THE CHERISHED TABLE

Lovina Eicher, a cookbook author and food columnist, invites readers to the table of her Old Order Amish family. She shares well-loved recipes alongside stories about life with her growing family and community. The book covers the traditions and treasured dishes that go with gatherings large and small, such as canning and butchering days, birthdays, weddings, funerals and family reunions.

More than one hundred recipes are included, with photographs of comforting, wholesome food and of daily life in an Amish home. Readers who know Eicher's earlier cookbooks will find new dishes in chapters on breads and other baked goods, garden produce, farm-raised meats, carry-in dishes, snacks, desserts and more.

Stories about the seasons of family life run through each chapter. Eicher plans simple menus for busy workdays, prepares a meal for parents with a new baby, and counts up the lessons from past family weddings as she looks ahead to another round of marriages. Most cooks will never feed five hundred guests, but there is plenty here to draw on when gathering friends and family. The book also reflects a community that values family, faith and fellowship around a shared table.