-Posted by Lisa

It has been a long time since we have posted on this blog.  I guess we got out of the habit during the busy Christmas season.  I'm excited to get back into the swing of things, and have many new ideas and recipes to share with you.  
I have to admit, this post has been sitting in our draft folder since December.  I hope you can still find imported persimmons in select grocery stores at this time of year, or feel free to substitute a fruit of your choice.  

On our daily walk to the school bus we pass a persimmon tree.  At first the boys thought they were mini-pumpkins, or oranges, but now they can pronounce "persimmon" with ease, and one has even requested a persimmon tree for his birthday.  I wouldn't let them pick the fruit, and was too shy to knock on my neighbours' door and ask if we could have some.  I now regret this decision as I see the frost-covered persimmons rotting on the tree.  However, I was as curious as the boys about what they tasted like, so I bought some the next time I was at our local produce store.  

-Posted by Jeff

Pears!  Nature's most aesthetically pleasing fruit: how many artists over the centuries have included pears in their still life paintings?  And they don't taste so bad, either.  

I did some research on pears.  Did you know that they are picked before they're ripe?  That means that they're usually still on the green side in the store and have to be ripened on the counter for a couple of days.  I hadn't known that before; I always used to be miffed that they were too hard at the supermarket!
 
Anyways, friends of ours recently gave us a jar of vanilla-pear jam as a present and we ate it faster than any jam we've ever eaten.  That's where I got the idea for this compote.