Two of my cousins make one of my all-time favorite take-along dishes. I finally forced one of them to give up the recipe. It uses frozen strawberries, so you can make it any time of year. My cousins bring it on Christmas Eve. Nobody made it last Christmas and you might as well have told me that there was no Santa Claus.

It’s great for a picnic, but I’ll admit the recipe is kind of a pain. You have to thaw the Cool Whip. The berries must be frozen. Make the crust and let that cool. Leave time to let the Jello set. It should be eaten the day it’s made, or the pretzels will get soggy. Even after all that, it remains one of my favorite take-along dishes of all time. Intrepid cooks, read on:

STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SALAD

Enough broken pretzels to cover the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
1 cup, plus 3 teaspoons sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
1 (8-ounce) brick of cream cheese
1 (8-ounce) tub Cool Whip
1 (6-ounce) box strawberry Jello
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen strawberries.
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix pretzels, 3 teaspoons sugar and melted butter and press into the baking pan. Bake 8 minutes and allow to cool completely.
3. After the crust has cooled, put on 2 cups of water to boil.

4. While the water is heating up, combine the cream cheese and sugar. Fold in the Cool Whip. Spread the mixture over the pretzel crust.
5. Dissolve jello into boiling water. Stir in frozen strawberries. Let set 10 minutes and pour it over the cream cheese mixture. Chill until the Jello is set.

Ready, set, love