Can She Bake a Cherry Pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy -- Oh, Yeah, I Can and I Did!

I'm no Martha S but I can bake a meaner cherry pie than she! (I've been in and out of jail a lot more times than Martha! More on that later.) After this morning's baking session I should be on the front cover of her magazine. Nobody has baked a better looking sour cherry pie than this one!

Those pesky robins didn't get the last of the cherries. I'm still feeling pretty decent after my chemo last Wednesday...the meds they give me keep me hopping for a couple days afterward. (I get real prolific with words, too!) I notice I work a lot faster and with more energy in the kitchen but under the influence of the meds, I notice that I'm a lot more klutzy and sloppy. Tossing cornstarch on the counter and all over my digital camera. Flour all over my front. Crumbs everywhere. Now I know what it feels like to be my hubby working in the kitchen. Not that he's swiping any of my meds, mind you, but he does tend to be a bit more sloppy than I. He's such a good sport when I mutter about his spills and crumbs. Whatta guy!

The robins. The cherries. Back to my story. Came home last evening from a visit elsewhere and picked a large bowl of cherries. I figured those pesky robins weren't going to eat us out of pie and home. Since I don't have a cherry pitter anymore (result of a previous move) I used a small plastic spoon to dig out the pits. That was a lot slower but it worked! Pitted raw cherries will turn a yuckie brown so I decided to cook them up with sugar and cornstarch, let them sit overnight, and then bake a pie this morning.

Yesterday hubby had brought home a sack of whole-wheat pastry flour so this morning I made a crust and made my Billy Boy Cherry Pie. I took photos in case Martha gives me a call and wants my recipe. I think she cheats on her lattice pies, just laying strips across each other. I don't have any magazines on hand at the moment, but I'm sure that's how they appeared in her photographs. I, on the other hand, wanted a "genuine" lattice pie and so I interwove the strips. Whole-wheat pastry is a bit tricky as it breaks easier than regular dough, but it worked. Interwoven lattice always tastes better than the lazy version. Everybody knows that. (I think if you click on the photos you will be able to smell the pie--sorta like scratch and sniff ad in magazines! Oh, I'm exaggerating but you CAN get a closer look!)

Tip of the Day! When baking a fruit pie be sure to place either tinfoil or a non-stick cookie sheet underneath the pie. It's a lot easier to toss a piece of foil, or to wash a cookie sheet than it is to scrape that cooked on juice from the bottom of the oven!

And, Oh! I had enough crust left over to make a mini-pie which here is sitting on the dirty cookie sheet. Clean oven floor. Dirty cookie sheet. That's the way to do it. This one has a non-stick surface, so it was no big chore to clean it later.

And enough cherries left over for ice cream sauce! Now how good is That!

Oh! The jail time! We teach Bible in a small county facility. I've been not going in since February due to the low white blood counts after chemo but my oncologist said this week that if counts are within a certain range I'm approved to go back. I'm happy about that.