It's true: Everybody Likes Sandwiches

For a few weeks in May/June, I got sacks of deep-red cherries in my weekly CSA box. And given that I don't really like eating them "fresh" - sacrilege, I know - I had looked around for some recipes to bake them into something delicious.

While some cherries were used to, um, spice up pancakes (using my own recipe as the base), I put others to good use in a tasty little muffin recipe I found at the Everybody Likes Sandwiches blog. In fact, I made the latest batch (and last, perhaps, for the season) of "very cherry whole wheat muffins" last night**.

Let me first say that the use of pastry flour is key to a good texture (especially given that these treats are 100% whole wheat). And if you want to add more than the 1 cup of pitted and chopped cherries called for, I ain't gonna stop you.

Also in this latest batch, I did fool around with adding some chopped almonds (~1/3c) and the remains of a bag of dark chocolate chips (~1/4c) to the batter.. and, you know what?.. I didn't think they really contributed in a meaningful way to the original recipe (they didn't *take* anything away either - how you gonna argue with chocolate anything?). But, you see, these muffins are so delicately sweetened (that is to say: not much) and the consistency already slightly dense, that I don't think they can really handle the in-your-face-ness of the chocolate or the extra bulk of the almonds. But that was just my opinion; I fully advocate any-and-all experimentation in your own kitchen! (Let me know how it goes, s'il vous plait.)

In any case, it was really fortuitous to find this *particular* cherry recipe because it led me to look around Everybody Loves Sandwiches, a blog full of simple, great recipes.. from "chipotle shrimp" to "eggplant involtini" (and some sweets too!); check the archives. Just when I was wondering what to do with this week's batch of green beans from the CSA, I found a post for "green beans & tofu in a thai coconut sauce" (and the secret of great tofu). Pretty good timing, huh?

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** If you're looking to sample the goods (a reasonable request in a normal kitchen.. where the cook isn't a voracious eater), I'm semi-ashamed to admit that I already ate 10 of the 12; and I wouldn't hold out hold that the last two pieces of cherry goodness will hold out after, say, 10am tomorrow morning! ;)