nurturing hope, creativity, family
I hope this holiday finds you happy, safe, and full of gratitude for your liberties.
It’s my favorite day of the year, but we don’t have much of a party planned due to my husband’s health. We’re hoping for a quiet but memorable day.
Jennifer
I did manage to make something fabulous with our cherries before we froze and dehydrated all that we hadn’t eaten fresh. It’s a new recipe, and most definitely a keeper. It wasn’t difficult to make but had great flavor. It was gone so quickly that I only got a picture of the last slice!
Fresh Cherry Tart (adapted from a Southern Living recipe) 2 cups graham cracker crumbs 4 Tb. sugar 1/2 cup plus 1 Tb. melted butter 3 1/4 cups fresh cherries, pitted 1/2 cup sugar 4 1/2 Tb. corn starch 4 1/2 Tb. water 2/3 cup orange marmalade, divided 2 Tb. butter 8 oz cream cheese, softened 1/3 cup sugar For the crust:
Crush graham crackers into crumbs until crumbs measure 2 cups. Add sugar and stir. Melt butter in separate bowl and pour into graham cracker mixture. Mix until combined. Press into 10 inch round tart pan and bake at 375 for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely.
In heavy sauce pan, combine cherries, 1/2 cup sugar, corn starch and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to boil and cook for 1 minute or until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in 1/3 cup orange marmalade and 2 Tb. butter. Cover and chill for 2 hours.
While cherries chill and crust cools, mix cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and remaining 1/3 cup orange marmalade together in medium bowl.
To assemble tart, spread cream cheese mixture on bottom of tart crust. Cover with cherry mixture. Chill if desired or serve immediately. Enjoy!
Last fall I added allium to the list of bulbs planted in my yard. They came up beautifully in the spring and I loved the pretty purple ball floating so high above the ground on their tall stalks.
One afternoon a friend and I were talking on my driveway when she pointed to the allium and asked, “Do you spray your flowers?” I was completely confused by her question and she explained that she and a friend of hers both spray paint their allium after they brown. She said they look amazing for the rest of the summer. I was totally surprised by this and a little bit dubious, but even when they browned their form was so pretty in the flowerbed that I decided to try it rather than cut them down.
Some of the flowers had already fallen over so I started on them. I tried white paint first but didn’t love it. Not enough presence. Next I got a beautiful tomato red paint and re-painted them. Much better.
They sit in a vase in my dining room and I love how they turned out!
For the flowers still standing in the yard I took a piece of cardboard to sort of wrap around each flower and catch as much overspray as possible. I didn’t want to paint the surrounding plants, concrete, etc. They’re not perfect, but all of a sudden there’s more color out there and I like the way it looks. Here are a couple of them mingling with blue delphinium:
My little experiment went well, and will be something to consider doing in future years. I’m certainly planting more allium!