Maybe George Washington didn't chop down the cherry tree, and we'll never know for sure how many lies he told.
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Dan Marsula, Post-Gazette illustration |
Yet it's never easy to dismiss a hard-held childhood fable, especially one involving presidential truth-telling, so we're operating on the assumption that there was a cherry tree, that it bore fruit (be it sweet or sour) and that some of it landed in the would-be president's basket.
Presidents Day rings in tomorrow, though the 271st anniversary of Washington's birth won't happen until Saturday.
Even if we no longer celebrate the Father of Our Country's birthday on the right day, we can pay homage this week to the enticing, enchanting cherry. Little George probably loved cherries, though we wonder if he joined the militia to avoid the onerous job of pitting.
Pitting wasn't a problem for Patty LaNoue Stearns, who was up to her elbows in other projects when she was asked to write what might be considered the consummate cherry cookbook.
"I was in the middle of another book, but cherries are something I really love," Patty recalls from her home in Traverse City, Mich., which boosters consider Cherry Country Central. People in Erie may disagree, but the Northern Michigan town had its first Cherry Blossom Parade in 1925 and today is the home of the National Cherry Festival, typically celebrated the first weekend after the 4th of July, the heart of cherry season.
My home state of Michigan is the nation's leading producer of tart cherries, often called "pie cherries," and among the top four for sweet cherries, which are primarily grown on the Pacific Coast. So we shouldn't get too bent out of shape when Traverse City calls itself the "Cherry Capital of the World."
"Did you know that this is Cherry Month?" Stearns asked.
No. In fact, I've never been a big cherry fan. Not for me the chocolate-covered cherries or Mom's cherry pie. I ate the crust, devoured the ice cream and slid the cherries to the side of my plate.
But when Stearns' cookbook arrived, I couldn't help poking inside. The cover showed two old flatbed trucks loaded with boxes with a cherry orchard in the background. And the title! "Cherry Home Companion."
Now that I'm working on a cookbook myself, this book became my instant inspiration. Its glossy paper, 150 recipes and come-hither color pictures touched the cook in me. Only a few recipes are so complicated that they spill over to the next page, and the book has a binding that lies flat until breakfast, lunch or dinner is served.
Wonderful vintage photographs, some of them Traverse City postcards, pulled me into the magic.
So I rang up Stearns, whom I first met at an Association of Food Journalists confab, to hear her horror stories on writing a cookbook. Other than the rare typo or the unaligned ingredient line, she had none. Most important, she had put together the book, not in years, but in weeks. And it's beautiful.
"I got back from Florida the end of February, and that's when I decided to do it," she recalls. "It was ready in early May." And ready for sale at the Cherry Festival that July.
"Of course, being a daily newspaper reporter ..."
She didn't need to say it. Newspaper deadlines connect directly to the adrenal glands. When I first met her, she was food columnist and restaurant critic for the Detroit Free Press, and we both know the pressure. Pick a cherry, bake a cherry pie, write a story ... in a week.
But, hey! This might be Cherry Month, but it's not exactly cherry season. And then I spotted the clincher: dried cherries.
It just so happened that I had inherited some dried cherries from my friend Linda Wilson, who lives in Washington State and grew up with a cherry tree in her yard. At first, I worried I might have left the cherries behind on our trip to the Northwest, but then I rediscovered them, beautifully shriveled as ever, in the bottom of the shoe pocket in my suitcase. I wasn't even sure if my gift was sweet or sour, but I considered them an omen.
The cherry pickers have something going with this delicious dried fruit. Like the prune people (now, not even facetiously, the fruit is known as dried plums) and the ingenious cranberry bog guys, their dried product is so delightful that they've stretched their markets to year-round.
I tried four of Stearns' recipes, two of them falling into the "Zippy" category. I figured everybody needs a little zip this time of year, and I cannot resist either bread pudding or upside-down cake.
Before I tied on my apron, though, I toted up the votes in our family of two: anti-cherry: 2. Pro-cherry: zero.
After a dinner of all cherries for all the courses, following a cherry breakfast dish, both my husband, Ace, and I swung over to the pro camp, even with a salad based on broccoli.
"Dishes that use cherries can be cloying," Stearns says, but sour cherries can provide a nice counterpoint in entrees with meat. She searched for appetizers, mainstays, sides, daystarters, sweets and drinks that are "hipper than the ones you usually find."
Moving upstate from Detroit has been wonderful for a woman who remembers scary calls in the middle of the night complaining about her unfavorable restaurant reviews. "What could I say?" she told one angry owner. "Your restaurant gave me food poisoning."
