Blogs

The Pear Trees

I have 5 Asian pear trees in my yard. They are perched just above the 'hummingbird feeder'. The hummingbird feeder is a 10 x 30 strip of native salvias (i.e. flowers with sweet nectar.) This weekend, it's been quite entertaining watching the hummingbirds in the garden. One little bird eats his fill from the flowers and then perches in a pear tree, guarding his territory from other salvia-seeking hummers. I tried to sit very still, hidden in the tall salvias, to catch a photograph of the hummers--but no luck. They are so small and fast, that even when I captured them, they were just a blur on the screen. I've been eating fresh pears daily, at breakfast and lunch, for the last 2 weeks. They are delicious raw, but I wanted to come up with something original so when a creative idea popped into my head, I pounced, ending up with: Asian Pear Pasta The pears used in the pasta were the gold-colored, caramel-flavored variety featured in this image. Another good old standby for me is a toasted peanut butter sandwich with the addition of something besides jelly. When we realized that we were out of bread yesterday, and neither wanted to make a grocery shopping trip, I came up with this modified version of a whole wheat potato bread from a recipe found in The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book (one of my favorite bread baking books): Blue-Mash Potato Bred & serving suggestion The pears used in the sandwich came from the tree that produces a green, crisp, cinnamon-apple flavored variety: