I had a wonderful dinner this evening.

Wow this brings back memories when my grandmother, mother, and I used to go to the Lancaster, PA area where of course a lot of Amish live...I remember one restaurant...an all you can eat type place, where of course was run by Amish, everything homemade...used to LOVE that Shoo Fly Pie! OMG--I just did a search as I was curious if it was still around..IT IS...It was called Good n Plenty http://www.goodnplenty.com/ Mmmm...well, I'm a stickler for making everything homemade, as I love to cook and even make homemade mashed potatoes...once I did use the instant kind and it had a weird taste to me...probably all the added chemicals and preservatives. Thinking of Shoo Fly Pie...mmmm...now I have a hankering to make one...LOL...but when it gets cooler. And yup..make my own pies..I'm such a stickler for homemade from scratch even make homemade biscuits...especially sweet potato or cheese biscuits. Can't get that from Pillsbury..LOL

That sounds like a delicious meal! I would hope that I could fix meals like that every day but it doesn't always happen. I like to cook from scratch when I have the time. It is nice to eat a meal like that when you are out too as you know that it is not fast food and is healthier for you. I make potatoes both ways when I mash them. I make instant potatoes if I am in a hurry. If not, I would rather make them from real potatoes. I believe that a lady that I work with makes better mashed potatoes than anyone I have ever seen. My mother in law likes to cook and she makes a lot of from scratch meals. She is good at it and she fixes homemade yeast rolls too. I don't find the time for all of that.

I make mash a lot pal , I make mince ( ground beef) and mashed potatoes often , I make a double amount and make a shepherds pie for another day . At the moment I have a big pot of stovies on the cooker , I do like to go out for a meal too though , Hubby and I are going out for a meal tomorrow , would you believe it was 2 years tomorrow he had his triple bypass , how time flies xx

I can't stand instant potatoes so I always make them from scratch. That amish meal sounded wonderful, I have home style cooking all the time here in montreal, we have thousands of restaurants but not amish that I know about.

You made me hungry, I only make fresh mashed potatoes for hoildays. The dried potoe buds are so cheap and they are easier to make. I also made chicken fried steak a few weeks ago. Ummm! It was so good.

I try to cook from scratch a couple times a week but I find myself also relying a lot on frozen entrees (Stouffer's white lasagna is the best) which I try to always combine with a fresh cooked vegetable. The Amish restaurant sounds lovely. We used to go to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania a lot for auctions and there was a little restarant on route 30 where we always stopped for dinner. I think it was called Diener's. Your restaurant sounds a lot like that one and it makes me want to go back there.

Your dinner does sound good. I make food from scratch all the time. I make real mashed potatoes too. I don't mind peeling potatoes. Its hard to find a restaurant that has real mashed taters. That dinner makes my mouth water, I haven't had a good country fried steak in ages.

We go to Amish country almost every year. It's such a nice relaxing trip and the food is yummy. I actually do make almost all my meals from scratch these days. It takes longer but is much healthier and often cheaper.

I make real mashed potatoes most of the time. If I am in a rush I make the instant but the real potatoes are lots better.

Yummy :):):)I like real everything too :)Glad you enjoyed your diner at the restaurant. I rarely make instant mashed potatoes, but sometimes I use the flakes to make soups thicker. I prefer the taste made from scratch and it doesn't even take that much longer.. well.. a bit, but it's worth LOL Most my meals are all made from scratch including the lemonada - except for bread if I use it. That's the one thing I really never got around making. Then again the only bread I know how to make takes forever to make and worse than that my hands and wrists hurt:) I think I probably would use more things that we don't have to make from scratch if the taste wasn't always not completely the way we like it. Which in the end turns out to be a good thing because this way we all cook from scratch in our home:):)

Sounds like a typical down home cooked Southern meal. We have a lot of Amish style recipes on our menus at home in the South. Guess it's been a big influence here. If hubby had his way, I'd cooked fried and breaded every day! He's on a salt free diet, so that's out! So happy you enjoyed your dinner. Sounds divine! Did they serve pie?

I've eaten at an Amish restaurant, if you can call it that. The food was incredible too. Mashed potatoes, well, since we move a lot I find myself not eating them for months and then I go on a starch binge and I can't get enough. I think they are more of a comfort food. I use to do instant when I was single but that's been a while. I know that you can take the potato flakes and use them as a crust on chicken, its a yummy substition.

Ohh I went to a restaurant like that when I was in Lancaster last year, and it was fantastic! Everything was so good, even simple things like buttered noodles. I have never made mashed potatoes from scratch myself, though I have assisted in preparation. I can't be bothered and use a mix. My meals are not usually truly "from scratch", since I ususally use something from a can, box, or package, at some point. I am lucky if the whole thing doesn't just come from one frozen box!

Hi gerty, Wow that sounds yummy! I actually do make scratch meals from time to time. I do make mashed potatoes from scratch. That is one thing I just don't like for the box. Believe me, I do love my microwave and boil in the bag rice and all the other short cuts. But for some reason when it comes to mashed potatoes I just can't stand anything but the real thing. I don't make them often, but when I do it's gotta be from scratch! I will make a meat loaf, potatoes, fresh carrots and my own tomato sauce gravy. So that's a meal from scratch. It's not as often as I like. I think probably more often in the winter then summer. I will admit it is too easy these days to take the short cuts. I will start out making some of the meal from scratch, but then some of the stuff will end up with frozen veggies to spoil the effect! That's cause I don't have a real garden, only that frozen one in my frig!

Glad you enjoyed your meal. I was at a place like this once and didnt like it so much but i grew up with processed foods lol. I mean it was good but different for me. Now I have had like real tators beofre but mostly i eat instant tators when you got kids they are so much faster and easier. My mom used to cook big meals for us when she could but I never learned how to cook like that so well.

well we have dinners like that quite often. we make mashed potatoes from real potatoes and mash them with sour cream, butter and milk and we have a bread machine when we make fresh bread (we got it for free from friends of ours!) also, my hubby is a wonderful cook too!

The meal sounds wonderful. I remember eating in Amish country a few times at restaurants run by the Amish and the food was always so good and, of course, made from scratch. I really do try to make everything from fresh, including mashed potatoes. I use the microwave first to cook the potatoes thoroughly and I actually keep the skins on since they contain so many nutrients. I add milk, a little butter and some light sour cream along with salt and pepper to taste and mash the potatoes by hand. My kids really like it and I know they are getting good food that was made right from scratch.

I love home made mashed potatoes. I have not had instant mashed potatoes on a long long time. Does meat loaf count as made from scratch along with real mashed potatoes? Or a roast? I bet your dinner was really good, it sounds delicious.

I make my meals from scratch alot oif the time. I find i like them alot more and feel healthier than if i eat the prefab stuff.

Oh wow .. sounds very interesting but i bet it was an amazing dinner