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Visit out FREE RECIPES category. New recipes added.

By Bertha M.H. Shambaugh.
The sincerity of her thoughts approaches a poetical charm and quality which has not been equaled or duplicated by any other writings about Amana.

This rare book tells about life in the Amana Colonies in Iowa at the turn of the century. A warm, accurate account, it is the only one of its kind, written during the religious-communal era of the Amana people. This is a facsimile of the 1908 book.

This book is published in cooperation with the Museum of Amana History and the State Historical Society of Iowa.  This book is back in print with new pictures added throughout the book. Articles added at the end of the book include, "The Life of Bertha Shambaugh," by Mary Bennett, Archivist, State Historical Society of Iowa, and an epilogue by Lanny Haldy, Executive Director, Amana Heritage Society.

Paperback, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 ", 424 pages. 58 illustrations/photographs. ISBN 978-1932043631

Old Order Amish Bread p. 56

1 pkg. dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1-3/4 cups hot water
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup oil
7-8 cups bread flour

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and set aside. Blend hot water, sugar, salt, oil and 2 cups flour in a mixing bowl. Add yeast and 2 more cups of flour. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Knead 10 minutes, adding remaining flour until dough is no longer sticky. Cover and let rise until double in volume. Punch down and let rise again. Punch down and form into 3 equal loaves. Place loaves in greased 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise until 1 inch above edge of pans (about 45 minutes). Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes more. Remove from pans immediately and cool on racks.

See more recipes under "Free Recipes" section.

Spiral bound, 5-1/2 x 3-1/2", 160 pages.
ISBN 978-1932043501
 

Foods sustain the Amish Mennonite belief of living simply and eating well from their vegetable gardens and farmlands. This book explores Amish Mennonite history, traditions, and foods. Recipes include friendship tea, hot chicken salad, apple butter, dill pickles, green bean casserole, cheesy egg casserole, tomato gravy, Amish lemon pie, funnel cakes, Amish Mennonite tapioca pudding, and buttermilk cookies.

*Free Recipe*
Hash-Brown Casserole

Margaret Chapman

2 pounds frozen hash-brown potatoes,
thawed, or 10 cups shredded potatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup melted margarine
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons diced onions
2 cups sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Combine ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into a 2-1/2-quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Spiral bound, 5-1/2 x 3-1/2", 162 pages.
ISBN 0-971702-56-X

 

Revised and expanded.
Over 100 recipes. Rare, historic photographs. Recipes for the traditional shower of wedding cakes and other customs. The Amanas were settled in Iowa by German-speaking members of the Community of True Inspiration seeking religious freedom in the 19th century. Today, the seven historic villages that make up the Amanas are one of the state's major tourist attractions.
Perfect bound, 6 x 9", 128 pages. ISBN 1-932043-11-X

A handy, stocking-stuffer-sized version of our German-American Life Recipes and Traditions, is packed full of more than 100 recipes, plus tidbits about German culture. Try iced coffee, ham and cheese toast, vegetable broth with dumplings, German-style potato salad, pretzels, German rye bread, Sauerbraten, cod in herbed sauce, apple streusel pie, honey cookies, and more.
168 pages. ISBN 1-932043-34-9

Compiled by Lynn Hattery-Beyer.
Recipes include Berlin punch, German coleslaw, hearty barley soup, raisin bread, sauerbraten, cauliflower in white sauce, and Black Forest cherry cake. Book includes German-American sites, folk art designs, table blessings, traditions, and familiar German words.
Spiral bound, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2", 160 pages. ISBN 1-932043-50-0

By Elizabeth Schuler
A Crown Classic Cookbook Series
Originally published as MEIN KOCKBUCH, GERMAN COOKERY enjoys enormous popularity in Germany. Now completely adapted for use in the American kitchen, it will delight both the experienced cook looking for new recipes, as well as the novice, who has yet to make her first Wiener Schnitzel. All the favorites of German cuisine are here. ISBN 0-517506-63-7

Helga Hughes and her late husband Ken visited Germany repeatedly to collect these recipes and festival traditions from the 16 provinces of the new Germany. The nutcrackers seen on the colorful covers are from German folklorist Karin Gottier. Accented throughout the book are proverbial quotes plucked from works of the Brothers Grimm by Joanne Asala.
Coil bound, 6 x 9", 172 pages. ISBN 1-932043-02-0

By Michael Jelden.
This compact, easy-to-use dictionary contains a whopping 14,000 total entries. It includes parts of speech, noun gender, and verb category; listing of strong and irregular verbs; basic grammar and pronunciation; and a comprehensive geographical appendix.
Paperback, 4 x 6", 522 pages. ISBN 0-781809-06-1

