Illustration by Charles Robinson
From A Child's Garden of Verses.
by Robert Louis Stevenson
1850-1894
Cherry ripe, cherry ripe,
Ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones
Come and buy.
English Folk Song ~ poet Robert Herrick 1591-1674
I love making a cherry clafoutis when these sweet, firm and
flavorful dark red stone fruits hit the market.
Yes, it's cherry ripe time! They are stacked upon grocery produce
shelves in boxes and bags, and are really hard to resist.
These are also excellent for eating fresh - just rinse first!
This is when I truly wish I lived in the Pacific Northwest where most
of our cherries are grown in beautiful Washington State.
The mahogany red Bing variety now being picked are large, firm,
just juicy enough, and with an intense vibrant flavor. They keep well and
are perfect for this classic French dessert.
If you're my age, give or take a few years, you will be familiar with the
always smiling, soft-spoken Ina Garten, author of many great cookbooks
featuring 'Easy French Food You Can Make at Home', and her
Food Network TV show, Barefoot Contessa. Ina lived in France for a while
so really knows her way around a classic French kitchen.
I use Ina's clafoutis recipe from her cookbook Barefoot in Paris,
adding a dash of black raspberry Chambord liqueur for extra flavor -
and I always seem to have a bottle hanging around!
What's cooking in your kitchen this weekend?
Young blue jay chilling out.
their way about the garden and seem familiar with places to cool off now the
heat of our southeastern summer smothers us all.
Mockingbird almost all grown up!
Scraps of paper notes, my silly little sketches, a notebook of squiggles, a folder of
torn pages from magazines, garden books, landscape plans. . . . . I have them all
piled here on the table and the dream in my head.
Dreams need plans.
Plans need money.
Some work needs professionals.
Hope we're up for it!
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Dreams need plans, now I am intrigued by your project. I must tell you I like the photos in your blog header, and the one of the blue jay. Do you have a special camera? Your photos are so crisp and clear.
ReplyDeleteDear Mary,
ReplyDeleteI only have a sour cherry tree in my garden. They make good old cherry pie. The sweet cherries have not hit our markets yet. Your photos of your birds (especially the first one) are extra special.
Friends in Herefordshire emailed to say they had collected a box of cherries from a local orchard. Sadly they dont seem to grow down here.
ReplyDeleteGarden plans sound intriguing!
Nothing as fine as clafoutis, which I have not had in forever. And never cherry clafoutis. Just cooked a couple of French toasts for lunch as the bread may be moldy by morning.
ReplyDeleteI love Ina Garten and have made quite a few of her recipes ..... I love her Shrimp/orzo/ feta salad especially in the Summer. Cherries are one of my favourite fruits ..... I am a bit upset that the big, dark red ones have taken over. When I was a child, it was the yellow cherries that we used to have. We get them for about two weeks now and they are SO expensive and yet that’s all we used to have. I find them superior. I’m sure you will remember them when you were little and living in England.I still like the dark red ones as well though 🤣😂 Love the sound of your clafoutis.... and the baby birds are so cute. XXXX
ReplyDeleteI haven't been in a grocery store myself since the first week of March. When you have someone else buying for you, you never know what's on the shelves and what's not. I do have some frozen cherries but they aren't nearly as good as fresh ones. And, I am eating blueberries up a storm!
ReplyDeleteThose young birds are beautiful - I hope they will start their own families in your garden next year!
ReplyDeleteCherry season is as good as over here, it was at least 2 weeks early this year. On my walks, I so often come across trees that were absolutely laden with fruit, but nobody bothered to pick them, and now they are making a rather horrible mix on the ground of squashed cherries, stones and other debris from the tree; wasps love it, and bare feet (and even shoes!) hate it.
I can well imagine your garden dreams come true; so far, you have had good people work for you, and your plans and ideas have turned out the way you wanted them, right?
Not sure yet what will be cooking in my kitchen this weekend; O.K. will be here, but I'd love to go to the beer garden with him where I had that wonderful pumpkin falafel with my sister the other day.
Love the poem about climbing the cherry tree!
We don't have cherries in this part of the world unless bottled or maraschino ones which I anyway love. The dessert looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteWe do get cherries here in IL in the grocery stores, but I imagine perfectly fresh ones are much better! I *love* Ina - she's one of my favorite "chefs". I put that term in quotation marks, as she's actually not a professional chef, but no matter...that woman can cook! I also love her quiet, down-to-earth, quirky personality. And then put her and Jeffrey together and you have a match made in heaven!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what you're up to in your yard. We need to hire a professional landscaper for our front yard, but we're not quite sure who to hire yet. We've been looking.
Oh, snap, Mary! I baked a quince which is sitting waiting to be turned into a clafoutis! It was going to be last night but I got lazy and forewent the pudding altogether. And then I did notice the jar of sour cherries in the pantry this morning which gave me the mental nudge that I have to Make the Effort tonight. I have the quince and also some rhubarb in the fridge and thought I might see if they combine successfully into a clafoutis. Not in the least bit traditional but a sort of fridge surprise! ... Owing to the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the US we now see American fruit in the greengrocery, so can buy fresh cherries in our winter now, which I never do as they're firmly in our tradition as a Xmas fruit. Enjoy your delicious looking, and so very French, clafoutis!
ReplyDeleteI like that Bluejay cooling her tail.
ReplyDelete