My friends who love ice cream could eat this morning, noon and night! It’s hard to believe something so simple could taste so good, but it does. I’ve used strawberries, but it would also be so very good with blueberries. Ice cream and berries — two of my favorite things!

I can’t remember Mama growing strawberries, although she may have planted a few from time to time. Our blueberries came from a neighbor’s blueberry bushes. I don’t remember Mama ever making an ice cream pie, but she made fantastic pies. Mama would have loved this recipe for an ice cream pie. She could use sugar-free ice cream and make the perfect dessert for Daddy, who was diabetic. She made sugar-free jelly for Daddy and continued to make her famous jelly roll for him using her sugar-free jelly.

Mama was born in 1902, and learned to cook using whatever she had in her kitchen. She could bake an eggless cake and make a sugar-free dessert of almost any kind. It was always tasty and we always ate every bit, so it must have been good. We had a large family and didn’t always have a huge variety of food to eat, but we never went hungry. I would never want to go back to those “good ole days,” but our generation learned lessons that generations today may never learn. I certainly hope and pray the current generations never see pre- and post-war years the way we did.

Times were different back then, and Mama and Daddy set certain high standards for all of us children. Sunday was God’s day and we went to Sunday school and church in the morning, and we went to training union and church on Sunday night. They carried us; they did not send us — there is a difference. We ate our meals together at the kitchen table after we said grace. We were all expected to study, learn and earn our high school diploma, and we all did. These may seem like simple tasks nowadays, but both Mama and Daddy were very proud of these accomplishments living on a farm in the 1940s and 1950s.

You will probably find this recipe for ice cream pie to be one of the simplest recipes you ever make. It is a no-bake pie; you can adjust the sugar by using sugar-free ice cream and sugar-free jam. You probably won’t, but if you should have leftovers, be sure to refrigerate. This recipe was given to me by one of my husband’s cousins during the ’60s while living in South Bend, Indiana.

Ice cream pie

Ingredients:

1 box vanilla wafers

2 tablespoons strawberry jam

2 3.4-ounce packages instant vanilla pudding mix

1 cup milk

2 pints vanilla ice cream — slightly softened

1 pint strawberries, sliced

½ 8-ounce container Cool-Whip

Preparation

I used 33 vanilla wafers to line the bottom and sides of a 10-inch pie pan. Spread the jam on top of the vanilla wafers. Pour milk into large bowl, add vanilla pudding mix and beat for one minute. Add softened ice cream and mix well. Pour mixture into wafer-lined pan. Let set for about five minutes, cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least three hours to cool. Top with 4 ounces of Cool Whip. Add fresh sliced strawberries on top. Slice and serve cool. Refrigerate leftovers.

From the scriptures

Spiritual food is essential for all of us, as well as physical food. We enjoy two or three meals every day. We should nourish our mind and feed our spirit daily just as we feed our body. Bible verses are fabulous spiritual food. We should read our Bible daily; just one or two verses of scripture each day would help feed our spirit.

Our Bible verse for this week is: Acts 4:12: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”