She clipped the recipe from the Progressive Farmer magazine. She has been making it for more than 30 years. She is now generously sharing it with us.
We are talking about Muriel Rodgers Hall of Batesburg, a member of Mt. Ebal Baptist in the Edisto Baptist Association. William Paulling is her pastor.
The recipe is for Lemon Cheesecake, but Muriel says it should probably be called Lemon Chiffon Cheesecake because it isn’t baked in the manner of true cheesecakes.
It is probably her most requested recipe, she says, and I can understand why after making it. Our family liked it, and one of the best things is that it makes a large amount so there is almost always enough for a second, or even a third, meal.
Muriel R. Hall
Muriel lives on the family land where she was born. The original house is gone because she and her late husband Marvin built a new house in 1971 and reared their three sons there. Marvin worked with the Savannah River Plant, and he and Muriel simultaneously operated broiler houses. After his sudden death in 1990, she continued to do so for a few years, but now her only farm efforts are beef cattle.
The Halls’ children are not too far away. Their son Roger, his wife Cynthia, and their son Timothy and his wife Jenny live in Aiken; their other son Pat lives in Batesburg. Muriel has four grandsons – but her extended family is larger because she has two nieces, Salena and Sandy, with whom she is close, and she is “grandmother” to their four children.
Muriel joined Mt. Ebal when she was 12, and except for a few years has been there all her life. She has served in many capacities in the church. She has recently retired from the children’s department after 30 years and has been church treasurer for 26 years. She is also the program leader for the missions group, and is on the Senior Adults and Hostess committees.
Muriel enjoys gardening, and on the day I spoke with her, she was in a hurry to get outside and water pansies that were suffering from our dry spring. She doesn’t have many other hobbies, she says, because during all the years of church, children, and chickens, she was busy.
She is active, though, in the Family and Community Leaders program of the Clemson Extension Service and is a member of the Master Farm Homemakers Guild.
With spring here and summer on its way, Muriel’s Lemon Cheesecake is a pretty dessert to serve. The Lemon Cheesecake has just enough lemon to be slightly tart but is still sweet. When you cut the cheesecake into squares for serving, you could garnish it with a little dollop of whipped cream and maybe a twist of lemon on top. Make this on Saturday and have it in the refrigerator waiting for … Sunday Dinner.
Lemon Cheesecake
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
⅓ cup butter or margarine, melted
1 3-ounce package lemon gelatin
1 cup boiling water
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 13-ounce can evaporated milk, chilled and whipped
Combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter, and pat into a 9x13x2 baking dish. Bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly before adding the pie filling.
Dissolve gelatin in the boiling water. Add the lemon juice and cool. Cream together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract, and add to the cooled gelatin mixture, mixing well. Fold the whipped evaporated milk into the gelatin/cream cheese mix. Pour into the the cooled graham cracker crust. Chill thoroughly, 4 to 6 hours or overnight.
Cut into squares to serve.
Note: You may save some of the cracker crumbs to sprinkle on top of the lemon mix before chilling.