An Amish Christmas Recipe Box

by Jan Drexler

  Just then, Rose came into the kitchen. She grabbed the egg basket from the counter and tossed her shawl around her shoulders.

  “Sorry I’m late. I slept in again.”

  Mamm frowned. “You’re making a habit out of these late-night hours. Isn’t it a bit chilly to spend so many evenings driving through the country with Johnny?”

  “But it’s fun,” Rose said. “I’ll be back in time to help with breakfast.”

  Mamm shook her head as Rose slammed the door. “Those two had better get married soon. Their courting is wearing me out.” Then she smiled at Ada. “Thank goodness you don’t have a beau, Ada. You are content to stay here at home with me, aren’t you?”

  “For sure,” Ada said, stirring the frosting slowly. The texture was just right. “But I might have a beau one day.”

  Mamm gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Not my Ada. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  Ada didn’t say anything and instead started frosting the cupcakes. She swirled each one with white icing, then sprinkled red and green sugar over the top, holding her mouth in a tight line. If she opened it, she might say something that would disappoint Mamm, but if she didn’t, the tears welling up inside her might spill out. How could Mamm think she would be happy living at home for the rest of her life?

  At the same time, Mamm was right. Pretty girls won beaus. Slim girls who giggled together at fellowship dinners after church had beaus. Not the girls whose apron strings were always a bit too tight.

  After breakfast was done and the dishes cleaned up, Ada took the boxes of cookies and cupcakes to the store. The sun had warmed the ice to slush, even though the wind was still brisk.

  As she filled the glass cases with her baked goods, Vernon’s buggy went past the store window, followed by Amos’s buggy. She smoothed her apron, trying to still the butterflies in her stomach. Rose came into the front of the store just as Ada took a deep breath and picked up the plate of molasses crinkles.

  “Is Amos here already?” she asked, putting away her duster and switching on the lights.

  “He drove his buggy, so he arrived earlier than usual.” Ada tugged on her skirt to straighten it.

  “You look fine.”

  Ada gave her sister a smile of thanks, then saw the new worker, Matthias, ride past the window on his bicycle. She took another deep breath as Rose gave her shoulder a little push.

  Matthias hung his coat on the hook next to Amos’s and Vernon’s, then unwound the wool scarf from his neck. As he hung his hat on the hook with his coat, the door leading to the store opened and Ada came into the workshop with a plate of cookies in her hands.

  Her cheeks were bright red as she let the door close behind her. Matthias smiled, waiting for her to look his way. When they had been in school together, he had been convinced she didn’t like him at all. Unlike some of the other girls who huddled in groups and giggled whenever he looked their way, Ada spent their recess and lunch times sitting with a book, engrossed in whatever story she was reading. The longest conversation he ever had with her was last week, when he talked with her in the furniture store.

  Ada didn’t look his way but shifted from one foot to the other as she stared at Amos and Vernon. The two men were sitting at the lunch table, drinking coffee before the clock struck eight. They didn’t notice as she stood there, her eyebrows peaked and her lip pulled between her teeth. The rosy cheeks had faded. She took a step back toward the door. The plate tilted to one side and the cookies slid toward the edge.

  Matthias crossed the space between them in two strides and tipped the plate up until it was level again.

  He grinned when she gave him a startled look. “I didn’t want you to spill the cookies. They look delicious.”

  She laughed, the sound tight and strained, and tightened her grip on the plate. “Would you like a molasses crinkle?”

  “I was hoping you’d offer me one.”

  “Ada! What do you have there?” Amos’s voice echoed in the quiet workshop. “Cookies? Are they for me?”

  Matthias eyed the cookies, ready to choose one when Ada spun around to look toward Amos, pulling the plate out of his reach.

  “I made them for you and everyone in the workshop.” She walked to the table, nearly tripping over a rough spot in the cement floor.

  Amos sat up and reached for the plate, a grin on his face.

  “Denki.” He grabbed a cookie and shoved it into his mouth, then handed the plate to Vernon.

