Cottage Cheese with Fresh Cherries

A fabulous summer meal or snack!  This mornings breakfast was a handful of fresh cherries cut in halves, sprinkled with a little sugar and salt and topped with 4% cottage cheese with no gums, stabilizers or fillers.


This also makes a wonderfully easy to go meal if made with frozen fruit.  I can pack a wide mouth, pint size mason jar with frozen fruit and cottage cheese with a single ice pack in a cooler bag and have it just right for eating 8 hours later.


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See Ya In The Gumbo

Pickling Cherries

I was able to purchase 18 lbs of unsprayed RIPE black cherries for less than $2.00/lb.  They are exquisite!   I was planning on canning some and cooking with some and eating some fresh.  Then I came across this recipe for WHOLE (meaning with the stems and pits intact) pickled cherries...and I was intrigued.  We like sweet pickles in our household.  I like eliminating unnecessary steps.  It is the perfect combination in my mind.

So inspired by the previous recipe and the flavoring of this pickled cherry recipe,  and this other pickled cherries recipe, I set out to make my own.

I currently have 6 liters put up.  I washed each batch of cherries in a vinegar /water solution first.  I filled each jar with a handful of cherries at a time, checking for too soft or damaged fruit.  2 cherries got rejected.  One was disposed of in my tummy and one was thrown out to the chickens.

I chose to make one 2 liter batch sweet and spicy with 3 whole dried jalapeños and about 2:1 vinegar to sugar with 2 TBS sea salt.  The other 2 batches are 1 star anise each, some whole cloves and peppercorn with approximately 3:2 vinegar to sugar.  One is a little heavier on the cloves and peppercorns than the other.  I used raw ACV for the vinegar and will just keep them in the back of the fridge.  There's 2 TBS of sea salt in each jar plus 1 tsp of cream of tartar for extra potassium.

Will have to get back to you on how they turn out...but I have high hopes.  Worse comes to worse, I can make a chutney out of them or something.


Update Day 3:  These have been sitting on the counter for  about 3 days.  I hadn't gotten around to making space in the fridge for them yet.  I couldn't resist a nibble....
A little softer than I was expecting...but I think that's because they weren't cold.  Tasted good....not quite the same as a fresh cherry but not a vinegar bomb either.  I like it so far...especially if they keep long term.  There's quite a bit of the undissolved sugar at the bottom on the jar, I should probably just use less next time but I was afraid of making them too sour.


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Your Recipe, My Kitchen

Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream with Chocolate Drizzle

Ultra rich cherry cheesecake ice cream with a drizzle of homemade chocolate sauce

Do you see that?  That is a single scoop of ice cream.  Our family just doesn't DO single scoops.  This stuff is so rich and yummy, a single scoop is more than enough to satisfy.   It is a meal in and of itself.  Wow!

We had a birthday this past weekend and this is how we celebrated by request....we REALLY like ice cream here.

Cheesecake Base*, **
*this will need to chill at least 2-3 hours before using
**would make a fabulous fruit dip too

1 cup heavy cream (this is the stuff skimmed off the top of 3 day old milk for my non jersey cow)
1 cup sour cream (I used Kalona's from grass fed cows, Daisy would work)
1 cup cream cheese, softened (I used lowfat because that's what I had)
3/4 cup cane sugar
1 TBS Cream of tartar (the original recipe called for 2 TBS lemon juice, this did the job just fine)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used my homemade vanilla)
1/2 tsp salt (I used 20 rotations on my grinder, just guessing the actual amount)

Stick the above ingredients in a food processor or mixer and blend until smooth.  Resist the urge to eat it all right now.  I used a wide mouth quart jar for chilling.  It didn't all fit and I was FORCED to eat about an 1/8 cups worth.  Oh the sacrifices we make for our loved ones.

The Fruit Filling
2 cups Cherries* (mine were frozen)
2 TBS cane sugar

(add ons to the original recipe)
1 tsp Cream of Tartar
2 TBS OJ **
1 TBS Unflavored Beef Gelatin
1/4 tsp salt

*Sweet Cherry was the fruit requested, but almost any fruit will do
**I think I used more though, there were a few extra shakes in the container and I didn't want to return a mostly empty container back to the fridge.

I measured my cherries, then added everything but the gelatin and let it it for a bit.  I drained the juice off and mixed it with the gelatin in a small pan.  I heated it, stirring frequently, until the gelatin was dissolved.  I let it sit to cool, then added  back to the cherries.  I chose to chop my cherries at this point, but they could be left whole too.

At this point, we started getting a little impatient.  We didn't want to wait for things to chill and firm.  We wanted to eat yummies.....

So......

I mixed the filling into the ice cream maker with the base and stirred a few times and served.
This is what I got:

Still yummy and decadent, but not so pretty and not quite as good as when it was all the way frozen.  Two scoops was too much to eat at one time too, in my opinion.

Next time I'll wait for the individual ingredients to firm up, then fold in the filling and freeze until firm.....THEN serve.

Oh, the chocolate drizzle is this recipe: Homemade Chocolate syrup with Gelatin as thickener

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Blue Cherry Chip Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup OG sweet cherries
1 cup wild blueberries
1/2 cup cane sugar
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/8-1/4 tsp almond extract
1/8-1/4 tsp unrefined salt or trace minerals
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or shavings (optional)
3 cups or so freshly ladled cream

I use a wide mouth quart jar to mix my ice cream ingredients.

Place all the ingredients in the jar except the cream, then fill the jar with cream.  Shake.  You can make right away or leave the mix in the fridge 24 hours for the freezer bowl to freeze and the flavors to meld.  Makes a very pretty ice cream.