Tasty Tuesday

My goodness, are those cobwebs?  Let's just dust those aside, shall we?  I am quite embarrassed by the state of things around here.  In my defense, the poor housekeeping of this blog is somewhat justified.  I have been recovering from a rather serious car accident I was in early last year and have only just had the time and energy to get things situated in cyberspace. 

After such a long absense, I find myself at a loss as to what I should say.  In an effort to spruce things up, perhaps we should institute a new tradition, yes?  I had my Five on Friday (which will be returning this Friday...I know, I know, you can hardly contain your excitement).  So now, for your (and my) culinary delight, I would like to introduce Tasty Tuesday. 

I realize this has nothing to do with reading OR writing, but we all need to eat, yes?  Feel free to leave your own recipes for next week's Tasty Tuesday.  I will try them and put my favorites on the ol' blog.  I confess to being a comment whore.  I love 'em, I need 'em, I gotta have 'em.

Without further ado, today's Tasty Tuesday recipes are:

Poached Pears
6 Forelle pears (or other small-ish pears)
2 tablespoon mulling cider spice mix
juice of one lemon

Place the pears, spice mix, lemon juice and water in tall saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower the heat and let them simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the pears are just soft (poke with a toothpick to check).


Remove from the water using a slotted spoon and allow to cool on paper towel or baking rack.


Chocolate Sauce
4 oz Cadburry (is there any other) semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon honey

Place the chocolate in a non reactive bowl and set aside.


In a heavy saucepan set over medium high heat, bring the cream and honey to a strong simmer. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes then slowly stir until the mixture comes together.


Ice Cream
2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
1 cup (250ml) whole milk
1 cup (200gr) granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean

In a large saucepan, stir together the cream, milk, and sugar. Cut the vanilla bean in half and scrape the inside with the tip of a knife. Add that pulp (the seeds) to the pot. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium low heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and let steep as it cools to room temperature. Refrigerate, preferably overnight. Strain if desired.

Process the mixture into your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's intructions.
 
I'm planning on enjoying this tonight with a nice port, or perhaps merlot, plugging in my ipod to this loverly, and finally doing some writing.  I tried yesterday, but was woefully unsuccessful.  I have a good feeling about tonight, however.  I am feeling inspired.
 
Happy March, my lovelies.