We had a wonderful visit with our family in Ohio recently

I am at the dentist’s office while daughter Susan gets her teeth cleaned. We came in our buggy pulled by our 18-year-old horse Diamond. It was a nice ride into town with the temperature warmed up into the 50s.

I am hoping for a nice warm day to wash our curtains and our windows. If the weather stays this nice we might be able to get that accomplished yet. The week does seem filled up already.

Thursday evening we had parent-teacher conferences at the school. The term is already a quarter over with. Friday there will be no school due to the teachers having some meetings.

One of my daughters and myself will go help make subs for a “sub drive” on Friday.

The proceeds from the subs sold go to help a family in our church with medical bills. It is nice to help one another with each other’s burdens. It lightens the load when everyone pitches in to help.

We spent Friday evening to Sunday evening this past weekend visiting family in Holmes County, Ohio.

We started out Friday around 4:30 p.m. We stopped to eat supper along the way and arrived out there around 10 p.m. We stayed both nights at Joe’s uncle John and Susie’s house. We sure appreciated their hospitality.

John and Susie’s children have all grown up and moved away from home. I imagine it was quite peaceful for them when we left with our children. Our children loved to play with their two dogs.

Saturday morning we joined John and Susie at a fund-raiser breakfast their church was having.

Joe’s uncle Solomon, aunts Nancy and Rachel, and cousin Arlene and family were all there as well. We then looked up Joe’s brother Benjamin, Miriam and family. We had a nice visit with them.

From there we headed for the Pearl Valley Cheese Factory where we picked up some Swiss cheese and trail bologna.

Every time Joe’s father would go to Ohio he’d come back with Swiss cheese and trail bologna. It seems hard to not pick some up when we go to Ohio.

We ate lunch at Miller’s Dutch Kitchen in Baltic and then headed back to John and Susie’s house. Aunt Nancy joined us for pizza for our supper.

After we ate, Nancy took us over to show us where she lives. The next morning she made us a delicious breakfast consisting of biscuits, sausage gravy, fried potatoes, eggs, bacon, monkey bread, coffee and orange juice.

Joe’s aunts Rachel and Nancy and uncle Phillip joined us for breakfast. After breakfast we went to Joe’s uncle Solomon’s house.

We visited with him for awhile and he seems to be doing well to think how many broken bones he has from the 11 foot fall. Next we stopped in to visit with Joe’s sister Esther and her husband David.

From there we headed to my aunt Lovina and Abe’s house for the noon meal. She had fixed a good meal for us.

Her stepson and family joined us and so did cousin Amos and family, cousin Elizabeth and family and cousin Lovina and family.

We used to all be in the same church growing up so we had a lot of catching up to do. It was so surprising to see how their children had grown.

I think they thought the same about ours. They grow up way too fast. We headed for home at 3 p.m. and arrived back at 8 p.m. safe and sound.

I will share a monkey bread recipe with you.

MONKEY BREAD

Bread dough to make your own biscuits or 4 tubes of refrigerated biscuits

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Syrup

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix cinnamon and sugar together, cut biscuits into quarters, and shake biscuits in mixture. Place 1/2 of the pieces in a bundt pan, pour 1/2 of the syrup over this. Repeat with remaining biscuits and syrup. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve warm.

Readers with culinary or cultural questions or to share recipes write Lovina at: Lovina Eicher, c/o Oasis Newsfeatures, P.O. Box 157, Middletown, OH 45042. To learn more about Amish culture and the Amish Cook column and to sign up for the twice weekly newsletter, visit www.amishcookonline.com or “The Amish Cook Fan Page” on Facebook.