UPDATE: This giveaway is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated! I used Random.org to choose a winner, and that winner is “enperrine.” You should’ve received an email from my assistant asking you to send your name and mailing address to cindy@cindywoodsmall.com. Thank you!

Today’s post was put together by my dear Amish-Mennonite friend, Sherry Gore. I know you will enjoy this sneak peek into her fun personality and her beautiful magazine, Cooking & Such: Adventures in Plain Living. For more information on Sherry and the exciting things going on in her life, please visit www.SherryGore.com or find her on Facebook. 

-Cindy

I love a good recipe. And what could be more satisfying than a mouth-watering dish with a heartwarming (and sometimes hilarious) descriptive story to go along with it? Part of my job as editor-in-chief of the Amish and Mennonite magazine Cooking & Such: Adventures in Plain Living is finding the most talented writers from Plain communities who love to share their stories of adventure and favorite recipes with readers across the world. Here’s a peek inside the pages—this one’s a personal favorite of mine.

-Sherry Gore

Bachelor’s Kitchen

-By David Yoder in Tennessee

Stewed Crackers

Premium, Saltine, or Zesta Crackers
Milk
Eggs
Scrapple or liverwurst
Browned butter

Start with a good name-brand cracker like Premium, Saltine, or Zesta. You can definitely taste the difference if you skimp and try a cheaper brand.

Fill a kettle about half full of milk, and heat. Your kettle size will depend on your family and also the size of the individuals in your family. Don’t worry about measuring the milk. The extra can be used for hot chocolate. When I was a bachelor, I conducted experiments by setting the kettle back on the stove and seeing how many days it would take for the leftover milk to evaporate. Although it never disappeared, it did give a new meaning to the spread commonly called “stink cheese.” Soon after I tired of science, I married.

In a separate bowl, empty several packs of crackers. (Note the separate bowl! A few individuals have put the crackers into the bowl with milk, then confused that dish with stewed crackers. That is “bubbly (baby) soup.”) Set the bowl on a dinner plate so it can catch any excess milk when you pour it on the crackers.

While you are waiting for the milk to start boiling, fry eggs along with scrapple and liverwurst. If you don’t have either of those, you can use canned beef gravy or even chicken or sausage gravy.

When the milk begins to rise in a silent boil, grab the kettle and carefully pour it over the crackers. Pour enough milk so that the crackers just begin to rise in the bowl. Then get another dinner plate and set it on top of the crackers. The bowl should be full enough that the plate is about ¼ inch from the top.

Pour browned butter over the crackers. Do not stir!
P.S. Aunt Hilda says you brown the butter in the kettle, and then heat milk.

P.P.S. Uncle Tobe says, “Use lots of butter!”

Easy Brown Butter

Gather a heavy saucepan or skillet, un-serrated knife, spatula, and ½ cup butter (no substitutes).

Cut butter into pieces. Heat butter in heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir butter or swirl the pan so the butter doesn’t burn. Remove from heat when butter turns light brown and has a subtle nutty aroma.

Sherry Gore is the author of Taste of Pinecraft: Glimpses of Sarasota, Florida’s Amish Culture and Kitchens. She’s appeared in one documentary for National Geographic Channel and is working with the same crew to develop a second. Sherry is the editor of Cooking & Such magazine and The Pinecraft Pauper, and a contributing writer for the national edition of The Budget and Cindy Woodsmall’s blog. She is a member of a Beachy Amish-Mennonite church and makes her home in Sarasota with her family.

Click here to visit Sherry Gore’s website.

 Click here to learn more about Cooking & Such: Adventures in Plain Living magazine and/or to order a subscription.

Giveaway

If you would like to enter for a chance to win one copy of the next issue of Cooking & Such: Adventures in Plain Living magazine, simply leave a comment at the bottom of this post on my website.

If you are reading this anywhere other than my website, such as on Facebook, in an email, or on Goodreads, please hop on over to my website and leave a comment at the bottom of my post to enter the giveaway. Only comments left on my website will be entered into the giveaway. (It’s just too hard to track down all the comments left in various places, and that means it’s too easy to miss some of the comments.)

The deadline for this contest is Friday, August 17, 2012, at noon. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be contacted privately, as well as announced on next Monday’s post.