my favorite things! - the amish cook

one of my favorite blogs is the amish cook.  or rather, i love the column, which runs in our newspaper on wednesdays.  the amish cook was an amish woman from indiana, who wrote a weekly column about life on the farm in her community.  i enjoyed reading her stories and especially her recipes;  one was published at the end of each column.  when she passed away nearly a decade ago, her daughter took over the column.  lovina is my age, with 8 children ranging in age from 17 to 5.  for years i've followed lovina's stories and recipes, their move from indiana to a community in michigan, and the birth of at least 2 children.  i grew up and currently live in an area that is heavily populated by the amish and mennonites, so  the stories and dishes mean a lot to me.

lovina's family recently hosted the church service in their home, and she described the menu served at the meal.  i love her menu descriptions.  they make my mouth water.

anyway, lovina said they had peanut butter spread sandwiches and egg salad sandwiches.  but the egg salad was no ordinary egg salad.  it had ground up hot dogs in it, and she mentioned that people describe it like ham salad.  i was intrigued and decided to make her recipe.

now, the recipe calls for 6 pounds of hot dogs and 5 dozen eggs.  since i don't intend to feed a throng of hungry parishioners, i cut the recipe down to one pack of hot dogs (8 dogs, all beef ones), 6 eggs, and a cup of salad dressing (becos i don't like mayonnaise and don't have it in the house).  i cut up the eggs and hot dogs and ground them in the food processor instead of a meat grinder (i had to grind them separately and mix them in a separate bowl becos my processor is on the small side).  a grind of pepper, no salt (becos those hot dogs are loaded with enough sodium) and i was done.  it does look like ham salad.  with eggs ground in it:

the salad tasted okay - hot dog salad, really!  if i sit down and think about it, i could probably find a better reduced ratio of hot dogs/eggs/salad dressing/mayo

i also made the peanut butter spread and that recipe is here.  it's verrrry sweet!  i eat it on club crackers so the salt cuts the sweet.  it tastes like melted fudge (i think the recipe is similar to fudge).

the amish cook - she's a favorite thing!