I had a box of Comice pears in the garage that I needed to use up. They were ripe and perfect to go into this cake – WITH THE PEELS ON! It was incredibly moist and even tastier served with a dab of whipped cream on top!

I doubled the recipe and sent a cake home with my friend, Pam, who came to have a quick salad with me at lunch time, bringing her dad, who was visiting from Hawaii. (Read about how I experienced Hawaiian hospitality, here!)

My table looked like this

And I pulled out starched cloth napkins from here**


Using what I had, our spinach tuna salad looked like this

And then we had a bite of this

I also love Bartlett pears, as they’re my favorite to can. I was my mother’s helper, as a young girl, because my hand was small and I could place the pear perfectly, right side down, in the jar!

When I started canning years ago, I found all of my “wide-mouth” jars at garage sales. I’ve come to appreciate wide-mouth jars. I made sure and bought “wide,” because I remember how tricky it was getting the pears placed just right while canning with my mom.

Last weekend I canned these beauties

And with leftover Comice pears in my garage, I plan to make yummy pear jam, using my apple butter recipe.

Pears are so mellow and pleasant and a perfect fall fruit. They are well-loved in my household – for, protein shakes, cakes or muffins, pear crumble, pear butter, or just eating!

What are your favorite kinds of pears?

(Need a great Halloween recipe? Read my post Chicken Chili on a Halloween Night, here. **To see a picture of where I store my starched cloth napkins, check it out, here.)