Red Skies

Directions

1. For the cherry cubes:
2. Pit your cherries and place them into a blender. Juice your lemons, straining out any seeds, into the blender. Add sugar. Blend until cherries have been thoroughly liquified. If your blender has trouble, add up to 1/4 cup water.
3. Stain cherry juice into a glass measure, through a fine mesh strainer to remove most of the solids. Press out as much liquid as possible. Add water to a total volume of 1 1/2 cups of cherry juice. Stir.
4. Pour into an ice cube tray (or more if needed.) Freeze until solid (at least several hours).
5. Note: This will make enough cherry juice cubes for 2 batches of the cocktail. Alternately, use additional cubes in limeade, to keep your Red Skies icy cold for longer, or eat them like mini-popsicles.

1. For the cocktail:
2. Combine gin, crème de violette, and cherry juice cubes in a blender. Blend until smooth. Taste, and stir in lemon juice if desired.
3. Divide between 2 cocktail glasses. Kick back and enjoy!
4. Note: If need be you can omit the crème de violette. It adds a nice floral note, but the cocktail is still tasty without it.