Recipe Swap: Family recipes to celebrate a special occasion

My parents, Duane and Marilyn Kinsey, are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this week. The past 60 years have brought a range of memories for them including raising six children, surviving two major Mississippi River floods, having nine grandchildren and now adding great-grandchildren to the family tree. Many of the thousands of memories involve family and friends sitting around their large oak table enjoying some great food. This week I fall back to our family cookbook we put together several years ago for a few of my mom's recipes. I hope you have similar memories in your own family and cherish those memories.

Homemade Ice Cream

When I opened the book it fell open to this page. We have two White Mountain hand crank freezers and keep them busy during the summer months.

1 small carton pasteurized liquid eggs to equal 6 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 (3-ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 envelope Dream Whip, dry, not whipped

2 teaspoons good quality vanilla

1 quart liquid coffee creamer, original flavor

2 percent or whole milk to fill freezer canister

In a bowl or pitcher, combine eggs and all remaining ingredients except milk and mix well with a wire whisk. Pour into a clean 6-quart freezer canister and finish filling to about 3/4 full with the milk. Freeze using lots of crushed ice and rock salt. Crank until very hard to turn. Cover at least 30 to 45 minutes covered with a large rug or blanket to allow ice cream to ripen and set up good and firm.

You can also add fresh diced peaches, strawberries or 1/2 cup chocolate cocoa powder mixed with sugar before freezing. Enjoy.

Cheesecake Dessert

Mom used to make this quite often when we were children and it tasted so good on a hot day after working in the soybean fields all day. Maybe this is where my brother Wesley got his early love for cheesecake.

1 small package lemon gelatin

1 cup boiling water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large can Milnot evaporated milk, chilled (not sweetened condensed)

1 stick margarine or butter

1/2-pound graham crackers, crushed fine

Mix and cool to lukewarm 1 small package lemon gelatin and boiling water. Cool and add lemon juice. Mix together sugar, cream cheese and vanilla. Add to gelatin mixture. Whip the can of milk at high speed of mixer until it forms stiff peaks and fold into cream cheese mixture. Mix 1 stick melted margarine or butter with 1/2 box finely crushed graham crackers.

Press this into bottom only of a large glass baking dish, reserving 1 cup of crumbs to sprinkle on top. Spoon gelatin mixture into crumb crust and level out. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top.

Chill several hours. Cut into squares to serve.

As an added touch, a little drained crushed pineapple or cherry pie filling may be added on top.

Mom has always been known for her pie baking skills and there are two that everyone seem to always request: pecan and rhubarb custard. The fresh pecans off my dad's pecan trees just make this pie. He has been known to pick out 600 or 700 pounds in one season.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

4 cups sliced rhubarb, cut in 1/2-inch pieces

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 tablespoons margarine or butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cut rhubarb into 1/2-inch pieces and place in the bottom of the unbaked pie shell. Mix together sugar, flour, margarine, vanilla, salt, eggs and milk. Beat until blended. Pour over rhubarb. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes until custard is well set and crust is browned.

Dad's Fresh Cranberry Relish

Dad has always ground the cranberry relish for Thanksgiving and Christmas with his grandmother's food grinder, and now our children help do the grinding. A food processor just does not give this relish the same texture, it is the grinder that makes the difference.

1 pound fresh cranberries

2 oranges

1 cup sugar

1 cup broken pecans

Place cranberries in the freezer for a day or so before making the relish. Coarsely grind the cranberries. Taking a very sharp peeling knife, peel off just the very outside orange peel of each orange. Then go back and peel the oranges, reserving that outside peel you just peeled off. Change blade to the small blade and grind the peeled orange segments. Using the same small blade, grind several pieces of the orange peel, with no bitter white, just the orange outside of the peel. Add sugar, more or less to taste and pecans. Refrigerate until ready to serve. It is best to make a day ahead before you want to serve it. This is great served with turkey or chicken and is fabulous on leftover turkey sandwiches.

My mom makes the best homemade vegetable beef soup you have ever eaten, but I am out of room to include it here today. I will wait until a little cooler weather and share that amazing recipe with you. Have a wonderful week, and until next time, happy anniversary, Mom and Dad, and happy cooking.

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