This is not your ordinary salad. When I think of salad, I think of lettuce, tomato and all the fresh garden vegetables covered with good ol’ homemade ranch dressing. Years after I married, I began to make congealed salads. They were different and still are very good, but I never considered putting pretzels in my salads. I have added fruits and nuts but pretzels? No way! When you least expect it, along comes a recipe with an unexpected ingredient that will blow your mind away, and here you have a very good example of that.

Kathy, daughter of a special friend of mine, sent this recipe to me. It is a favorite of her family. Her dad enjoyed it so much during a recent visit with his family in Michigan that she wanted to share it with me. Naturally he samples the recipes I prepare so I do believe he has a crafty daughter. I made this strawberry pretzel salad for his birthday rather than a cake; it was oh, so good and so much better for both of us. This made a perfect birthday cake.

I’ve said many times that fresh is best. In this recipe, it is not the case. Fresh pineapples will breakdown the JELL-O due to its enzymes. Don’t use fresh pineapple; use crushed canned pineapple only. And, stay with frozen strawberries, too. This is best when getting your gelatin to gel. This would also make a beautiful individual parfait dish, or even put them into individual jars with screw on lids. The jars would stack and transport easily for a family gathering; just be sure the containers are oven proof, you will need to bake the crust. I can foresee this dish will become a pot luck favorite of mine. Thanks Kathy, for sharing your family favorite recipe with me; I’m certain I will share it many times with family and friends.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Ingredients:

¾ cup melted butter

4 tablespoons sugar

2 cups crushed pretzels

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 8-ounce package Cool Whip

1 6-ounce package strawberry JELL-O

2 10-ounce packages frozen strawberries

1 13.5-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained – reserve the liquid

Preparation

Layer one: Mix the butter, sugar and crushed pretzels together and press into a 9x13-inch pan. Bake at 350 F for 6 minutes. Cool.

Layer two: Whip together sugar and cream cheese. Fold in Cool Whip and spread over pretzel crust.

Layer three: Dissolve JELL-O in two cups boiling water. Stir in frozen berries, add liquid from pineapple and partially gel. Let sit 10 minutes and add crushed pineapple. Spoon this mixture over cream layer. Refrigerate four hours before cutting into squares.

From the scriptures

Spiritual food is essential for all of us, as well as physical food. We enjoy two or three meals every day. We should nourish our mind and feed our spirit daily just as we feed our body. Bible Verses are fabulous spiritual food. We should read our Bible daily; just one or two verses of scripture each day would help feed our spirit.

Our Bible verse for this week is: 1 Peter 5:8: “Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.”