Defending The Redneck(s)

Not that they need it.  I was perusing a new cookbook yesterday, entitled "The Redneck Cookbook" and got to wondering what, exactly, is meant by the phrase "redneck."

Wikipedia Dictionary told me flatly this:  Noun: offensive.  A working class white person, especially a politically reactionary one from a rural area.  Synonyms are white trash and hillbilly.

I don't agree with that.   Thinking about all the redneck jokes and cartoons and photos I've seen of redneck works, so to speak, I find them inventive, creative and practical.  When old tractor tires are painted white and discarded toilets are turned into flower beds, I find it poignant.  It's the desire for beauty in their surroundings.

When it comes to cooking though, that's a different story.  

BACON GOURMET
1 teas. mustard
2T  Worcestershire sauce
1 egg yolk
6 thin slices of bacon
bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 250.  Whisk together the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and egg yolk.  Dip the bacon in the egg mixture and then in the bread crumbs.  Put them on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until the bacon is crispy.  Served as a side dish.  

ENDLESS BACON WRAPS
2 10-oz. cans water chestnuts, drained
1 5-oz. bottle soy sauce
brown sugar to dust
1 lb. sliced bacon

Marinate the chestnuts in soy sauce for an hour, turning frequently.  Preheat the oven to 400, then take the chestnuts out of the soy sauce, roll them in brown sugar, and toothpick a half slice of bacon around the water chestnut.  Put on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes or until the bacon is crispy.

TROUT FLORENTINE
2 12-oz. packages Stouffer's spinach souffle
4 trout, filleted
water
1/2 cup white wine
1 can hollandaise sauce

Cook the spinach souffles according to package directions.  When the souffles are 20 minutes away from being eaten, put the trout in a shallow baking dish and surround them with water and the wine.  Poach them until the meat is opaque, discard the liquids and put the filets on a plate and then spoon the spinach over them and top the spinach with hollandaise sauce.