Warm your belly...

On these cold winter days we've been having, my mind wanders to food.  Memories of making hot chocolate and baking pies in the depths of winter bring about a much needed warm, fuzzy feeling.  The days of sitting around my grandmother's round kitchen table in the middle of a black and white checkerboard floor, feeling like Alice in her own personal wonderland, have long since past.  Now that I am a mother, I have tried to recreate the same sense of wonder in my own family.  The creative wheels started turning the other night and this is the end result :

Sweet Cherry Soup with Almond Dumplings

Soup -
16oz bag frozen sweet cherries
1 c cran-raspberry juice (or any clear fruit juice you have)
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch (mixed into 2 Tbs juice or water)

Dumplings -
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp almond extract
dash of salt
dash of sugar

Bring soup ingredients to boil in a large sauce pan.
Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 10 minutes.
While soup is simmering, make dumpling mix.
After 10 mins, add cornstarch mixture to soup, return to boil. Drop dumpling mix by teaspoon into boiling soup, cover. Cook 10 minutes, or until top of dumplings are dry. Serve hot with yogurt or sour cream.