The Pears Are Gone!

Yesterday as I chased a fruit fly away from my ginormous bowl of pears, I realized he'd be back with his friends if I didn't do anything with these pears. I initially had been thinking of quick breads or muffins, but as I looked through recipe after recipe, they really didn't use any quantity of pears. One or two at a time just wasn't going to cut it in using up these pears. So my first decision was to make a pear sauce. The thought to me of eating pear sauce just doesn't sound good to me- and I adore pears! But then I thought of all the times I use applesauce in place of half the fat in a quick bread and it occurred to me that I could easily use a pear puree instead. So I got the pears cooking, went on a hunt for jars, and a short while later I had eight little half-pints of pear sauce.

And I still had pears.

So I made some pie crust and got that in the fridge chilling. And while I waited to make my pear pies, I decided that any that were left after that were going to be divided into eating pears and then one more batch of pear sauce. At least the pears would be used up. Then later on I changed my mind and decided that pear chutney would be more fun, so that was the plan after the pies. I cut and rolled dough for three pies and then got to work on the pears. When I had filled my mixing bowl with pears slices and spices I was surprised to find it only filled two of my shells. I actually finished off the pears and had to use two granny smith apples from the fridge to finish filling the third shell. I was under the impression that I had more pears in the garage, but of course, I didn't. So I did manage to use up the pears, although now I'm a little sad I never got to make my pear chutney. These pies are also going to serve the purpose of being test pies for freezing whole pies. I've always wanted to try doing so and seeing how they fared- so two pies are in the freezer freezing solid before they'll be Foodsaved and deep-frozen. Should be interesting.

But by far, my favorite thing to do with pears came two days ago when I made an Autumn Pear Pudding Cake for my birthday cake. Oh my gosh, that was fantastic! The cake part was slightly spicy and had some depth to it, and the pears literally melted into this delightful sweet sauce. The pear pudding needed no whipped cream or ice cream, it was perfect just as it is. So the recipe for Autumn Pear Pudding Cake is indeed a keeper.