Pear Butter

Studmuffin's aunt gave me a sack of pears this summer. We ate what we could, and then I decided to freeze the rest, get some more from her (free, of course) and make some jelly to give away as presents. Well, I never got around to getting some more pears, so this is what I came up with.

The Saga of The Pears

Eat as many pears as your family can. Notice they are starting to over-ripen. Peel and dice the pears, then place in freezer where you will promptly forget about them. In November you will remember the pears, but not get around to doing anything. December rolls around, and you will really need some homemade gifts for family, but again will do nothing with your pears, because there really is not enough for you to make jelly for gifts and still have some for your family, and while you want to be generous, you know yourself well, and you are really selfish with homemade treats.....

In late January you will ask your daughter to put the sodas in the fridge which is in your garage. Two days later you will go to open the mini fridge, and find no sodas.....Hmmmmm.....

You will then discover the missing sodas that very evening as you go to get some meat out of the freezer....Unfortunately you will be unable to enjoy these Dr. Pepper made with Imperial pure cane sugar because they have now exploded all over the bottom of your freezer. You will make a disgusted sound, grab your meat, shrug it off, and go to make dinner for your family....

You will intentionally forget about the sodas exploded all over the bottom 2 shelves of your freezer, because you have a wonderful husband who cleaned the exploded soda out of your mini fridge just the week before. (The fridge was a freebie, of course. Your husband's work was throwing it out and he recycled it for our family's use! I'm tellin' ya...You are G-R-E-E-N!). The fridge has thermostat issues, and occasionally freezes all drinks inside with no warning.

But, I've digressed...You are ignoring the exploded soda's in your deep freeze...After all, it's only the bottom 2 shelves, and really, you are good at ignoring things that you don't want to deal with....Like dust. You ignore this very easily, until your 2 lovely children have a moment to do it for you! And, while they grumble and complain about it, you realize that making your children do things they don't enjoy doing is great for building character!

On a Saturday in late February your husband, who really is the most wonderful husband EVER, will clean out the deep freeze.....Patience pays off! He will discover the bag of pears. Wonderful! You are in the perfect mood to make something....What shall it be? You flip through several recipe books, and come up with this lovely and easy recipe, that is really a mixture of several other recipes, but hey it worked!

Pear Butter

6 c. finely chopped and peeled pears.
2 c. sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
salt (I didn't measure it, sorry)
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Place all in crock pot and cook on high 1 hour. Stir. Reduce heat and cook until mixture is thick and a lovely brown color, stirring occasionally. You can use your potato masher to smash them up if you like. Enjoy the lovely aroma of Christmas throughout your home during this process...Without the stress of the holidays!

I put the mixture in several small canning jars. Here's how I seal jars, just in case you care, and if not too bad, we've already established this is my blog and I can say what I want!

After cleaning the jars, I put them in my oven at about 200 (okay, that's a lie, I put them in at 400 because I was also baking corn bread at the same time....The point is to get the jars good and hot). I boil the lids in a small pan of water. Place jelly in your jar leaving a little room at top (about 1/2 inch) place lid and secure with ring. Turn jars upside down on a towel or rack. Say "Abracadabra Kernoodle, Kerplop! Make these lids seal with a small little *POP*!" And, magically, your lids will seal! Amazing, I know!

FYI: One year I made jalapeno jelly, and apparently I over cooked it a tad. I turned my jars over to seal, and went about my day, completely forgetting them. They sealed alright....But they also set up with all of my lovely jalapeno jelly stuck at the top and a big open space on the bottom of my jar. I still gave it away, but only to people who I knew wouldn't judge me for my scatter brained ways....They know I'm scatter brained and love me anyway!

Well, that's all the knowledge I have to give you today. Now I must return to laundry...Today is bedding day. Oh, joy. I can't wait until the girls are strong enough to stretch sheets into place. I know making up bed will be great for building their character! *snicker*