Tag Archives: abundance

Old Stone Well Farm

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When Life Gives You Green Pumpkins

It’s so great to be back home at Old Stone Well Farm, just in time to enjoy autumn’s arrival. And what better way to cozy up to a new season than with a delicious recipe I discovered — one that I make using unusual ingredient.

Come. Pull up a chair. Get cozy. Join me as I see God’s provision right in my little shabby garden. Click on the video below.

And never miss a visit at Old Stone Well Farm, subscribe to this growing YouTube channel, and share with your friends. There’s always room in my old kitchen for more!

P.S.

And here’s the recipe I mention in the video. Let me know if you make it and what you think of it!

Long Winter Green Pumpkin Pie

(As featured in the Little House Cookbook)

Filling

Four pound unripe green pumpkin

1 cup brown sugar

1 pinch each of ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar (or you can substitute hard cider or apple cider)

1 teaspoon butter

Pie Crust (You can make your own or cheat like I do…using premade pie crust. I have yet to master the art of a flaky crust.)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup vegetable shorting

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel the green pumpkin, cut it in half and the quarters.

Cut pumpkin quarters into pieces that resemble apple slices to measure 5 cups and place in a large bowl. Add to that, the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, apple cider vinegar and butter. Stir.

Pour pumpkin mixture into a prepared pie crust, add the top crust, crimp edges and brush with egg wash. I have also seen recipes where cook the pumpkin mixture on the stove for about ten minutes. That might ensure the pumpkin slices will be tender.

Bake at 45-50 minutes or until the pie crust is golden brown.

You can order the Little House cookbook here on Amazon,

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006…

Old Stone Well Farm

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Kitchen Treats from the Farm (Or My Amish ‘Salad’ Saga)

I’m in the kitchen sharing with you how my Indian Strawberry Cornbread turned out, as well as sharing my adventure with an Amish recipe. It’s a fun time here at the farm. So join me…and make sure to leave a comment telling me what you think of these recipes — and if you are tempted to make them yourself. Speaking of recipes. Here they are:

Indian Strawberry Bread

2 Cups of Corn Meal

1 Egg (I forgot the egg when I made mine…so maybe the egg helps!)

½ tsp of Salt

2 tbsp Shortening

Just strawberries and their juice Enough to moisten mixture to cornbread consistency, sort of soft, but not too stiff.

Use white fine corn meal, add salt and melted shortening (butter or crisco) Beat egg a little, and add moistening your mixture with strawberries and their juice (If using frozen strawberries melt them first and they have a little juice with them. If using fresh strawberries, sugar them and let them set awhile until there is juice.) Use a 9 inch pan, bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until it seems done and golden on top.

Creamsicle Salad (This is enough for a Barn Raising!! So if you have small gathering, cut the amounts in half.)

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

20-oz. can crushed pineapple, drained

16-oz. tub whipped topping (like Cool Whip)

2 cups mini marshmallows, fruit-flavored or regular

6-oz. pkg. orange gelatin

1 to 2 15-oz. cans mandarin oranges

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and pineapple. Fold in marshmallows, whipped topping, and orange gelatin. Lastly, stir in mandarin oranges. Spoon into a large glass bowl for best presentation and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least two hours before serving. Can sit out for at least an hour without getting watery.

I got this recipe from Amish365.com, a great resource for Amish living.

Blessings!

Donna

An Abundance of Love

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An Accidental Country Pastor’s Advent Journey 

Come on an Advent journey and walk the rural roads and snow covered paths with Donna Frischknecht as she shares stories of God’s promises being fulfilled in the most amazing ways and unexpected ways. 

Advent Day 3:

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son,

so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Sofie, the bumbling Bernese Mountain dog, stopped snoring. Without budging from the little nest she made out of my hand-stitched quilt that was sprawled out on the bed, she opened her eyes and stared at me. She was perplexed. The old dog couldn’t quite understand why I was jumping out of bed so quickly with excitement—and so early.