  By the time Matthias reached the table, Amos had grabbed two more. Ada’s face was red again as she watched Amos. “Do you like them?”

  “Sure.” Amos shrugged and pushed another cookie into his mouth. He glanced at the clock as he stood up, putting a fourth cookie into his work apron pocket. “Got to get to work.”

  “I’ll leave the rest here on the table,” Ada said as Amos and Vernon walked toward their workbenches. “You can have more later.”

  Matthias took a cookie from the plate as Ada’s voice faded. She stared after Amos and Vernon, but they paid no attention to her.

  “It was nice of you to bring the cookies.” Matthias bit into the treat, the sugary outside giving way to the tender molasses cookie. “This is delicious. I think I like this one better than the sugar cookie I had before.”

  The corners of her mouth quivered a little as she rubbed her palms on her apron. “They’re only molasses cookies.” Her long dark eyelashes glistened as they brushed her cheeks. “Nothing special.” She walked back to the door that led to the store, her shoulders rounded.

  Matthias watched her through the door’s window until she disappeared into the furniture store. After growing up with three sisters, he knew girls could be moody sometimes, but he didn’t remember Ada ever being upset about anything. Even during math, if she had made a mistake on a problem she was working on the chalkboard, she would only laugh it off and try again. He took a second cookie, then made his way to his workbench just as Leroy came into the shop.

  The older man clapped his hand on Matthias’s shoulder. “How are things going, Matthias? You seem to be settling into the job.”

  “Jah, for sure.” Matthias turned to Leroy. “I appreciate you giving me this opportunity to work.”

  “You’re a skilled wood-crafter, just like your father was. I have a proposition for you.” He led the way to a different workstation where the bench was filled with carving tools. “Many of our customers like special touches on their furniture. Things like this.”

  Leroy handed a table leg to Matthias. It was made of oak with dark mahogany inlaid in a narrow band that followed the grain of the oak from the foot to the top, where the leg would be fastened to the table. Matthias couldn’t resist running his finger along the dark stripe. The inlay was flawless. The mahogany and the oak were wedded together as if they had grown that way.

  “This is beautiful.” He handed the leg back to Leroy. “Who crafted this?”

  “Your father.” Leroy stroked the smooth wood. “He did this one as a sample, and we had many orders based on it. But after your family moved to Wisconsin, I had to take it off the sales floor. I couldn’t find anyone else who was interested in trying to duplicate it.”

  Matthias glanced across the workshop. Amos and Vernon had turned on their power saws and were cutting lengths of wood to the specified sizes for the furniture, just as Matthias had spent the last week doing. His hands ached to do finer work. Hand work. “I would like to try, if that’s all right.”

  Leroy chuckled. “That’s what I hoped you would say.” He gestured toward the tools on the bench. “Try it out. See what you can do.”

  “I can’t promise I’ll finish anything today.”

  “I don’t expect you to. This is an experiment. If you can do it and like it, we’ll both be happy. If not, you can always join Amos and Vernon again.”

  Nodding his thanks as Leroy went to his office, he turned to the workbench and picked up a chisel. The wooden handle was smooth to his touch, worn by hours of us
e. His Dat had used and loved these tools and had crafted beautiful furniture with them. Matthias had learned to appreciate woodcarving from him and spent every spare minute with his knife and a block of wood in his hands. His heart thudded as he examined the table leg. Could he hope to duplicate Dat’s skill?

  He rummaged through the scrap bin until he found what he was looking for, a nice piece of oak and a sliver of mahogany. Taking it back to the workbench, he spent the rest of the morning experimenting with the tools, seeking the best way to work with the wood to make it yield to the vision he had in his mind.

  The time passed unnoticed until Amos and Vernon turned off their power saws, signaling that it was noon and time for lunch. His stomach growled, reminding him that it had been hours since he had eaten Ada’s cookies, and he reluctantly left his work. He rolled his shoulders as he walked to the table in the corner of the building with his lunch box. After the break, he would have to remember to sit on the stool Leroy had provided for him.

