Cherries in the Canning Pot

Two weeks ago my dad and his sweetie picked pie cherries. Their season is so very short that it is important to get them at once, or else there will be no cherry pie in the winter. Or, more accuarately, we would have to buy pre-made cherry pie filling. Anyway, the cherries were picked and pitted, then frozen until there was time to deal with them. We got them right as we were getting home from Faire and dealing with head colds and laundry mountian. Not a good time for canning.

We also added a flat of bing cherries to the freezer - some frozen for eating and smoothies and whatnot, some dried, and some saved for cherry jam.

I looked at the calendar and realized that today was cherry canning day. So we defrosted the cherries and  got to work.

Pot o' Cherries

There were too many cherries for the usual pot. We had to get out the five-gallon brewing kettle.

Brother-Bug stirring in the sugar. 

I reduced the amount of sugar reccommended by 1/2 cup per quart of cherries. I figure that you can always add more sugar later, but it's really hard to take sugar out.

Cherry pie filling going into jars. 

We ended up with 7 quarts of pie filling. One I saved out to make into pie immediately. The rest went into the water bath canner. Then it was time to move onto the jam!

Jam in the jam pot.

The jam is approximately 1/2 pie cherries, 1/2 bing cherries, sugar to taste, a dash of lemon, and some pectin. I whizzed the cherries up in the food processor before I put them in the pot.

Sister-Bug eating the skimmed foam from the jam. She approves.

The jam went into jars and into the water bath as well. I saved some cherries out for making some fruit leather, but that is a project for another day.

The day's bounty

At the end I have 7 quarts of pie cherries and 10 1/2-pints of cherry jam. And a dream of cherry pie on a dull day in mid-winter.


And one of my favorite things about a can of cherries? I think they look like I've been pickling the hearts of evil gnomes. Macabre, but true. And so tasty.

Recipe: Chocolate-Chocolate-Cherry Cake

Most chocolate cakes I have made have been less than satisfactory. Too dry or light. I like chocolate cake that is rich, rich, rich. If you're going to go there, you might as well go all the way.

With my mother's birthday recently on the calendar, it fell to me to make the requisite cake. She said she wanted chocolate. Very chocolate

So I dipped into old recipes and made her the chocolate-cherry cake my dear friend and midwife has made for me in the past. I have never had this recipe fail. Always a keeper of a cake. Hats off to my midwife!

Zuchinni Chocolate Cake

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups zuchinni (if using frozen zuchinni, thaw well and press out some of the excess liquid)

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Beat the first four ingredients together. Mix the final four dry ingredients and add to the wet mixture. At this time you can fix it up a little. Brother-Bug likes to add some chocolate chips for an extra chocolaty treat. I think some chilies might be fun. Or nuts. Or ??? Add those in now.

This should make 2-3 nine-inch cake pans, depending on what additions (like chocolate chips) you were inspired to mix in.

Put the batter into greased cake pans. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and decorate.

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The classic that I love best with this is shown above. Simple and elegant. Cherries (a mixture of frozen cherries and cherry jam, heated with a little cornstarch to thicken it) and whipped cream. Real whip for my mom, no sugar.

You can decorate and stack it how you like. Toffee? Raspberry? Espresso? Frosting? Gnache? It's just the basic of basic fine chocolate cakes.

And you can feel good about eating it... because after all it has zuchinni in it, so it's like a vegetable, right?