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Seven Sweets and Sours

Here’s an interview I did with Connie Newbauer about her Anabaptist upbringing, love of food and a recipe for Butterscotch Pie.

Sep 12, 2006

by Connie Newbauer

Born into a community of cooks with the tradition of seven sweets and seven sours at each meal,

Connie Newbauer had no problem feeding the many varied guests she has had in her home over the last 30 years; "there is always something for everyone on our table!"

Raised in Indiana, married in Wisconsin and living

within more than seventeen different cultures while her husband was in the military, Connie soon found herself first combining her culinary heritage with her husband's and then blending it with the customs and foods of each place they've called home. The Newbauers raised six children - now all between the ages of 27 and 16 - on a budget and on the run, and encouraged them to learn the culinary skills of their heritages - both inherited and environmental.

Laughingly describing her family's culinary identity, Connie responded, "If existed such a thing as German,Hispanic, Phillipino, Southern Fusion, that's what we eat!"

Connie Newbauer is the Suite101 Early Childhood host

Where and how did you grow up?

I grew up in an Anabaptist household. The term

Anabaptist means "re-baptizer" and refers to those original Protestants who broke from the Lutheran church and re-baptized their members, believing that the Bible specifically tells you to baptize adults - not children. Members are most widely known as the plain clothed Amish and Old Order Mennonite sects. Also included in this religious group are the Brethren and Mennonites.

Many Brethren and Mennonites walk among you,

unnoticeable due to their modern clothing. I grew up in rural Indiana, the crossroads of many of these groups.

The one thing we all have in common is the tradition of hearty fare at the dinner table.

What is your earliest food memory?

Food and family; the two are eternally intertwined for me. My grandmother, mother and aunts didn't have all of the answers, but they had a willing ear and a piece of pie. By the time you finished talking, they finished listening and the pie was gone, so were your problems!

I don't ever remember getting everyone together and food not being an integral part of the gathering. The food was always fresh, proudly served and dictated by

the seasons.

What is your favorite childhood food memory?

This isn't very glamorous, but I had a cousin, David, who was nine months younger than I. We were always in some mischief together. On this particular Christmas his birthday -, we were so hungry, we couldn't wait to eat, so we tiptoed out into the large sunny kitchen, where our aunts, mothers and grandmother were placing dish after dish on an already over-burdened table. To avoid detection, since we were strictly forbidden to

go out into the kitchen, we shimmied under the lace tablecloth and reached over the edge for the only thing we could reach - the black pitted olives. David and I always did the same thing - and we put one olive on each one of ten fingers and ate them one-by-one.

Thinking we pulled a good one over on the old folks, we crawled from under the table, headed to the living room. I'm not sure what happened next, but there was a screech and a crash and a good plate lay on the ground in chards. The rest of the Christmas meal was not as happy for us as the theft of those olives!

What dishes do you like making with children?

I could never choose a particular dish I like to make with children because it isn't the dish I am attached too - it is the process of mixing, measuring, talking quietly, without direction. Company makes everything taste ever so much better! The companionship holds the

magic to turn an ordinary dish of ice cream into a

banana split with highly piled whipped cream, nuts, marchino cherries and syrups!

A favorite fall recipe:

My favorite thing in the fall is going to church and coming home to the smell of a roast cooking slowly, teasing the neighbors with tantalizing scents wafting from house to house on the cool air! When you walk in the house, everything is made warm and cozy by the simple act of sliding a roast into the oven three hours before!

The meal is completed with roasted or whipped potatoes and gravy, corn-on-the cob, fresh baked rolls, honey butter and - of course - a slice of pie!

Butter Scotch Pie

Bake a crust for one pie. For the filling,

take

1 cup of brown sugar

1 tablespoonful of butter

the yolk of one egg

2 tablespoonfuls of flourMix all together and then stir in

one cup of sweet milkPut over the fire and cook until thick. Flavor with

a little vanillaFor frosting, use:

white of the egg beaten

with a little sugar.Cover the pie with this and return to the oven to brown.Note:This is a wonderful butterscotch pudding as well!Just spoon cooled custard into individual cups,alternating pudding & whipped cream for a prettydessert!

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