Mudpuddle: Well, It Just Had To Be Done.

I've been making a conscious effort lately to make sure that nothing in my fridge goes bad before I have a chance to use it in some way. I don't know about you, but it's fairly common around here for oranges to grow beards in the bottom produce drawer or for potato vines to actually grow and then lose their leaves in my pantry. And let me tell you, those potato beetles can grow to the size of your thumb when amply supplied with a variety of diet staples like Cheez-its and also brown sugar.

So, in my produce drawer monitoring yesterday I discovered a bag of cherries that had already started the death march. I quickly determined that in order to save their little souls I could either 1) eat them one by one or 2) put them lovingly in a baked good.

I decided to make a cherry crisp because basically it was the good and right thing to do.

First, I picked out all the cherries that were too sick to go on.

Then I removed the stems from the survivors.

Then I realized I had to take every pit out of every cherry by hand.

Drat.

But I had already made the critical decision to SAVE THE CHERRIES so there was no turning back.

On a cutting mat I gently pressed each cherry one by one with the heel of my hand on my chef's knife. Before I got the hang of it I shot cherry juice all over the counter, the floor (which Squeegums appreciated) my new black shirt, and the refrigerator.

This makes the pit separate from the fruit and easy to just pull out with your fingers.

It's a dangerous job. Look Away! Look Away!

I'm kidding. I'm such a kidder... it's just cherry juice. It does a number on your manicure, by the way.

So here's what you end up with. Pitted cherries.

Oh yes, and a mess.

The first thing I did was squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the cherries. Lemon juice brightens up the flavor of any fruit. And of course, for some fruits (peaches, apples, etc...) it helps to keep the fruit from oxidizing and turning brown so quickly.

But I just thought the cherries needed some zip.

Then I added one cup of sugar and 1 T. of cornstarch and stirred all this in well.

Oh! And a pinch of salt.

Then I spooned the cherry concoction into two little retro Corning Ware dishes.

I think they look very nice.

But not good enough. Of course we're missing the crisp part! The part that makes every crisp worth eating.

So I cut up 6 T. of butter

And cut that into 3/4 cup flour.

Then I mixed the flour and the butter together with 3/4 cup oats, 1/2 c. sugar, and 1/4 c. brown sugar and a pinch of salt.

I used my hands. I apologize.