PEARS

I think if I had to I could eat all fresh fruit and nothing else. I could be a fruitivore or a fruititarian. Don't get me wrong, I love vegetables, I enjoy bread, I enjoy seafood, and I love me a good slab of steak. However, every time I eat fresh, juicy fruit I really think I could live off of nothing more than fruit. I love fresh fruit, I love it with milk and sugar, I love fruit smoothies, fruit crisps, fruit cobblers, fruit ice cream, fruit on ice cream...(I love ice cream too).

We had a recent visit from my mom, who graced us with not only her presence, but with a whole bunch of pears. Fresh...picked...pears...mmmm. Ok, I will concede, pears don't top the list of favorites, they hover around number three, but still, they are in the top five favorites. I've eaten my share of pears since they came in to our lives, but frankly the family wasn't helping a whole lot, so there were a few pears that desperately needed some help yesterday. Since I love them, and don't want to waste their existance, I found a couple of really good recipes to try. Perfect! We had a 'pear dinner' yesterday. What a great way to integrate fruit into two new recipes!

PEAR BRUNCH CAKE (originally written for rhubarb)

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
3 cups pear, cut into 1/2" pieces

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg to mixture. Add milk and vanilla. Mix flour, salt and soda together. Combine the two mixtures together. Fold pear into cake mixture. Pour into a greased 9" x 13" cake pan. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes (edge will pull away from sides of pan). Pour hot sauce over cake immediately after removing from oven.

Sauce:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup evaporated canned milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients in saucepan. Boil for 3 1/2 minutes, stirring constantly. Serve cake warm or cold.

KOREAN BBQ BEEF

1 pound beef top sirloin, thinly sliced (I used thinly sliced pork which was great!)
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 pears - peeled, cored and minced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tbsp. white sugar
1 tsp minced fresh ginger (I had to use powdered ginger)

1. In a large reselable plastic bag, combine beef with garlic, pear, green onions, soy sauce, sugar, ginger. Sear and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

2. Cook in preheated pan over high heat until meat is cooked all the way through. Very good served over steamed rice.