New cookbook benefits Marble Hill museum

Life is good! The Cardinals are National League champions, the weather is great and I have a new cookbook. What could be better?

The Will Mayfield Heritage Foundation in Marble Hill, Mo., has a new cookbook available to benefit the museum in Marble Hill. It's a hard-cover, comb-bound book with 107 pages of recipes, tabbed dividers and a full color photo on the front cover. It's a nice book for a great price. I especially like the history and photo at the front of the book.

To give you a sample of what you can look forward to in your own copy of the book, I will pass along a few recipes for you to enjoy.

Appetizer Crab and Swiss Cheesecake

2 teaspoons butter or margarine

1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese

4 ounces Swiss cheese, shredded

2 eggs

2 tablespoons dry sherry or milk

1 cup (about 6 ounces) flaked cooked crabmeat

1 tablespoon chopped chives or green onion

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use butter to grease the bottom and 1-inch up sides of a 9-inch spring-form or tart pan with a removable bottom. Coat pan with bread crumbs.

In a mixer bowl or food processor, beat together cream cheese, Swiss cheese and eggs until smooth. Gradually beat in sherry or milk, then fold in crabmeat and chives. Carefully spread in prepared pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool 10 minutes; loosen sides of pan. Cover and chill. (Submitted by Jaki Bollinger Rodriguez)

Mixed Squash Gratin

3 medium zucchini

1 medium summer squash

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic

2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 ounces Gruyere or Swiss cheese, shredded

Cut squash in half lengthwise (1/4-inch wide slices.) Keep together and cut crosswise into 4 sections. In a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the squash and cook, stirring until the squash is tender and the broth has almost completely evaporated.

Transfer the mixture to a broiler proof baking dish. Sprinkle the squash with cheese and broil 4 inches from the heat until the cheese is golden, about 5 minutes. (Submitted by Melissa Cooper)

Praline Mustard Glazed Ham

1 bone-in smoked spiral cut ham

1 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/3 cup apple juice

1/4 cup raisins

1 cooking apple, thinly sliced

Remove skin and excess fat from ham. Place ham in lightly greased container. Stir together maple syrup, brown sugar, Dijon mustard and apple juice. Pour mixture over ham.

Bake at 350 degrees on lower oven rack 2 hours and 30 minutes with glaze. Let ham stand for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Save the drippings. Remove fat from drippings and add raisins and apple slices. Cook in saucepan over low heat 5 minutes. Serve sauce warm with ham. Serves 12. (Submitted by Shirley Illers Cooper)

Blueberry Crunch

1 can crushed pineapple, undrained

3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 box yellow cake mix

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 stick butter

Pour pineapple into a 9-by-13-inch pan, juice and all. Next layer with blueberries. In a bowl, combine the cake mix, sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Sprinkle this mixture over the blueberries. Drizzle a stick of melted butter over cake mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until brown, for about 30 minutes. (Submitted by Linda Whitener)

We do have one request this week. Joan Weeks of Cape Girardeau is looking for special recipes for lamb stew. If you have a good recipe to share, please drop that to me and I will see that she gets it. Have a great week and until next time, happy cooking.

Susan McClanahan is administrator at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. Send recipes to her at smcclanahan@semissourian.com or by mail at P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701. Recipes published have not been kitchen-tested by the Southeast Missourian staff.