Recipe for success: Life is just a bowl of cherry sorbet

...or so they say. I received a package of freshly picked and shipped cherries today from my uncle Boo-Boo and aunt Patti and they are remarkable (both the cherries and my aunt and uncle). After my initial wave of euphoria - seeing as though I love cherries and these are fresh picked from their orchard in the mesas of Colorado - I started to panic. How was I going to eat all these; who could I dole them out to that would truly treasure them; how could I make them last? A daunting task indeed.



So I first start to photograph the cherries for posterity and then set about making a delicious concoction for cherry sorbet. I chose a recipe from The Cosmic Cowgirl, with little measuring, since I wasn't sure what exactly 2 pounds of cherries was - I actually contemplated using Wii Fit to figure out 2 pounds, then quickly snapped back to reality. My inner nerd doesn't surface too much, but today she was briefly in full force.

The recipe. I shortened the cool time as the original calls for 8-10 hours of chilling before putting it in the ice cream maker. I had guests and was hoping to serve for dessert in a mere 4-5 hours, so look at the Supersonic speed notes to achieve this. Also Supersonic speed assumes your ice cream maker basin is pre-frozen.

1. Assemble the ingredients:
   

   2 pounds fresh cherries 1 cup water 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/8 tsp pure almond extract



2. Stem and pit the cherries.
   


3. In a saucepan (non-reactive, though I'm not sure what that means) combine the cherries, water, sugar and lemon juice over medium heat and simmer for 15 minutes until cherries are softened.


4. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Supersonic speed: cool slightly and then put in the fridge to speed up the process.
   


5. Add the almond extract. Do not pass up this step - adding the extract made a huge difference and really rounded out the sorbet, so good.
   


6. Blend. I blended, strained and the re-blended the part that didn't make it through the strainer.


7. Place in the fridge for 8-10 hours. Supersonic speed: Place in the fridge or freezer for as long as you can stand.
   


8. Freeze in your ice cream maker. Supersonic speed: freeze to a slightly frozen standard in the ice cream maker, then put into the freezer in a large container (the more surface area, the better).
   


9. Serve up and enjoy.