The Pie Spirit hits: Cherry Pie

My dear friend Kay Ward is coming for a visit.  What a blessing it is to have friends that remember when you used repurpose frozen orange juice cans to roll your hair up in, after all, it did produce the best loose curls !! 
Besides the fact that both Kate and I are longing for cherry pie, I am making it for a late night snack tonight while we are catching up.

• 2 - 24 oz jars of Dark Morello Cherries (Trader Joe's carries a product from Germany, in light syrup), I  have used "red tart cherries" packed in water, fresh red tart cherries picked right from the tree.
• 1/2 -3/4 cup of the juice from the cherries
• 1 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of instant tapioca
• 1/4 - 1/2 t of almond extract
• Very small Pinch of salt

Ok, I measure out the cherry juice first.  If you are making deep dish, you may want up to a cup of the juice.  Sorry to say this is to taste, some like their pies really juicy (use more juice) some like their pies so you can cut a piece and it looks like a picture in a cook book. I like it somewhere in between.

Add the instant tapioca to the juice, this needs to sit and get soft, about 15 mins will do it.  About the time it takes you to pinch the cherries and make the crust !!

Drain the remainder of the cherries, I do this one jar at a time.  You then need to touch each cherry, pinch it a little, looking for pits, then toss it in the bowl with the juice.  There is nothing worse than having a delicious bite of pie in your mouth and then crunching down on a cherry pit !!  Need I say more?

Add the sugar, almond flavoring (this is also to taste, it might take a few pies for you to get the amount to where you like it.  If you just hate almond flavoring, I guess you could use vanilla, I haven't, but if you do, probably add a shake or two of cinnimon.  I somethimes add the cinnimon even with the almond.

Stir this up and set aside while you make the crust, top and bottom.  I will admit to making my crust with a bit more shortning to make it "short" which means tender.  Make sure to make a good sized steam hole in the center, about the size of a silver dollar. Then sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar, generously.

Bake at 375 F for about 45 min to 1 hour, until the top and bottom is golden brown.

This is a family favorite and never fails to please.