Belly of the Beest

Roasted Tomatoes with herbs and garlic

This recipe comes from Saveur magazine and is my pick of the summer. It is fast and delicious and requires little prep or work on your part. Just pick fresh tomatoes and you are set. This one is perfect for a few more days (?) or a week (?). Fresh tomatoes are still available and the heat from the blazing oven won’t be an annoyance and may in fact be welcome depending on the day. We’ve made this three times already this summer and plan to make it one more time before we leave for Europe. The first time we made it was while we were canning pasta sauce at my parents’ house. That’s how easy it is to make. Also, you can see the peach jam in the background of the top photo. Without further ado, the recipe!

Prepping the tomatoes and garlic

Roasted Tomatoes

This recipe was first published in Saveur in Issue #130

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Apricot Fennel Ricotta Sandwiches

I saw this recipe in the Chicago Tribune food section and despite having just finished breakfast immediately wanted to make and devour these. Then, as usually happens, I made note of the recipe, got distracted with the millions of other things I want to try to make and forgot about it.

When I cleaned out my office the other day I came across it and again was amazed I hadn’t tried it yet. We finally had occasion to make it when our friends Sudha and Evan came over for brunch in late August. These little sandwiches were everything I thought they would be and more. Before I give the recipe though, I have to give Sudha credit for the rich and drool-worthy French cream she made to pour over our fresh fruit. It was like eating melted ice cream. So. Good.

Anyway, here is the recipe for the killer sandwiches. Think Grahamwich (new restaurant opening in Chicago that serves gourmet sandwiches) will have anything better than this? Doubt it. But then, I don’t really like Graham Elliot and his upscale, classist shenanigans.

A few notes before the recipe:

Star anise is my favorite spice to cook with, it is beautiful and fragrant, and who doesn’t love just looking at it? Such an intricately shaped spice…wow.

We used dried apricots because the fresh ones are no longer in season. We used Turkish one so they were darker than the ones found in most supermarkets.

We chopped a lot more pistachios than the recipe calls for because we are fiends for them.

Dried Apricots and Fennel

Apricot and fennel sandwiches with ricotta, pistachios and black pepper

Prep: 25 minutes Cook: 15 minutes Makes: 4 sandwiches (It can make more if you make open faced sandwiches.)

1 cup each: sugar, water

4 star anise

2 sticks cinnamon

¼ tsp black peppercorns, roughly crushed

6 apricots, pitted, quartered Sliced bread

½-1 bulb fennel, sliced crosswise into thin strips

½ pound ricotta cheese

2 tablespoons chopped pistachios ½ tsp sea salt

freshly ground pepper

1.     Combine sugar, water, star anise, cinnamon and crushed pepper in a saucepan; heat to a boil. Reduce the heat; simmer 2 minutes. Add the apricots and fennel. Heat to a simmer; cook until the apricots are soft and the fennel has just a slight crunch, about 10 minutes.

2.     Grill or toast the bread on both sides. Spread the ricotta on each slice; top with the apricot/fennel mixture. Finish with the pistachios; season with salt and pepper to taste.

We had leftover apricot mix and ricotta so the next day Nick and I mixed them together and it was like eating cannoli filling. I love eating ricotta in various forms for dessert and this is my new favorite.

This is another any time of day recipe. I love recipes like this! I find myself making more and more like this. What’s your favorite sandwich combination?

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Homemade Granola with Yogurt

This food was lovingly prepared for my mom on Mother’s Day many months ago. I made a breakfast pizza and Kathy and Martin made granola and made little parfaits. They are so simple and so delicious. We made two breakfast pizzas because there was a small crowd for brunch and they are so tasty! They are very impressive to look at and require a little work. The main thing I found while preparing these little pizzas was the trick of keeping the egg from sliding off the crust! The first egg we dumped onto the pizza slide right off into the pan. Damn. What now? The site I got the recipe from doesn’t really mention anything about how to prepare this dish. So I will share what I discovered:

Create little wells in the pasta sauce and cheese for the eggs, the sauce and cheese will act as a dam and prevent them from running off the crust.

Oil the crust so it doesn’t end up burned while you wait for the egg to cook.

