black-and-white photographs throughout, this cookbook includes traditional favorites such as Sweet Potato Sweet Mash and Mrs. Byler’s Glazed Donuts, as well as Florida favorites including Fried Alligator Nuggets, Grilled Lime Fish Fillets, and Strawberry Mango Smoothies. Interspersed with the recipes are true-life stories about births, engagements, weddings, deaths, funerals, celebrations, wildlife encounters, and accidents told through years of Sherry’s Letters from Home column published in The Budget, the Amish newspaper. This delightful cookbook offers readers a faith-based, family-focused perspective of the simple way of life of the Plain People. It is truly a breath of fresh air from Sarasota, Florida!

Purchase a copy of Simply Delicious Amish Cooking today!

Filed Under: Amish Wisdom, Family, Fun, Summer Leave a Comment

And the color is…orange | Rhonda Schrock

Posted on June 22, 2012 Written by Suzanne 3 Comments

We learned it when College Kid was seven. Now, 15 years later, we’re still playing it when we’re waiting, usually in the BMV and usually on The Mister. Here’s how it goes. The “it” person picks an object somewhere within his visual field. He (or she) will sing the little ditty above and name the color. The rest of us (The Restless Ones) search high and low, guessing, guessing, guessing all objects of that color until someone (The Lucky Guesser) names it. Then he’s it.

Little Schrock loves this game. He loves it, even though he never quite nails the words. “Riddle me me me me me,” he chirps in his high, sweet voice. “…and the color is…”

Here, he says it out, bold, eager, as he looks right at the object. The rest of us, brows furrowed, play it up. This is a tough one. What’s he picked out this time?

“Riddle me, riddle me, ree. I see something you can’t see. Riddle me, riddle me, ree, and the color is – orange.”

And it is. It’s my color for this summer. In a season of bone-deep exhaustion, in a whirl of graduation and year-end activities, it’s orange. After weeks of party planning and feeling the stress of pulling it together, pulling it off, holding it together…

The color is orange. Orange sandals. Orange scarf. Cute orange shorts and orange flowers on that sweet, new dress. It’s orange.

In the midst of physical weariness; in spite of emotional and mental exhaustion, I’m choosing orange because of what it says. It shouts life! spunk! happiness! joie de vivre! joy! All of these, even though.

Inside the cover of my brand-new, Italian leather journal I’ve written this verse: “(She) will be like a tree planted by the water. (She) does not fear when heat comes. Her leaves are always green. (She) has no worries in a year of drought. (She) never fails to bear fruit.” – Jer. 17: 7,8. On the outside of the cover, embossed in that beautiful leather, are leaves. In green.

This week, Kid Kaboom goes to Honduras. College Kid is back. We’re short one vehicle. There’s a speech to plan, a proposal to write, a website to finish, my doctor’s going nuts and people are looking for lunch. It’s orange.

It’s orange. And green. For Christ within me is life, spunk, happiness, joie de vivre, joy and the ever-green of a tree that’s planted solid, sound, by a river of living water. Even though.

Even though.

And what, I wonder, is your summer color?

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Rhonda Schrock lives in Northern Indiana with her husband and 4 sons, ages 22, 18, 13, and 5. By day, she is a telecommuting medical transcriptionist. In the early morning hours, she flees to a local coffee shop where she pens “Grounds for Insanity,” a weekly column that appears in The Goshen News. She is an occasional guest columnist in The Hutch News. She’s also blogged professionally for her son’s school of choice, Bethel College, in addition to humor and parenting blogs, and maintains her personal blog, “The Natives are Getting Restless.” She is a writer and editor for the magazine, “Cooking & Such: Adventures in Plain Living.” She survives and thrives on prayer, mochas, and books.

Filed Under: Summer 3 Comments

It’s a Wild-Life Refuge | Rhonda Schrock

Posted on June 8, 2012 Written by Suzanne 4 Comments

Driving past, you wouldn’t know it. From the road, it’s an innocent picture; idyllic, even, that plain, white farmhouse surrounded by trees, garage tucked in on the back side.