Travel through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with this complete language guide. The two-way, 23-chapter phrasebook includes:

• More than 5,000 dictionary entries
• Essential phrases
• Pronunciation guide
• Basic grammar
• List of the 100 most spoken German words.
  Paperback, 3-1/4 x 7", 267 pages. ISBN 0-781808-57-X

Over 35,000 entries. Good for students and travelers. Included are a phonetic guide to pronunciations in both languages, glossary of menu terms, bilingual instruction on how-to-use the dictionary, bilingual list of irregular verbs, and bilingual list of abbreviations.
Perfect bound, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2", 390 pages. ISBN 0-781803-55-1

This book, designed to be a child''s first foreign-language dictionary, has 500 entries, each accompanied by a large illustration. The book design allows a child to focus on each word and picture and make the connection between them. Each entry features the word in English and its foreign-language equivalent, along with commonsense phonetic pronunciation. Entries include people, colors, numbers, and objects that children encounter and use every day. For ages 5 to 10.
Paperback, 8-1/2 x 11", 94 pages. ISBN 0-781809-86-X
TEMPORARILY OUT OF PRINT 6/1/09 - CALL FOR AVAILABILITY - MAY BE BACK IN PRINT LATE 2010

Perhaps no other stories possess as much power to enchant, delight, and surprise as those penned by the immortal Brothers Grimm. Now, in the new, expanded third edition, renowned scholar and folklorist Jack Zipes has translated all 250 tales collected and published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, plus 29 rare tales omitted from the original German edition, as well as narratives uncovered in the brothers' letters and papers.
Paperback, 6 x 9", 762 pages. ISBN 0-553382-16-0

By Willi Paul Adams. American edition, translated and adapted by LaVern J. Rippley and Eberhard Reichmann. A publication of the Max Kade German-American Center.
The cover photo commemorates more than 300 years of German emigration to North America. The bronze statue, entitled "Parents with two Children," stands at the harbor of the port city of Bremerhaven. Its creation was funded by German-Americans.
ISBN 1-880788-01-2

By Lori Erickson
The stories related in this book will intrigue you. Some may well be the result of an over-active imagination or wishful thinking, but can they all be dismisssed as fiction? You may never look at these peaceful village in the same way again! With an historical backround of the Amana Colonies.
8.2 x 5.3 x 0.5". 172 pages. ISBN 1-8784-8808-2

This book is an autobiography of our "Growing Up Lutheran" remembrances. We both speak at hundreds of Lutheran churches of various synods throughout the nation each year, and countless Lutherans have related their endearing, often hilarious, stories. Many of those stories, and many related pictures, are included in this book and help capture the "Lutheran Experience."
By combining our memories and pictures with those of other Lutherans who grew up in the 40's through the 60's, our book is like an old-fashioned Lutheran church basement hotdish. We have put together a mixture of ingredients that we had on hand, generously salted it with gentle humor, and lightly peppered it with quite a few hot granules of Lutheran theology.
This is most certainly true.
--Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann (Johnson) Nelson

The poems in this anthology represent a panorama of trends in the development of poetry of the German-speaking people. For each poem this book includes an expert literal English translation on the facing page. One can discover the depth of German poetic tradition as they learn the language. Paperbound. 9 3/4 x 6 3/4". 169 pages.

Founded as a communal society in 1855 by German Pietists, the seven villages of Iowa's Amana Colonies make up a community whose crafts, architecture, and institutions reflect and to an extent perpetuate the German heritage of earlier residents. In this intriguing blend of sociolinguistic research and stories from Colonists both past and present, Philip Webber examines the rich cultural and linguistic traditions of the Amanas.

Although the Colonies are open to the outside world, particularly after the Great Change of 1932, many distinctive vestiges of earlier lifeways survive, including the local variety of German known by its speakers as Kolonie-Deutsch. Drawing upon interviews with more than fifty Amana-German speakers in 1989 and 1990, Webber explores the nuances of this home-grown German, signaling the development of local microdialects, the changing pattern in the use of German in the Colonies, and the reciprocal influence of English and German on residents' speech. By letting his sources tell their own stories of earlier days, in which the common message seems to be wir haben fun gehabt or we had fun working together, he illuminates the history and unique qualities of each Colony through the prism of language study.

Webber's introduction to this paperback edition provides an up-to-date itinerary for visitors to the Colonies, information about recent publications on Amana history and culture, and an overview of expanded research opportunities for language study and historical inquiry. The result is an informative and engaging study that will be appreciated by linguists, anthropologists, and historians as well as by general readers interested in these historic villages.

