Honey Cherry Almond Parfait

We've really been enjoying the fruits of our labor from this past week's cherry picking.  Though they're super scrumptious as is, there was no way we were going to be able to polish them all off before going bad.  So, we decided to try our hand at some preserving techniques!

Using 12 cups of cherries, we made two batches of jam.  The first batch I really wanted to try using honey as the natural sweetener so I chose Simple Bites' Honey Strawberry Jam recipe and just substituted with cherries.  The other batch we sweetened with 3 cups of cane sugar using the same technique.

The remaining cherries we froze using these instructions, pitting about half of them and leaving the pits in the others to eat like frozen grapes.  My boys say they "taste like candy" like this and will be perfect to serve on hot summer days.

Now if you're wondering what to do with all that jam, it really does make a very thoughtful hostess gift, or you can follow this simple little recipe that's perfect for breakfast, snack, or dessert.

HONEY CHERRY ALMOND PARFAIT
Serves 1

YOU WILL NEED:
1/2 c Vanilla Greek Yogurt (or regular yogurt)
2 T Honey Cherry Jam
1/2 c halved and pitted cherries
1 T Slivered almonds

1 // Spoon 1/4 c yogurt into parfait dish
2 // Layer jam, 1/4 c cherries, and other 1/4 c yogurt
3 // Then add remaining cherries and almonds on top

Enjoy!

What else do you guys do with fresh cherries?

Erin