Jan's Amish Three-Bean Salad

Jan here, just back from a trip to Amish Country. Oh, the scenery! The simple sound of trotting horses along country roads! The simpler, slower pace of life!

The food!

I have to admit, I love food in Amish Country. Not souse so much, as you can see in the following post, but mush, scrapple, chicken pie, chicken and noodles, three-bean salad... All foods I grew up on!

Don't forget the pie!!!! 

Since I've been traveling for the past ten days, you get a re-run of a post I wrote after a visit to Amish Country four springs ago...

Jan's Amish Three-Bean Salad

Jan here, home from a week long trip to visit family back East in Amish Country.

Now some of you might think Amish Country is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, or even Holmes County, Ohio. And while there are large Amish settlements in both of those places, real Amish Country is in LaGrange and Elkhart Counties in northern Indiana.


Of course, when you visit Amish Country, you have to eat. And yes, we went to the best restaurants and had the best soups, mashed potatoes and PIE!!!

But I thought you'd like a look at my dad's refrigerator. This is the kind of stuff he keeps on hand for lunches....

These are the meats for sandwiches.

On the left is turkey...the kind normal people buy.

The top center? That's Lebanon baloney. Pure heaven. Oh my. I can taste it now, just looking at that slice....

But the other stuff? Souse.

Souse is made by taking all the leftover pig stuff after you're done butchering, adding in some onions and peppers, adding some good, rich broth, putting it all in a loaf pan and letting it solidify into a block of...this.

I tried it. I won't be making any at our house. I'll let your imagination figure out what parts of a pig would be leftover after making ham, bacon and sausage.


And now the cheeses.

Clockwise from the lower left: Colby from the Amish cheese factory out near Middlebury, Baby Swiss from Holmes County, smoked Gouda, New York Cheddar packaged by Yoder's Market in Shipshewana, and a bit of Muenster.

When you make a sandwich with wheat bread, spicy mustard, turkey and some of that Baby Swiss, you've got yourself a good sandwich!

Here's the final thing to round out a good, Amish Country lunch - Three Bean Salad.

Dad buys his from Das Dutchman Essenhaus (just the best restaurant in the area. Take a look at it here), and it's the tastiest commercial Three Bean Salad I've ever had.

My mom used to make it quite often in the summer, and several years ago I developed my own super simple recipe.

Jan's Three Bean Salad

Ingredients:

1 can green beans, drained
1 can yellow (or wax) beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1/2 small onion, sliced thin and separated into rings
1/4 cup green pepper, cut in 1/2" chunks
1 cup Italian salad dressing or use this recipe for a more traditional dressing:
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons oil
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- pinch black pepper

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for at least 90 minutes. Drain the excess salad dressing before serving.

Now you're all set for an Amish Country lunch!

Don't forget! Naomi's Hope is coming out next month! You can pre-order your copy by going to my website and following the link to your favorite on-line retailer! www.JanDrexler.com

Despite growing pains in her 1846 Amish community in Indiana, Naomi Schrock has settled into a comfortable life in her parents’ home with her adopted son, Davey. Surrounded by family and friends, she tries not to think about the fact that she’s not at the top of any man’s list of potential wives. Yet when Cap Stoltzfus moves into the area and befriends Davey, Naomi finds herself caught between the plans she has made for her future and the tantalizing thought that Cap might be part of a life she never dared to hope for.

When a couple shows up claiming to be Davey’s true family, Naomi and Cap must unite to make the decision that will determine the boy’s future as well as their own. How can she relinquish him to these unknown relatives? And can God somehow bring wholeness to her heart?

Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com

Three Bean Salad, Family Reunions, and a Book Release!

It's August!

That means my new book, A Mother for His Children, is now available at all of your local outlets!

BTW - if your Walmart is like mine, the Love Inspired Historicals won't appear on the shelves until the middle of the month. You can either be patient, or go online to Harlequin.com or Amazon, or your favorite online retailer.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Ruthy also has a book out this month! His Montana Sweetheart is available everywhere :) or you can go online again: Harlequin.com.

Why do we enjoy Love Inspired romances so much?

I think a big part of it is because we love stories about home, family, traditions - new and old, new beginnings, second chances, and God's grace.

A Mother for His Children was inspired by a story in my own family.

This family:

This is my great-grandmother, Bessie Schrock (on the far left), with her family.

Notice G-G-Grandpa Eli's plain clothes. His parents
were the first generation to leave the Amish, but they
didn't leave the plain clothes behind.

And this is my great-grandfather, George Sherck (on the far left) with his family.

The Shercks weren't quite as "Plain" as the Schrocks,
but G-G-Grandpa Isaac never wore a tie.

Eventually George and Bessie met. He courted and she accepted.

Even though he did complain that the whitewash on the tree trunks in the front yard of the Schrock home made his good suit dusty. :)

They had children - my grandmother Ethel and her sisters, Myrtle, Dorothy, Eunice and Ruby.

And in 1928, Ethel married my grandfather, Guy, and they had children. My Dad and his brother and sisters - John, Martha, James, Waneta and Nancy. 

But they never let the bonds of the past loosen too far - family is too important.

For as long as anyone can remember, the Sherck family has been meeting every year for a family get-together. (Can you really call it a "reunion" for a family as close-knit as this one?)

Sherck family, 1938

Not just Grandma, Grandpa, children and grandchildren. As many generations as possible shows up for this reunion.

And not only that, but there's also a Sherck-Weaver reunion every year. The descendants of my great-great-great-grandparents.

When I was growing up, I thought this was normal. I thought every family had close ties like this. Then my world expanded, and I started wondering what made my family unique.

I've decided that a lot of it comes from our family heritage and Amish/Mennonite background. Both of my great-grandparents descended from Anabaptists that were persecuted in Switzerland in the 1600's. The two families came from small towns in the Emmental region of Switzerland only a few miles apart.

The years of persecution, being imprisoned for their faith, ultimately exiled from their homes and taking the long and dangerous journey to a new land cemented bonds in Amish and Mennonite families that are unshakable.

The Sherck reunion is this coming weekend. I won't be there to enjoy renewing family ties - but I'll certainly be thinking about them.

And the food.

You knew I'd bring this around to food, didn't you?

Yes, I'm going to share a recipe, but you have to know it was hard to choose. The only dish I remember from my childhood was the homemade ice cream for dessert. Lots and lots of ice cream, made in hand-cranked ice cream freezers.

And someone usually brought cracklin's - but they were too rich for little girls (just like Laura was told in The Little House in the Big Woods).

I do remember the tables being so full of good food you could never try everything. There's one dish that sticks in my memory, though: Three Bean Salad. You can never go wrong with a good Three Bean Salad!

This is a repeat recipe, but it's perfect for this time of year:


Jan's Three Bean Salad

Ingredients:

1 can green beans, drained

1 can yellow (or wax) beans, drained

1 can kidney beans, drained

1/2 small onion, sliced thin and separated into rings

1/4 cup green pepper, cut in 1/2" chunks

1 cup Italian salad dressing (the easy option)

Or for a more authentic Amish flavor, make this dressing:
1/2 cup vinegar
2 tbsp. oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for at least 90 minutes. Drain the excess salad dressing before serving.

Do you enjoy family reunions?

Jan's Three Bean Salad

Amish Country last spring - this spring was too rainy!

Jan here, back from a week long trip to visit family back in Amish Country.

Now, some of you might think Amish Country is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, or even Holmes County, Ohio. And while there are large Amish settlements in both of those places, real Amish Country is in LaGrange and Elkhart Counties in northern Indiana.



Of course, when you visit Amish Country, you have to eat. And yes, we went to the best restaurants and had the best soups, mashed potatoes and PIE!!!

But I thought you'd like a look at my dad's refrigerator. This is the kind of stuff he keeps on hand for lunches....

These are the meats for sandwiches.

On the left is turkey...the kind normal people buy.

The top center? That's Lebanon baloney. Pure heaven. Oh my. I can taste it now, just looking at that slice....

But the other stuff? Souse.

Souse is made by taking all the leftover pig stuff after you're done butchering, adding in some onions and peppers, adding some good, rich broth, putting it all in a loaf pan and letting it solidify into a block of...this.

I tried it. I won't be making any at our house. I'll let your imagination figure out what parts of a pig would be leftover after making ham, bacon and sausage.


And now the cheeses.

Clockwise from the lower left: Colby from the Amish cheese factory out near Middlebury, Baby Swiss from Holmes County, smoked Gouda, New York Cheddar packaged by Yoder's Market in Shipshewana, and a bit of Muenster.

When you make a sandwich with wheat bread, spicy mustard, turkey and some of that Baby Swiss, you've got yourself a good sandwich!

Here's the final thing to round out a good, Amish Country lunch - Three Bean Salad.

Dad buys his from Das Dutchman Essenhaus (just the best restaurant in the area. Take a look at it here), and it's about the tastiest commercial Three Bean Salad I've ever had.

My mom used to make it quite often in the summer, and several years ago I developed my own super simple recipe.

Jan's Three Bean Salad

Ingredients:

1 can green beans, drained
1 can yellow (or wax) beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1/2 small onion, sliced thin and separated into rings
1/4 cup green pepper, cut in 1/2" chunks
1 cup Italian salad dressing

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for at least 90 minutes. Drain the excess salad dressing before serving.

Now you're all set for an Amish Country lunch!