The Amish Cook: Gloria Gives Thanks and Shares a Pumpkin Pie Recipe From Her Minister's Family (2024)

THE AMISH COOK

BY GLORIA YODER

Cheery Thanksgiving greetings to all!

Thanksgiving is a special season to give thanks, an excellent motivator to get our minds geared into a positive direction.

November seems like such an ideal time of the year for Thanksgiving with a busy summer behind us. Our canning shelves are loaded to the brim with green beans, squash, homemade pizza sauce and ketchup to name a few. Our chest freezer also reflects a bountiful harvest of corn, strawberries, and peppers. It’s a blessing to have the garden emptied or almost, that is. I confess we still haven’t dug up our sweet potatoes yet. They’re covered with straw. Hopefully they have been kept safe from the heavy frost we had yesterday morning.

Despite the fact that Thanksgiving is a holiday to be thankful in a special way if you are like me it is so easy to get caught up in menus and plans that it is easy to forget the real core of Thanksgiving is to have a joyful heart.

To Grace, from Lagrange, Missouri, I was impressed with the idea you shared of how you used to have each of your children write several things on a piece that they’re thankful for and have them read it off on Thanksgiving Day. As you mention in your letter it’s not about having them name the biggest, noblest items. It stimulated their young minds to be grateful even if it was things such as green glasses to drink milk with, your son being thankful for grandparents who aren’t looking when he breaks the chicken eggs or your daughter’s gratitude for seconds on cherry pie.

I was also impressed by an article I read with a list of questions designed to spark Thanksgiving discussions. There were thoughts as follows: who is the most consistently grateful person you know? What’s the one thing you learned this year for which you are most thankful? For what do you feel the most grateful to God for? If you could thank one person for in your life for their influence on you (living or deceased) who would it be?

These questions gave me something to think about. Am I living in gratitude with God? Radiating his love and joy to those around me? I think what I am most thankful for over the past year is the faithfulness of God and the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit in ministering to us. As for the most grateful person I know? My husband! He can often see the positive in a negative and that has really helped me look at life in a different way. My husband Daniel keeps reminding me that the more we focus on others and their well-being the less we’ll worry about our own misfortunes and trials.

And who would I thank for influencing my life? My parents. My Mom and Dad did a lot for me in laying the foundation of my life.

How about making pumpkin for your Thanksgiving dinner?

I know there are a lot of pumpkin pie recipes out there. I’ve had many different kinds. But when I tried my first piece of this pumpkin pie made by a lady in our church I knew it ranked at the very top of the list. I knew I had to get the recipe. I have it and I am eager to pass it on to you. The recipe comes to us from one of our minister’s 102-year-old grandmother. This minister’s wife remarked how grandma’s pie always tasted exceptionally good yet when she would try to make it, it just didn’t take like grandma’s. Also, when making this you can use all milk, but using evaporated milk or cream instead of just milk will result in a richer pie, so that why there is cream and milk in the ingredient list.

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