Mom's Famous Cherry Pie

My mother-in-law makes fantastic pie. We fly back to Michigan for Christmas every year, and every year, my husband has been giddy over the fact that Mom's homemade cherry pie will be waiting for him. When I first started making pie for my family on behalf of my husband, I made a cherry just to make my husband happy, but we both knew that opening a couple cans of cherry pie filling and dumping into Pillsbury Pie crust just wasn't cutting it. This year was the year that I made Mom's Homemade Cherry Pie, and I think I did pretty good, considering that I had to write down the recipe on the back of an envelope as Mom quickly read me the recipe. This recipe isn't as easy as it sounds. I had a hard time measuring out the cherries (although that was more from forgetting than difficulty), the roux got a little lumpy, since there is a lot of flour to a small amount of butter, and I think we may have thrown away my almond extract (I know we didn't use it all!). All in all, however, I think I did a pretty good job with this one. I may never make my own crusts, since that little doughboy does them so well, but at least I can make homemade filling for all my pies now!

Mom's Cherry Pie
1 recipe double pie crust (I used Pillsbury)
1 Tbs butter
1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cherry juice
1 cup sugar
3 cups canned tart cherries (in the canned fruit section, not pie section)
4 drops almond extract
10 drops red food coloring
Melt butter and add flour, stirring quickly. Add juice, sugar and salt and whisk quickly. Cook and stir until bubbly. Cook and stir for one minute more. Add food coloring and almond extract, then add cherries. Pour into pie crust in 9" pie pan. Cut top crust into 1/2 inch strips. Starting in the middle, lay out crust strips in a criss-cross pattern, folding alternating pieces in half to allow pattern to form (you can do an internet search to see how this is done). Crimp ends of top crust to bottom crust, trim any extras, and shape into a pretty pattern if desired. Bake for 45-50 minutes at 375 or until golden, loosly covering with foil or pie protectors when the edges get brown.