Leftover fruits galore

As I mentioned in my post earlier in the week, I've got a lot of fruit sitting around my house. After the jam making experiment, I still had about 4 cups of chopped rhubarb, 4 ripe peaches, and 8 cups of sweet cherries to rifle my way through. So what's a Lady to do? But make more stuff.

I started off first with two Rhubarb/Cherry crumbles (one for myself, one for the neighbor). Crumbles are always pretty easy to make, and with the fruit already being cut-up, I was most of the way there! So I coated it in some sugar and flour, spread it in the bottom of a casserole dish, and covered it with a mixture of brown sugar, oats, flour, and butter. Throw that in an oven for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees F, and your neighbors will go: Mmmmmmm.

Making Rhubarb crumble

Next up, I still had about 6 cups of sweet cherries leftover that had pits.

So I used my new Cherry Chomper!

Pitting cherries is kind of the pits

Pitting cherries really isn't a job that I'd want for a living, and after doing it (and having permanently stained fingers) I'm even more thankful for the giant automated pitter at Spicer's. Anyhow, after fully pitting, I ended up with about 5 cups of good cherries, so I set them aside, and got to work making my pie crust. I use the basic pie crust recipe from Joy of Cooking, and it turns out perfectly every time. Plus I can feel good about it not containing a bajillion sticks of butter. Make sure to not overwork your pastry!

Pie crust resting

Chill the pie crust (overnight) if you can, and then roll it out onto a cutting board, and then back onto your rolling pin once the correct thickness has been achieved. And don't forgot to mix your cherries with some sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and almond extract while you're waiting.

Pie preparation

Once your pie is all prepped, throw that baby in the oven, and let her bake. She'll be beautiful!

That's a nice looking pieSweet Cherry Pie

In the end, my pie looked like a million bucks, and tasted like 10 cents. Don't get me wrong, I didn't do anything wrong recipe-wise; the crust was perfect (tender and flaky) and the cherry goop was the right consistency. I just discovered I don't like sweet cherry pie. There's a reason that people call the tart cherries "pie cherries." So I've been schooled, and next year will be a whole new pie experience.
Now moving on to those few remaining peaches. I found a recipe in my Gourmet magazine for "grown-up" popsicles. The peaches and cream ones I just couldn't resist making. I can't recall the exact recipe off-hand, but it included 2 cups of finely chopped peaches, plain yogurt, caster sugar, a touch of vanilla, and amaretto all mixed in the blender.

Blending up peachy goodness

Peaches & Cream Popsicles

The popsicles are fantatic, and I'll definately being making them again. Maybe I'll even sneak one or two to work!! Now, what kinds of crazy fruit chaos will I get myself into next year??