Eureka!

I have found it, as they might say. I am borrowing the book "The Flavor Bible" by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg from a friend's mom, and I have opened up a huge window. The book is just listing after listing of foods which go well with other foods! It leaves the creativity up to the chef, which can be both a good and a bad thing. I love experimenting with food, but I am a little nervous about presenting what I make to the class (I always am).
     I decided to start my search through the book with cherries. The book came up with many matches, and categorized almonds as a great match. The only flaw with this book, which is understandable as it would become much, much thicker with this addition, is the lack of explanation of chemicals the ingredients share. After much research from sites like this and this, I learned what it is that cherries and almonds have in common: Benzaldehyde. Cherries contain Amygdalin, which decomposes into Benzaldehyde, while almonds simply have Benzaldehyde from the beginning. This explains why the two ingredients go well together, and lead me on a search for a recipe which marries the two.  The book also lists "flavor affinities", or a pairing of multiple foods that goes together. One such suggestion was "cherries + almonds + cream + kirsch + vanilla", which sounds great- except for the alcohol!
     After looking at the pairings, I went to search the website for recipes. I found a "Cherry Cream Pie" recipe which uses sugar, vanilla and almond extract, and cream: all of which go with the cherry pie filling that is also called for. There were several English Trifle recipes with a similar ingredient set-up. I also found Vanilla-cherry ice cream and cherry pound cake. 
     Something interesting I noticed was many recipes contained cream cheese. After consulting the book, I learned cream cheese also goes with cherries! After learning so much about combinations, it's easy to spot the patterns recipes follow. It was truly a "Eureka!" moment when I discovered how these recipes, all different, used many of the same ingredients. Often, the proportions are what truly matter. Now all I have left to do are prepare my presentation and decide what dish to make!