Well that's the pits!

 

You know what's the pits?  Having been gone for so long!  Thankfully I had a loyal reader email me asking to come back and with school out I'm able to find a little more free time.  You know when things get busy, a Mama has to take care of her family first. But I will try to find a few minutes for all of my fans too!  You know what else is the pits?  Having a big ol' bag of fresh cherries and no cherry pitter!

Not a problem for Ma Bacon.  I found out that Bacon Jr. and Bacon bit share my love of cherries.   So I found a good sale and decided to treat us to a yummy and healthy snack.  I was able to describe to Bacon Jr. how to not eat the pit inside, but there is just no way to give a toddler a cherry and have him not eat the pit!  But my dilemma was that I didn't have a cherry pitter.  And honestly I didn't want a tool I'll only use a few times. I knew there had to be a way to pit all the cherries without one and you know I found it!  I searched online and found some people using paper clips.  When I tried that I just couldn't get the pit out right and it took FOREVER.  When you have a toddler who thinks he's starving waiting on a bowl of cherries even a minute is forever!  So to make the process go faster- I found a trick using a pastry tip, which thankfully I happen to have lots of.

First start off with washing your cherries. I think you can figure out how to do this right?! Next I had to find my pastry tip. I had a lot of these cheap plastic ones. It seemed to be the right size and it had the little 'teeth' on it so I used that.  I think a metal one would hold up better, but I made due with what I had.

 Once I got the pastry tip, I took a cherry and picked off the stems. This is an excellent job for all those little helpers around my house!  All the stems off? Can you tie them in a knot with your tongue? Not many people have this talent that Sis Bacon and I have!  It's not easy.  And not necessary to pit your cherries either!  Take a cherry with the side you removed the stem down and place it on the top of the pastry tip.  Then gently, that is a key word because if you push too hard you will get cherry juice everywhere, down on the cherry.  The pit will jump right out.  No not all of them come out as nice as this one. It all depends on how ripe your cherry is.  Some split apart, and some jump out from the side.  It makes it all the more exciting!

Take the pit and toss it on your pit pile and start again.  This actually goes really fast. I was able to pit my whole bag of cherries in under 10 minutes. 

Now since I used a plastic pastry tip it did bend a little.  That's ok, I just bent the prongs back and kept going. This is where a metal tip might work a little better. 

 

 See all better again!  A few other tips, Once if you don't like cherry stains on your counter, make sure you wipe up the cherry juice right away.  Also if you don't want to explain where your red fingers came from, gloves are a good suggestion too!  There you go. Now you can enjoy your bowl of pitted cherries.  These didn't last long, Bacon bit was all too eager for me to be done!