She lifted her head a bit as if to inquire, “Is it Christmas morning?” I assured her it wasn’t and not to worry. I leaned over and kissed her head and whispered, “I’ll let you know when there is a doggie treat under the tree for you.” She seemed to understand and cuddled deeper into the quilt and went right back to her snoring.

I, on the other hand, washed up, got dressed and ran downstairs with the speed of a five-year old running to that Christmas morning tree surrounded by presents.

No today wasn’t Christmas. Today was just another Saturday early in the season of Advent. Still I couldn’t shake this feeling that this day was going to be one graced with God’s loving touch. This day was going to be one of those “life back in the country” days in which moments to treasure come with a friendly wave of a car passing by. Moments to remember are often as simple as a hug and a quick chat with a friend in the post office.

Today was going to be one filled with simple abundance and moments to treasure. And it was going to begin with a tradition I had longed to experience once again—the little white church cookie walk.

I first heard of the “cookie walk” as a new pastor serving the church. Admittedly, I had to ask if I had heard correctly. “A cookie what? Walk?” I had no idea what to expect.

Christmas cookies to me were ones that you bought in a store—and usually bought last minute—because who ever had time to cook? I know I didn’t. But there we were gathered at a table meeting in a chilly chapel planning “a walk with cookies?”… “no pastor, a cookie walk” to raise money for the many mission projects being done in and throughout the community.

Who is baking what? How many of chocolate chip cookies should be made? What if we have too many chocolate chips? Is there such a thing as too many? Should there be raisins in the oatmeal? What about molasses crinkles? Does anyone even eat molasses crinkles anymore?

I raised my hand. “I do.”

The conversation continued.

We can have Millie bake those. She bakes the best molasses crinkles.

The morning of the walk I came early to the church and couldn’t believe my eyes when I walked into the chapel. Tables were overflowing with the most amazing homemade creations from the traditional gingerbread men to the intricate date-nut pinwheels. In between there were varieties of cookies to please every palate imaginable. And just enough chocolate chip cookies.

The cookies were sold by the pound and my instructions were to simply walk around and pick and choose what I wanted and put it on my plate. I felt like a kid let loose in a candy store…no, make that a kid let loose in a cookie store.

I walked around and filled my plate. And filled it some more. And filled it even more.

I didn’t notice the eyes of those watching me growing wider. Nor did I hear the chuckling from those seated by the scale that would weigh my plate. After hemming and hawing whether that one last cookie with a bright red cherry in the middle would topple over the pile on plate, I made the decision to place it on top ever so gently. The cookie tower didn’t come crashing down. Whew!

I then carefully balanced the mountain of cookies as I walked to the table for them to be weighed. The scale moved higher and higher till finally it was announced. Um, pastor, that will be $20. I began laughing, assuring all those gathered around me that I would indeed eat every last one all myself.

The little white church cookie walk.

It was today. A day  I just knew was going to be touched with God’s grace. It had been years since I last found my plate overflowing with cookies. Now I was back home. Back to the traditions that had found their way into my heart and refused to let go. Christmas had come early.

I got my plate once again and turned to tackle those tables filled with cookies. But before digging in, I paused and stared at the beautiful sight of cookies I remembered and longed to taste again.

Those in the chapel probably thought I was just standing there deciding where to begin. I wasn’t though. I was in prayer. For what I was staring at in front of me was not just an abundance of cookies. I was in the presence of an abundance of love. Love that baked those cookies. Love that was represented in treasured recipes handed down from generation to generation. The love of wanting to share with others, to help others and to be gathered together.

I paused at the tables and thought of the season of Advent we are in. A season of anticipating the birth of the Christ child and all that that child’s birth will mean in our lives. I thought about the simple gift of a child that God gave to us, a gift that came with an abundance love. The same love that was in that room. And with a silent “Amen” my prayer was over.

With the eyes widening of those gathered around me, the accidental country pastor began to fill her plate once again…and fill it some more…and more…and more…

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An abundance of love found at the little white church’s cookie walk.