A Bundle of Myrrh

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If like me you have bags of pears laying around your kitchen counter and wonder what to do with them I have a solution, Poached Pear Surprise! So good!

Ingredients

• 4 medium ripe pears
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon milk
• CHOCOLATE SAUCE:
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1-1/3 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions

• Core pears from bottom, leaving stems intact. Peel pears. Cut 1/4 in. from bottom to level if necessary. In a saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil. Add pears; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Remove from the heat; stir vanilla into sugar syrup. Spoon over pears. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
• Meanwhile, combine walnuts, confectioners’ sugar and milk; set aside. For chocolate sauce, in a small saucepan, bring the water, sugar and butter to a boil. Remove from the heat; add chocolate chips, stirring until melted.
• To serve, drain pears well; spoon nut mixture into cavities. Place on dessert plates; top with some of the chocolate sauce. Insert a mint leaf near stem if desired. Serve with the remaining chocolate sauce. Yield: 4 servings.

I’m so glad that “baking season” is approaching! Baking just makes me happy. I made Banana muffins last week and gave some to Lily. She LOVED it, mostly the cinnamon struesel topping, but I thought maybe I could make some a bit “healthier” and see how she took it since I’ve been having the hardest time getting her to eat food! I looked and looked for a healthy whole wheat muffin recipe that I didn’t need apple sauce for since I didn’t have any unless I made it myself which I could have done yes, but I found this one on sparkpeople.com’s site. They’re in the oven now and smelling pretty good so far. They may taste like paper, but perhaps Lily won’t complain and just maybe she’ll decide she likes blueberries.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Melt 1/4 cup of margarine or butter in large glass measuring cup and set aside to cool
2. In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, and the 2
tablespoons of sugar.
3. Stir the eggs and milk into the melted butter and then mix the liquid ingredients into the large bowl
4. In another small bowl mix the blueberries with the 1/4 cup of flour and 1/2 sugar.
5. Gently fold the blueberries into the cake mixture
6. Pour batter into 18 muffin cups (I only fill the cups 1/2-3/4 full)
7. Use the same bowl from the blueberries, flour and sugar to combine the ingredients for the strudel topping. Use hands, pastry blender, or two forks to combine into crumbles. Sprinkle the topping on batter.
8. Bake at 400 for 18 minutes for dark pan, 20 minutes for light pan.

*Update: These are a hit with Lily and me! Prep time…15 minutes. Baking time…18 minutes. Sharing a yummy muffin with my little girl…timeless. (well, not really, only about 5 minutes but some of the best 5 minutes!)

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When life gives you apples….

….make applesauce. We were given “some” apples this week. I’ve decided that instead of all the pies and cakes I would like to make with these, they’ll be made into applesauce for Lily unless I eat it all first on the way to the freezer.