Thank You For The Blog Award!

My heartfelt gratitude to Joy of Joy of Desserts

Just like Joy, roses are my favorite and I was even named after them!

The rules for this blog award: ..Accept the award. Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 10 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
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Here are my 10 new discoveries (in alphabetical order and not by preference rank):

• Are You Hungry? Kathy shares wonderful recipes and always makes me hungry each and every time I read her delightful blog!
• A Feast for the Eyes - Debby is my lovely new blogging friend from the West Coast and shares not only great recipes, she also takes you on fabulous excursions AND she has horses like me.
• Bakers Corner (Modena) - Dajana writes about Italy and Italian food; I dream of Italy when I read her words!
• Cake Batter and Bowl - Kerstin has a delightful food blog that showcases a lot of creativity, plus she's a Midwesterner like me.
• Chic Eats - Kenny blogs from Hong Kong, where I have been fortunate to visit; he brings such a fresh, unique perspective on food and cooking.
• Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice - Reeni is one of the nicest bloggers I've ever met and her blog is TOPS! And her kitchen kitty, Moon, is a hoot!
• Deep South Dish - Mary has a new foodie blog that focuses on Southern cuisine . . . superb culinary skills like no other!
• La Bella Cook - Bridgett has a lovely foodie blog that is a pleasure to visit repeatedly.
• Lick The Bowl Good - Monica's blog is beautiful from top to bottom and from side to side and I could just eat every morsel directly from my computer screen!
• Little Bit of Spain in Iowa - Diana is a new friend from my original home state of Iowa. She focuses on the awesome food of Spain and Iowa as well as her Spanish cultural heritage.

Ladies and (one) gentleman, congratulations on your fine blogs!
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Che Bella Echinacea in the Garden

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A Perfect Echinacea in the Garden (name: Sunset or Sunshine)

Well, the new design is now complete! I want to give a huge shout out thank you to Emily from "The Blog Fairy" who worked so wonderfully along with me to 'capture' the look and feel of life on La Bella Vita farm. Thanks to all of you, too, who hung in there whenever you received any error messages or were unable to log on temporarily.

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Cherry Amaretto Crumble

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Oh Amaretto, sweet Amaretto! How wonderful you pair with cherries!

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Those yummy little red darlings have been in season now for a month or two, so I had to make a dessert that I recently found in Cuisine at Home magazine. Thumbs up for this recipe, especially when warm right out of the oven.

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I altered the recipe a bit, as I always do, to make it more personal. I SOAKED the cherries in 1 Tbsp. of Amaretto di Saronno (Italian almond liqueur) and 1 tsp. of almond extract while I made the crumble dessert. M-mmmmm! It proved to an extremely good addition!

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Next, I made an Amaretto whipped cream topping by blending in some Amaretto di Saronno in the cream. I loved it! But W.D., who is my picky purist, made his own cream topping without any Amaretto. I tried it his way, and they are both very good . . . so it's your choice how you want to make the cream..

Cherry Amaretto Crumble

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Here's what you need for the crumble topping:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup crushed Amaretti cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

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Here's what you need for the cake/dessert:

1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

3 jumbo eggs

3 cups, pitted, dark sweet cherries

1 Tbsp. Amaretto di Saronno

1 tsp. almond extract

Whole cherries with stems, for garnish on top of whipped cream

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Here's what you need for the Amaretto Cream:

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1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sour cream* (do not add sour cream if you don't add Amaretto)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 - 2 Tbsp. Amaretto di Saronno
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FIRST, clean and pit the cherries.

Soak the clean cherries in the Amaretto liqueur and almond extract.

Let them remain in the marinade until time to prepare the cake batter.

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Here's what you need to do to prepare the crumble topping (first):

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Combine the flour, Amaretti cookie crumbs, butter, almonds, and brown sugar.

Mix gently until the mixture looks like coarse, little lumps about the size of a 'pea'.

Chill the topping while making the cake batter..

Here's what you need to do to make the cake batter:

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a deep pie pan (I used ceramic) with non-stick cooking spray (I used butter flavored). Set dish aside.

With a hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until mixture is light and fluffy.

Beat in vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, mix in flour, salt, and baking powder.

Add these to the creamed mixture WHILE ALTERNATING with the eggs that are added one at a time and then adding a little more dry mixture . . . repeat until all is well mixed.

Spread the batter into the baking dish (it won't pour, it is very thick).

Place the cherries onto the cake batter.

Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the cherries.

Cover the crumble with aluminum foil (loosely) so the topping does not burn while baking.

Bake for 50 - 60 minutes until the top is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Serve warm with Amaretto whipped cream or plain.*

Garnish with whole cherries with stems.

*Leave out the sour cream if you are not adding any Amaretto; it is used to thicken the whipping cream when Amaretto waters the cream down.
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Buon Appetito!

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Amore' and Ciao,

~bella

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