Chef Maki Shares: What to do with Pears!

Coming in to an abundance of pears? What to do? What to do? Sure, I have ideas. Part of having a large family means obtaining great quantities of food when it can be had for a great price and/or free! This also means having to figure out what to do with this inexpensive food that you acquired.

Here's what I came up with for pears...

1. An addition to fruit salad

2. Sliced on cereal

3. Thin slices to put onto a spinach salad with strawberries & poppy seeds.
--For dressing, whisk together
2 T sesame seeds
2 T poppy seeds
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup raspberry or apple cider vinegar
1 T finely grated onion
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
-- Pour over mixed baby spinach leaves, red onion rings, sliced almonds and sliced strawberries. Decorate the top with sliced pears.

4. Slice them, put them in a single layer on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Freeze until solid, then pack into large zippy bags. Good to throw in smoothies later. And, strangely enough, my kids actually enjoy eating frozen fruit, especially on hot days.

5. Spiced Pear Sauce--very easy!
--puree in blender with cinnamon & nutmeg. That is it! The cinnamon and nutmeg not only make it taste yummy, but also keeps little people from frowning upon brown pear sauce. Pears turn brown easily once pureed, but if the kids know it is cinnamon pear sauce, they will assume that it is brown because of the cinnamon. That way you don't need to add any preservatives. This keeps about a week in the fridge (never lasts that long around here) or you can freeze it.

6. Pear Popsicles--Just puree the pears and pour into popsicle molds. (Buy them at the dollar store or Target or Wal-mart.) This makes a nice sweet treat for later.

7. Can them. You can do this without an official canner. You just need a very large, sturdy pot. Click here for info from Ball.

8. Make raspberry filled pears. Simple, elegant, delish! Watch the video for how to.

(to view the video, go to www.completeleeblog.blogspot.com)

(This is from the October 9th blog post.)