Monitor the pizza closely after you put the egg on because some ovens are faster than others and you don’t want the egg to be too runny or too hard. Better to error on the hard side now though, right? Stupid Salmonella.

Anyway, I don’t want to make this sound more complicated than it really was. It was easy after the first minor bump, and it was totally worth it. You can put whatever you like on it and if you prefer you can leave the cheese off and just add more sauce and herbs. I know this is way too late for Mother’s Day, but the thought of turning the oven on no longer seems impractical, so perhaps for the long holiday weekend, an anniversary brunch or just because you like runny eggs on your pizza.

Enjoy! And let me know if you try it!

Breakfast Pizza
serves as many as you’d like

1 recipe for no Yeast Pizza Crust (see below)
Red or white pizza sauce
1 16-ounce tub whole milk ricotta
Several handfuls of fresh herbs
2-3 eggs per pizza
Salt and pepper
Any other toppings you would like

Heat the oven as high as it will go – hopefully at least 550°. Roll out the pizza dough and lay it on a sheet of parchment. Top with everything except the eggs. Put in the oven for 4-5 minutes or until it just begins to brown. Crack the eggs into a cup and slip them onto the pizza. Shake on a little salt and pepper and put back into the oven for another 5 minutes or until the yolk is just set and golden.

Let cool for five minutes then eat!

No Yeast Pizza Crust Recipe

Oven 500 Degrees

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp cooking oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare pizza pan by spraying with non-stick cooking spray. Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add liquids and stir to incorporate dry ingredients. Knead dough by hand 6-8 times on a lightly floured surface. Roll dough thinly. Place rolled dough onto prepared pizza pan, add favorite sauce and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes, depending on crust thickness.

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Russian Carrot Salad from Russian Tea Time

Russian Carrot Salad

This is the second dish we brought to the barbecue in June. It is Russian carrot salad like they make at Russian Tea Time in Chicago. This salad is one of my favorite things to eat, so when I found the recipe online I couldn’t’ wait to make it! The only annoying part is shredding the carrots. We only had a pound of regular carrots in the house, but we had a bag of baby carrots too. Don’t use baby carrots. They take forever to shred.

Anyway, this is the recipe I found on WTTW’s ‘Check Please’ site.  It turned out really well and only gets better with time. I made it the day before we needed it and it was good, later that night it was even better. It keeps really well and it’s very cheap, but very impressive.  This one would also be great for a picnic!

Ingredients

2 lbs carrots

1 tsp coriander

4 garlic cloves

6 tbsp olive oil

6 tbsp white vinegar

paprika

salt

pepper

2 tbsp sugar

First, thinly shred carrots, mix with sugar and crushed garlic. Let it stand for 10 minutes.

Mix with the rest of the ingredients and let it stand for 6 hours. Before serving make sure you mix it thoroughly because the juice tends to settle on the bottom.

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Kalamata Olive Spread

This dip is perfect to bring on a picnic or for quick summer sandwiches. We made it for a barbecue we went to in June and we didn’t have much left to take home! We made this and another dip that I’ll post about shortly that was also delicious and easy.

This is the first of many dishes I will be making from Veganomicon. A book I picked up last year, or maybe it was 2008? It’s been a long time ago at any rate, and I’m embarrassed I haven’t even looked at it until now, but there are many good things going on in this book.

This is NOT a dip for people who have luke warm feelings about olives. You have to love them to enjoy this dip. The main ingredients are olives and tofu. The tofu is just to make it creamy, you can’t really tell it is in there.

Now, the recipe. It makes about two cups

Time: 25 minutes, plus chill time

1 tbsp olive oil

½ C onions, chopped coarsely

3 cloves garlic, chopped

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

1 C tightly packed pitted kalamata olives, chopped coarsely

¼ C dry red wine

½ pound soft (not silken) tofu

2-4 tbsp water

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, saute the onions in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, until slightly brown. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes; cook for 1 more minute. Add the olives and the red wine, and cook until the wine has reduced, about 5 more minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Crumble the tofu into a blender and puree with just enough water to get things going (no more than 4 tablespoons). Add the olive mixture and puree until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender with a spatula.

