Wednesday I had a short but sweet visit from my oldest sibling Leah, age 65, and her son Paul Jr. They also brought sister Verena along.

With everyone’s Christmas card to family and neighbors I sent along a slip of paper with a week out of the year to have them do something special for sister Verena, such as sending a letter, a phone call, a visit or whatever they wanted to do in the week they were sent.

Verena has many lonely days living alone and her health not permitting her to work. I thought this would be a way of cheering her up. This was Leah’s week, so she hired a driver and drove the 2 hours to Michigan. After leaving here, she picked up sister Emma and took her and Verena out to eat in town.

Verena then stayed at Emma’s house for a few days. She sometimes spends a few days at Emma’s or here to help pass time.

Plans are to move sister Susan’s belongings over here to our pole barn on Friday evening. Sister Emma’s family and our family plan to all help. Susan had accumulated lots of things in her 44 years. Susan has been gone for over 4 years now and Verena wanted this done sooner but is just not able to. It’s never easy parting with a dear one’s personal property. Rest in peace dear sister.

On Wednesday evening our church is having a farewell supper in honor of our deacon Sylvan and Martha and family. They are packing up and moving to Montana to make it their new home. May God bless them in this new adventure. We moved 2 hours from our home to our home in Michigan in 2004.

I can’t imagine moving that far but I did find out home is where the heart is.

Daughter Elizabeth and Tim have finally been able to move out of their house and into their garage. They made living quarters in their garage making three bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen area and living room.

This will be their temporary home while they tear down their toxic mold-infested home and build a new one. Their home isn’t that old but experts say it was already started with mold between the walls when Tim bought it before their marriage.

This was a great disappointment to them and also expensive as they were advised to dispose a lot of their belongings that couldn’t be treated from mold. They have had a lot of sickness due to living in the house with mold. We hope life will start looking brighter for them and good health returns.

Elizabeth said it’s not easy going from a three-story house to a small garage and finding room for everything with a family.

The dandelion greens are up everywhere and my husband Joe keeps reminding me that we haven’t had dandelion salad yet and before we know it the yellow flowers will be popping up making the greens too bitter to use. We use the young greens for the salad.

We love the dandelion salad on top of steamed potatoes along with fresh bacon or ham.

God Bless!

Dandelion Sour Cream Salad

Ingredients

4 cups packed young dandelion greens

4 hard-boiled eggs, diced

Sour cream dressing:

2 cups milk

1/2 cup whipped salad dressing or mayonnaise

1 cup apple cider vinegar

salt to taste

Directions

Place the eggs and dandelion greens in a large bowl and pour the dressing over them.

Dressing: Combine whipped salad dressing or mayonnaise with vinegar and mix well then add milk and salt. I use a shaker bottle to make dressing or a quart jar. Any unused dressing can be stored in the refrigerator for a week or more.

Variation: Substitute in-season fresh from the garden lettuce or endive or spinach for the dandelion greens.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife and mother of eight who lives in southeastern Michigan.