She's My Cherry Pie

... cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise. Tastes so good, make a grown (wo)man cry. Sweet cherry pie, yeah. I've had Warrant in my head all day, and now it's in yours. You're welcome.

Why am I stuck on Warrant? Because it's President's Day, the day before
George Washington's birthday. And popular American myth tells us that our first prez chopped down a cherry tree, only to be overridden with guilt later. So he narced himself out to his daddy.

To honor this classic American attempt to encourage honesty, my mom bakes a cherry pie every President's Day. Its a fairly new tradition, I think. I certainly don't remember her doing that when I was a kid. But I've decided to follow in my mama's footsteps and bake a vegan cherry pie every Prez Day. Lucky for me, the recipe o' the month in Sarah Kramer's Go Vegan 2011 wall calendar is for Like a Virgin Cherry Pie:

Yes, that's a Madonna reference. Get it? Cherries, virgins. Kramer's even dressed as Madonna from the Like a Virgin album cover. Here's the real Madonna. Kramer is just as cute.

As for the pie, it was delicious. Old George woulda been proud. I did have to sub cherry pie filling for the fresh cherries in the recipe since they aren't in season here. Because of that, I used too much filling and it overflowed during the first half of baking time. But the coconut/walnut/sugar crumble topping (yes, it's as amazing as it sounds) doesn't go on until the last 30 minutes, so it was no problem to scoop out the overflow. Unfortunately, that did make the outside crust a little messy.

But hey, who cares about a messy pie when it's delicious? I brought this to work, and it was quickly devoured by my co-workers. Happy birthday, Georgey!