Special Recipes and Poems

Friendship Cake

1 cup greetings
1/2 cup of smiles
1/2 cup of love
1 tsp. sympathy
2 lg. handshakes
2 cups hospitality

Cream greetings and smiles. Add handshakes, beaten slighly. Add love slowly. Sift sympathy and hospitality. Serve with humility.
Recipe from 1998 Platt SD Hospital Recipebook

Recipe for a New Year

Take 365 days, trim off all the old memories of hate and discord. Soak and wash thoroughly in plenty of love and courage. Cut these days into 12 parts, cooking only one day at a time. Be sure the fire is hot with enthusiasm and your kettle is bright with hope.

Season each kettleful with some kindness for others and add patience, for small trials that come up every day.

Add a little earnestness and willingness. Serve with smiles, praise and plenty of heartwarming joy, with your chin up. Author unknown

Recipe for a Day

"Take a little dash of water, and a little leaven of prayer,
And a little bit of morning gold, dissolved in the morning air;
Add to your meal some merriment, and a thought for kith and kin,
And then, as a prime ingedient, a plenty of work thrown in,
But spice it all with the essence of love and a little whiff of play;
Let the wise old Book, and a glance above, complete the wellmade day."
Author Unknown... from The Home Demonstration Clubs, Davison County, SD recipe book

Recipe for a Happy Marriage and Family

1 cup consideration
1 cup of courtesy
2 cups of flattery, carefully considered
2 cups of human kindness
1 gallon of faith in God and each other

Add:
2 cups of praise
1 pinch of in-laws
A reasonable budget
A generous dash of cooperation
3 Tbsp. pure extract of "I am sorry."
1 cup contentment
2 children, at least

1 cup each of:
Confidence. Encouragement, 1 large or 1 small hobbies. And always read the Bible together. Always keep faith in the Lord and each other. Add 1 cup of blindness to each other's faults.
From an Amish Church Cookbook

Recipe For a Good Day

Take two parts of unselfishness and one part of patience and work together. Add plenty of industry. Lighten with good spirits and sweetened with kindness. Put in smiles as thick as raisins in plum pudding, and bake by the warmth, which stems from a loving heart. If this fails to make a good day, the fault is not with the recipe but with the cook.

Sue Cake

Light oven and get utensils and ingredients out. Remove blocks and toys from table. Grease the pan and crack nuts.

Measure 2 cups flour; remove Sue's hands from flour; wash flour off Sue. Remeasure flour. Put flour, baking powder and salt in sifter. Get dust pan; brush up pieces of bowl Sue knocked on floor. Get another bowl.

Answer doorbell. Return to kitchen. Remove Sue's hands from bowl. Wash Sue. Answer the phone. Return to kitchen. Remove 1/4 lb salt from greased pan. Look for Sue. Grease another pan. Answer telephone. Return to kitchen and find Sue. Remove her hands from the bowl. Pick up greased pan and find layer of nut shells in it. Head for Sue who flees, knocking bowl off table.

Wash kitchen floor, the table, the walls and the dishes. Call the baker and go lie down!!! see recipe

How to Preserve Children

To preserve children take:
1 large grassy field
1/2 dozen children
2 or 3 small dogs
a binch of brook
some pebbles

Mix the children and the dogs well together. Put them in the field, stirring constantly. Pour the brook over the pebbles. Sprinkle the field with some flowers. Spread over all a deep blue sky. Bake in a hot sun. When thoroughly browned, remove and set to cool in a bathtub!
Recipe from a South Dakota old recipebook

Scripture Cake

1 cup Judges 5:25 (butter)
2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
2 cups Nahum 3:12 (figs or dates)
6 Isaiah 10:14 (eggs)
1/2 cup Judges 4:19 (milk)
2 tsp. Amos 4:25 (baking powder)
2 Tbsp. 1 Samuel 14:25 (honey)
2 cups 1 Samuel 30:12 (raisins)
2 cups Numbers 17:8 (almonds)
pinch of Leviticus 2:13 (salt)
11 Chronicles 9:9 (spices)

Note: It may be necessary to use all of flour.
Cream butter with sugar, chop figs and add to mixture. Beat eggs until frothy, add milk. Sift part of flour with baking powder; add remaining flour. Add alternately to creamed mixture with egg mixture. Beat well. Add honey. Chop raisons and almonds; add to mixture with remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into pan and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Yield 12 servings
Recipe from an Indiana 1968 church cookbook

