Cherries - Cherry Cupcakes

When I created my maraschino cherries I ended up with one jar leftover of cherry juice. I plan to use this juice (that smells wonderful, just like maraschino cherry juice only more like straight up cherries than alcohol since I only used a small amount of almond extract)for different cooking uses. So far I have used the juice for making cupcakes: I added about 1/4 a cup of the juice to a regular white cupcake mix, cooking as directed on the box, and made the yummiest cherry cupcakes I have ever had!

Blueberries - Blueberry Muffins

With the U-pick Blueberries I got from Bear's Berries, I froze most of them for later use. I also threw some in the dehydrator since I love dried berries. Today I made some blueberry muffins using better homes & gardens muffin recipe http://www.bhg.com/recipe/sweet-rolls/muffins/ since it is one of the easiest around. Instead of lemon peel I threw in about a tsp. of lemon juice. I like adding poppyseeds as well if I have them on hand. You can see these look a little skimpy on the berries - my blueberries are medium sized to large so next time I will add more than just a cup, smaller berries go around a lot more!

So yummy having blueberries on my breakfast cereal! As you can see, I had blueberries in every bite this morning.

Cherries - Homemade Canned Cherry Pie Filling

Looking at what was left of my cherries, I decided to try my hand at making canned cherry pie filling. I will be making two jars worth since that is the equivalent of filling for one small pie. I went off the recipe at this site: http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/homemade-cherry-pie-filling-recipe/ Since I was making a smaller batch I reduced the recipe to the following: I used about 3 cups cherries, (halved & pitted) 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead of almond extract (not ideal but it was all I had on hand!). I followed the directions, mix all together, bring to a boil, immediately reduce heat to low, and stir until all cooked together. Then I poured into my jars and placed in my water bath canner. The type of cherries I am using are the "Royal Ann" variety from Detering Orchards. Sweet with a little bit of tartness.