Stoltzfus - A farmers daughter : recipes from a Mennonite kitchen

I grew up in a real farmhouse kitchen in Ohio, where I began creating recipes for our family of six at the age of sixteen. My father was a bi-vocational Mennonite pastor and farmer, so we had a busy life that included ministry and a demanding farm. We raised our own beef, had fresh milk, and for a season had a brood of chickens my mother named and gathered eggs from.

As a young woman away from the farm, I missed all those fresh ingredients and home cooked mealsand I figured I wasnt alone. I opened a store in a western suburb of Washington, DC, called The Farmers Wife, named in honor of my mother. The Farmers Wife specialized in things you would find in a farm kitchen: real butter, farm-fresh milk in glass bottles, and all kinds of baked goodness. Running it for more than four years taught me so much about people, how important food is to our families and relationships, and what recipes make people smile. Though I sold the store in order to raise our young family, Ive remembered and incorporated those lessons into my life, and into this collection of recipes.

My life is rich, but not because my parents had lots of money when we were growing up. It is rich because of the relationships that have been forged through good and hard times. As I reflect about what draws people together, I am struck by how a plate of food, whether it is a simple pasta dish or a delicious steak, plain green beans or green beans almondine, a slice of plain white bread or a piece of crusty artisan sourdough, a plain chocolate chip cookie or peanut butter whoopie pie, has a way of bringing people together. Relationships are formed over food, and sharing meals with the ones you love has a way of opening our lives up to each other.

We use food to live. We use it to celebrate. When you are in a home where you feel welcomed, the food seems to offer confirmation of how you feel. Your senses come alive and your soul is at rest. We gather around food to process life, and throw a party just because there is good food. Rarely do we get together with a group of people without food. We gather around it as a family during happy and sad times. Recently, as our family grieved over the passing of several members, we shared meals together and something good happened. We talked, we reminisced, we laughed, and we criedand we healed in ways we could not have expected, all over food prepared by people who cared for us.

This cookbook is designed to offer simple but wholesome food along with classic recipes that are great to serve your family or to entertain guests. It offers practical tips for entertaining guests with ease and personal stories from my familyand will hopefully spark ideas about creating your own family legacy with recipes. Whether you like to cookor you just like to eat wellI hope you will find simple recipes here that will wow your family.

Dawn

Appetizers, Dips, and Beverages

M y mother has a wonderful array of appetizers she prepares for all of us who can make it home on Christmas Eve. Over the years she has developed the recipes to our familys liking. My mother faithfully creates a wonderful presentation with her amazing kitchen skills. My siblings and I all have our own favorite things we like to see on her buffet table. I know my brother Mikes favorite is the pink jello fluff. My only sister Jenelle and I adore the layered Mexican dip, and my younger brother Garys favorite is all things shrimp. This is such a fun gathering of our hearts as we gather around in the little kitchen, wait for Dad to bless the food, and then dig in and introduce our spouses and children to the things we love on that table. We experience our mothers love as she so graciously prepares things just for us.