My father used to say that we are all cheap in our own ways. I prefer to use the terms “frugal,” “economical,” or “cost conscious.” Still, I knew what he meant. Whatever our budgets may be (and mine is sometimes very small), we each establish personal priorities about how we want to use those budgets.

For example, I tend not to dine out. Eating at home is more cost effective … and because I am a food writer I can deduct some of my groceries!

I am also frugal in terms of my wardrobe. Although I will occasionally splurge on a new hat, I tend to wear my clothes until they have grown so threadbare that they are ready to be transformed into rags.

I have a couple of spending hills on which I am willing to die, however. One is paying someone to clean my house. 

There are hundreds of things I would rather do than clean. My wonderful friend Vicky comes once a week and cheerfully tidies up my messes. She never sighs (or at least she doesn’t sigh in my hearing) at the state of my home.

When COVID-19 locked the world down in 2020 I lost much of my income and was living on savings. I consequently tried to cut corners wherever I could financially. 

Reluctantly, I cut Vicky’s visits back to every other week. I would have gone without any number of life’s little luxuries before I would have gone without her altogether, however. She preserved my sanity … and she needed money as much as I did!

My other major spending priority is local fruits and vegetables. They are in season for such a short time that I will pay just about anything to add them to my diet. (I hope my favorite local farmers are not reading this! I’m not encouraging them to raise their prices.)

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

My Turn: Spectre of public and affordable as scare tactics

Greenfield Police Logs: June 30 to July 7, 2025

Amherst, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges named in early admissions suit

Police discuss status of investigation into Greenfield ATM theft

My Turn: Spectre of public and affordable as scare tactics

Mohawk Trail students to see new staff, new codes of conduct upon Aug. 27 return to school

Your Daily Puzzles

Cross|Word

Flipart

Typeshift

SpellTower

Really Bad Chess

I figure I can cut back on my grocery bill in December. I will pay whatever I must between June and October for strawberries, corn, tomatoes, peaches, squash, and the like, however.

Most recently, I paid $12 for a quart of cherries. This is significantly more than cherries cost in the supermarket. Even so, I was thrilled to purchase them at any price.

As readers probably know, our cherry season in western Massachusetts is woefully short. In fact, I have a feeling that it may be over by the time this piece makes it into the newspaper. In that case, I urge you to save the recipe for next July when cherries return … or to use it for any other fruit you like.

Clarkdale Fruit Farms noted on its website that it would be selling peaches and cherries one day when I was planning to go in the general direction of Deerfield. I decided to stop in after I ran my other errands.

It was early in the season for peaches — I was astonished to learn that they were around in July at all — so I was disappointed but not surprised that the orchard had run out of those precious fruits for the day just before I arrived.

I was able to purchase a quart of Balaton cherries, however. Balatons are a cherry variety originally grown in Hungary. They are tart but not so tart that I couldn’t eat a couple straight out of the basket. Still, I was eager to cook with them and share the harvest with friends.

I purchased them without knowing how I would use them. On my way back to the Tinkymobile, I met a fellow fruit lover who expressed his disappointment that the peaches were gone for the day.

“It was going to be peach cobbler day,” he sighed wistfully.

“Maybe it could be cherry cobbler day,” I suggested.

Suddenly, I knew what I was going to do with my own cherries. My cobbler recipe takes four cups of fruit, just exactly what I had purchased.

So here is my recipe for cherry cobbler. I am calling it “Cherry Plop Pie.” A cobbler is after all a simplified form of pie — and one does plop the topping onto it. Or one could call it “Cheery Cobbler.” Eating it certainly made my guests feel more cheery.

A note about equipment: I used a cherry pitter from Oxo for this recipe. Balaton cherries are rather small, and I shudder to think about the mess I would have made had I tried pitting them by hand.

Even with the pitter, one does have to separate the pits manually from the cherries in a few cases, especially if one is a klutz in the kitchen as I am. In general, however, this device speeds up the task of making the cobbler/pie considerably—and keeps the kitchen and the cook’s hands cleaner.

Before I get to the recipe, I want to note that I’ll be performing this Saturday, July 26, at 5 p.m. at the Federated Church on Route 2 in Charlemont. 

The program, “Hooray for Hollywood,” is a tribute to songs of the silver screen. Donations at the door will go to Mohawk Trail Concerts. I’ll have cookbooks on hand to sign and sell.

(a.k.a. Cheery Cobbler or Cherry Cobbler)

Ingredients:

for the fruit base:

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

4 cups pitted cherries

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter, diced

for the cobbler crust:

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1/4 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

for the topping:

2 tablespoons brown sugar or sparkling sugar

Instructions:

Begin by making the base. Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a smallish nonreactive (i.e., not aluminum) pot. Stir in the cherries and lemon juice. Cover this mixture and let it sit for an hour or two until the cherries juice up.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish.

Uncover the cherry mixture and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil, stirring gently, for 1 minute. Remove the fruit from the heat.

Spread the cherry mixture in the prepared pan. Dot the top with butter. 

To make the crust whisk together the flour, the sugar, the baking powder, and the salt. Cut in the butter, but don’t overdo the process. You should still have tiny pieces of butter in the mixture.

Whisk together the milk and the egg. Add them to the dry ingredients, and mix just until the dry ingredients become moist. Drop this mixture onto the fruit mixture, and spread it around to cover the fruit. Sprinkle brown sugar over all in little clumps — or sparkling sugar all around.

Bake until lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream … or alone. Leftovers are tasty for breakfast. Serves 6 to 8.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.