More on Bounce

(Larry's Cherry Bounce)

During my attempt to confirm the sugar to booze ratio used for the Cherry Bounce recipe (I don't know why I capitalized that...where I work, people are very much into random capitalization, and it drives me up a wall), Google brought me to a delightful blog authored by Larry. Larry blogs about his life on the road with his wife, Teddy, in their RV.

In addition to writing RV poetry, impressive DYI projects, and photography, Larry is a man after my own heart, because he not only likes breakfast, he's not afraid to document it.

Also, he's an Obama supporter. All that AND a bounce fan. Sweet! A recent post about decorating the clubhouse and happy hour are classic.

On a whim, I e-mailed Larry to see if he'd share his bounce recipe, and he sent this, along with permission to post it on my blog as well. Teddy's brother owns and operates a cherry orchard, so I suspect they know how to bounce!

Check out his Cherry Bounce (capped!) entry here. Kind of puts my tiny jars to shame. But wait 'til next year!

Here is the recipe that we have developed over the years.

Appx. 4 lbs fresh red tart (sour) cherries, unpitted.
3 cups sugar
2 liters vodka
1 empty 4 liter glass jug

Using funnel pour sugar into the four liter jug. Add two liters (save the bottles) of the least expensive brand of vodka you can find and drop cherries into the jug until it is full. Let sit in a cool place and invert the jug about once a week. At Thanksgiving time ( or after three to four months) strain out the fruit and bottle. Serve either as an aperitif or after dinner drink.
Note: If you warm the vodka before adding it to the sugar and then stir before adding the cherries you can dissolve all of the sugar then and do away with the weekly inversion

Actually bounce is an infusion of fruit flavors, directly from the fruit into an alcoholic base (usually whiskey, gin, or vodka). We prefer to use vodka as it doesn't add any other flavor to the bounce. In the past we have use cherries, plums, blackberries and cranberries. The infusion time will vary with the softness of the chosen fruit. The plums & blackberries took very little time and the cranberries took so long that we finally gave it up as a failure. If we ever do them again I think that I will semi-crush them first. With softer fruit you have to use a fine mesh strainer to get all of the pulp out.

One last note about Larry's blog: He's a photo collector! While Lenore and I collect faces for our face blog and the Faces in Places web site, he also collects photos for an online photo group called first-name basis signage project, in which photos are taken of any sign bearing someone's first name. It's just quirky enough to delight, don't you think? And BTW, be sure to check out the latest celestial faces on the face blog.

Allrightythen. We now return you to Perky Potholders. Coming soon: Holiday potholders in the making. I've been weaving up a storm while the weather outside is frightful; who will be getting a potholder in his/her stocking this year? Lenore's kitchen can't hold any more.

She's doing great, BTW. Her first chemo treatment took 5 days in the hospital, during which time she walked at least 20 laps a day around the floor and completely dominated the hospital's wireless Internet service with two laptops and an iPhone operating simultaneously.
(photo shamelessly stolen from Laura's blog)

She's feeling OK -- a little nauseated and flu-like, but so far it hasn't slowed her down too much. The port worked like a charm, and her new sock monkey slippers and "cancer sucks" pin were a hit with all the nurses. Now we just need to stay healthy and germ-free for the trip to Williamsburg for Christmas. The doctor gave us masks to wear on the plane. I'm thinking we should draw smiles or lips on them so they'll be less alarming and terrorist-like. Though they are yellow. I don't think the Taliban has that shade in their color palette.