Can she bake a cherry pie Billy Boy?

When we moved into our house, our neighbours across the street, Fred and Kathy, brought us a fruit tray and introduced themselves.  It was really sweet of them, but I promptly forgot their names since I figured that we would never talk to them again.  That didn't happen, they're pretty friendly people.  I'm just glad that they use their names in front of me, so eventually I found out what they were called.  For the longest time, we were calling them Fred and Ginger (sometimes I would change it up and call her Wilma).  Anyway, while walking behind their house the other day, I noticed this tree hanging over their fence with pretty red things hanging off the branches.  The next time I saw Fred, I asked him what it was, and he told me cherries.  I said that was really cool, and he told me I could go and pick a cherry from the tree and plant it in my backyard.  Their cherries grew from just one tree and he now has five in his backyard.  I took the information and filed it into my head until Saturday morning, when the doorbell rang.

Mr. Fred was there with a box of cherries he had picked from his tree for me.  I thought it was pretty sweet of him and I was very excited to try this recipe from my friend Alison.  The only problem is, I don't have an ice cream machine.  That will hopefully be remedied at the end of the month when we go to Great Falls.  Until that time, I had a box of cherries I needed to do something with.

I have never had cherry pie.  Clark asked me to make him one, and because I love him, I thought I would try my hand at it.  I have never baked a pie.  Well, that's not quite true.  I make impossible pie, impossible pumpkin pie, and lemon meringue pie but only with pre-made crusts.  This was my first ever pie that I made 100% from scratch. 

On a side note, I think I need to purchase a cherry pitter.  It took me over two hours to pit 20 cups of cherries.  It was sticky business.  I got pretty good at it near the end.

Before it went in the oven.

After it came out.  It looked pretty good!

Here's a problem I had, maybe one of my baking readers can help me out with it.  My pie didn't set and was quite watery.  It still got an enthusiastic two thumbs up from Clark, so I don't think the taste was compromised, I just thought it would maybe taste more like the pies you get when you use the cherry pie filling.  More like a jello with cherries in it.