::Canned Cherries::

As far as a cooking and baking standpoint; what's as scary as baking bread? Canning. For the first time, it's daunting. Do you put the jars in a boiling water bath and then fill them? How long do you boil to get a seal? These are things that came to mind the first time I canned, by myself. The first, first time I canned was with my sister and grandma, making homemade raspberry jam. The time I canned after that was cherries. I had never had, nor heard of canned cherries until I met Jamyson. He told me how wonderful they were so when I had the chance to buy cherries for SUPER cheap last year, I gave it a try. It was a success. To prove it, I bought 45lbs of cherries to can this year. I was only able to get the Rainier ones so far, so no Bing ones, yet anyways. I canned some Bing ones last year and they are wonderful too, so if you get a chance, can those too! Anyways, the method of canning cherries is very simple and I hope that if you haven't canned before, that you take the opportunity to do this. I am fortunate to have a wonderful neighbor who lets me use her 'canner' each year. If not a canner is about $20. If you have never had canned cherries, let me know, I'd love to let you try mine! The cherries are in a simple syrup (not even 'syrup' at all) and get a little soft from sitting in the juice. They have a wonderful sweet flavor and the juice is outta this world! Enjoy!

::Canned Cherries::

Cherries
Sugar
Water
(1 cup of sugar per 2 cups of water)
Jars, Lids, Rings

Wash and stem cherries. Place in jar. Bring water and sugar to a boil and pour in jars over cherries. Seal the lids and place in a boiling water bath for about 30 minutes. Remove and let stand to seal.

For about 40 pint sized jars and six quart sized jars I used about 32cups water and 16 cups of sugar.

The goods!

Get jars while you can! During prime canning season they are super hard to find!

The washing and stemming probably is the step that takes the longest.

Fill jars about 1'' from the top.

Ready to be filled with the simple syrup.

They are good eating too!

All the stems!

Close up!

Pretty pretty.

Lids & rings!

Now...lots of water and...

...lots of sugar!

Ready for the tops.


Now, ready to heat things up!

The black thing is the canner.

All the jars in and ready to be boiled.

The jar grasper...handy!

Handy cause it doesn't let your hand get burnt

Done and ready to sit, be pretty, eat and devour!

::Fruit Pizza::

::Fruit Pizza:: ...I don't even know where to start with you. Besides that you make my Top 5 Favorite food list. I'm more of a person who likes to have small snacks throughout the day instead of three large meals. So, my favorite foods aren't usually meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes, but are things like ::Fruit Pizza:: , popcorn, etc.

::Fruit Pizza:: is one of my favorites because I LOVE fruit and mostly all kinds of fruit! ::Fruit Pizza:: also has a nice crust, with a cream cheese type of layer, lots of fruit, and then one of the best parts...the glaze! You know how you grow up with something and that is the way you always like it? Well that goes for me and the crust of this ::Fruit Pizza:: . I have had fruit pizza that has been made with a fun fetti cake mix in the crust as well as a sugar cookie dough crust; I don't mean to offend anyone, but I like the crust of this ::Fruit Pizza:: recipe the best, but that goes to this being the crust that my mom and one aunt usually made. Anyways, done about the crust!

On Facebook, I posted in my status what recipes people would like to see on the blog. I got requests for recipes with fruits that are in season and also one specifically for fruit pizza. So, since this ::Fruit Pizza:: is my favorite and since there are so many good fruits in season now, how perfect to post this!

Anyways, I hope that everyone is having a happy Friday and is going to enjoy their weekend! Thank you to my mom for my favorite ::Fruit Pizza:: recipe. Also, how appropriate, it's her birthday tomorrow!

Enjoy!

::Fruit Pizza::

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour

For the crust: beat the butter and then add the powdered sugar and then the flour. Press into the bottom of a jelly-roll sized pan (I usually use a size thats a little smaller than that, but I didn't have the pan since it held the ::Nutter Butter Balls:: that I gave awway). Bake at 300 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Cool.

10 oz vanilla chips (I always use the white chocolate chips)

1/4 cup cream

8 oz pkg cream cheese

For the middle layer: in the microwave melt the cream and vanilla chips together, stirring often. Once done, beat in the cream cheese until smooth and spread evenly over the cooled crust. I place this back into the fridge while I am preparing (washing, slicing) the fruit.

Use whatever fruit you like!

1 cup sugar

4 T corn starch

2 cups pineapple juice

2 tsp. lemon juice

For the glaze: place all ingredients into a saucepan and cook over meadium heat until thick. Cool. Then spread over fruit, covering all fruit.

Crust ingredients.

Beat the butter a little.

Add the powdered sugar and beat a little.


Then add the flour and beat.


Done and ready for the pan!

Like I said earlier, I usually used a pan that was a little smaller than this. But this works great too!

Crust evenly spread and ready for the 300 degree oven!

Ingredients for the middle layer.

Melt this in the microwave and stir frequently until smooth.

Fresh fruit!

Ingredients for the glaze!

Crust all baked up!

Middle layer ready!

...and spread on the crust.

I also use some of the canned pineapple from when I use the juice for the glaze.

You need a couple cans to get the amount of juice or else just buy the regular pineapple juice.

Jamyson loves kiwi on it.

Peaches & nectarines.

Pluots. AKA Dinasaur eggs. Super tastey!

Strawberries!

Grapes!
I did have a request for a recipe with mangos. I have to do some research on that one but mangos would be great on here too!

Star spreading out the fruit!....

Add more and it gets prettier....

...and prettier...

...and prettier...

...and prettier! Until it's so pretty you can't wait to serve it and eat it!

Close up!

Now onto the glaze!

According to my recipe it's a fourth of what I posted on here. Thats how much I increased the amount of glaze byl because you want it to cover all the fruit and not to mention it is so yummy!

Want to make this for the 4th of July? Just use strawberries and blueberries to make a flag!

Enjoy!

Variation ::Blueberry Salad::

Happy Monday...hope everyone had a great weekend! Remember the ::Blueberry Salad:: recipe that I blogged about a while ago that called for 2 packages of black cherry jello? My step-mom made the ::Blueberry Salad:: for a fathers day dessert (my dad loves blueberries) and made it with sugar-free jello...and it turned out wonderful! So, just letting you all know that sugar-free jello does work with this recipe. And if you want to get even healthier, use fat-free cream cheese and fat free cool whip. Also, if you didn't see the comment that someone had left about the recipe, it was commented that grape jello is a great alternative to the black cherry. Stay tuned for more blog posts this evening...had a busy morning/afternoon and now am going to do some baking!