What a mess! My kitchen — and hands — that is.

It was Sample Day at Whole Foods Market. (Actually, every day is Sample Day. This is a Good Thing.) I tasted a cherry-almond-vanilla snack/dessert. It was good. I picked up the recipe and found all the ingredients.

Then came the hard part. Quarter and de-pit two pounds of cherries? That took forever and I got cherry juice all over! (Two things:  I didn’t read the instructions at the store and I had never made anything with cherries.) That was last Sunday and I still have stained hands and fingernails. Not a pretty sight. I’m not doing this again without a cherry pitter.

Next came mixing the rest of the ingredients in the food processor — that I don’t own. I used to own one but I gave it away after letting it gather dust on my counter for a few years. (See it does happen: you give something away and then a decade or so later, you need it!) I used my blender instead. Ack! Wrong again. Everything got mushed instead of mixed. I was supposed to spread the mixture on top of the cherries. Didn’t happen. I globbed on the mixture and there it sat.

I stained my hands blood red for this?

When I tried to spread it out, I ended up just moving the glob around. Fine. I put the cherry dessert into the frig and then I cleaned up the mess I made.

This is why I think food tastes better when someone else prepares it. I may have to stick to the store samples for my desserts.