You’ll have to wait until it gets cold- it’s way too hot now for baking when you only have swamp cooling and no A/C. But you really should make a pineapple pie- the sweet/tartness of the pineapple makes a great foil for the crust (storebought- I’m not maniacal about this). So yummy!
You’ve got me thinking about the possibilities now. Maybe a cream pie with pineapple and coconut.
There are lots of recipes online based on that. Fresh pineapple does not go well with dairy products, but canned is fine.
The Pie and Pastry Bible is great, but Insanity Rose is in full swing in it. I don’t make her recipes any more unless I do a T minus first: I put 0 at the moment when you eat the pie, and then I work backwards through the recipe to figure out how long each step takes, to determine when I need to start it. It’s not uncommon to need to start 15 hours or more before you plan to eat her pies. Makes me craz.
My go-to recipe for crust is from Joy of Cooking, only I use butter instead of lard. I like the flavor, and the texture is quite good–less flaky, more tart-like. Wild blueberries make my favorite pie, but I like 'em all. I’m the pie-guy in my extended family (mother-in-law is the cookiemeister, my wife is the queen of cakes).
As for a pitter, I use a bent paperclip. With a little work you’ll get the technique, and it’s super-easy, plus it makes you feel like MacGuyver.
My favorite crust recipe is from Christopher Kimball’s The Cook’s Bible. It’s half butter half shortening and you freeze the fat for 15 minutes and mix it a food processor. Flavorful and flaky, so good.
I heard a great tip for apple pie on the radio a year or so ago and made apple pies last holiday season that were raved over. Don’t use one single variety of apple, use three. Granny Smith for texture and tartness, then you need a crisp sweet like Fuji or gala or honey crisp, and then one sweet/soft like rome. I also added a little cardamon as well as nutmeg and cinnamon. The three different apples give the pie a depth and balance that one variety just can’t match.
As other mentioned, you want canned cherries, not canned filling. Just cherries in water. The Oregon stuff is expensive IIRC, $3+/can and my pan can make a 4-can pie if I roll out the crust enough. Some places that’s all you can find. In IL I was able to get some other brand (I forget) for $1.10/can, and I can get Kroger brand here in VA but I forget the price.
I think someone else mentioned frozen cherries. I tried these once and they worked fine. Better color I think (the canned ones tend to be dull.) Just mix them frozen with the other filling ingredients and bake as you usually do.
It’s hard to find fresh cherries because the season is really short. We had a tree once and it would ripen all at once and be good for only ~10 days.
Mmmm pie