When life gives you cherries, make the prettiest jam you can

     With a smile and a few quick steps, you will be licking your lips… and fingers… and saying, “What a good girl am I!”

     I used black cherries for this recipe (don’t know where it’s from), though the color would have been cheerier if I’d used those lighter pink ones. Either way, your taste buds will dance!

Easy

  SweetCherryPreserves

Ingredients...

· 1 cup cherries (I gently mash mine)

· ½ cup water

· ½ cup sugar

· ½ cup balsamic vinegar

· 1½ tablespoon lemon juice (I fresh-squeeze)

Directions...

1. Measure all those ingredients, yes, every one of them, into a medium saucepan, and 2. bring to a boil. Be careful to watch it, because you don’t want even a drop to bubble over and waste any of the beauty inside. 3. Reduce to simmer once it begins to happily bubble-up, then stir often, till it’s all wonderfully 4. reduced to a third. This does thicken as it sits, so keep that in mind. *Reducing by half only will make a lovely cherry syrup. Either way, you win! Oh, but if you are going for the syrup, then you might want to use a slotted spoon and remove the cherries; save those for the cherries on the top of anything—ice cream...French toast, or waffles!

Cheers to cherries!