The Amish Cook By KEVIN WILLIAMS Editor's Note: Lovina is taking this week off to prepare for church services to be held in her home. Her column will return next week. The process of getting The Amish Cook column from notebook paper to newspaper used to be much more involved. In the column's first year, back in 1991, I was only 18-years-old and the internet and email were, for most people, still relegated to geeky corners of universities. In those days I would use a fax machine and one-by-one dial the Amish Cook to its destination. That was considered pretty cutting-edge. Fast-forward almost 20 years and how times have changed: what once took two hours now takes two minutes. I simply type in and email the column to newspapers. And my futuristic fax machine sits on a shelf under an inch of dust, long rendered useless by the internet.

In one of the early columns, Elizabeth Coblentz ­ Lovina's mother and column predecessor - mailed her handwritten column to me as usual. Her penmanship, like Lovina's, was typically beautiful. But in this particular column her recipe for homemade strawberry jam was a little difficult to decipher. And I couldn't just cross-check a similar recipe on the internet like I can today. Calling Elizabeth was out of the question, for her the nearest phone was miles away. So I did what any 18-year-old might do: I guessed. And so went in the annals of Amish Cook history one of the biggest recipe disasters ever: what should have said "add some" salt I typed in as "epsom salt." Even worse, some readers actually tried the recipe at home. Epsom salt is great for treating shingles and as a laxative, but not so good in strawberry jam.

On another occasion, I erred by instead of typing that Elizabeth served "fried chicken" at a wedding, I typed in "fried children" which breezed right through my spell-check, past some copy-editors, and onto newspaper pages. There are probably still a few readers who quit reading the column in disgust if believing that was a typical Amish wedding menu.

It was after the Epsom salt disaster that I came up with the idea of employing a communications tactic not widely used since World War II: carrier pigeons. I had heard of carrier pigeons being used to deliver messages to commanders on the front-lines. But a few fast phone calls revealed the complexity of such an operation. We would have to have had a colony of pigeons at Elizabeth's and on my end, something I didn't think my parents would have appreciated at the time.

There have been other missteps through the years, but hopefully the column has grown and improved with the times. One technological leap I'm excited to introduce this year is AmishCookTV.

AMISHCOOKTV? Old Order Amishand Mennonites are generally familiar with my work, and they trust me to present their environment in an educational and respectful way. Because of this, I'm often given photographic access to areas that many other journalists don't get which is the reason behind AmishCookTV. This is a subscription channel online, but people with slow dial-up connections or no internet access at all can get the programming mailed to them on a DVD at the end of the season (which runs September ­ June). Some of the content available on AmishCookTV over the year ahead includes: a tour of Lovina's house, a visit to an Amish church service the evening before its held, meal time at Lovina's, Amish quilts, visit inside an Old Order Amish one-room schoolhouse, visit to an Old Order Mennonite Store, tour of an Amish buggy shop, cooking demonstrations , and 15 minuteweekly newscast anchored by Kevin Williams covering all the latest news in Amish-Mennonite country. For information about how to subscribe to AmishCookTVvisit amishcookonline.com. Current Amish Cook Friend Club members receive AmishCookTV for free, so please contact orders@oasisnewsfeatures to get your email address or postal address on the list. For those who don't have internet access, to join The Amish Cook Friend Club gold level, which includes the AmishCookTVDVD anda quarterly newsletter, send $50 to Oasis Newsfeatures, PO BOX 2144, Middletown, Ohio 45042, or $75 Editor's Circle which includes a DVD of all the past year's videos.

Since Lovina is taking this week off to prepare for church services to be held at her house, I will share a recipe that is always served for the occasion: peanut butter mixture.

Amish Church Peanut Butter Spread

Makes 1 1 3/ 4 cups

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup marshmallow creme

1 cup light corn syrup

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, marshmallow creme, and corn syrup. Stir with a rubber spatula until the mixture is smooth and evenly combined. Place the mixture in a covered container and refrigerate overnight. Allow the spread to come to room temperature before serving on bread or over ice cream.

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