Not your Grandmas Cherry Pie Recipe

Yesterday the kids and I went over to our friends Donnie & Denise's place.  They own and operate a beautiful B&B down the road from us. http://www.thepinehurstinn.com/  This is the same place Matt & I got married over 19 years ago.  We were helping them prep for todays big Thanksgiving feast.  We made stuffing, cranberry sauce, 10 pumpkin pies, preped the onions for the greenbean dish, crumbled up the blue cheese for the salad, made soup, drank wine and made a mess.  It was a fun day.  The four of us are also helping them with the dinner tonight then celebrating together once all the guest have gone. 

While taking a lunch break by the fire, somehow we started talking about cherries.  Back on the farm, we had cherry trees in our front yard.  A lot of cherry trees. The cherry trees seem to bring back a lot of farm memories.  Maybe it is all the photos we have of the kids picking and eating them. Or Matt trying to chase the starlings off his favorite fruit.  Maybe it is all the canning I did with them.  Not sure. We also sold a lot of the cherries at market and once I let the kids sell them at the end of the driveway.  This was a day to remember.  They had their friend Jacob over and the 3 of them picked and bagged cherries for over an hour one morning.  They made a sign and walked to the road with the little red wagon loaded down with bagged fruit.  Titus and his friend were just out of 1st grade and Laurel was heading into kinder.  They were out on the driveway jumping up and down trying to flag down every car that drove by.  I'm sure these three little cuties were hard to resist.  I was amazed at how many people stopped to buy the cherries (I sat on the front porch watching and let them do this on their own).  When they were done I had them divide up the wad of cash they made.  They got $9.00 each!!!  I'd never seen three farm kids so excited.  That night as I was doing my last round of goodnight kisses, Titus had me sit and stay, he had a plan he wanted to run by me.  He took my hand, smiled, looked over on his night stand where his hard earned $9.00 sat and said "Mom, I think I am going to find myself a wife and head on down to California."  Well, OK. Titus.  I guess the kid is ready to start farming on his own now.  He had plans for the future and I was happy for him.
So with the memories of cherries fresh in my mind I bring to you this wonderful cherry pie recipe.  I have made it many times for both Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as a lot of summertime pot luck parties.  It is a keeper.

                                                  MACAROON CHERRY PIE
Mix together 1 egg, 2/3 c. evaporated milk.  Add 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp almond extract beat until smooth then add  2 1/2 c. flaked coconut.
Put 1 can of cherry pie filling into an unbaked pie crust.  Or make your own with fresh, frozen or canned cherries.
Pour coconut mixture over pie filling.
Bake @ 375 for about 40-45 minutes.
Very simple, very delicious, and VERY rich so a little goes along way.

Basic cherry pie filling
Mix 1 1/3 c. sugar with about 1/2 c. flour.  Stir in 6 c. pitted tart pie cherries.
If you are using regular eating cherries cut the sugar WAY back, maybe 1/2 c. depending on the cherries.

Basic pie crust for 10" pie
1/2 c. butter, 1 1/3 c flour, 1 tsp salt, 3-4 tbsp water.
Cut  butter into flour & salt untill butter is about the size of peas. Sprinkle in water 1 tbsp at a time while fluffing mixture with a fork.  Form into a ball then roll out and fit into pie pan.

The farm was a wonderful place to raise the kids.  I just hope that the years spent there bring as many fond memories to them as they do to me.  Sometimes I really miss the place but then I think back on the work load and I get over that real fast.  We tried planting cherry trees here on the ranch, it didn't work.  Think I will stick to raising apples and berries.  Just like the kids, they seem to be growing  just fine here.