Come Christmas, I may have a pretty nice drink to give away: I tried this easy peasy recipe for Cherry Cordial. I've never made a drink before, though I remember jotting down a recipe for dandelion wine more than 10 years ago, but the cherry obsession that I found myself with called for the trying.
This recipe calls for 1 lb of tart cherries and 500ml of vodka (about 3 cups). Ever since I read Alton Brown's books, I must confess that I really prefer to weigh everything. It's a pity more recipes don't include the weights, I think things seems a bit more accurate that way. I'm very glad the digital scale I bought also weighs liquids in oz. and ml.
Seeing as I had just over 2 lbs of cherries to do something with today, I used a half pound to make another half batch of cherry cordial (rationalized not due to my excessive drinking, but the hopes that this would be so wonderful, I'd wish I'd made more to give away...) and then I canned the rest whole, pits still in, in 3 little pints.
I found how to do this on another good resource site for home canning: the National Center for Home Food Preservation or http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/. I was happy that I could minimize my work for the day by leaving the pits in. I rather like spitting out (and finding a place to spit out) the cherry pits...and it helps to keep track of how many I've eaten. I used my Mom's recipe for extra light syrup, however, which is 1 c. sugar to 1 quart of water. After all, I didn't really want too sweet cherries.
They looked so nice coming out of the hot water bath. I already fantasize about next February cracking one open and devouring them, remembering instantly the many hundreds I've devoured this July.
Next summer, I think I'll have to do this again. It's been a great week deciding what to do with cherry madness. And I'm so lucky to have the access to delectable fruit!