A Slice of Summer

In my opinion, besides the sunshine, the food is what makes summer such an amazing time of year. I love gardening and having fresh produce to serve my family. I also love all the fresh fruit that starts popping into my mouth. Cherries are one of my favorites. About a week ago I saw a beautiful bag of them at the store. The sign next to them said $3.99 and I planned to get them despite the cost. Then I saw the sad part, the small little "per lbs" note. I still wanted them, and was determined to take them home with me, so I weighed a bag and it was three pounds. $ 11.97 for a bag of cherries ended up being just a little expensive for my taste and I had to pass.

This would be a tragedy if the story ended there, but it didn't, this is a happy ever after story. A few days later I was at our local Farmers Market (yes, another plug for the Farmers Market) and came across more cherries. These cherries were even more beautiful then the ones in the store. They were big, locally grown and the farmer said he had picked them the night before. That did it, I hardly even cared about the price at that point, but just so you know they were only $2.00 a pound.

I tried one and they were probably the best cherries I had ever had. They were so juicy and flavorful it was unreal. These cherries could not be given a common cherry life of sitting in a bowl for family members just to eat at their leisure, no these cherries were destined for something great...a pie!

I have to give all the credit to the new resident chef at our place, Uncle Daniel. He loves to cook and he made these wonderful cherries into something completely sublime. He used the recipe from the 1999 American Pie Council's National Pie Championship first place winner and a winner it was. He left out the almond extract and used about 6 cups of cherries instead of 2 otherwise he followed the recipe.

It was truly an amazing slice of Summer.