Can She Bake a Cherry Pie, Charming Billy?

I think the Husband (whose name is NOT Billy) would say that I have passed the Cherry Pie Test for spousal suitability, many times over, in fact, and left my mother some long time ago! 😉 Today is National Cherry Pie Day and Thing 1 asked if I would please make a cherry pie b/c she especially likes how I ‘decorate’ them. I couldn’t quite remember how I usually do this and I didn’t have it written down anywhere, but now I will, sort of.

Those of you who frequent this blog but who don’t attend church with me must wonder what sort of baby factory we have when I say that once again I’m making a meal for a couple who just had a baby. Well — it’s a wonderful baby factory! 😀 Just wait until August/September b/c I think within a month’s time I know five couples who are expecting a new baby and, NO, we don’t belong to a mega-church. Those whose taste I know better than others will get something beside the usual citrus grilled chicken and potatoes! 😛

For today I wanted something a little different than a generic cherry pie. One of my favorites is Cranberry Cherry Pie. I used the No Fail Pie Crust recipe I posted some time ago. I made a 10-inch deep dish pie for us and I bought a disposable pie pan for the New Parents and those things are considerably smaller — 8 or 9″ and fairly shallow. I ended up with more cherry than cranberry rather than my usual split (typically for my 10-inch deep dish I use 2 cans pie filling and 1 can cranberry sauce but if I would have added more cranberry sauce today, it would have been way too much filling).

3 cans cherry pie filling (2 were ‘lite’/less sugar but not with sugar substitutes and was a ‘more cherries’ can)

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce

orange zest

several (4-5) tablespoons of orange juice concentrate

nutmeg (I’d guess 1-1.5 teaspoons — I just sprinkled it on top and stirred it in)

cornstarch (a couple tablespoons)

I think I usually use egg instead of cornstarch b/c the mix looked much lighter when I stirred it up than I remember it. I haven’t cut into it yet to see how the texture came out because for dessert tonight the family wanted to eat what we made with a little leftover pie crust, a ‘black bottom’ banana cream pie:

Banana cream pie is the Husband’s favorite pie. I sliced bananas into the bottom of the crust, made a chocolate ganauche and poured over them, then topped with the sickeningly sweet concoction of Jell-O pudding (a mix of vanilla and cheesecake flavores, made with less milk than normal) and Cool Whip. The kids love the top and I go along behind them eating up the chocolate left on their plates! 😉