Place in a tightly sealed container and chill for at least half an hour or until ready to use.

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The different shades of green that announce the coming of spring have inspired several of my recipe choices over the last few days. The days are growing longer, the temperature keeps going up and people are returning to the streets of the city. Every spring I find it surprising how many people actually live in my neighborhood because over the winter people dart in and out of their homes as little as possible. The weather gets nice and then I remember that there are millions of people in the city, not just the two of us. Anyway, one of my favorite spring vegetables is asparagus. It has such a delicate flavor and is a beautiful green. I have been buying loads of it lately and can’t wait until the farmers markets have it. My favorites are asparagus and peas, but more about peas later. For today, we’ll focus on the asparagus.

Kathy and Martin had me over for dinner a few weeks ago and they had made an asparagus soup that was quite tasty. I had several bunches of it home so I decided to make a batch for us too! I found this version of the recipe online. The recipe was great as it is written. I used white pepper in the soup to keep it smooth and uniform in color. One other change was with the presentation. When dicing the asparagus for the soup, cut the tops off the asparagus set them aside. Use the stems in the soup and then just before serving, steam the asparagus tops for about 5 minutes (or until tender) then garnish the soup with them. It just makes it a little prettier and the tops of the asparagus are the most delicious part anyway so it’s nice to save for last.

I hope you enjoy the soup and lots more posts to come this week! With Easter, the dinner party, and a general flurry of cooking, I have about 10 recipes/stories to post!

Asparagus, Leek and Potato Soup

This makes around ten 1 cup servings and would go well with the crackers found in this post.

Ingredients

3 lbs. fresh asparagus

2 large leeks

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 Tbsp. butter

2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into half inch cubes

3 cups vegetable stock

1 cup light cream or milk

salt and pepper to taste

chopped chives for garnish

Directions

Trim leeks, rinse well and coarsely chop them.

Sautee leeks and onions in butter until almost tender in a medium pot.  Add potatoes, asparagus and vegetable stock.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

In small batches, puree the mixture until smooth.  Return mixture to the saucepan and add cream and heat just to the boiling point. While watching the main pot, steam the asparagus tips in another small saucepan with a steamer insert. When these are tender,  season the soup to taste and serve topped with chives and asparagus tops.

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Date and Apricot Muesli Square or a fancy granola bar

First, I added a feature at the bottom of the posts that is allegedly going to make “if you like this, you might also like…” recommendations. I’m not entirely clear on how it picks recipes because at the moment most posts have the same recipe suggestions. It might take it a couple days to figure out keywords and what not, but I’m hoping that will be a useful tool for people.

Back to the recipes: Nick and I are always trying to come up with new and more interesting foods to take with us for lunch. We’ve been eating a lot of granola bars lately and they are a bit pricey at the store and most are full of high fructose corn syrup or trans-fats. Some weeks the organic, less processed bars are on sale, but if they aren’t, it seems like a waste of money. So, after thinking about it awhile, we’ve started to make these little bars for lunches instead! They are easy to adapt–you can use whatever dried fruit you have on hand–and quick to make. I found a lot of recipes for granola bars, but this one is my favorite so far. I’m not sure where I got the original recipe, but this is the one I’m using currently. Does anyone have a different recipe they like to use for granola bars? or muesli squares if you like that name better? Mark Bittman has a couple good recipes for bars in his books…perhaps we should do a taste test in the coming weeks.

Date and Apricot Muesli Squares

20 minutes prep

35 minutes cook time

Ingredients

¼- ½ cup sugar–brown or white, I prefer brown.

2 tsp lemon juice

¼ light evaporated milk

1 c chopped dates

½ c chopped dried apricots

½ c muesli

¼ c rolled oats

4.5 oz reduced fat cream cheese

½ c whole wheat flour (or ¼ c flour and ¼ c soy flour)

1/2-1 tsp cinnamon

finely chopped candied ginger to taste–I think I added about a tablespoon

Pre-heat oven to 350

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon together. Fold through flour and milk. Fold in remaining ingredients and press down into a greased 8×8 pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

These bars are soft and chewy rather than crunchy which makes them seem more like a combination dessert/snack. Enjoy and let me know if you try them!

