Overnight Fruit Salad - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice (see below)
1 tablespoon margarine or 1 tablespoon butter
1 dash salt
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 (16 1/2 ounce) can pitted royal anne or queen anne sweet cherries, drained (I prefer two cans)
2 (15 1/4 ounce) cans pineapple chunks in juice, drained (reserve juice)
2 tablespoons pineapple juice, reserved from the pineapple
2 (11 ounce) cans mandarin orange segments, drained
1 cup miniature marshmallow (or one bag)
1 sliced banana, to taste (optional)
1 cup nuts, coarsely chopped, depending on whether you like the crunch of nuts in your fruit salad (mixed in or sprinkled on top) (optional)
1 cup maraschino cherry, to taste, for garnish, pretty sprinkled over the top since this is a very white-looking dish (optional)

Preparation

Prepare cooked Dressing:
Heat first 6 ingredients just to boiling in 1-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Let it cool while you beat the whipping cream.
Beat whipping cream in chilled medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until it's stiff.
Fold a spoonful of the cooled egg mixture into into the whipped cream.
Fold the rest of the cooled egg mixture into the whipped cream.
If you add the hot egg mixture all at once into the whipped cream, it will curdle; trust me on this.
Add fruit& nuts to the dressing.
Refrigerate at least 12 hours to blend flavors.
Garnish with Maraschino cherries.
Garnish with nuts if you choose to use the nuts as a garnish rather than an ingredient, or both as I do.