Going to Camp Pringle was one of these times and over the years it was looked forward too with much anticipation, especially during the Christmas season. Seventy or more of us would show up at the camp each year to celebrate Christmas and the joy of the season.
People would start rolling in around 4 o’clock Friday afternoon with their compliment for what was to be a big banquet Saturday evening. But for now it was the soups that reined supreme as people began to arrive for the big Friday evening soup bash.
What an amazing meal if you were a lover of soup, as there would be an incredible smorgasbord of soups to sample. My challenge was to try as many as I possible could. There would be plain vegetable soup, then divine split pea soup, beautiful corn chowder soup, amazing bean soup, and an incomprehensible mixed bean soup, incredible squash soup, lovely lentil soup, stupendous cream of broccoli, charming tomato, glorious borsch, and I’ve probably forgotten a few.
And of course all the glorious and lovely breads you could think of to eat. Who eats soup without the luxury of a beautiful loaf of bread?
For dessert there were the pies, and oh the pies. There was raisin pie, apple pie, lemon pie, berry pie, bumble berry pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, and maybe even delectable banana cream, and a plate or two of delightful coconut cream. What a glorious pie fest.
After eating all the soup we could hold and the assigned clean up crew had finished the dishes off we went to the great room to sit in front of a large stone fireplace with a great roaring fire to sing songs until Joyce Schafer pulled out her storybook of sob stories and started the tears flowing. Of course all the stories had a moral and we would each go to our beds after a prayer, with very noble thoughts.
I especially remember the early years when after the fire burned down we would all spread our sleeping bags out on mattresses on the great room floor in front of the fire place and hopefully be the first one to drift off to asleep, so you would not be kept awake by the snoring that would soon erupt.
Saturday was the big day that everyone looked forward too, and the meal that was to follow later on. As this was a church function the morning right after breakfast would find us singing around the great fire, followed by someone leading out in a lively study of the scripture with most everyone taking part.
After closing the discussion with a prayer we would head into the dinning room for a light lunch, which was an incredible fruit salad that would tantalize your taste buds when eaten with the many fruit breads, in anticipation of the banquet later that evening.
Many chose to take a brisk hike to the old Kinsol Trestle in the hope of getting some exercise and an appetite worthy of the gustatory delight that was soon to happen. For those of us with out the energy to tackle such an endeavor, napping was in order but that meant taking a big risk because woe to the person without an appetite at dinner time. There were however, quite a few that were willing to chance it, due to either a lack of interest or maybe just plain laziness.
The ringing of the dinner bell and the rush that followed was worthy of what awaited everyone in the dinning room. One look at the tables was enough to satisfy anyone, even someone without so much as the faintest desire to eat.
What you do not know is that the meal I am going to describe is a vegetarian banquet. Could anything vegetarian taste good you might ask? Well if you have never eaten at an Adventist Vegetarian banquet you have not really eaten vegetarian. Most restaurants don’t know even what vegetarian means so unless one has eaten Adventist vegetarian cuisine keep an open mind. And phone an Adventist for an invite or come to Rest Haven SDA Church some Saturday, first Sabbath of the month and enjoy a feast of vegetarian cuisine that will amaze you.
Check this little known fact out and it might surprise you, it did me.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0511/sights_n_sounds/index.html
Sorry I got sidetracked; lets get back to the dinner. There were the vegetarian steaks, and the lovely baked potatoes with the beautiful gravy. If you didn’t like the gravy you could add butter and salt, or sour cream and salt, or onions and baco-chips. Then of course there were the beautiful plates of raw vegetables with all manner of fresh raw veggies and the many dips, not to mention the lovely garlic bread and the many fruit breads and muffins left over from lunch. And to liven up the dinner there were the pickles and the olives and the cranberry sauce. And let’s not forget the punch that even the children could drink.
The last thing to mention was the desert table, which I must say was well worth the wait as there was much more then necessary to satisfy even the sweetest of tooth’s. And of course, if your tooth was not so sweet, there were real mandarin oranges, not from China.
After the dinner and things were cleared away there was an evening of games such as Pit, Dominos, Scrabble, Boggle, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and would you believe it everyone just loved musical chairs.