Philip Webber is a professor of German and linguistics at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he has taught since 1976. He is also the author of Pella Dutch: The Portrait of a Language and Its Use by One of Iowa's Ethnic Communities and Zoar in the Civil War.

158 pages, 18 photos, 1 map, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, 2009
$22.95 paper, 1-58729-830-9, 978-1-58729-830-1

Over 2,200 up-to-date practical entries, easy pronunciation stranscriptions, and a handy bilingual glossary. Every entry is numbered and indexed. Also has an extensnive food list and menu guide.
232 pages. ISBN 0-486208-04-4

A day without laughter is a day lost - German proverb magnet 2" x 3"

Marj Nejdl artwork

Coffee and love are best when they are hot - magnet 2" x 3"  German Proverb

Eat, drink, and be merry here on earth - magnet 2" x 3"- German proverb

German Folk Art 2" x 3" magnet, postcard also available

Helen Blanck design

Front of the magnetic bookmark. Bauermalerei folk art design by the late Helen Blanck, the magnet and the magnetic bookmark are available in this design.

A day without laughter is a day lost - German proverb postcard 4" x 6"

Coffee and love are best when they are hot - postcard 4" x 6"

German Proverb

Marj Nejdl artwork

Coffee and love are best when they are hot - postcard 4" x 6"  German Proverb

Marj Nejdl artwork

German Folk Art 4" x 6" postcard, magnet also available

Helen Blanck design

Have you ever kept a diary? With that question author Martha Davis sets out on her journey into the quietly remarkable life of an Old Order Amish woman know to us as Sarah Fisher. Sarah not only kept a diary but welcomed Martha to read it and to view the world through her eyes. The even, peaceful tenor of Sarah's diary entries and the closeness to nature of her life and work will make readers question the pace and values of their own lives, and the degree of social interconnectedness in Sarah's world will offer a model for many of us outside it.
Sarah's brief daily notations, recorded on a calendar throughout 1976 and 1977, reveal an ongoing account of her seasonal routine. In many ways the straightforward simplicity of her writing is a reflection of her life near rural Kalona, Iowa, a life filled with what Martha Davis calls look-easy tasks undertaken without the conveniences of electricity, phones, or automobiles. For Sarah, diaries are a record. A diary can settle a question, a disagreement, she tells Martha. You look back and see what took place. That's history.
Through their conversations, Martha soon discovered she had more in common with Sarah than diary writing. Though Davis lived in the mainstream culture, an English person as the Amish say, like Sarah she grew up on a farm in rural Iowa during the 1950s and 1960s. Like Martha, Sarah had spent several years as a teacher.
In Sarah's Seasons Martha Davis shares their common experiences and common interests gardening, quilting, and cooking. Alongside Sarah's diary, Martha presents their shared recipes and conversations as well as reflections on her own more modern existence. Because of her friendship with Sarah, the author found a new sense of belonging to and purpose in the mainstream world. In the end, Sarah's diary becomes for Martha a meditation on time and community.
Martha Davis is a high school English teacher who lives in Des Moines, Iowa.
CONTENTS
Foreword by Maxine Greene
Acknowledgments
1.Coming to Know Sarah
January and February
2. Sarah the Teacher: Mother and Guide
March and April
3. Sarah the Quilter: The Season of Quilting
May, June, July, and August
4. Sarah the Gardener: The Season of Growing
September and October
5. Sarah the Entrepreneur: The Fisher Kitchens
November and December
6. Sarah the Writer: Circle Letters and Poetry
Afterword
Works Cited
A Bur Oak Book. 198 pages, 20 photos, 4 drawings, 5 1/2 x 8, 1997. By Martha Moore Davis.
ISBN: 0-87745-742-5
ISBN: 978-0-87745-742-8

By Heinrich Hoffmann.
First published in 1845, Struwwelpeter (variosly translated as "slovenly" or "shock-headed" Peter) has become widely recognized as one of the most popular and influential children's books ever written. The book relates in verse and pictures the often gruesome consequences that befall children who torment animals, play with maches, suck their thumbs, refuse to eat, fidget at meals, etc.

Written in rhyming couplets and illustrated by the author, the book was an immediate success. It has since gone through hundreds of editions and been published in almost every European language. The present volume reprints 25 color plates from a German edition (including a bonus plate done for the 100th edition in 1876) with the reset text of a standard English translation. Also included are the full German text and an afterword with a brief biography of the author and note on how the book came to be written.
ISBN 0-486284-69-7

The revised edition of this school book is no longer intended for school children. It meets the special needs of serious students of German and genealogists for whom a knowledge of old German script is essential when deciphering old manuscripts, letters and diaries, church records and entries in old family bibles. Perfect bound. 5 1/4 x 8". 95 pages.