Home cooking - Baptist style

We had a barbecue on Saturday night. Invited friends from Queenstown and the four vineyard workers recently arrived from Vanuatu who live in the apartment attached to our house.

It was a typical kiwi barbecue, featuring sausages, steak, salad and sauce.  Also typical was the freezing cold wind blowing through the Gibbston Valley that meant The Boss had to cook the meat outdoors wearing his winter woollies, while we sat inside drinking Speights and Rose in front of the fire.

The reason I mention the bbq is that the steaks were venison shot by The Boss, I made the sausages from minced venison, fresh sage and rosemary out of garden (they also contained some fine local Pinot Noir but don't tell The Winemaker!).  The salad included freshly laid eggs from Apple, while the plum sauce was homemade with fruit from the tree next to the woodshed.

For dessert we had chocolate coated strawberries and mini eclairs.  The guys from Vanuatu had never eaten strawberries before and sadly weren't overly impressed.

The point of all this is that you just can't beat home made food.  Hence my excitement at being invited to Thanksgiving Dinner this Saturday with The Winemaker and his family (maybe we'll be able to declare the penthouse chicken coop delux open at the same time).  You see, ages ago I bought an American cook book at a local fair, and for the meal I'm going to make stuffing and a pie for dessert.

With great anticipation I dusted off my copy of "The Stained Glass Collection" - a collection of recipes by First Baptist Church, Bay Minette, Alabama.  You can't get much more genuine than that!  I was prepared for grappling with different terminology and a few weird ingredients, but I wasn't expecting the definition of recipes for home cooking to be a million miles away from what I'm used to.

Something tells me I'll be back to my mate Google to find something to make for Thanksgiving.

From the Soups & Salads section:

Strawberry Pretzel Stuff

Combine 2 & a half cups of broken pretzels with one cup of melted margarine. Spread in a pan and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Cool.
Beat 12oz of cream cheese and 1 & a quarter cups of sugar. Spread over pretzel crust. Spread 1 package of Cool Whip over cream cheese then chill.
Drain a 20oz tin of pineapple, reserving juice. Add water to juice to make 3 cups, heat to boiling and add 1 pk strawberry jello. Add pineapple and 1 package sliced frozen strawberries, then chill until partially set.
Spread over whipped topping, then chill for 3 hours before cutting into squares to serve.
Can also be used as a dessert!!!!

What I've learnt today:

1. The reason I caught Abu the Roo clucking in the nesting box is hopefully related to the full moon.
2. I never want to taste Strawberry Pretzel Stuff - EVER!