I guess the biggest thing that people loved about it all was the social interaction. The kids just loved to sit in groups and rap until late in the evening. Everyone had fun and wanted to be there.
Sunday was ladies day and their chance to sleep late, as the men prepared a special breakfast with Dan Rippin in charge of the kitchen crew. This was an opportunity for the guys to impress the ladies with their culinary skills. Dan’s crew was a diverse lot but they all went to work with a will. Dan R would be on the pancakes, with Dan J taking care of the mounds of hash browns. Peter would be on the toast, while Leon was closely watching the fake sausages and bacon. Dan R also kept an eye on the potato skins, as they were his personal delight. And for beautiful scrambled eggs nobody does it better then Ed.
Just an aside for those that love sausages, the fake sausages, and fake bacon, require persistence and shear willpower, if you were willing to actually eat one.
You should have heard the squeals of delight as the ladies come charging in to devour what was created just for them. If you add real maple syrup and butter for the pancakes most people are willing to over look the fake bacon and sausages, providing you have not screwed up on the scrambled eggs.
Well, that was the weekend in a nutshell, the only thing left was the cleanup and with everyone pitching in, it was soon taken care of and off we drove with thoughts of next year and the fun we would have.
The ringing of the dinner bell and the rush that followed was worthy of what awaited everyone in the dinning room. One look at the tables was enough to satisfy anyone, even someone without so much as the faintest desire to eat.
What you do not know is that the meal I am going to describe is a vegetarian banquet. Could anything vegetarian taste good you might ask? Well if you have never eaten at an Adventist Vegetarian banquet you have not really eaten vegetarian. Most restaurants don’t know even what vegetarian means so unless one has eaten Adventist vegetarian cuisine keep an open mind. And phone an Adventist for an invite or come to Rest Haven SDA Church some Saturday, first Sabbath of the month and enjoy a feast of vegetarian cuisine that will amaze you.
Check this little known fact out and it might surprise you, it did me.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0511/sights_n_sounds/index.html
Sorry I got sidetracked; lets get back to the dinner. There were the vegetarian steaks, and the lovely baked potatoes with the beautiful gravy. If you didn’t like the gravy you could add butter and salt, or sour cream and salt, or onions and baco-chips. Then of course there were the beautiful plates of raw vegetables with all manner of fresh raw veggies and the many dips, not to mention the lovely garlic bread and the many fruit breads and muffins left over from lunch. And to liven up the dinner there were the pickles and the olives and the cranberry sauce. And let’s not forget the punch that even the children could drink.
The last thing to mention was the desert table, which I must say was well worth the wait as there was much more then necessary to satisfy even the sweetest of tooth’s. And of course, if your tooth was not so sweet, there were real mandarin oranges, not from China.
After the dinner and things were cleared away there was an evening of games such as Pit, Dominos, Scrabble, Boggle, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and would you believe it everyone just loved musical chairs.
I guess the biggest thing that people loved about it all was the social interaction. The kids just loved to sit in groups and rap until late in the evening. Everyone had fun and wanted to be there.
Sunday was ladies day and their chance to sleep late, as the men prepared a special breakfast with Dan Rippin in charge of the kitchen crew. This was an opportunity for the guys to impress the ladies with their culinary skills. Dan’s crew was a diverse lot but they all went to work with a will. Dan R would be on the pancakes, with Dan J taking care of the mounds of hash browns. Peter would be on the toast, while Leon was closely watching the fake sausages and bacon. Dan R also kept an eye on the potato skins, as they were his personal delight. And for beautiful scrambled eggs nobody does it better then Ed.
Just an aside for those that love sausages, the fake sausages, and fake bacon, require persistence and shear willpower, if you were willing to actually eat one.
You should have heard the squeals of delight as the ladies come charging in to devour what was created just for them. If you add real maple syrup and butter for the pancakes most people are willing to over look the fake bacon and sausages, providing you have not screwed up on the scrambled eggs.
Well, that was the weekend in a nutshell, the only thing left was the cleanup and with everyone pitching in, it was soon taken care of and off we drove with thoughts of next year and the fun we would have.
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