I'm finally getting down to the last of my pears!  I don't know how Lindsey is doing on hers, but she is going to share a recipe with you next week.  But, here is one last pear recipe from me! 

     A few days ago, I was watching a cooking show where someone made a pear pie!  Since I have had pears coming out of my ears of late, I of course latched onto that idea!  I figured it couldn't be that hard, and guess what!  It wasn't! 

     My pears had reached their peak ripeness!  They were so juicy and sweet.  I had to handle them gently so I wouldn't bruise them.  They were not crisp like an apple at all. 
      I used my vegetable peeler to remove the skin of the pears.  Then, I quartered them, removed the cores and sliced them into a bowl.  I made the slices sort of thick so that they would hold up in the oven.  
      Next, I tossed the pears with the corn starch, sugar and spices very gently.  Then, I put them into the pie crust.  Easy as that.  I didn't cook the pie filling in advance because the pears were already so soft that I didn't want them to get mushy.  They started creating their own juicy sauce right away.  That sauce thickened in the pie perfectly in the oven. 

      I used my standby pie crust recipe, except I used buttery flavored Crisco.  After I rolled out the top crust, I cut some leaf shapes into it before placing it on the pie, instead of cutting in the normal slits. 

      Once the pie is baked, just plop on a scoop of ice cream and enjoy it warm and delicious! 

      When I started canning my pears last week, my son mentioned that a pear sauce, like apple sauce, might be a good idea.  He also recalled this recipe when I canned apple slices with Red Hots.  I started thinking about that and decided it might be delicious to make a combination of those two ideas with my pears!  
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       I have made apple butter and pear butter in my crockpot, and I thought that might be a great idea for this Pear Sauce.  I also decided that adding some dried cranberries (Craisins) to the mix might be a great little burst of flavor.  I was right!  I first rehydrated my cranberries with water and reserved a little of the water to add juice to the sauce.  I later thought that I could have used apple juice to rehydrate them and that would have been a good idea as well. (If you try it, let me know how it goes.)

     This recipe doesn't take a lot of sugar.  My pears were nice and ripe and sweet.  Plus, the Red Hots add sugar as well as the cinnamon flavor.  The pumpkin pie spice also adds cinnamon and other spices contained therein, such as ginger, nutmeg and cloves.   The aroma in the house while the sauce was cooking was heavenly. 

      I canned mine into 4 12 oz and 1 pint jar, which left enough for my husband and I to enjoy some while it was still warm!  It was a rainy day, so the mixture of watching the rain and enjoying this warm, Spicy Craisin Pear Sauce really made it feel like Fall for a moment.  (The next day our temperatures were back over 100 degrees!)  

     I've been trying out a steam canner that my friends Anita and Rhonda have been using and it was fantastic to use.  It uses a lot less water, heats up to temperature sooner and is so easy to use.  This sauce in these smaller jars stayed in for 20 minutes.  Everything sealed and I am so pleased with the results.  I hope that you enjoy this recipe as well!  Click on it for a printable pdf.
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**THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS AND I WILL BE COMPENSATED IF YOU MAKE A PURCHASE AFTER CLICKING ON MY LINKS. ​  BUT, ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN.
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     I'm still trying to use up my bushel of pears! We will be sharing a couple more pear recipes with you because between Lindsey and I, we had two big boxes of these juicy things!  But today, I'm going to share my version of these fairly healthy muffins!  

     I didn't have any wheat ground, or I may have made them with whole wheat flour.  I love the warm taste of whole wheat and honey together.  Even so, made with white flour, they are delicious and taste a little bit like Fall! Honey Pear Muffins make a perfect light breakfast or a snack anytime of the day. 
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      As the name Honey Pear Muffins lets you know, there are no refined sugars in this recipe, only honey.  Plus good things like oatmeal, juicy pears and warm spices.  When your pears are getting a little ripe and you need to use them up, this is the perfect go to recipe.  I hope you enjoy them! 

• Delicious Jam Filled Muffins
• Vegan Banana Muffins
• Paula Deen's Blueberry Muffins-Gluten Free!​

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     Besides being the Primary Chorister at church, one of the other jobs I have is to help on our women's groups activity committee. I work along with some very creative and inspired women.
     Our church's women's group is called Relief Society.  As you can tell by that name, the original purpose of the organization is to give help and service to others.  That is still one of the main focuses of the Relief Society.  
      One of the ways that we serve is to minister to one another.  We get to know, love and serve one another and become dear friends.  In order to keep everyone in the ministering loop and to promote awareness of one another and to encourage women not to forget to look for ways to minister, we sometimes have activities to give ideas and encouragement. This is especially important when new people move into our area and we all need to get to know one another.  This S'mores activity is one of those times that we planned for this and it was very successful and a lot of fun!