The Show me State

missouri. the show me state.

I know my big plan was for each week, to prepare an  international dish that we have never experienced before….but life happens and we made an unplanned trip to Missouri. The middle of no where, Trenton Missouri.  Homeland to the Brennenstuhl’s…..and many many Amish. So that is where this blog post is going.

I have been to Trenton before, but Ryder has never made the trip out there. So Andy, my father in law, Ryder and myself headed out to visit Andy’s grandfather. It was about a 10 hour drive, through very, very flat land. Normally I can not sit in the back seat due to car sickness, but Tom (my father in law) bought me a pair of motion sickness wristbands, which apparently worked, http://www.medshopexpress.com/002129.html.

The first day out there, we ventured over to Jamesport, a town about 10 miles away. It is home of the largest Amish settlement in Missouri. Unfortunately, it was very cold out and Ryder only got a few glimpses of buggies. The main thing I wanted to do was go to H&M country store, it is an Amish store that sells spices in bulk which equals very big savings. I bought a little bit of everything they sold that I currently don’t have, along with some cookie cutters, rolling pins and wasabi peas, all for less than $15. It was an awesome deal.

Next we stopped by the Harris family cabin, the Brennenstuhls are relatives of this family, the cabin was built in the 1830’s by Jesse Harris. He was the first white settler to live among the Native Americans in this area. The 18×18 cabin was home to Polly and Jesse Harris, and 10 children.

Saturday we went to visit one of Tom’s cousins, Shirley. Her husband passed a few years ago, and they are selling the family farm which consists of  approximately 180 acres. Tom spent a lot of time on this farm in his younger days, and wanted Ryder to see it. Ryder also got to take his Red Ryder BB gun out shooting.

Next, we went to Tom’s cousin Bill’s to check out his dairy farm. Ryder needed a little lesson on where milk comes from. I asked him the other day where it comes from and he said “you put a cows wiener in a bucket” I guess that was a pretty good guess!

While we were there, I made a few home cooked meals for Andy’s grandpa, including a family favorite, fried pork tenderloin sandwiches. I used Andy’s grandmothers recipe) she passed away last summer, but I was lucky enough to have been taught by her, how to make these a few years back. Pork loin that has been tenderized, and rolled in saltine crackers, then fried, they are absolutely delicious!

We had a really nice time visiting Grandpa, we will definitely miss him. Ryder really took to him and kept him entertained while we were there. Hopefully he can make it to Kentucky for a visit in the near future.