Also see: A Mother's Prayer

Recipe for Happiness

2 heaping cups of patience
1 heartful of love
2 handsful of generosity
a dash of laughter
1 headful of understanding

Sprinkle generouly with kindness. Add plenty of faith, and mix well. Spread over a period of a lifetime and serve to everyone you meet.
(Date Unknown)

Recipe for Living

1 full cup of love
1/4 cup willpower, packed firm
3 oz. determination
A dash of flexibility
1 lrge head of understanding
Few leaves of awareness (fresh, if possible) 1/2 lb. pride, cut into small portions
1 lb humility
A sprinkling of common sense
A pinch of adventure
1 full (8oz.) can foresight
A hint of hindsight
A few sprigs of humor, seasoned to taste

Saute love and understanding until tender. Mix well and continue cooking gently. In a large bowl, blend will power and determination well to avoid procrastination, adding a dash of flexibility to accomodate life's delicate variations. Fold in a few leaves of awareness (more, if you savor knowledge) Set aside to rise and expand its flavor throughout the days.
In a separate bowl, combine pride, whisked lightly with humility. Pour in common sense and sprinkle lightly with adventure. Set oven with foresight for each new day, but hindsight... just enough to profit from the old. Season entire mixture with humor. Bake for twenty-four hours, testing often and adjusting to the wonders of each new day.
Author Unknown... taken from an Indiana Church Cookbook

Directions for Successful Family Living

To: 1/2 cup of friendship, add 1 cup of thoughtfulness...
Cream together with a pinch of powdered tenderness,
Very lightly beaten in a bowl of loyalty with a cup of faith,
One of hope and one of charity.......
Be sure to add a spoonful each of gaiety that sings and
Also the ability to laugh at little things.....
Moisten with the sudden tears of heartfelt sympathy..
Bake in a good natured pan and serve repeatedly.
Sent in by Mrs. Earl Zentz, Jr., Omaha, Nebr. 1961

Recipe for Moulding A Perfect Housewife

Let the mistress of the house take 2 lbs. of the best Self Control, 4 1/2 lbs. of Justice, 1 lb. of Consideration, 5 lbs. of Patience and 1 lb. of Discipline.

Let this be sweetened with Charity. Let simmer well.

Let it be taken daily. In extreme cases, take hourly doses and let it always be kept close at hand.

Then the domestic wheels will run quite smoothly.
see this recipe

My Kitchen Prayer

God bless my little kitchen,
I love it's every nook,
And bless me as I do my work,
Wash pans and pots, and cook.

And may the meals that I prepare
Be seasoned from above
With Thy great blessings and Thy grace,
But most of all -- Thy love.

As we partake of earthly food,
The tale before us spread...
We'll not forget to thank the Lord
Who gives us daily bread

So bless my little kitchen, God,
And those who enter in...
May they find naught but joy and peace,
And happiness therein.

A Special Diet

Breakfast:
1 grapefruit
3oz skim milk
1 slice whole wheat toast, dry

Lunch:
4oz lean broiled chicken breast
1 cup steamed spinach
1 cup herb tea
1 chocolate chip cookie

Mid-Afternoon Snack:
Rest of package of cookies
2 pints turtle ice cream
1 jar hot fudge sauce, nuts, cherries, whipped cream

Dinner:
2 loaves garlic bread with cheese
Large pepperoni pizza and cheese pizza
4(16oz) soft drinks (not diet)
3 large candy bars

Late Evening Snack:
Entire turtle pie (preferable from Baskin Robbins) eaten directly from the freezer.

Rules for this Diet:
1. If you eat something and no one sees it, it has NO calories!
2. If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, calories are canceled out by the diet soda.
3. When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if you eat more than they do.
4. Calories don't count if you eat standing up!
5. Food used for medicinal purpose never counts, such as hot chocolate, brandy, toast and Sara Lee cheesecake.
6. If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner.
From an Amish Church Cookbook

I'm Too Fat Poem

If you're getting too stout
In the way that you are faring;
And you no longer fit
All the clothes you've been wearing.

Instead of sad sighs
And disconsolate yelpings,
Try a shake of your head....
And refuse second helpings!
see this poem

Life's Clock

The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour.

To lose one's wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one's health is more.
To lose one's soul is such a loss.
As no man can restore.

The present only is our own,
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in "Tomorrows" for
The clock may then be still.
Author unknown