Poached Pears

As spring comes, I always get the desire to start eating healthier foods, and try to shed some of those winter pounds that inevitably creep on when sweaters and fires and s'mores and cider and baking are part of my day to day life.

Last week we had my parents over to dinner and I decided to bring back an old favorite, poached pears. I thought the lack of baked good or ice cream might make my kids refuse to accept this as a dessert, but they loved it so much they asked for it again as "breakfast dessert" the next morning!

Start by creating your poaching liquid. In my case I used:

1 cup dessert wine (you can use Sake, apple juice, pretty much anything sweet-ish)
1 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Let these come to a gentle boil in a pot on the stove.





Meanwhile, I took 4 red pears (you just want them to be pretty firm so they don't fall apart), peeled them, halved them, then scooped out the seeds. You can also leave them peeled and whole, I love how the stems look once you are done.





Place pears in poaching liquid and let it simmer for about 45 minutes.

I served it straight from there, but if you want, take out the pears, and continue to simmer the liquid until it reduces down to a syrup to pour over top.




Any other spring desserts I should think about?

Jessica