The Amish Cook By LOVINA EICHER We have entered November and with it we are off daylight savings time. It seemed different to see daylight when the children left for school shortly after 7 a.m. this morning. November has also brought us some nice, beautiful weather. It is 64 degrees already at 10 a.m. Lovina and Kevin have been taking advantage of it and playing outside in the sand. Saturday was another nice day so Joe and I decided to butcher our roosters. When our chickens hatched their own eggs we ended up with about half of them being roosters. With the roosters not laying any eggs it sure helps stretch out the chicken feed. I have the chicken meat in jars and am processing it now. It'll make some good eating with the young meat. Our children eat canned chicken when it is heated up out of the jars. It tastes really juicy and tender.

We butchered 11 roosters which made 20 quarts of chicken. Usually I cook the chicken off the bones so they don't have to be taken off after it is processed. This time because I have too many other jobs waiting to done so I just stuffed the pieces in wide-mouth canning jars. I put the cans under pressure for 90 minutes. Joe skinned the chickens so cleaning them was a lot easier work. When we don't skin the chicken we have to pluck the feathers and it takes a lot longer. The butchering is a family project. When we do broiler chickens with the skin then there is a lot more cleaning to do, feathers to pluck, and all the family enjoys pitching in.

We went to Jacob and Emma's house Saturdays evening in honor of Jacob's 36th birthday. We had a delicious supper of pizza, cole slaw, chips, chocolate chip bars, and ice cream cake. After supper we all played board games, we had several going at once. Even us adults got in on the playing.

We still have the coal-stove going after the recent cold spell. Now we are debating if we want to let it go out. It takes more coal to start it up again but then when it warms up outside like it is now it makes it too warm in the house. I have the windows open and such a nice breeze is blowing in. It would be a nice day for raking up leaves. The trees are losing their leaves fast. I would like to go out and rake leaves on such a beautiful day. It seems I have too many jobs to get caught up on in the house, though. My pressure cookers are both jingling so in 90 minutes they will be coming off. I have six quarts of chicken left to can.

One pressure cooker holds 7 quarts and I have two pressure cookers.

In addition to the chicken canning, I would like to make some more vegetable soup to put in cans this fall. I have only one or two quarts left and it is such an easy meal when time is running short and you need a hot meal. It also helps with saving on the grocery bill when work is slow. Joe has only 11 more days at the factory for the rest of the year which work being so limited. The economy doesn't look good, may we put our whole trust in our Father up above. He can ease our minds from worry if we only turn to Him. Let us all pray for our country. God's blessings to all.

Meanwhile I will share this recipe for a "pumpkin cake dessert." The recipe calls for two cups pumpkin. I use fresh pumpkin. Growing and home-canning pumpkins is a lot of work. We have to strain out all of the seeds before processing. The home-canned pumpkin is lighter in color than the store-bought kind. You can use store bought pumpkin for this recipe, though, and it'll turn out fine.

Pumpkin Cake Dessert

Four eggs, well-beaten

2 cups pumpkin

1 1 /2 cups sugar

1 / 4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 /2 teaspoon cloves

1 18 oz box yellow cake mix

1 /2 cup butter, melted

1 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 325. Mix eggs, pumpkin, sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Pour into a 13 X 9 inch pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top. Drizzle melted butter over mix. Spread chopped nuts over all. Cover loosely with foil to keep from browning for the first 40 minutes. Remove foil and continuing baking. Total bake time 1 hour and 20 minutes. This is delicious topped with whipped cream.

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