  Amos and Vernon sat at the table already, their lunches laid on the table, the last of the molasses cookies in Amos’s hand.

  “Those cookies were pretty good,” Vernon said. He unwrapped his sandwich.

  “Better than any you could make.” Amos popped the last of the cookie in his mouth and unwrapped his sandwich. “You should think of giving up the bachelor life, Vernon. Marry a girl like Ada and you’d be eating well for the rest of your life.”

  Vernon blushed, glancing at the door. Leroy’s office was empty, and Matthias figured the boss had gone to his house across the driveway for his dinner.

  “Ada’s too young for me. You know that.” Vernon took a bite of his sandwich. “Besides”—he spoke around his mouthful of bread and peanut butter—“I’m too old to get married.”

  Matthias took his sandwich from its wax-paper wrapping. Turkey and mayonnaise on white bread. He took a bite as he listened to Amos and Vernon.

  “What about you?” Vernon asked, giving Amos a soft punch on his shoulder. “You should marry Ada.”

  Amos shook his head. “No way,” he said, using the Englisch phrase. “I don’t want to be saddled with a tub like her.”

  As Vernon answered with a snorting laugh, Matthias squirmed in his chair. He hardly knew either of his co-workers, but he couldn’t let Amos’s comment slide by. “Ada’s a nice girl.”

  Amos laughed. “A nice girl? Nice and plump. She would eat her husband out of house and home.”

  “Is that all you think is important in a girl?” Matthias worked to keep his voice even and pleasant. “A girl like Ada would make a fine wife for anyone.”

  “What do you know about it?” Amos laughed even harder. “Guys like you and Vernon couldn’t even get a prettier girl to talk to you.”

  Matthias took another bite of his sandwich, working to ignore the other men. Ada’s lovely face came to his mind, her pink cheeks glowing from the cold air on that first morning he came to work. He couldn’t think of a prettier girl than Ada.

  CHAPTER THREE

  On the second Friday of the Great Cookie Campaign, Rose reached around Ada’s shoulder and grabbed a cookie off the cooling rack.

  “No more of that!” Ada said, shoving Rose aside with her hip. “These cookies are for the guys in the workshop.”

  “You mean they’re for Amos,” Rose said, giving Ada a playful shove in return.

  “Shh!” Ada frowned at her sister. “No one is supposed to know about that.”

  “You mean the Great Cookie Campaign? Don’t worry. Mamm is upstairs and Dat is still in the barn doing his chores.” She took a bite of the cookie. “Mmm. You haven’t made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in a long time. These are delicious. Do you think Amos will like them?”

  Ada sighed. Last week had been disappointing, with Amos devouring the cookies and ignoring her. “I hope so. He seemed to like the molasses crinkles, but he still didn’t act as if he knew I was there.”

  “Did you talk to him?”

  “Of course I did. I even asked if he liked them.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He ate another cookie and went off to work.”

  Rose leaned against the sink, watching her mix up another batch of gingerbread. “He’ll have to notice you today. Just smile and be nice to him.”

  The dull headache that had plagued Ada all week started up again. She put her mixing spoon down and looked at Rose. “Do you really think he will? You don’t think I’m going to be an old maid?”

  Rose shook her head. “You won’t be an old maid. Not with the way you bake.”

  “But Amos never looks at me. I don’t think he even notices anything I do or say.”

  “Maybe he isn’t the one for you. Maybe the Good Lord has someone else in mind to be your husband.”

  Ada pressed her lips together. If the Good Lord had someone else for her, he would have shown up by now, for sure.

  “Nee, it can’t be. Amos is the only one for me.”

  “What about the new boy? Matthias?”

  “I’ve known him forever.” Ada went back to her mixing. “We were in school together before he moved to Wisconsin.”

  “So what’s wrong with him?”

  “Nothing.” Ada paused, picturing Matthias in her mind. His smile was the thing that struck her the most. His smile was friendly, and she never got the feeling he was making fun of her. “Nothing is wrong with him. He just isn’t Amos.”

