Cherries

One of Mike's best memories from childhood was eating his grandmother's cherry pie.

Every year he and his family would go up to Cherry Hills in Utah.  He would spend the day climbing the trees and eating himself sick on fresh juicy cherries.  They would also take ice cream buckets to fill with cherries to take home.  One year when he was about 9, Mike picked a whole bucket himself.  He planned to take that bucket of cherries to his grandmother who had promised to make him a cherry pie the following week.   The only complication was that his Grandma lived in Canada in a small town south of Calgary. 

As Mike packed his backpack to take on the airplane, he hid the bucket of cherries at the bottom.  He was traveling by himself, and wanted to make sure they were safe.  As Mike boarded the plane, the stewardess tried to talk to him and make him feel more comfortable.  Mike refused to even look at them for fear they would find his cherries and take them away. 

Upon arrival at his grandparents home, Mike proudly procured the cherries from their hiding place and gave them to his grandma.  She promptly began to make him his cherry pie.

Well, being the good wife that I am, I try to make Mike a cherry pie every once in a while.  He never complains, but I know he isn't a huge fan of the canned cherries I use in my pie.  I have looked at frozen pie cherries at the store for the pie, but I could never stomach the price.  It seemed crazy to spend $30 on cherries to make him a pie. 

One day in early November, I was out at an Amish grocery store not about 20 minutes from where we live.  They have all sorts of wonderful items in bulk including grains, candy, nuts and seeds.  They also have bulk frozen items available.  I hadn't ever paid much attention to the bulk frozen goods, but I noticed a sign saying that pie cherries were only $30 for 20 pounds.  I couldn't resist.  I had to buy the full 20 pounds to get the price, so I did.  I brought home a huge box of frozen cherries.

I was sure Mike would be thrilled.

He wasn't quite as enthusiastic as I thought.  He was trying to figure out where I was going to keep 20 pounds of cherries.  After some creative rearrangement of the deep freeze, the cherries were secure. 

I've been trying to use the cherries as creatively as possible.  I made a cherry triffle the day I brought them home.  I've made several cherry pies and cherry cobler.   Today I attempted a cherry crisp.  I'm afraid it's more cherry than crisp.  Those little guys have lots of juice.  Hopefully it will taste okay!