So much to say, so much to say, but where to begin? Greek cooking class, recipes, chickens...
Let's start with recipes!
I think I will start with the good stuff first...
My friend, Lynne, let me come and pick a bunch of her sour cherries off of her gorgeous sour cherry tree. By the way, I now feel it absolutely necessary to have a couple of dwarf sour cherry trees in our yard.
So my husband (Steve) LOVES cherry pie. When we were dating I found out about his cherry pie obsession and also heard that a neighbor down the road would make him cherry pie on a fairly regular basis but had not made him one in awhile. I should double check that info, but let's just go with it for now. So he said his neighbor made the best pies. Hmmmmm....What a great way to charm him even more than I already had by making him a homemade cherry pie. I would use my grandma's pie crust recipe and buy sour cherries and do whatever it was that you do to make them ready for a pie. So I did. We had not been dating for very long when I decided that this lovely gesture would send him head over heals in love with me. Right? Made sense to me. I was so excited to surprise him with it.
I prepared everything with great care and love. When it was finished (and cooled), I invited Steve over, had him sit down and then brought my beautiful, homemade pie to the table. He smiled and I could tell he was already starting to love me...and he had not even taken a bite yet!! So I placed a piece on a plate and gave it to him. As he took a bite, my heart was beating fast waiting for the anticipated response of, "This is the BEST cherry pie EVER! I LOVE YOU!"
Instead, he looked at me and it was as if he had taken a bite of that Christmas fruit cake that everyone re-gifts. He didn't like it!!! He was not mean about it but then again, he did not take another bite. So I thought I better try it and I LOVED it!!! My mom even tried it and she loved it. Hmmmmmmm. What was the deal? Little did I know that this moment was to mark the difference in our tastes in food forever. Steve explained that he likes the cherry pies that he buys at Super Valu. You know, the ones that come in a box and that have 99.99% artificial ingredients in it? Like the Hostess cherry pies? Really??? I suppose, the more high fructose corn syrup, the better.
Could he have faked it and eaten the rest of his pie? Sure, but I appreciated his honesty and I knew that I did not need to spend hours making him homemade pies for the rest of our lives. How awesome is that?! So ever since that unforgettable day, I have been making Steve cherry pie with store bought crust and canned cherry pie fillling and he is as happy as pie! Until now.....
Let's get back to the pie in the photo above. I pitted all of the cherries I had and was ready to create a masterpiece. I googled cherry pie recipes and found one that looked great. It was so easy and the pie crust recipe included is now one of my favorites. FYI: I made the crust in my food processor and it really came together quickly. I also did not make the lattice top like the picture on the link.
Now remember, this is a sour cherry pie, not sweeeeet sweeeet cherry pie (although the recipe does allow for the use of dark sweet cherries).
I think the one I made (only sour cherries) has just the right amount of sugar to give it that sweet but then you get that tang with the sourness of the cherries. Perfect combination in my opinion. FYI: you do get quite a bit of liquid coming out during baking so make sure you place it on a rimmed baking sheet. Let me know what you think.
Oh! Do you want to know what Steve thought of it? Well, I kept asking him if he had tried the pie yet and he said he'd try it "later". Two days go by and the only dents in the pie are mine and my son's. BTW: Josiah had 2 huge pieces of it so I guess that means he likes it. But I could not get Steve to try it. I am sure he was leary after that "incident" almost 9 years ago. But I was patient. So this morning I came downstairs and noticed a fork on the counter with some cherries on it. He did it!! He tried the pie!! So I quickly grabbed it out of the fridge because I was sure he had eaten the rest of it and just put the empty pie plate back in the fridge! I took the cover off and saw a bite taken out of it. That's right! One bite!! Just like all those years ago. But hey, like I said before...I found out long ago on that fateful day that our tastes in food would differ forever! And thank the Lord that Steve's loving me did not depend on a cherry pie! Whew!
So I will continue to make him his "usual" or maybe I'll try the homemade one with sweet cherries! I'll keep you posted.
Here is the link to the recipe. Enjoy!! or not. ;)
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