May I Make a Recommendation?

 Last Thursday, I learned from reading a few blogs that February 20 is known as National Cherry Pie Day.  Who knew?  I'm assuming that is a tribute to President George Washington since we now combine his birthday and Abraham Lincoln's birthday for President's Day.  

We had actually planned to go out for a meal on that day, but due to ❄❅❆ falling from the sky, we thought better of it.  Especially since the restaurant we had in mind was in a neighboring county in MD where my friend Karen lives.  It's at a higher elevation and they always have even more snow that we do here.

I digress.

The plan was that Strong Heart was going to have a piece of cherry pie there to celebrate National Cherry Pie Day.  We seldom have sweet treats around here these days, and I wouldn't be having the pie anyway, since the restaurant does not do Gluten-Free desserts.

Since we weren't able to go out, and we really didn't need to have an entire cherry pie around here (I do know how to make gluten-free pie crust 😀), I came up with an alternative idea.   Why not make brownies and use the 1/3 bag of frozen cherries I had left over from when I made cherry jam and make a cherry sauce for on top of the brownie?

This is where my recommendation comes in...

This Gluten Free Ultimate Fudge Brownie Mix by King Arthur Baking Company is the best brownie one could make, in my humble opinion.  I have a lot of from scratch brownie recipes and I've also tried other brownie mixes from the store, but both Strong Heart and I find this one to be the best brownie I can make.

I took the cherries from the freezer that I'd had left over from when I did the cherry jam recently because it was only a partial bag...maybe 1/3 of a quart bag, put the juice in the saucepan, added maybe 1/4 cup of sugar, a touch of water, and brought it to a boil.  Then I added a mixture of 1 T. of Clear Jel (the cook kind) and 2 T. water to the cherries and stirred until I had a nice consistency for a sauce.  When I took it off the heat, I added a drop (or two) of Almond Extract and stirred that in.

I served the brownie with a spoonful of cherry sauce.  I'm sorry that I didn't think to take a picture of one before serving it.  So, I will share this picture from Pinterest with you to give you the idea.