I hosted a welcome party for my family on Tuesday evening before Thanksgiving.  After seeing my cherry pie post, my dad asked me to make him one and thought this was the perfect night for it.  Instead of using the cute alphabet cut outs I did in my previous post, I used this very cool pie stencil that my thoughtful friend Lindsay got me as a birthday gift.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups fresh tart cherries
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/8 tablespoon almond extract
• 2 refrigerated pie dough crust

Instructions:

1. Place cherries in medium saucepan and place over heat. Cover. After the cherries lose considerable juice, which may take a few minutes, remove from heat.
2. In a small bowl, mix the 1 to 1 1/2 cup of sugar and cornstarch together. Pour this mixture into the hot cherries and mix well.
3. Add the almond extract and mix.
4. Return the mixture to the stove and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and let cool. If the filling is too thick, add a little water, too thin, add a little more cornstarch.
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
6. Roll out a bottom pie crust and place in pie plate, crimping edges.
7. Place cherry mixture in pie crust.
8. Roll out a top pie crust and using stencil cut out shapes.
9. Place shapes on top of cherry mixture.
10. Bake for about 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

Yields 1 8 inch pie or about 6 servings

Allergen information:

• This recipe is dairy free.
• This recipe is egg free.
• This recipe is gluten free.

Nutrition information:

Photograph: