These are the cherries that came home with me yesterday. They have since been cleaned (vinegar & water rinse), pitted (OXO cherry pitter!) and made into Cherry-Basil syrup, Cherry-Basil Jam and Cherry Pistachio Crumble Cake. All Round 2 as I made them last week with the first batch of cherries I bought last weekend.

The cherry-basil syrup is Gluten Free Girl and the Chef’s Cherry Basil Soda – or rather, the syrup for the soda.

It’s rather complicated :)! … pit the cherries, add the sugar and basil, let sit overnight and process into syrup.

Add carbonated water and you have cherry-basil soda!

Previous to making the cherry-basil syrup, I saw “Chia seed Jam” on Lisa’s Healthful Sense blog. So…I held back a bit of the syrup, added a tablespoon of chia seeds and after an hour or so in the refrigerator, had cherry-basil jam.

Although Tartelett’s Cherry Pistachio Crumble Cake did not need anything additional, a little of the jam on a slice of the cake added another dimension of yum!

Just in case you haven’t heard of or used Chia Seeds, Bear demonstrates… Bear gets these in his food as well. They add Omega3, fiber, antioxidants and when combined with a liquid they form a kind of binding gel. Chia and water can often be used as an egg substitute for binding in baked goods…for those who can’t or choose not to eat eggs. Chia seeds are flavor neutral and although they look like seeds in the photo of the jam, they get very soft and you don’t know they are there. It is not like the seeds in raspberry or strawberry preserves.

Also this week, I received my order of “Paper Route Designs’ Labels”. I’m making more and more condiments, syrups, concentrates…the pig fat is being rendered into lard this very day – Karin, at Paper Route Designs, listing for jar labels appeared in the nick of time.

The only downer this weekend…

…yep, I finally gave in and pulled out the behemoth A/C unit. I thought I’d skate this year but it is forecast to be in the upper 80’s ***GASP! **** all week… and I caved :)!