Monday, October 14, 2013

Pear Sauce

We have a pear tree in the backyard, along with the plums and the grapes. I've been anxiously waiting for the pears to ripen but... although many of them have been falling on the ground, they are all rock hard. Hmmm... I've seen the birds eating them so I took a nibble out of one of them... not good! This little bear got a tummy ache!

Mama did a bit of research and it turns out pears won't ripen on the tree, even though they are ready to pick... you need to pick them and put them in a cool spot for a while so that they can reach pear perfection.

But there are so many of them... and I wouldn't be able to eat that many ripe pears anyhow... there must be another solution.

Look at them all! I know people make apple sauce... so why not pear sauce?? Mama looked for a recipe online and... there are tonnes! Before she was even done looking, I was outside picking pears! Little bears are good at climbing trees you know...

There we go... that should do it... That's my pumpkin in the background that I'm supposed to be carving for Jerry & Ben's Halloween contest but... I am waiting for Mama to buy me a pumpkin carving kit (with the tiny thin saw/knife!).

First, you have to prepare the pears... which means peeling them, cutting out the oogie parts (where worms have made a home - these are organic pears you know!) and then cutting them into pieces. This is the hardest part of the job and the most dangerous, so Mama does that...

Then you put them in a big pot... 

And add a bit of water, some lemon juice, cinnamon and a titch of vanilla extract...

Get it to a boil and then turn it down so it burbles away, giving it the occasional stir.

And then you get out the potato smasher and... What? No potato smasher yet?

Oh... apparently it has to burble away for 40 minutes or so (depending on how hard the pears are)...

It's burbling away...

Now I can use the potato smasher!

There we go... you could run it through the blender or the food processor to get all the lumps out but I like lumpy apple... pear sauce so... we'll leave it like that! We are putting it into ziploc bags and storing it in the freezer... It makes a great addition to yogurt! And even though it has no added sugar, it tastes awesome and smells amazing!

There you go... Sandy's Pear Sauce... a good honey substitute for little bears!

9 comments:

  1. You certainly were a big help - and maybe you should pick more pears for Mama and she can make you some pear butter - it is as good as apple butter - and I've heard that the bears in my house love it.

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  2. That looks delicious Sandy! It would also be good over vanilla ice cream, maybe with a little drizzle of chocolate! Jerry says "We need to mak pear sauze like Sandy!" We think he's thinking of the ice cream mostly...

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  3. @JoAnn - Oh, we've heard of pear butter!! It's supposed to be scrumptious but takes quite a bit of work.

    @Jerry & Ben - Well, the pear sauce tastes like candy (and no added sugar - go figure) so maybe Jerry would be happy with just that?? Did you get the email with the Halloween costume & pumpkin?

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  4. Slurp!!! I'd like to try some of that!!!

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  5. Ben thinks it should be BEAR sauce and not PEAR sauce, since Sandy created it. Hehe. We like the idea of adding a scoop of that sauce to your yogurt, yummy.

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  6. Yes, we did get the photos, they look wonderful! We love your new header photo too!

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  7. @Beanie - It was beary good! It is awesome in some greek yogurt with walnuts... mmmm...

    @Jerry & Ben - Good point! Sandy's Bear Sauce... hee-hee... Thanks on the header photo!

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  8. That looks so good Sandy! I never knew about the pears not ripening on trees. You learn something new every day!

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  9. @Buttons - I know! I never knew that either and waiting for pears to ripen on the tree is so confusing because they keep falling on the ground (so they must be done!) but they are still hard as rocks (so not done!)...

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