"Can she make a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?"

This delightful children's song has been rolling around in my head all day. Every few years my cherry tree yields enough cherries for the squirrels, the birds, the blight and us. Surprise, surprise, this is one of those years. So now I have to get out there and pick some cherries. I have always said that I wanted to bake a genuine cherry pie.  I don't bake often and if I bake a pie, it's usually rhubarb. But I missed rhubarb season this year and I meant to make strawberry shortcake, but decided that I would only put on weight. However, today, I set about to bake a cherry pie!!

Cherries are Ready

Partly because I'm feeling better after having got my husband's cold shortly after we returned from holidays and partly because I promised myself years ago that one day I would replicate a pie my mother had baked once, when my sister and I were very little. It was a cherry pie made from the cherries that grew in the garden of a stone cottage we owned by Lake Ontario.  The house, though very pretty, had a lot of limitations, however, it did have fruit trees, roses, hollyhocks, leaded glass windows, a stone fireplace and a big kitchen. Another time I'll tell you what it didn't have - running water was one of them :)

Cherries Ready for Pitting

Anyway, my mother must be trying to communicate with me, because I picked and pitted the cherries, made the pastry - which worked this time - I have a lot of trouble with pastry. I even found a recipe for the filling, that didn't require tapioca. It's not that I don't like tapioca, (my husband hates it) but the box at the back of the cupboard has been there for eons and well, I've decided to finally throw it out.

Not Your Traditional Cherry Pie!

So all this being said, I am now waiting for my oven to be as agreeable as the rest of the events today and not burn, half, the bottom or all the pie!!

In the Wink of a Cat's Eye, Cherry Pie

Ta Da!! You have to know that for me this is a great pie!!  OK it's a little seared around the edges and yes it's a face. The top crust had a few holes in it so I just added a smile and nostrils, which it probably didn't need :)

So the answer to the question, "Can she make a cherry pie?" In a manner of speaking, yes!!

The full verse of the rather long song is:

Can she make a cherry pie,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Can she make a cherry pie,
Charming Billy?
She can make a cherry pie,
Quick as a cat can wink an eye,
She's a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

Have a great day!!