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Zuchinni Bruschetta ready to eat

Most great zucchini/summer squash recipes have similar ingredients: Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, basil, tomatoes, and some sort of carb. This isn’t so much a recipe, but a suggestion.

Zuchinni Bruschetta--cutting the tomatoes

Sauté sliced zucchini, summer squash, a red pepper if you have one, onions, and garlic until the squash is tender. This can be as much or as little as you want to just get the portions to something you like.

Zuchinni Bruschetta-- cutting the squash. The two-tone one is a zephyr squash.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Throw in a generous amount of chopped basil, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and then cover until the tomatoes get soft.

While you are cooking the veggies, preheat your oven to 350, slice some fresh crusty farmers’ market bread—or if you like baking for hours and hours in the summer—some of your own freshly baked bread and generously coat them with a delicious olive oil, garlic, some basil and bake for about 15 minutes or until crispy.

When your veggies are done toss them on top of your warm bread and top with Parmigiano-Reggiano. You now have Zucchini Bruschetta– Serve and enjoy!

This recipe is perfect because it is super fast and doesn’t require fussing with the ingredients too much. If it is truly a sultry summer day, skip the bread, add some chickpeas to the sauté and you’re set!

Tomorrow: recipes in anticipation of Chicago’s first truly HOT summer days.

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Summer Zucchini Pasta

Every year around this time, the zucchini and summer squash gardens across the country start producing prolific amounts of beautiful squash. At first it is thrilling, knowing that a couple seeds produced so much delicious and nutrient rich food. But then, as the days go by and the squash starts stacking up, the thrill dissipates and the panic sets in. So much food! How do you use it quickly enough to make sure none of it goes to waste?

This is a recipe that will help use up some of those squash. I have already made it twice, once for Nick and myself and once with Aarti and Anu. It’s cooked in one pot, and is perfect on a hot summer night or served at room temperature.

The pasta used here doesn’t have to be penne, you can use whatever you’d like, but when you cut up the squash, cut them into pieces that are about the same size as the pasta you choose. I would suggest that you use a penne, rotini, or a chunkier pasta in this recipe because the “sauce” is very chunky. For a lighter, smoother sauce, you can and should use a more delicate pasta like angel hair. Anyway, here’s the recipe!

Summer Zucchini Pasta -- Mixing all the ingredients

Summer Zucchini Pasta

10 minutes prep time; 10 minutes stove time.
Serves 6 as a main dish.
The pasta could be served hot, or at room temperature.

• 5 quarts salted water in a 6-quart pot
• 1 pound small zucchini and summer squash, about 4 or 5
• 1 pound imported penne pasta
• 4 tablespoons good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes, and more to taste
• 4 large garlic cloves, coarse chopped
• 2 cups grape tomatoes halved, or 2 cups fresh tomatoes, add more if your tomatoes are coming in quickly as well
• 1 to 1-1/2 cups feta cheese, crumbled or a softer goat cheese(chevre!) so delicious, this melts more and coats the pasta nicely.
• 1/3 tight-packed cup fresh basil leaves, rough chopped
• I added cinnamon to the pasta because that’s what I do, it was a delicious idea.

1. Have the salted water boiling.

2. Trim off the ends of the zucchini. Cut the squash into matchsticks about the size of the penne.

3. Drop the pasta into the boiling water. In the last 3 minutes of boiling (check pasta package for timing), drop the zucchini into the pot. Boil, stirring often, until the penne are tender but still have a little bite. Scoop out 1 cup of the pasta water and reserve. Immediately drain the pasta and zucchini in a colander.

4. Return the pasta pot to the heat, turning it down to low. Film the bottom of the pot with the olive oil. Add the hot pepper flakes and garlic, and gently saute just until the garlic is fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the cinnamon here if you plan to use it.

5. Remove the pot from the heat, add the drained pasta and zucchini, the tomatoes, feta, basil, and as much of the reserved pasta water as necessary to lightly coat the pasta. Gently toss, taste for seasoning, and serve!

Tomorrow, more veggies, not enough time.

