Boozy Cherries Over Cheese

Two things were standing in the way of dessert at last week's dinner party: 1) I'm not big on baking and 2) I was low on time.  Thankfully, I remembered something Murray's Cheese posted on their tumblr a while back.  As I just mentioned, I didn't have a ton of time on my hands so I couldn't soak the cherries in booze myself.  I lucked out and found some in the store, but I recognize they're not readily available.  I did some research and learned they're actually very easy to make, the just take time.  Take fresh cherries and pit them.  This is what takes time.  A cherry pitter is a handy doodad so I would recommend picking one up from a kitchen store before starting this project.  It will still take a while to pit them all, but this will at least seriously reduce the labor.  Once they're pitted, put them in a jar along with the alcohol of your choice.  Brandy seems to be pretty popular.  Some people toss them with sugar before jarring and soaking them, but that's your choice.  Then just store in a cool place for a couple days.  It seems like they can last a very long time so it seems worth it to put in the effort to pit them to have these around for the subsequent months.

Boozy cherries would be great over ice cream or in a fresh Manhattan cocktail.  I went with Murray's suggestion and poured them over a triple crème and served it with fresh baguette slices.  I'm sure chocoholics will doubt that cheese can be a dessert, but when it's done like this...oh baby.