I have a thing for cherries. A BIG thing. If someone were to ask me what my favorite fruit is, I'd hemm and haw saying how much I love strawberries since they are the first in Spring, what wonderful things peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots are, then there are all the berries and currants and blackberries- oh, my! But don't forget the melons, sweet and juicy pears and the crisp, fresh apples. And all the other ones I'm not mentioning.

On and on I'd go about fruit. But deep down inside? Cherries are probably my favorite. The season is so short and so when the local cherries start to show up at the markets, I stuff myself silly with them. I eat them right out of the box, make desserts and jam. And all too soon they are gone. On I go to the other fruits.

In fact I love cherries so much, that my husband promised me a cherry tree should we ever own a house and garden. When that finally happened last year, the cherry tree was the first thing on our list of fruit trees to plant. This year I patiently waited for it to flower.

Then I counted all the little green cherries, hoping that they would all stay on the tree and turn red. Then finally it was time and they grew and grew, and then I not so patiently picked the first one.

No, it wasn't totally ripe. Yes, it was still a little sour. And yes, it was good anyways. My very first cherry off of my own cherry tree. For our first year we got quite a crop and they were really good. Next year I'll wait a little longer before picking the first. Maybe.

Lately a lot of recipes with cherries have been popping up on other food blogs. Some of them before they were in season here. So I had to wait, thinking of all the wonderful things I could make if I only had some cherries. Today I went to the farmer's market and bought some. First I bought a kilogram of dark cherries. Then I stopped at the next stand and saw that they were selling Rainiers. My husband calles them white cherries and likes them better than the classic dark red ones. So I had to buy a kilogram of those.

Now I have a lot of cherries sitting at home and apart from just eating them, I also want to cook and bake with them. Some will be used to make a danish, some will be in a pie or clafoutis or crumble or... But my first dish was a savory one and not a sweet one.

I was inspired by Cannelle et Vanille's latest post on cherries which had a salad with zucchini, fennel and cherries. For some strange reason I consider savory cherry dishes to be more masculine then feminine. While I was making my version of the salad, I decided this is one I'd like to dedicate to my dad for Father's Day. I tossed together a salad with quinoa, fennel and cherries. My dad is probably shaking his head when reading this, thinking why in the world would I use quinoa? Such a horrible thing and now she's dedicating to me!

I ate quinoa for the first time in my life about a month ago. Every one I knew said it was horrible stuff and I don't need to try it. I always stayed away from it until I decided it was time to try it. Surprise- I actually liked it. Since then, I've made a few things with it, mostly salads. And today I thought it would be good with the cherry salad I had in mind.

While I had the quinoa cooking, I went out into my garden and cut a bulb of fennel and pitted a few cherries. The salad turned out to be really good. Despite, or because of, the quinoa! I hope I have been able to convinve my dad to go and give quinoa a try. I definitely want to see if I can find black quinoa. That would make a color statement!

Happy Father's Day!

Quinoa, Fennel and Cherry Salad

1/2 cup quinoa

1 cup water

1 large bulb fennel, thinly sliced

2 handfulls cherries, pitted and cut in half

Olive oil

white balsamic vineagr

fleur de sel

freshly ground pepper

Cook quinoa in water for 10 min and let sit in the pot with the lid on for 5 min. Cool.

Toss with the remaining ingredients and season to taste.

Serves 2 as a light lunch, saving room for a dessert. With cherries, of course!