On the slab, there’s a basketball hoop, the first thing that hints at the residents of the place. This is overshadowed by a large, spreading maple from which hangs two swings – an ancient tire swing and a horse swing fashioned from a tire. To the left, when one wanders back, there stands a swing set with a canopied tree house, and to the left of that, a sizable garden, freshly planted.

Further on, one notes an old, red barn with what appears to be an addition. To the right of it stands a chicken coop that looks to be undergoing a paint job. It is.

Behind the buildings, then, spreads a large section of pasture land that rolls all the way back to a fence. Beyond it lies a field. Trees rim the fence, marching up and down in a three-sided, leafy-green battalion.

If one passes during the summertime, he or she would note a white picnic table, positioned just there beneath the big, green maple. Somewhere close by, there’s a trampoline, which may or may not be filled with wriggly, jumping pairs of legs. Shouts and hoots accompany this activity, and the neighborhood rings with the sound of – well, a certain kind of music.

The large, sprawling tent over there evokes Huck and Finn. Says ‘adventure’ and ‘fun.’ Speaks to boyhood and the freedom of a summer vacation, to the carefree-ness of a childhood in the country.

As if that weren’t enough, the fire pit by the coop hints at late-night campfires; of cookouts and S’Mores. Of family and friends gathering round in lawn chairs, talking and laughing in the gloaming as frogs croak deep in the pond next door.

All the signs say that it’s a family place. That lots of living happens here. The assortment of bikes, scooters, tricycles, and Cozy Coupes parked haphazard beneath the lean-to all murmur the same message: this is a place for kids. And their parents.

That’s us. And that’s our three acres. What a grand and glorious day it was when we moved from a town-sized lot right around the corner to this lovely little piece of Heaven. Our refuge. That’s what it is.

Actually, I’ve come to think of it as a wild-life refuge, thanks to the other creatures that have shown up lately. The squirrels have taken over, darting rocket like from tree to tree. A family of raccoons have moved in, and the rabbits are apparently – well, doing their ‘rabbit’ thing, proliferative little boogers that they are, ’cause they’re everywhere, too. Then there’s the cardinal seen flitting around, and all those boys…

Those boys. You know ‘em. The ones that practice shooting arrows in the back yard. Who light bottle rockets and firecrackers just to shake things up. Who pound each other on the trampoline, and who are eating us straight out of house and home.

“We’re out of Miracle, Mom,” Little Schrock announced the other night, spooning up red Jell-O at the dining room table. Yes, actually, we were scraping the bottom of the Miracle Whip jar. And the Hellman’s. And the mustard. And the ketchup. And the Sweet Baby Ray’s, which Someone had reported seeing on Someone Else’s popcorn. Go figure.

We are out of “Miracle,” and we could use a few around here, for it really is a wild life on The Three. I could use a miracle or ten today; miracles in patience, wisdom and endurance as school lets out now and summer begins. I’ll need a miracle to make this a refuge for all my “wild life.”

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Filed Under: Family, Summer 4 Comments

Summer is a comin’!

Posted on June 5, 2012 Written by Suzanne Leave a Comment

Last week, my tennis league had a wrap-up-the-season dinner at the captain’s home. It was a perfect summer night–warm, still air, with a very long twilight. I brought along one of my favorite summer salads and it was a hit! I received a number of requests for the recipe, so thought I’d share it with you, my special bleaders. (bloggers + readers = bleaders)

Suzanne’s Strawberry Lettuce Salad

1 head of butter lettuce, cut in small pieces
1 head of romaine lettuce, cut in small pieces
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped (I have used pecans, too)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Dressing:
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup wine vinegar
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the salad ingredients together and chill a few hours. Mix the dressing ingredients and chill. When ready to serve, toss lightly with the dressing. Serve on chilled plates.

To make glazed walnuts:

Lightly spray the baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Place the walnuts and sugar in a nonstick skillet over high heat and stir with a wooden spoon as the sugar begins to dissolve and caramelize. Stir continuously to lightly toast the walnuts and coat with sugar. When walnuts and sugar are dark amber and golden brown, quickly remove them from the pan onto a prepared baking sheet. Spread out the walnuts with a spoon and let them cool completely. Break the walnuts into pieces.

Serves: 6

Filed Under: Family, Food, Summer Leave a Comment