By Dawn Smith-Pfeifer
Some days you just have to be punny.
Like on Sunday.
It was 103 degrees. It was windy. It was my son's 21st birthday. And we had a tree full of pears.
And that's where the pun began.
My son noticed that the wind was blowing some of the pears off the tree. So he decided he needed to pick some pears. In 103-degree heat.
He was back in the house with a shopping bag full of pears in what seemed like a few minutes. But the pears felt really warm and I worried about them not cooling down fast enough in the bag, (I also have no fridge space for a shopping bag full of pears) so I decided we needed to cool them down with cold water in the sink. And while I manned the sink, my son and his girlfriend went back out to pick more pears.
Pretty soon we had both sides of the sink filled with pears and three more buckets to cool down.
While we were standing there, loading, cooling, unloading and storing the pears, we had a little pear pun fun.
"It apPEARs we will be here a while prePEARing these pears."
"Is 'dis-a-PEAR? What about 'dis one?"
"Can we rePEAR this bag, or should I get a different one?"
And on, an on we went!
As a "PEARent" I have to tell you, even though it was a lot of work, I thoroughly enjoyed the fun pun camaraderie.
And the pear cobbler that evening was delicious (And easy! ApPEARently, pear pie was too much of a hassle for me to make!) :)
Here's the recipe for it:
Pear cobbler
Ingredients:
Enough pears, cored and cut into 1/2-inch slices to fill the bottom of a 9 x 9 pan
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 Tbps. melted butter
Topping
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Toss pears and lemon juice together in a bowl until coated; spread into a 9x9-inch baking dish. Pour maple syrup and 2 tablespoons melted butter over pear mixture; toss to coat.
Mix oats, brown sugar, 1/2 cup melted butter, flour, and cinnamon together in a bowl until crumbly; sprinkle over pear mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven until crust is golden and pears are tender, about 45 minutes.