Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry

Recipes for Desserts

Speaking with a few of my friends, the subject of good seasonal recipes has come up. These are 2 of the best and easiest  desserts one can find.

Poached Pears

Peel 2 pears. Comice pears are great. Bartlett work well also. Cut in half and cut out the core. You should have 4 half pears.
Take about 3 cups of red wine, pour into a 1-2 quart pot and add a cup of sugar. Also add 12 black peppercorns. Heat the wine mixture to a simmer and add the pear halves. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until a fork easily penetrates the pears.
Remove the pears and let sit in a bowl. Continue to simmer the wine mixture watching it carefully. As it cooks it will thicken into a syrup. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon (the mixture will be reduced by more than half), turn off the heat.
Serve the pears by slicing the halves on an angle and spread out he slices like a fan. Spoon some of the sauce over the pears. Remove the peppercorns before spooning the sauce.
Watch as you cook the sauce as it can become a real mess if you cook it too much.

Passion Fruit Desserts

One of my favorite websites is Aunt Lilikoi http://www.auntylilikoi.com/ This is the place to buy all things passion fruit. Lilikoi is Hawaiian for passion fruit. The unsweetened passion fruit juice is great. BTW shipping from Kauai is not very expensive. The juice keeps unopened for a long time.

Passion Fruit Pie

Make a graham cracker crust in an 8 inch pie pan. Follow the directions on the back of Nabisco Graham Cracker Crumbs. I use less butter than called for in the recipe.
Make a mixture of 1 can of condensed milk(14 ounces), the equivalent of 2 eggs of eggbeaters, and about a half of a cup of the unsweetened passion fruit juice. Add more to taste. Mix the ingredients well. Pour into the prepared pie crust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until set. Remove from the oven.
Let cool. Whip  a cup of heavy cream and slowly add some confectioners sugar and some of the passion fruit juice. Serve with whipped cream.

I also make a hot passion fruit souffle that is a my favorite. Recipe at a later date or drop me a note. I also make cranberry nut bread, pignoli cookies, and anything chocolate including chocolate truffles.

I will publish the recipes with the most requests. Let me know.

Wine

This time of year is great for wine buying. It seems as if all of the wine sites are trying to out do themselves with deals. My wines of the moment are
 2010 and 2011 Cru Beaujolais such Fleurie and Brouilly (around $20)
 Champagne (try producers that you have never heard of ) and keep the price under $30
 Guigal 2010 Cote du Rhone $12
 2010 Chateauneuf Du Pape (These can be pricey but you can find them for around $30.
 Lenz,  Long Island, NY Merlot 2009. (Around $17) Yes it is a merlot.
Also 2010 Bordeaux. See Garys website http://garyswine.com/ . They have 25 2010Bordeaux wines rated 90 by someone for under $25.

Any of these wine would make great gifts. If you need any other wine gift suggestions, let me know. Good wine glasses are very useful. I find that good glasses make a difference and they make swirling fun. I am not a very good swirler as some of my friends will attest. Target has Riedel wine glasses that are reasonably priced. Remember that when using big wine glasses, pour small amounts of wine.

Enjoy!