  “And Amos is perfect.”

  Ada almost agreed, then she saw the teasing look on Rose’s face. “All right, he isn’t perfect. But he is so good-looking, he must be nice. I just want to get to know him so I can see what he’s like for myself.”

  “As long as you’re sure, then I’m on your side.” She snatched another cookie, then grabbed her shawl from the hook. “I’m going out to gather the eggs. Let me know what Amos says when you deliver those cookies.”

  “I will,” Ada said, pouring the gingerbread batter into the cake pan.

  But later, at the end of the noon break when she took the plate of cookies into the workshop, Amos wasn’t there.

  “He telephoned the office this morning,” Dat said, helping himself to a cookie. “He said he was sick today.”

  “I hope it isn’t anything serious.”

  “Nothing the weekend won’t cure.” Dat went into his office, a frown on his face.

  Matthias smiled at her as he took a cookie from the plate. “I wouldn’t worry about Amos. He’ll be fine on Monday.”

  “Oh.” Ada looked at the plate in her hand. So much for getting Amos to notice her today.

  Vernon patted the table. “Set that plate down here, Ada. I’ll eat Amos’s share.” He chuckled, sounding more like a cackling hen than anything else.

  Ada set the plate on the table, next to a toy horse. When she looked at the horse again, she saw that it wasn’t a simple toy. Picking it up, she ran her fingers along the horse’s mane, the curves making it look like the horse was facing into the wind.

  “Who made this?”

  Matthias took it from her, turning it in his hand, rubbing a rough spot on the horse’s flank.

  “I did.” He set it back on the table, where it balanced perfectly.

  “It looks just like a horse.”

  He grinned. “I hope it does. I’m making it for my nephew’s Christmas present.”

  “You have several nephews, don’t you?”

  “Five, if you count the baby.”

  “Are you making horses for all of them?”

  He opened his lunch box and set a cow on the table next to the horse. “Not just horses, but cows and pigs, too. My Dat made barns for the boys last year, so I had the idea of making animals to go in the barns.”

  Ada picked up the cow. It was about four inches high and held its tail along the side of its flank, as if it was swishing a fly.

  “They are very realistic. I’ve never seen such fine work.”

  “It’s just a toy.” Matthias shrugged. “I make them in m
y spare time.”

  “What else do you make?”

  He glanced at the clock. “We have time before I need to start working again. I’ll show you what Leroy asked me to work on.”

  He led her to a workbench. A vise held a piece of wood on top of the bench. In the center of the wood was a long groove.

  “I’m inlaying mahogany into this piece of oak.” He leaned over the bench and brushed a piece of curled wood away. “The hardest part was figuring out which tools to use to make the groove. I remember watching Dat do it, but that was years ago.”

  Matthias picked up a narrow piece of darker wood and pressed it into the groove.

  “That’s going to be beautiful,” Ada said. She leaned closer. The dark band was striking in contrast to the lighter oak.

  “I hope the customers think so.” He looked at her, his dark brown eyes glowing. “I’m just glad I was able to get it to work.”

  She noticed a finished table leg lying on the workbench. “Will it look like that when it’s done?”

  Matthias nodded, picking it up. “Dat made this one, and Leroy wanted me to see if I could replicate it.”

  “I remember when we used to sell these tables in the store. The customers have been asking if we have more.” Ada ran her finger along the mahogany inlay Matthias had just inserted until a sharp prick stopped her.

  “Ouch.” A splinter had embedded itself deep under her skin.

  “That’s what you get for fooling around with my work.” Matthias grinned at her as he grabbed her hand and pulled it under his work light. He flicked the light on and examined her finger, holding her arm under his elbow, pinning her against him. Ada tugged at her arm, feeling a bit foolish, but Matthias gripped it tightly.

  “Hold still. This won’t take a minute.” He took a pair of tweezers from his bench and bent his head over her hand.

  Gritting her teeth, Ada waited for the sharp pain she knew would come when he drew out the splinter, but before she felt anything, he released her.