Cherry Pie

As part of our CSA this week, we got sour cherries.  I've never had sour cherries... that I can remember.  I thought I would make a pie with them.  I looked at a lot of recipes, really they were all the same. But I decided to use the baking times and temperatures from my Americans Test Kitchen Cook Book, I know it would not fail me.  This pie was so easy, and so good! I need to get my hands on some more pie cherries.  Here is the recipe I used, mostly just because of the amount of berries I had.

Ingredients:

5 cups sour cherries, pitted.   (I had 6 cups of cherries, and after I had pitted
them, it was closer to 4 1/2)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
1/4 cup corn starch
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon water

1 recipe for double crust pie crust. 

Directions:

1.Adjust the oven rack to the lowest position and place rimed baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
2. Mix 1 cup of sugar, cornstarch and the salt.
3. Stir the cherries and the almond extract.
4. Stir together the cherries and sugar mixture.
5. Let mixture sit for 20 minutes.

6. Assemble pie.  Lightly brush the top pie crust with the 1 tablespoon of water and then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.

7. Place the pie on the heated baking sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees.  bake for 25 minutes.   Rotate the baking sheet, reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and continue to bake for 30-35 minutes, until the crust is a deep brown and the juices are bubbling.

8.  Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

*Pitting the cherries turned out to be really easy.  How to pit sour cherries

Limeade Pie (or lemonade or pink lemonade)

pink lemonade pie (made with extra food coloring until it was pink to Ada's liking)

Limeade pie.... yes, we all eat off our IKEA kids plates.

My mom always made this pie.  It's so so so easy, and it always hits the spot on a warm summer evening.  You can use limeade (it's my favorite) or pink lemonade or regular lemonade.  I usually make two different flavors at a time.  Since they are stored in the freezer, you can save one for another day or keep leftovers for a while.

Ingredients:

1/2 container (you know the regular size 48 oz our 1.5 qt) of vanilla ice cream softened  (it needs to be soft   enough to stir, but not melted)
1/2 of a frozen 12 oz limeade (or lemonade or pink lemonade juice mix), thawed
1 store bought graham cracker or shortbread crust
food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1.With a hand mixer, mix the ice cream, lemonade juice concentrate and a drop or two of food coloring (optional) until combined.
2. Poor mixture into the prepared graham cracker crust. 
3.Cover and freeze for an hour or until ready to serve.

Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream pie doesn't seem to be so popular these days, but with this recipe you will LOVE it. It is how my mom made it, I think she got it from my grandma.

2 packages Dream Whip (usually found by the jello section)

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup milk

1 package banana pudding

1 package french vanilla pudding

1/2 cup sour cream

3 bananas

2 pie shells (graham cracker, shortbread etc...) Yes! it makes 2!!

Directions:

Mix Dream Whip, 1 cup milk and vanilla (according to package directions).

Add milk, puddings and sour cream and beat for 2 minutes.

Fold in sliced bananas and put into pie shells. Top with whip cream if desired...

Put in refrigerator until you eat it (don't wait for too long, bananas don't last forever. But this makes a pretty good breakfast!)