Cherry recipes for Presidents’ Day
This might be the shortest month but it is one of the most active. Hopefully, you had a great Valentine’s Day with dinner out, boxes of good chocolate, flowers and some diamonds tucked in among all those roses. And, for all the rest of us, hopefully you had a nice and peaceful day. What one “gets” in presents isn’t as important as being treated with love. Those old-time Roman soldiers and their protector didn’t sacrifice for nothing!
We celebrate the birthdays of two of our greatest presidents this month — Washington and Lincoln. They really deserve more respect than just to be bundled with all the other presidents into one day of honor. Back in the Stone Age when I went to school, we honored each on his own day. Sorry, Abe and George. Folks now are just glad to have another three-day weekend to enjoy.
You may have heard this story about George before, but husband Norm urged me to retell it.
“Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was this kid named George. He lived in a place called Virginia. Now George had this mother who expected him to do what he was told. Kids did that then.
“Georg,” she said, “I need some cherries from that tree out back to make a pie for your father. You know how grumpy he gets if he doesn’t have his dessert for Sunday dinner.”
“Okay, Ma. I’ll do it after a while.”
“Now, George! Go pick those cherries!”
So George went out to look for a ladder to get up into the cherry tree. He looked and he looked, but he couldn’t find one.
“Ma, I can’t find a ladder.”
“Now look here, George. I’m tired of your excuses. Get out there to that cherry tree and get those cherries any way you can, but you get them!”
Well, that ticked George off. He was sick and tired of having to pick those dern cherries, anyway. No one else had to pick them, just him. He stumped back out to the shed and looked around again. Still he couldn’t find a ladder.
The only thing he saw was the hatchet that Indian kid had given him. He really hadn’t paid much attention to it because he didn’t have any desire to collect scalps. All at once, a light went on in his brain. He would put that hatchet to use!
“George, how did you get so many cherries, and so quick! But really, I only wanted enough for a pie. What will I do with all these cherries? What did you do — pick the whole tree?”
George was about to say what he thought about the whole deal when his father came storming into the house.
“What happened to my prize cherry tree?”
Well, George said his mother made him do it, and his mother said she couldn’t help if George took after his father’s side of the family in the lack of intelligence department. George’s father said he guessed George would have to go into politics when he was older since he didn’t have a lick of common sense or noticeable brains and was lazy to boot.
George’s mother used cherries every way she could think of to get rid of all that fruit. It was not a happy subject around the house, and she was glad when they were gone.
She never made any cherry desserts after that. There were two reasons. First, that cherry tree was the only one they had, so their supply was gone. And second, it was just as well because she always liked tea with her cherry dessert. Some Yankee Indians up in Massachusetts had some kind of a wild tea party and there wasn’t any tea available in all the colonies. Not even the black market peddler could find any for her, so she had to rely on sassafras from their own farm. Somehow, sassafras tea just didn’t taste right with cherries.
Now, you may have heard another version, but this one is the right one. My husband told me so, and he said he was there.”
I don’t think George’s mother used any recipes like these following ones, but your family might enjoy them. I hope you have a happy Presidents’ Day weekend and maybe even bake a cherry pie to show your family you love them. Pray for all the brave folks who have defended this country for which George and Abe worked so hard to start and preserve.
God Bless!
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FRESH SOUR CHERRY PIE
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 cups pitted fresh red sour cherries
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
Pastry for a 2-crust 9-inch pie, unbaked
Combine sugar, tapioca and salt. Combine with cherries. Add extract. Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry. Pour in cherry mixture and dot with butter. Roll out the remaining pastry and cut into 5/8-inch strips. Arrange the strips, lattice style, over the filled pie. Seal the edges with water. Brush lattice strips, gently, with evaporated milk, or cream, or egg wash (1 egg beaten with a little water added). Sprinkle with a little additional sugar. Bake in preheated 425-degree oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350-degrees and continue baking for about 30 minutes or until crust is done.
To use canned cherries, use three cups drained water-packed cherries (two 1-lb cans) and one cup sugar. In place of tapioca, you can use two-and-one-half to three tablespoons corn starch, or four to five tablespoons flour, or a mixture of three tablespoons flour and one tablespoon cornstarch.
To make a crumb topping instead of the lattice top, flute the bottom crust. Top with a crumb mixture made with one-half cup sugar, three-fourths cup flour, and three tablespoons butter, worked together until crumbly.
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NO COOK CHERRY CHEESE PIE
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups whipped topping
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 cup canned cherry pie filling
Beat cheese and sugar until creamy. Mix in topping. Spoon into crust and add pie filling around edge of pie. Chill at least 3 hours. At serving time, garnish with additional whipped topping and a cherry on each serving.
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EASY CHERRIES JUBILEE
1 10-oz. jar currant jelly
1 No 2 1/2 can pitted Bing cherries, drained
1 1/2 quarts vanilla ice cream
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1 cup brandy or cognac
Melt jelly in chafing dish over direct heat, stirring gently. Add cherries and almonds, mix and heat slowly. Spoon ice cream into 12 dessert dishes. Pour almost all of the brandy into cherries, do NOT stir. Pour rest of brandy into a large spoon. Ignite brandy in spoon and pour flaming brandy into chafing dish to ignite. Spoon flaming cherries over ice cream in dishes.
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CHERRY DUMPLINGS
1 can (1 lb.) pitted red sour cherries
1 cup sugar
1 cup sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Grated rind of one orange
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons butter, melted
Put undrained cherries and § of the sugar in a large deep skillet or Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Mix and sift together remaining sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix lightly. Drop by tablespoonful’s into the boiling cherry mixture, making 4 to 6 dumplings. Cover and cook gently for 20 minutes. Serve warm. Use one dumpling per serving. (Vanilla ice cream is great with the warm dumplings!)
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SOUR CREAM CHERRY PIE
1 can cherry pie filling
2 unbaked pie crusts
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups evaporated canned milk
1 cup sour cream
Divide the pie filling into the bottom of the pie crusts. Mix all the other ingredients and pour over the cherries in the pie crusts. Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 30 t0 40 minutes.
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KENTUCKY BOURBON PIE
(Honor Abe with pie, too!)
1 cup English walnuts
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 cup sugar
1 cup white corn syrup
4 eggs
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1teaspoon vanilla extract
2 unbaked pie shells
Pour bourbon on the nuts and set aside. Beat sugar, syrup and eggs together. Add butter, chocolate chips and vanilla extract. Add bourbon and nuts. Pour into unbaked pie shells and bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 45 minutes.
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COUNTRY MEDICINE FOR COLDS
1 or 2 shots good Kentucky bourbon
1 or 2 tablespoons honey
Hot, almost boiling, water
Mix in mug. Fill mug with hot water. Stir. Sit in front of the fireplace and sip while you watch TV. Don’t drive anyplace. Go to bed. Cold will be better in the morning.
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Patty Christopher is a longtime columnist for the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.