first guest post: brandied cherries

Hello friends! I can't believe it's already Monday...my weekend was full of family, friends, yummy food, and crafty projects...and it flew by so quickly. I also made a very special early birthday present purchase for myself this weekend--I got my first DLSR camera! I am so excited to learn more about photography and have been snapping pictures of everything around me ever since I got it. Hopefully this means that there will be some improvement in the photography around here--I love that I have a space to share my photos as I learn...hopefully it will push me to practice and improve.

Today I'd like to share a post from my sweet friend (and future house-mate!) Alex. She is super smart and creative so I told her I would love if she would do guest posts every so often on here. Here is what she came up with!

Brandied Cherries

The best part of summer is enjoying fresh fruit in all forms. This summer my mom and I have been placing fruit in everything we eat: salad, yogurt, water, cake, and homemade ice cream. So we decided to follow a simple recipe we found in Sunset Magazine to turn ripe Rainier cherries into an awesome new topping for all our favorite things, it is an excellent twist on a maraschino cherry (and super easy to make too)!


You can start with a fresh batch of Rainier cherries; we got ours from the local farmers market, and begin pitting the cherries. The pitting is a bit complicated so here is a little demonstration.


Next, you fill up your jars with the cherries and a few cinnamon sticks.

Bring your sugar, brandy, and 1 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved.


Once the jars and liquid have cooled, seal them with a lid and give them at least a month to absorb the liquid.

We are super excited to eat them on top of some homemade vanilla ice cream! 

(original recipe source)