The phone rang. I read the caller ID, noting the name of my long-time friend and former colleague. Since it was June, I answered with trepidation. After the normal greetings, she said it, the words I dreaded hearing. “The cherries are ready.” Once the cherries are ready, you cannot hesitate, because if you do, they’re gone, eaten by birds or left to rot in the grass. You must cancel all other plans and devote your day to picking, sorting, pitting, and freezing cherries—and we usually only pick enough for a few pies.

As I type these words I feel guilty because I’m grateful my friend wants to share, grateful for the bounty of the harvest—all that nature has to offer. But there’s something about cherries, so small, so labor intensive, so boring. Utter tedium! Cherries are nothing like my personal favorite, apples, where you don’t have to drop everything--you can plan a day to pick apples once they are ripe. Nothing like apples where just six equals a pie. Hundreds of cherries (and it feels like thousands) equals a pie. That’s one whole quart, four whole cups, of cherries. Apple season starts the cool, pleasant, 60-degree autumn temperatures. Cherry season starts the long, hot 100-degree summer temperatures. Apple season represents sweater weather and football games and new clothes for school. Cherry season represents embarrassing swimsuit weather and sunburns and sweat. 

Did I mention that my husband Steve loves cherries? So it’s for him that I am willing to change my plans, lovingly devote hours of my day, and try to smile. Once the process is over, we have a freezer with a few containers of cherries ready to use. That’s when I can breathe easy. We’re good for a whole year.

Following is my favorite cherry crisp recipe. Easier than a pie and great with vanilla ice cream—perfect for July 4th.
 
Fresh Cherry Crisp

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 

I attended a baby shower this week. Besides the fun of seeing all the adorable baby gifts, I was intrigued by the process carried out by the gift recorder. The efficient way of keeping track of the gift-giver and the gifts in order to write thank you cards was ingenious. The gift recorder was armed with:
• Guest name and address labels in alphabetical order 
• Envelopes for thank you cards
• Sticky notes
• Thank you cards
As each card was opened and the gift-giver announced, the gift recorder pulled an address label from the alphabetical list and stuck it on an envelope. (I later found out that when the invitations were ready to send, two sets of address labels were printed. One set was used for the invitations and one set was saved for the thank you cards.) 

As the gifts were opened, the gift recorder kept track of the gifts on a sticky note. One or more sticky notes were used for each person, depending on the number of gifts given. The sticky note(s) was placed inside a thank you card. The thank you card was then placed inside the corresponding envelope with the gift-givers name and address. This way, the mother-to-be (and father-to-be) could write personal thank you cards by referring to the sticky notes. With the envelopes already addressed, they would save time and energy. 

Use this process for bridal showers, weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries—anytime you need to keep track of gifts. It’s so much better than the old pen and paper record (even if you’ve updated to a computer). No more tracking down the correct way to spell a last name or the guest’s street address. This is an extra gift you can give the person whose special event you are celebrating!

Turns out planning dinner menus is a little more complicated than it first appears—but becomes easier with experience. All it takes is a little thought and planning. When I wrote my cookbook, “Mealtime Magic: Delicious Dinners in Half the Time,” I took many factors into account when planning menus to create new meals using leftovers. Now I'll share which factors I considered to plan over a hundred meals so you can use these guidelines to plan your own tasty,  satisfying, and people-pleasing dinners.

Waiting until you’re hungry is too late to think about what’s for dinner. The right time? An hour before you eat, first thing in the morning, or a week ahead (before you go to the grocery store)? Actually, all of these times are right and here’s why.

• Before you go grocery shopping: The best time to plan your meals is before you shop for food. Then you can purchase the ingredients you need. (More about how to plan a meal in next weeks’ blog.)
• A day or more before: Thinking about dinner days before you are going to eat it sounds crazy. The main reason is so you can thaw meat in the refrigerator. Thawing meat in the refrigerator is safest way. Depending on what type of meat you are defrosting and how much, the process can take all day, overnight, or more. (Think of a 20-pound turkey, which takes several days.) 
• First thing in the morning: After savoring your morning coffee, you might not want to think about, “What’s for dinner?” However, if you aren’t defrosting something in the fridge, starting early in the day is the next best thing. When thawing meat on the counter in a bowl of cold water, check every hour or so. Once it’s defrosted, store in the fridge until you’re ready to start cooking.
• An hour before you want to eat: If you have prepared part of your meal using “Mealtime Magic: Delicious Dinners in Half the Time,” you can wait until close dinnertime to begin. The majority of the second and third day recipes of the “Three-Day Plan” in my cookbook are quick and easy and can be prepared in 30 – 60 minutes.

