What's Cooking?

Nothing out of the ordinary has been cooked this past week.  I have a big sack of okra to deal with but I haven't gotten to it yet.  So instead, I thought I would share my recipe for pear butter as per the request of one of my readers (hi Ms. Courtney!)

Pear butter on toast is wonderful or as a condiment with cheese & crackers.  

Or, I have made grilled cheese sandwiches in the past with leftover little smokies, cheese, and pear butter and they went down a treat.  

You can swirl pear butter in muffin batter or in lieu of syrup on pancakes for an autumnal flavor.  Mix it with maple syrup and make a glaze for a ham.  

Really, it's pretty versatile stuff and when you can pick pears from friends' trees and make it in a crock pot, the return on investment is very high.  

I'm not going to lie to you though, when you are staring down 100s of pears and you know that you have to peel all of those pears, it's not that fun and your hand may be stuck in a permanent peeling position.  However, once it's all done and you have jar after jar of pear butter, you won't mind so much.  Plus, you keep all of those peels and make pear peel jelly out of them.  So really, it's 2fer.

Pear Butter in the Crock Pot

Pears (40-50 depends on size)

2 - 2 1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. Ground Nutmeg

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. Ground Cloves

1 - 1 1/2 c. Brown Sugar

Peel and core pears.  Puree in a food processor or blender.  Put the puree and all other ingredients in a good sized crock pot.  Cook on low, with the lid off slightly, for about 12 hours or until reduced by half. 

This can be canned or frozen.

As in almost all of my recipes, this is to taste.  I like a lot of spice and not a lot of sweet but if you are the opposite you could add a little more sugar and a little less spice.

This is part of Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday.