Breath of Spring (24 page)

I want to marry Adam and live happily ever after.

As she blew out the rest of the flames, applause and cheers erupted around her.

“I figured ya were windy enough to hit all the candles at once,” Nellie remarked beside her. “Even if they
are
spread all the way around that big cake.”

Annie Mae smiled slyly. “Maybe I had more than one wish.”

As the kids crowded around the table for cake, calling out their ice cream preferences to Bishop Tom, Annie Mae slipped over to be with Adam. She wanted to wrap her arm around his sturdy shoulders, but this wasn’t the proper place to display such affection—or to seem too pushy. Sure, Adam had brought her a fresh bouquet and was smiling up at her as though she were the only girl in the room, but she shouldn’t make any assumptions.

“After the way I blew up in your face, last time we took a walk,” she murmured, “I’m hopin’ you’ll want to walk again, later today . . . maybe after all these folks have gone home?”

Oh, but Adam’s grin tickled her! His dark hair was glossy and clean, combed back over his ears at enough of an angle to look almost English . . . just a little bit bold. His clean-shaven face set off deep brown eyes that glimmered at her. Had he always been such a striking fellow, or was he a new man now that he’d sold his cycle and released his guilt? “Best idea I’ve heard today. A party for just you and me.”

“
Jah,
I’d like that . . . Short Stack.”

Adam chortled at the nickname. “Shall I come by for ya, then? What time?”

Seeing that the folks crowding around the cake table seemed in no hurry to leave, Annie Mae murmured, “I’ll be there soon as I can, okay?”

“I’ll be ready for ya, too—soon as I’ve had my cake and ice cream, of course.”

Adam sat on the front porch swing as the pearl gray of early dusk settled around him. Folks had stayed at Bishop Tom’s through the supper hour to enjoy the sandwiches, salads, and desserts—which was a good thing. He’d scrambled to wash the piled-up dishes and to redd up the front room before Annie Mae came over. He couldn’t do anything about the
FOR SALE
sign that still hung at Bishop’s Ridge, but he’d planned his strategy . . . gathered his courage and prepared himself for her visit. A walk
she
had requested.

And here she came, strolling alongside the fenced pasture where Dan Kanagy’s sheep grazed. She looked prim yet queenly in her cape dress of deep rose, her white apron, and her
kapp
with its strings tied in a bow beneath her chin. Adam stilled his swinging . . . felt the exact moment when Annie Mae’s eyes found his. He stood, his whole body thrumming as he crossed the yard and the road.

When she ducked behind the windbreak of evergreens, Adam chuckled. “You’re looking mighty pretty—and happy, Annie Mae,” he said as he followed her. “That’s a fine thing now that you’ve turned eighteen, and maybe turned a few corners, too.”

“If a girl can’t be happy after a birthday party like that one, she needs a swift kick and a talkin’-to.”

Adam held out his hand, feeling a jolt when their fingers linked. “I’m in the mood for some talking . . . among other things.”

When her blue eyes glimmered, he couldn’t resist kissing her cheek—even though he wished he were standing on the higher side of the slope. And yet, when Annie Mae’s arms encircled his shoulders and she kissed him full on the lips, Adam found absolutely nothing wrong with the way they fit together. Their kiss lengthened, lingering in the shelter of the whispering evergreens.

“I’ve been wishin’ for that,” she murmured after she eased away. “Hopin’ I haven’t blown my chances—and your patience.”

“That’ll never happen,” Adam replied. “Let’s stroll over home, to the swing out back. The lilac bushes are tall enough that Matthias can’t spy on us there.”

“Matthias needs a new woman—something better to do than spyin’ on
you
.”

“You’ve got that right,” Adam replied. “And now that I’ve thought about things from a different angle . . . you’ve got
everything
right, Annie Mae.”

As they strolled across the road, Annie Mae’s gaze did funny things to his insides. Adam prayed he wouldn’t say something totally stupid tonight. The breeze was gentle and warm as the evening settled over them with a serenity only longtime friends could feel. Adam couldn’t recall ever
yearning
for a new future, a fresh start, the way he was at this moment. Yet he yearned with a confidence he’d not felt before.

Annie Mae glanced toward the large white house on Bishop’s Ridge. “I’m sorry for the way I blew up when we saw that fella haulin’ out Mamm’s stuff,” she murmured. “I hope you’ll forgive—”

“You were forgiven even before you put that pie in my wagon.” Adam led her up the wooden porch stairs that creaked with their ascending weight. “Anybody would’ve been upset. And we can’t help but wonder who’ll move in.”

“I can’t do a thing about that, so I’ve quit worryin’ about it. Right now, I just want to be with you.”

Adam inhaled to corral his runaway thoughts. As they entered the front room, he was glad he’d cleared away the clutter . . . grateful that in the deepening shadows and the glow of the lamps, his house took on a homey warmth that camouflaged its faults.

Annie Mae looked around with a smile. “I remember so many rainy afternoons when you boys and Nellie and I played Monopoly in here—”

“
Jah,
because you always won!”

“—and that time we set up the croquet set, usin’ chairs for wickets,” she continued with a giggle. “Oh, but your
mamm
was fumin’ when Matthias hit a ball so hard it bounced up and broke a lamp!”

It seemed like a lead-in he shouldn’t ignore, so Adam took a leap of faith. “Truth be told, it’s time to fix things up around this place. I could use a female perspective on wall colors and what furniture to replace and—”

“And I’ve always loved this embroidered plaque,” Annie Mae said as she led him to the kitchen doorway. “What a perfect Bible verse—‘behold, I make all things new.’ Don’t change
this,
all right?”

Adam looked at the framed picture his mother had made, probably before he was born. “From the book of Revelation,” he murmured. “We’ve had a few of those lately.”

“And it’s about
you,
Adam,” Annie Mae insisted in a rising voice. “Not only does it fit with your remodelin’ business, but it’s—well, it’s workin’ on
me,
too.”

She fished something from her apron pocket . . . the reading glasses he’d put on her way back in January, before he could’ve guessed where such an impulsive gesture would lead. “I’m seein’ things more clearly now, because these bring the details into focus, just like ya said,” Annie Mae murmured. “Not a day goes by that I don’t have these specs in my pocket, and—and I think of ya every time I dress in the morning, or pull them out to read a recipe or—”

When Annie Mae shrugged, her recent worries seemed to fall away. “You’ve made all the difference in my life, Adam. I’m just . . . sayin’.”

For a moment he got lost in her crystal blue eyes. Here was another golden moment he shouldn’t allow to pass by. “Annie Mae, would you let me court you and—”

“Only if ya won’t stop there. And . . . well, there’s one more thing.”

Adam held his breath. After such pleasant talk that had all been going his way, something about the lift of Annie Mae’s brow warned him not to rush into a proposal. “
Jah?
” he asked after several moments ticked by.

“When I go to the bank with Miriam tomorrow, I’m havin’ the teller put that bike money back in your account.”

And what did
that
mean? Adam held her gaze, even as his heart started sliding into his stomach. “Now, why would you want to—I thought we talked about that, and—”

“I can’t let ya give me that much money, Adam,” she stated somberly. Then her lip twitched. “But I could let ya
spend
it on me—and on all the things ya want to fix in this house.”

He let out an exasperated sigh. “But I’ll be doing the work myself! I don’t
need
that money to—”

Annie Mae placed her hands firmly on his shoulders. “The six of us Knepps aren’t a destructive bunch, but we make for some wear and tear,” she explained. “Ask Bishop Tom about the chalk drawings in the upstairs hallway ya just painted for him—and about how much we
eat,
” she went on. “It takes a chunk of change to pay our way, Short Stack. Just fillin’ up the fridge and the pantry’s gonna make your eyes bug out, considerin’ what you and Matthias are used to shoppin’ for.”

As her words sank in, Adam blinked. “Are you saying you’d want to—”

“Marry ya?” Annie Mae’s eyes got shiny. But instead of crying, she smiled almost shyly. “I’ve decided you’re right about how stayin’ a
maidel
would make for a lonely life. Are
you
sayin’ you’re brave enough to take me on? Along with the rest of us?”

Above them, footsteps made the upstairs hallway creak. Adam gestured toward the back door. “Let’s go out to the swing. No reason for Matthias to eavesdrop on this conversation.”

“
Jah,
because then he would
envy
us. And envy’s a sin,” she teased.

Adam’s pulse thrummed steadily as, hand in hand, they stepped out into the cool evening air. Birds chirped as they found their nests for the night, and the lilac bushes sweetened the breeze with their heady perfume. He couldn’t recall a prettier spring in Willow Ridge. And the pieces of his future seemed to be falling effortlessly into place, as long as he agreed with Annie Mae’s way of financing it.

And she hadn’t
refused
his gift, after all. She was merely redirecting it—
repurposing
it, folks said nowadays. As a man who rebuilt and transformed everything from ductwork to plumbing to hardwood floors, Adam could appreciate that concept.

So all it would take to complete this new vision of his hearth and home was one little word....

Annie Mae stepped between the tall lilac bushes and smiled. The swing out here hung from a wooden A-frame and was completely surrounded by green, leafy branches and their fragrant blooms. She slid onto the slatted wooden swing, running her hand over smooth white enamel that seemed to glow in the twilight. “Oh, but I can recall how we kids used to kick up our heels, pumpin’ as hard as we could, to see if we could swing all the way over the top of the frame.”

“
Jah,
it’s
gut
that Mamm stopped us before we fell out on our heads, too.” Adam slipped his arm along the top of the swing. “But I’ve gotta say . . . my heart’s thumping with the same sort of thrill right now as when we were playing our daredevil games here.”

Annie Mae let herself slide down slightly, so her head rested on Adam’s arm and she was looking
up
at him. And he looked
good
from that angle. “Mine, too,” she admitted. “But it’s not a scary thumpin’, like cows stampedin’. It’s because I feel happy and safe and . . . like I’m right where I’m supposed to be. I think I could sit here amongst these lilacs forever.”

“We could arrange that,” Adam whispered. He brushed his lips so tenderly across her cheek, she closed her eyes with the sweetness of it. “I want to fix up the house for you while we court, and then I
do
want to marry you, Annie Mae. If you’ll have me.”

It was the most serious moment of her life, yet Annie Mae began to giggle. She slipped her fingers into Adam’s soft hair and guided him toward another long, slow kiss like she’d been wanting so much lately . . . like she looked forward to sharing for a long, long time.

“If I’ll
have
ya?” she teased softly. She smiled into his dark eyes, where she saw herself reflected in their depths. “I think I already do.”

Because I love to cook as much as Miriam and Naomi do, here are recipes for some of the dishes they’ve served up in BREATH OF SPRING. The weather is warming up in Willow Ridge but the gardens aren’t yet producing, so these dishes reflect that time of year when Plain folks empty out their freezers and use up the quart jars of last summer’s harvest, preparing for the fresh food to come. I constantly read Amish cookbooks,
The Budget
, and Lovina Eicher’s weekly newspaper column,
The Amish Cook
, so I can say yes, the convenience foods you see as ingredients are authentic!

I’ll also post these on my website,
www.CharlotteHubbard.com
. If you don’t see the recipe you want, please e-mail me via my website to request it, plus bookmarks, etc.—and let me know how you like them! I hope you enjoy making these dishes as much as I do! Yum!

~Charlotte

Sausage and Rice Casserole

Here’s an easy dish that feeds 6 to 8 people and makes the house smell wonderful while it’s baking. You can use any kind of sausage, cheese, and rice your family enjoys most.

Cook the sausage, crumble, and drain. Combine cooked rice and 1½ cups of the cheese. Spread into a buttered/sprayed 2-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle sausage over rice. Combine rest of the ingredients except for ½ C. of the cheese. Pour over the sausage. Sprinkle remaining ½ C. cheese over on top of everything. Cover loosely with foil and bake at 350° for 40 to 45 minutes.

Macaroni and Goat Cheese

Homemade mac and cheese surely must be the ultimate comfort food, and the goat cheese in this recipe adds creaminess and just enough zing to set this recipe apart from others. I use whole wheat macaroni, which adds extra nutrition. For seasonings, I like some garlic powder, ground dill weed, and parsley.

Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain, rinse, and set aside.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Stir in flour until well blended and bubbly. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly; continue cooking and stirring until slightly thickened. Add the herbs, salt, and pepper, then stir in the goat cheese and Cheddar. Stir in about 3 ounces of the Parmesan cheese. Continue cooking and stirring until cheeses have melted. Stir in the drained macaroni and turn into the prepared baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs with melted butter and toss with the remaining Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the casserole. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until bubbly and nicely browned.

Kitchen Hint:
Do heels of bread loaves go uneaten at your house? I keep them in the freezer and chop them in the food processor to make bread crumbs for recipes like this one.

Hot Fudge Cake

This fabulous dessert has to be one of the best chocolate concoctions I’ve ever made—and by using so much cocoa powder (Hershey’s Special Dark is my favorite), you can almost convince yourself that those antioxidants make this a healthy fix for your chocolate cravings! The sauce remains syrupy and makes enough to spoon over your ice cream, as well.

Preheat oven to 350° and butter/spray an 8” or 9” square pan. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar. Stir in milk, melted shortening and vanilla. Spread mixture in the prepared pan (it will be very stiff).

Sauce:

Mix brown sugar and cocoa powder and sprinkle over the cake batter. Pour hot water over all. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes, or until cake feels firm beneath the sauce. Serve warm with ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers.

Kitchen Hint:
You can rewarm leftover cake in the microwave. Separate into pieces with sauce over each piece, cover, and heat in 30-second intervals until it’s as warm as you want it.

Ham Loaf

Here’s a nice alternative to meat loaf, and it picks up a tangy sweet-sour taste from the glaze as it bakes. You can ask someone at the meat counter in the grocery store to grind your ham—or use a hand-cranked grinder, as Amish women do, or use a food processor blade, as I do. When cold, this loaf slices well for sandwiches!

Glaze:

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine the ground ham, ground pork, onion, eggs, cracker crumbs, tapioca, and milk. Mix thoroughly and form into two loaves. Place in a sprayed/greased roaster or baking pan. Mix the glaze ingredients in a small pan and boil for a few minutes, then pour the glaze over the ham loaves. Cover and bake about an hour and a half, basting occasionally. Glaze will thicken as it cooks down. Allow to cool about 15 minutes before slicing, and serve with glaze.

Kitchen Hint:
Minute tapioca isn’t just for pudding or thickening fruit pies! In this recipe, it gives the ham loaf a firmer texture so it won’t break apart when you slice it.

Another Hint:
You can also bake your loaves in a large crockery cooker for about 6 hours, but the glaze won’t thicken as much.

Lime Bars

Here’s a twist on traditional lemon bars—same soft-gooey-sweet-tart filling, but made with lime instead of lemon!

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease/spray a 9” x 13” pan. Combine the flour, powdered sugar, and butter or margarine until well blended. Press dough into the bottom of the pan, and bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, sugar, lime juice and zest, 4 T. flour, baking powder, and food coloring. Pour over the crust and bake 20 to 25 minutes more. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cool. These will freeze well with wax paper between layers of bars.

Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup

Here’s a potful of comfort food for a chilly day, and the tomatoes give this version of chicken soup a little something out of the ordinary. Serve with warm, crusty bread for a satisfying meal.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, cover the chicken pieces with water and boil them about half an hour or until the meat’s cooked through. Reserve the broth. Cut the meat from the bones and into small pieces. Meanwhile, add the carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, and tomatoes to the broth with the bouillon cubes and seasonings, to taste, and the bay leaves. Add in the cooked chicken pieces. Simmer, covered, for about an hour, adding more water or purchased chicken broth as needed.

Remove the bay leaves. Add the cream of chicken soup last, stirring until it’s blended into the broth. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Kitchen Hint:
If you like a more filling soup, add a cup of uncooked rice or macaroni after the vegetables are soft. You’ll need to add another cup or two of broth (or of water and bouillon cubes) to accommodate the way the starch will absorb the liquid as it cooks.

Beef and Bean Stew

Here’s a great filler-upper supper for a cool evening, and since it’s made from canned ingredients, it goes together quickly. Serve in bowls, or over split biscuits or corn bread.

In a large skillet, brown beef and onion until cooked through; drain the grease and return this mixture to the skillet. Stir in tomatoes, beans, hominy, and corn and bring to a low boil. Mix the cornstarch and water, then add to stew as a thickener. Add Worcestershire sauce and other seasonings to taste, and simmer over low heat for about 15 more minutes. Serves 4–6.

Kitchen Hint:
Like beans? You can add another can or two of any sort of drained beans (pintos, kidneys, blacks, etc.) You can also serve this fragrant stew over rice or mashed potatoes.

Easy Warm Peaches

I came up with this idea one morning “on the fly,” when I wanted a warm fruit to serve over baked oatmeal. Warm peaches also taste good with granola sprinkled over them.

Place sliced peaches, still frozen, in a skillet over low heat. As they thaw and cook, stir to distribute moisture (add a spoonful of water, if needed) and sprinkle with cinnamon to taste. When peaches are heated through and liquid becomes syrupy, remove from heat and serve. If using canned peaches, pour just enough of the syrup into the skillet with the fruit to keep it moist, and stir over low heat, adding the cinnamon.

Kitchen Hint:
You can also prepare warm peaches in the microwave. With frozen fruit, heat for two-minute intervals until all the slices are warmed through and the cinnamon is evenly mixed in. With canned fruit, use one-minute intervals.

Annie Mae’s Apple Pie

Looking for a way to perk up an old standby? What a difference it makes to use brown sugar and fresh lemon rind along with your favorite firm apple—my choice is usually Jonagold, Honey Crisp, Braeburn—or a mixture of them.

Preheat oven to 375°. Place apple slices in a large bowl, add brown sugar, spices, flour, the lemon rind and the juice, and mix until apples are coated. Place filling in the bottom crust and dot with butter. Slice the other crust into strips and weave for a lattice top; flute the edges. Cover the edge with foil and bake for 25 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes. Makes 8 large slices.

Kitchen Hint:
I can never get the foil to stay around my crust edge, so I use a nifty adjustable silicone pie shield instead. You can find them in kitchen gadget shops or online.

Sugar Cream Pie

Here’s a something-from-nothing dessert made from simple ingredients already on your shelves. The filling is very much like a classic blancmange, except the Amish add butter, pour it into a crust, and call it pie!