roasted cherries + black pepper + goat cheese

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It's hard to believe that this is what I was doing right before the big storm hit us on Friday.  Here I was, sitting on the patio on a breezy summer night, catching up with my best friend on the phone and eating these dressed up appetizers all by my lonesome.  I had the day off and I was damned if I didn't enjoy it:  a lengthy catch up with a pal and some goat cheese would surely do the trick.  Little did I know that when our call was dropped, it was just the beginning of my media and power-less weekend off of work.

I blamed a run-out on her international calling card, or maybe a dying iphone, but in fact it was a ten minute storm that blew out the power for a few million of us over here in the mid-atlantic.  In 105 degree heat.  In the nation's capital.  When I had JUST went grocery shopping.  Oh, the odds.

I'm just glad I went out of power in style and with a full belly of roasted cherries.  These were so impeccably delicious, I will keep them in my hostess arsenal forever.  I can't wait to share them with other people and eat them over and over again.

I tossed about two pounds of stemmed cherries in olive oil and a sprinkling of black pepper.  I roasted them in a 400 degree oven for about half an hour, tossing them a few times along the way.  When they were nice and wilty, I took them out and smashed them a bit with a spatula.

You can go through and remove the pits, but since it was just me, I left them.  I would do the work if I were serving them to others.  No one wants to be the guest who is looking around for the right place to spit out their cherry pit.  Make sure you wait until after you roast them, though.  I think keeping them intact helps keep the cherries juicy.

I spread them on slices of a whole wheat baguette with generous amounts of goat cheese.  Everything is better on goat cheese.  Everything.  Don't forget that, ever.