When you think about what to eat before you’re hungry, you’ll make better choices and be able to relax and enjoy dinnertime.

I was asked to bring 12 servings of chicken noodle soup to a women’s retreat. I needed to arrive by 8 am and lunch would be served at noon. I had several concerns: Would the noodles be mushy by noon if I started heating the soup at 8 am? If I didn’t start the soup at 8 am, how would I keep it cold? What time should I start heating the soup?  

Armed with my new slow cooker, I thought I was prepared. The day before the retreat, I made a huge pot of soup on the stove, which I would transfer to the slow-cooker later. Thankfully, I had a container of cooked, diced chicken in the freezer. I had purchased three 4-quart cartons of chicken broth, a pound of carrots, and a stalk of celery at the grocery store. However, I wasn’t able to locate fine egg noodles, so I bought medium egg noodles. (My first mistake.)

After cutting the carrots and celery into tiny cubes, I cooked them in the chicken broth, added the noodles and finally, the chicken. My husband and I ate the soup for supper that night to make sure it was good. While the soup was flavorful, the medium noodles were hard to keep on my spoon long enough to get them into my mouth. The noodles slipped right off my spoon. Oh, well. Nothing I could do to change that.

After storing the soup in the refrigerator that night, the noodles had absorbed all the chicken broth and all that was left was a huge pot of noodles. No problem, I thought, packing a cup measure, chicken soup base, and a large spoon. I poured the huge pot of soup (really just noodles) into the slower cooker just before leaving and placed it in a large cooler with ice packs.

My old slow cooker was extremely slow in heating up, but I was sure this new slow cooker would heat up very quickly. (My second mistake.) So, I decided to wait until 10 am to turn it on, adding water and soup base for the right consistency. I checked on it at 11 am, but it wasn’t warming quickly enough. Luckily, the men in charge of helping with the food heated up the soup (in the removable bowl) in the microwave. 

The woman sitting next to me said the soup was “good,” and didn’t even mention that she couldn’t keep the noodles on her spoon. The soup could have been hotter, would have been better with fine egg noodles, and I vowed not to make these same mistakes next time.

Tip for bringing chicken noodle soup to an event in a slow cooker:
• Cook chicken noodle soup the day before the event
• Cook the soup on the stove, store in the fridge overnight, and transfer to the slow cooker 
• Don’t worry if the noodles absorb all the broth
• The day of the event, allow several hours to heat it to simmering
• Right before heating it up, add soup base and water until soupy
• Stir after 1 hour
• To keep heat in, don’t open the lid often  
• Check occasionally without opening lid—if boiling, turn down to low 

Following is a recipe for homemade chicken broth. For an easy variation, subsitute 1 cup cooked diced chicken and a 32-oz. carton chicken broth.

Mom’s Chicken Noodle Soup 
 
1 (4 - 5 pound) broiler-fryer chicken 
1 onion 
2 carrots  
2 ribs celery  
6 oz. fine egg noodles
Salt and pepper to taste
Chicken soup base 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
OR 1 teaspoon dried parsley

Place chicken and giblets in large pot. Fill with water just to cover. Trim ends and remove skin from onion. Pare, rinse, and cut 1 carrot into large pieces. Rinse, trim and cut 1 rib celery into large pieces. Add onion, carrot, and celery to pot. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes/pound of chicken, or 60 to 75 minutes. 

Remove chicken and vegetables from pot; let cool until able to handle. Discard cooked vegetables—they helped to flavor the broth. Remove chicken from bone and cut into bite-sized pieces. You should have about 4 cups chicken; refrigerate. Discard bones. Pare, rinse, and trim ends of remaining carrot; cut in half crosswise. To prevent carrot from rolling, cut a flat edge, lengthwise. Cut carrot lengthwise into slices. Then cut slices lengthwise into sticks; cut crosswise to dice. Rinse and trim ends and leaves of remaining rib of celery; cut in half crosswise. Cut lengthwise into sticks, then crosswise to dice.

Skim fat from broth using a ladle; discard fat. Add diced vegetables. Bring broth to a boil. Cover, turn down heat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add noodles and simmer for 5 minutes uncovered or according to package directions. Add 1 cup of diced chicken; reserve the remaining chicken for other recipes. Taste broth. Add soup base, salt, and pepper to taste. 

For fresh parsley, place a small bunch in a colander and rinse under cold water. Rub the parsley with your fingers to remove dirt. Shake off excess water. Pat dry with a paper towel. Hold the parsley in a bunch and cut the leaves from the stems. Discard stems. Place leaves in a bowl and snip with kitchen shears or use a knife to chop on a cutting board. Add parsley to soup. Good served with crackers, sliced Cheddar cheese, and apple slices. Yield: 4 servings