To make these baked pears in honey-mint sauce, be sure to adjust the baking time according to how ripe the pears are. This recipe actually works better with hard, less ripe pears. Diet: Gluten-free, Vegetarian
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Year-Round Seasonal Adventures
Top Things to do in West Michigan
Grilled Shrimp
This simple and quick recipe is part of our Friday Evening Appetizer gathering almost every week. I like it because it is so easy, but our guests like it because it tastes really good. The excessive amount of oil creates a lot of smoke, which becomes the dominant flavor. In fact, we often call this…
Caramelized Onions
It may seem unnecessary to go through all this for just onions, but the end result is truly worth the time. The vinegar adds an acidic punch, the sugar makes these sweeter than they naturally would become, and the vermouth adds complexity. I use this recipe to prepare a large batch that I then use…
Brownies with Bacon
There seems to be an increasing use of bacon in sweet dessert items like chocolate brownies. The combination of smokey, salty bacon with sweet, rich chocolate is better than it may sound at first. Pretty easy to make, loosely following a recipe I found on a Bacon Today posting by Micheal Kirsch. I used a…
Sourdough Bread
We make sourdough bread multiple times per week here at Castle in the Country from a starter that began life on April 15, 2005. We used it here for French toast, croutons, picnic baskets, dinners, breadcrumbs…very little goes to waste. On of the things I like is the simplicity of the ingredients: flour, water, and…
Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
We take our cues from the local seasonality for this excellent dessert. Here in our corner of West Michigan, we are in that special time when the rhubarb is winding down, and the strawberries are just beginning. The combination of rhubarb’s tart, almost astringent, flavor with the natural sweetness of strawberries is magical. Especially when…
Cherry Cobbler
When I’m lucky, I can find pie cherries at the Holland Farmers Market. While pie cherries are plentiful and available in many places, consider yourself fortunate when you see these, at least in West Michigan. The season for pie cherries, also called “sour” or “tart” cherries, is short-just a few weeks. Most of the crop…
Steak and Guinness Pub Pie
This hearty pub pie is made with beef tenderloin, enhanced with Guinness stout, and thickened with sharp white cheddar cheese. The vegetables included are optional and can be varied based on seasonal availability. For example, I use frozen peas instead of beans in the winter/spring months. Just take the amount of cooking time each vegetable…