Traditional Gingerbread Men: Mummeli
Each Christmas, my wife Sara and I prepare cards and treats for the various family members we will see during the holiday season. This tradition encourages us to spend time together and allows us...
Category: Cooking
Homemade Ginger Beer
Before the holidays, I was reading a non-fiction book entitled Life on Muskrat Creek which tells the story of a family homesteading in Wyoming during the early 1900s. One chapter describes a Christmas celebration...
The Sauerkraut Diaries
On January 2, 2018, I wrote an article about New Year’s Day memories from the early 1900s. Some of these remembrances were gleaned from the diary entries of my mother, Irene (Faus) Hagenbuch. Of...
Deitsch Foods: Turnip Casserole with Semmede
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Hagenbuch family was part of Pennsylvania’s Deitsch culture. Food was important to the Deitsch. So, with this in mind, my wife Sara and I set about to...
Family Recipes: Wintergreen Cake
In a previous article, I recounted visiting with my great aunt, Gloria (Felix) Faus (b. 1931), in southern California and discovering a family recipe for bean chow-chow. The recipe had been given to her...
Home Remedies
Recently my father, Mark Hagenbuch, handed me a recipe book once owned by Bessie Mae (Robbins) Sechler (b. 1888, d. 1973). It was previously in the possession of Harold Sechler (b. 1923), who is...
Holiday Baking, A Family Tradition
Every year, as we approach Christmas and New Years, many families prepare for the time-honored tradition of holiday baking. Looking back, I can fondly remember platters stacked with pressed cookies, powdered snowballs, and sugar...
Scraps of Paper: Recipe for Bean Chow-Chow
Over the years, this site has featured a number of articles detailing family artifacts and letters. Of particular interest to me are the scraps of paper containing the thoughts and scribbles of our ancestors....
Shrove Tuesday, Fastnacht Day
Although this day was celebrated last week, the following article will give some insight into this very Pennsylvania Deitsch tradition. This article appeared in the March, 1984 Beech Grove newsletter. Literally translated from the German,...
Making Jumbles, a Deitsch Cookie Recipe
Cooking together has always been an important activity for Pennsylvania Deitsch families like the Hagenbuchs. This is especially apparent during the Christmas holiday, when candies, cookies, and sweet treats are prepared in order to...