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We had our cherry party a few weeks ago, but I’m just getting around to posting about the party now. We had a lot of adventures since the Cherry Party, thus, the delay. But now, without further delay, the photos and the recipes!

First, the drinks. Katie, Nick, Katie’s sister and her boyfriend, really out did themselves here. We had this party on a Sunday afternoon so we didn’t drink as much as we would have on say a Saturday, but one of these drinks was completely gone at the end of the party.

Sour Cherry Lemonade

Sour Cherry Lemonade
*Note from Katie: the lemon juice was not strained, giving the drink a pulpy orange juice consistency; straining the lemon juice would result in a lighter, fizzier drink.

2 lb fresh or thawed frozen sour cherries (1 qt), stemmed
1 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups vodka
2 to 3 cups chilled seltzer water

Blend cherries (including pits) in a blender at low speed until skins have broken down enough to brightly color liquid (some of pits will be coarsely chopped). Pour through a sieve into a 2-quart pitcher, pressing on and discarding solids. Add lemon juice and sugar (to taste), stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Top off with seltzer water.

The other drink was a massive punch bowl of Aviations.

1 part maraschino liqueur,
2 parts lemon juice,
3 parts gin

Note from Katie: In retrospect [the drink] was a bit overzealous for an afternoon gathering. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed your bowl of gin, Nick.

Black Cherry-Habanero Salsa

Aarti made a Black Cherry-Habanero Salsa that was absolutely perfect. It should also be noted that Aarti had to make quite an effort to find tortilla chips for the salsa because apparently, gas stations and convenient stores do not carry them. Weird, no?

Here’s the recipe:
24 fresh Bing cherries, pitted and chopped
1/2 to 1 fresh Habanero chili pepper seeds removed and minced
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice(about 1 large)
1/2 sweet red pepper, finely diced
12 tiny sweet tomatoes, halved and sliced
1/2 small Vidalia onion,chopped finely
1/2 cup loose pack Italian parsley leaves, minced
>1/2 cup loose pack fresh cilantro leaves, minced
1 clove fresh garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 + teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

The best way to make this salsa is to chop everything with a knife rather than in a food processor. Get all the ingredients prepped, then further smash the habanero and garlic with a mortar and pestle or the back of your chef’s knife. Combine all the ingredients, taste for salt and pepper and that’s it! Letting it macerate for an hour helps the flavors blend, and by the next day it will mellow in flavor, but also will be very balanced in sweetness, tartness and heat.

“Cherry Pork Wraps” = “Delicious”

Kathy and Martin made a delicious main dish. It was called “Cherry Pork Wraps.”

2 cups cooked brown rice (we used Lundberg Farms Jubilee blend)
1 pack seitan, cut into thin strips
2 Vidalia onions, chopped
1 Serrano pepper, thickly sliced
2 big cloves of red garlic, thinly sliced
a big pinch of dried basil
a fair amount of spicy smoked paprika
some garlic salt
some sea salt
some fresh-ground black pepper
3 cups pitted sour cherries from the now-defunct tree in our backyard
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger root
1 chopped Anaheim pepper
a bunch of shredded fresh basil
maybe 2 cups of shredded baby spinach
8 flour tortillas

We cooked the rice with some olive oil and a little veggie broth. While that transpired, we browned the seitan a little more oil, set it aside, and sautéed the onions till they were somewhat brown; then we added the garlic and Serrano pepper, then the salts and spices, and then we threw the seitan back in.

While all that was happening, we chopped 2 cups of the cherries in food processor. Once the flavors of the onion, seitan, et al. had, like, combined or whatever and the garlic had softened up, we threw the chopped and whole cherries in, along with most of their liquid. (The NW cherries wants you to not really cook the chopped cherries, but they’re using sweet cherries; our sour cherries were mostly juice, so we needed to cook some of that off.) Once the mix had thickened a little, we dumped in the cooked rice and the grated ginger and the Anaheim pepper cooked it awhile longer until the texture seemed pleasing.

