I know things have been a little quiet around here, but we've been super busy with work, traveling to the CrossFit Games (a completely inspirational trip!) and trying to get back into the groove of things after coming back from California. I had never been there and I have to say, I am desperate to go back! There are just some places I visit that call me back with a vengeance and this is one of them. (The other being Ogunquit, Maine). It doesn't hurt that my best friend since high school lives near the Los Angeles area, so there's a definite plus to going back! I got to see her, her awesome husband and her super sweet puppy.
Watching all the athletes and seeing how fit everyone looked inspired me to think up new ways to eat the healthy stuff we eat at home, since we've been in a little bit of a rut with the same 'ol, same 'ol. Now this is not necessarily called Paleo or anything, it's just a slightly better version of what could potentially be a sugar-laden sauce for your food or dessert.
Now, with the price of cherries going down, I've been buying more and more and enjoying the heck out of nature's candy. We have also bought apricots just ONCE this summer - the last time I tried to get them they were $2.99/lb and mushy as heck. I decided I would buy some preserves and settled on the Low Sugar Smucker's. I hadn't thought of making a mish-mash sauce just yet, but the inspiration struck last week when I bought a HUGE box of cherries I didn't know what to do with. I had some fish and pork that needed dressing up and... Ding ding ding! The lightbulb turned on. What makes this a really nice and easy sauce to make is the fact that you use preserves from a jar. No need to be messing with having to peel apricots, chop them up, etc. The only time consuming part was having to cut my cherries in half to pit them. (I still don't have a fancy-pants pit-machine thingy! Shame on me!)
I ended up using this deliciously tangy sauce on a piece of otherwise boring pork chop, then I made some snapper the other night - it was perfect! This would probably also go very well on top of some pork tenderloin, salmon, or even some homemade vanilla ice cream. The end result is a lightly tart sauce, which can probably be sweetened with a little more honey.
Ingredients:
2 cups of red cherries, pitted and washed
4 tablespoons of honey (more or less to adjust, I like my stuff a bit on the tart side)
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 cup of low sugar apricot preserves. (I used Smucker's)
Method:
Place cherries in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Put in your honey and lemon juice. Using a fork or masher, mash up the berries and let simmer while occasionally stirring, for about 5 minutes. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add 1 cup of the preserves and stir or whisk until blended and let simmer for 5 more minutes. The sauce may be used immediately, or let cool to room temperature before putting in a jar and refrigerating. I warmed my sauce up prior to using the next day, just warming what I was using for my meal. Use within 4 days, makes about 1 1/4 cups of sauce.
Enjoy! Now go make something and spread some YUM!
As always, I welcome your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas!
Diana
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