This is why I'm a grown-up.

When I was a kid I used to say that when I was a grown-up, I'd go out to lunch every day. Because going to Jack in the Box with my mom when we were out running errands was THE highlight of my life.

Don't judge me for my fast food ways. There is something cute about a mom pushing a french fry through her daughter's missing tooth hole. There is. Trust me.

Anyway, while I haven't indulged the Going to Jack in the Box Everyday privilege of being a grown-up (because I'm more of an In-N-Out girl now and there's not one close by. Thankfully.) I do sometimes make other childhood-influenced choices.

Like having ice cream in the middle of the day for no good reason other than because I made some.

From fresh cherries picked at my house and my neighbor's.

My house's cherries. Small but delicious.

My neighbor's cherries. ENORMO and also delicious.

Oh yes, friends, it's Cherry Season at Finny's again, and more importantly the beginning of Pie Season. Because the farmshare brings us strawberries every week so we have ice cream and pie and the cherry tree across the street (and now in our yard WOO) are heavy with fruit so we have ice cream and cobbler and also pie and then in no time the blackberry bushes at my folks' will be covered in berries so we'll have cobbler and muffins and blackberry pie.

We like pie here, have I told you?

Anyway, despite our love for pie, the first thing I made with our windfall of cherries was ice cream. Cherry Vanilla Chip ice cream, to be specific.

And I will say that it is quite good. In that, "I am aware that the deliciousness I'm experiencing is the direct result of eating a dish created solely from cream, sugar, vanilla, cherries and chocolate."

I mean, duh. Obviously it's going to be good. Those are all good things that do bad things to my ass. Whatever.

But, in my defense, I did move 2 cubic yards of dirt by shovel and wheel barrow this morning after ripping out half our lawn, so I feel as though I'm cleared for takeoff in the calorie way.

The fact that I have this month's Craft: along recipe for Carrot Cake Cookies on my kitchen counter next to Farmgirl's Lemon Coconut Quick Bread recipe and I'm also at this moment crockpotting some pulled pork for these tacos for dinner IS NOT IMPORTANT EITHER because, well, all the ingredients to make these things are available and fresh and local and ready to make Bubba smile which means that they have zero calories for me because they're offset by my good-doing. And lawn-ripping. And dirt moving. And any other reason I can think of to justify my sinful dietary ways.

ANYWAY.

If you find yourself standing under a very full cherry tree OR if your neighbor was kind enough to lend you his orchard ladder (thanks, Rick!) so that you could get the really good dark BIG cherries from the top of the tree, and you also have an ice cream maker - you could make some ice cream, too. And then sit in your backyard like a Lady of Leisure and watch your dog chase squirrels out of your garden while you eat your midday ice cream.

Or whatever. You could do something else, I suppose.

Cherry Vanilla Chip Ice Cream

Adapted from Cuisinart's recipe booklet for Strawberry Ice Cream
My changes in BOLD

Ingredients
1 pint of fresh cherries - pitted, halved
3 T fresh Meyer lemon juice
1 cup of sugar, divided
1 cup of whole milk
2 cups of heavy cream
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

To make
FREEZE THAT ICE CREAM MAKER BUCKET FOR AT LEAST 24 HOURS. JUST DO IT.

I say that in such a way that you should automatically assume that I did NOT freeze the bucket for 24 full hours and so ended up having to freeze it overnight before I could have some ice cream waaaaaaaaaa. But you know me by now and so I'm sure you didn't need this little explanation. Sorry.

In a small bowl, combine the cherries with the lemon juice and 1/3 cup of sugar. Stir it up and let it sit for a couple hours so it can get all juicy and shiny and irresistible looking. This process is called macerating which, to me, sounds like something naughty and violent combined. Fun.

SPANK ME.

The big one on the left is HALF of one of my neighbor's cherries while a WHOLE one of mine is on the right. Someday...

While your cherries are doing naughtiness, whisk the milk and the rest of the sugar until it's dissolved. Then add in your heavy cream and some of the juiciness from your naughty cherries.

Turn on the power to your ice cream maker (which means the supah frozen bucket is on there and the mixer deal is inside and the dome lid is on) and pour this mixture BUT NOT THE CHERRIES YET through the spout on top.

Let it churn around in there for a good 30 minutes before pouring your naughty cherries in. And, right before you throw in the cherries, toss in the chocolate chips.

And, not that you'd want to, but if you wanted something super "Cherry" looking, you could add food coloring, but I find that to be an affront to nature and will not have it in my house.

Instead, we have the pale-ish ice cream with the dark red cherries and the world continues to spin on its axis. Without any artificial colors. Lovely.

If, for some reason, you get to the end of this recipe and your ice cream is, say, the consistency of soup, cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and tuck it between some big frozen slabs of beef (or equivalent) in your freezer. I've heard it also helps if you stack a frozen pie crust, a bag of frozen pulled pork and a sack of frozen coffee beans on top, too.

BUT THAT'S JUST WHAT I'VE HEARD.

You know.

Anyway, once you're actually ready to scoop yourself some Cherry Vanilla Chip loveliness, I recommend going out to your backyard and sitting in the sunshine where you can see your garden making beans and your dog losing her mind over a shitstarting squirrel.