Then we let everything sit overnight in some Tupperware. In the AM we warmed it up again and added the shredded basil. Immediately prior to serving, we wrapped the filling up in warmed and moistened (ick, nasty word) flour tortillas along with some of the shredded spinach. (The NW growers recommend shredded Romaine lettuce rather than spinach, which probably would’ve been better, but we had a bunch of spinach we needed to get rid of, so there you go.)

We had two awesome guests in from the Twin Cities for this party, thanks Sudha and Evan for coming! You guys made it even more fun.

I am simply including the link on these because the post is getting crazy long.

They made two salads:

Goat Cheese and Mesclun salad

and

Lentil and Rice Salad

Both salads were fantastic!

“Charlie’s Potato Trees”

Nick and I made these, though, they really didn’t turn out like trees. They would be super cute for Christmas.

2 1/2 lbs. potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbs. shredded onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/ 4 cup Parmesan cheese
Yellow pepper, few dried cherries

Grease a large rimmed baking sheet.
Have ready a large pastry bag or zip top food bag fitted with a large star-piping tip.

Cook potatoes in large pot in water until tender. Drain well. Return to a large bowl. Add sour cream, butter, onion, salt, seasoned salt, pepper. Beat until smooth.Add egg and beat until well blended.Stir in dried cherries. Spoon potatoes into bag with piping tip. Pipe about 16 mounds on the baking sheet, each about 2 1/2 inches wide at the base and 3 inches high. Sprinkle with the cheese. Heat oven to 450º. Bake 15 minutes or until potatoes just begin to brown.Remove trees with a wide spatula to serving platter.Cut stars out of yellow pepper and top each potato tree with a star and add a couple of dried cherries around the star and top of potato.

These would be really really cute for Christmas. Our potatoes didn’t turn out like trees because the potatoes were not stiff enough. I’ll probably reduce the sour cream next time. They were tasty though!

Cherry Date Chutney

Our other dish was an awesome (if I may be so bold) Cherry Date Chutney.

1 tbs. olive oil
1 shallot or three green onions and some garlic
1 c. dried cherries
1c dried dates
1 tbs. apple cider vinegar
2 c. cherry wine—I used cherry brandy here because I had bought brandy for the pie.

Sauté chopped shallot in olive oil in deep frying pan or saucepan until shallot is softened. Add one cup of dried cherries. Add one cup of dried dates (chopped in half or quarters) Add 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Sauté for one minute. Add 2 cups of cherry wine and simmer until liquid is evaporated (usually 30 minutes). Once the liquid is evaporated, it is ready to serve or store in the refrigerator.

We served it on sliced bread with goat cheese baked at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. It was a great appetizer.

Now for desserts!

Martin and Kathy with the Boy Bait, looking sad because the cherry tree died.

Kathy and Martin made a variation on Blueberry Boy Bait that can be found here. Kathy and Martin changed a few things. Here are the changes they made:

“You just sub in cherries for blueberries and use a whole cup plus a few more, instead of a half cup, and add a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter.”

It is also worth noting that the cherries used in this recipe were from the now dead cherry tree in Kathy and Martin’s apartment courtyard. I guess it was sick…It is a big loss, but at least they still have the raspberries!

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry Pie

Nick and I also made a dessert since no cherry party would be complete without a pie. This was an intimidating process as I have never made a pie crust before, but I think it turned out well. Maybe a little bit dry, but still good. Here’s the pie recipe. It smelled pretty boozy! I will write about the piecrust soon as it was a big process and fairly involved.

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry Pie *A cherry pie recipe using dark sweet cherries, tart cherries, cherry concentrate and cherry brandy won Sandy Barnes of Eastport 1st place in the Friske Orchards 6th annual cherry recipe contest.* And made me very happy we had an occasion to make said pie.

Double crust pie crust
12 oz dark sweet pitted cherries
12 oz tart cherries
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
Pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cherry concentrate
1 oz cherry flavored brandy
2-tablespoon butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare piecrust and roll out bottom crust, fit into a large pie dish. Chill. Mix all other ingredients exceptButter and pour into chilled piecrust. Dot with butter. Roll out top crust, cover pie, crimp edges and cut vents or make a lattice crust.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 45-50 minutes.

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