Some of Michigan's best great chefs came through in ruby-red flying colors with recipes, and many are exceptional, as well as possible for the home cook. One of Stearns' favorites is Rich Travis' Cherry Mascarpone French Toast, which uses frozen cherries.
Recipes in the book were carefully tested, some by the OB nurses in the Stuart, Fla., hospital where her sister works. "They loved getting boxes of dried cherries, which they couldn't get down there," she says.
Stearns, who also wrote "Good Taste: A Guide to Northern Michigan Cuisine," has a new job she loves. She is he senior editor of Traverse Magazine and Northern Home. And she still does book signings, including one this month in honor of George and Cherry Month.
Cherries have an ambience all their own. She mentions the book's painting of a sensuous beauty, whose favorite fruit dangles provocatively from her cherry red lips.
"Oh, the imagery of it all -- cherries are a sexy fruit," Stearns says.
The recipes range from as simple as a Cherry Apple Crisp to as exotic as Ali Barker's Crab Cakes with Michigan Sour Cherry Salsa, and some day I will make Carrots with Charisma. When Erie's fresh cherries ripen this summer, I may delve into Tapawingo's Tart Cherry-Maple Pie.
But first I have a small suggestion to make to my husband, the cherry convert. Maybe I'll pop the question Saturday, on Washington's birthday:
"How do you think a cherry tree would look in our back yard?"
"Cherry Home Companion" is available at Borders and online from ArbutusPress.com or Amazon.com. It's priced at $29.95 plus shipping. Dried cherries are available in the bulk section of Whole Foods in East Liberty and we found both sweet and sour packaged cherries at Giant Eagle.
Peachy's Cherry Breakfast Bread Pudding
A recipe so good, it inspires asking the neighbors over for an impromptu get-together.
1 pound bread
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 cup dried cherries
- 3 cups half-and-half
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 6 eggs, slightly beaten
- Dash of salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cube the bread (we used days-old artisan bread) and toss with the melted butter. Stir the sugar and cinnamon together and toss with bread. Place in a buttered 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with dried cherries. Stir together half-and-half, brown sugar, eggs and salt. Pour egg mixture over bread. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until set. Serve with syrup.
Note: May be made the night before and refrigerated until morning before baking. This makes it perfect for holiday brunch.
Le Becasse, Burdickville, Mich., "Cherry Home Companion"
Patty's Zippy Broccoli Cherry Salad
- 4 cups broccoli florets, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup dried tart cherries
- 1/4 medium red onion, sliced thin
- 1/4 pound lean maple-cured bacon, in bite-size pieces, cooked and drained on paper towels
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- Salt and pepper to taste
In a 4-quart pot of salted boiling water, blanch broccoli florets until bright green, then drain in a colander. (We dropped them in ice water to halt cooking.)
In a large bowl, combine broccoli, cherries, onion and cooked bacon (we cooked the bacon in the microwave).
In a small bowl, combine sour cream, horseradish and mayonnaise; mix well. Season to taste. Pour dressing over broccoli salad and toss until ingredients are well coated. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.
"Cherry Home Companion" by Patty LaNoue Stearns
Patty's Zippy Pork Tenderloin
- 1 1/2- to 2-pound pork tenderloin
- 1 1/2 cups orange juice
- Zest from 1 orange
- 1/4 cup tart cherries, chopped
- 1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped medium
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Butterfly tenderloin and set aside. In a small mixing bowl, combine the orange juice, zest, tart cherries, jalapeno and olive oil. Mix well and pour into a gallon-size reclosable plastic bag or nonreactive dish. Add the tenderloin and cover. Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours, turning occasionally. (We had enough marinade for the two tenderloins that came in the package, so we prepared them both.)
Preheat broiler on high. Remove the tenderloin from the marinade and place the meat on a lightly oiled broiler pan. Broil 6 to 8 minutes on each side. (Watch closely, as they tend to blacken.)
Meanwhile, pour marinade into a small saucepan and heat to a boil, reducing the liquid by half. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the heavy cream, stirring constantly until a smooth consistency is achieved, about 2 minutes. The sauce will be a medium thickness but will impart a magnificently tangy-hot flavor.
Remove tenderloin from oven. Cut into 1/4-inch slices on the diagonal. Pour sauce over slices and serve immediately.
Serves 2 to 4.
"Cherry Home Companion" by Patty LaNoue Stearns
PG tested recipes
Suzanne Martinson can be reached at bsjmar2@aol.com
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