End of the Season: Cherries!

Its time to say goodbye again... to cherries that is.

We got the last crop in at the store about two weeks ago, and honestly, they were definitely end of the season cherries... when they got to us, the were already brownish and slightly bruised. They tasted good enough, but man, they were ugly. So ugly in fact that they didn't sell - like at all. Even after lowering the price and offering samples to anyone walking in our direction.... Oh darn...

Tip: Don't judge a fruit by its cover! Seriously, the most delicious fruits come in all looks and sizes! And just to be sure, ask the store to give you a sample. No, really. Just about anywhere that sells fruits and vegetables will give you a sample - including grocery stores. I've done it. Just make sure to find an actual produce person to help you out.

So, 5 pounds of ugly, tasty cherries that no one wanted to buy - ended up in my house. The thing is, they were Rainier Cherries - not notoriously good cooking cherries. I love myself a cherry pie, but I wasn't such a fan of the last one I made with Rainiers... so I had to put my thinking cap on - my husband and I were NOT gonna be able to eat 5 pounds of cherries before they went bad.

Sauce? Naw... again they're Rainiers...  Cobbler? Naw... similar taste to pie.... Dried?! That just might work.

Its super simple:

Dried Cherries - Even Rainiers!
Ingredients

• Any amount of pitted cherries, cut in half

Directions

1. Bring out, clean and set your dehydrator on the lowest temperature.
2. Set cherries onto trays, cut side up (rounded, skin side on the tray). This will allow them to retain all their flavor and plumpness.
3. Dry for many hours - between 8-12 - depending on the heat. I let mine go overnight, and woke up to some well dried cherries, with only a few crispy ones. The dryer they are the longer they will store. Mine were DRY. Next time I'm gonna turn them off little sooner, letting them be a little squishy.
4. Collect the cherries, and put into a jar - without the lid. Wait till they cool to room temperature then tighten on the lid.
5. Substitutions: Use any kind of cherry for this, even sour or tart ones, which would be great re-hydrated in a chutney!

They didn't get any prettier during the drying process.... but they did get darn tasty! So tasty that I soon used them in Ina Garten's Granola Bar Recipe! I just cut the cherries up using scissors and used them in place of the apricots. Delicious!

More Brown Bananas

As promised I’m back with more things to do with brown bananas. This time I had a whole heap of them from work! I sold about 1/3 of our over ripe ones as “Banana Bread Bananas” for ridiculously cheap – I’d seen it done before, so keep your eye out – but the rest I had to take home, oh, poor me.

What the heck was I gonna do with 10 brown bananas!? Well, luckily I have a list. As, I've said before, I ALWAYS end up with brown bananas, so I just started going down my list, and made the first four things, after banana bread of course:

• Banana bread – made last week – so not this time
• Frozen bananas – to use at a later date
• Banana pancakes – and make some extra for easy breakfasts
• Fruit roll ups – Awesome!
• Smoothie

Easy peasy.  First, I froze the bananas two ways. I put some whole, sealed in labeled ziplock bags. These are great for making banana bread or banana pancakes in a pinch. Admit it, sometimes you just have a craving for some :) Then, I sliced a few more and put them on parchment paper, on a pan, not touching, then in the freezer. Once frozen, just move them into a container, and keep frozen. Use them in smoothies instead of adding ice or dip them in chocolate or peanut butter for a quick mid-summer snack.

To make banana pancakes (base recipe found here):

Banana Pancakes

Makes seven 5-inch pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbls oil
• 2 small ripe bananas (or one large one), mashed
• ½ tsp vanila

Directions:

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla and bananas.
2. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium low heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the pan and flatten the batter out a bit. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.
4. Substitutions: use some or all whole wheat flour. I didn’t have quite enough milk, so I used half sour cream. Could also use, butter milk or soy milk (use just a little less than a cup for soy). Could use melted butter or coconut oil instead of the vegetable oil.

The batter is thick and these pancakes take a while to cook – they need to cook slowly, and are a soft fluffy texture when they’re done. The insides will seem not cooked enough when you flip them, but just be patient, their delicious.

I always make a few extra, and as I froze the sliced bananas, just put the cooled extras on a parchment paper lined sheet pan, freeze solid, then transfer to a ziplock. To reheat, just throw the frozen pancakes in the toaster oven and toast at the medium dark brown setting. They come out perfect.

Lastly, fruit roll ups. To make them, you need to dust off your dehydrator and get some special rollup trays (found here). I decided to make strawberry banana ones today:

Strawberry Banana Fruit Rolls
Ingredients:

• Big handful of strawberries, washed and husked
• 2 super ripe bananas

Directions:

1. Blend strawberries and bananas together, till really smooth.
2. Pour the mixture onto the special trays. Smooth out till it’s in an even ¼-3/8 inch layer.
3. Turn on dehydrator, and rotate trays occasionally, for about 3-4 hours, or until the fruit is dried, but slightly tacky to the touch.
4. Remove them while still warm, and roll up in parchment paper.
5. Substitutions: use any berry instead of strawberries, like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.

At this point I only had one banana left, so I just made myself a quick smoothie for breakfast, with all the other frozen fruit I had in my collection.

And that was that, 10 more bananas saved from the doom of the garbage can – and me stocked up on quick easy breakfasts and snacks for a while! Also, I know it seems that this would take up a bunch of freezer space, but it really doesn't. Especially, if you bake or make smoothies often.

Those 4 bananas that I cut up and froze, will really only make me maybe a weeks worth of smoothies... Then I'll be on the hunt for more!

More brown banana recipes to come later!