Stewed Pears

Finally!! Some stewed pears lol!

The recipe below is self-explanatory. You need pears, water, sugar. Vanilla and/or cinnamon are optional.

Instead of talking about the recipe, let me do what I love best, and that is to ignore the SEO software telling me I need to write 300 words about stewed pears here, while repeating the key phrase of stewed pears and stewed pears there, and instead fall down some internet holes.

The hole I’ve fallen down is paintings of pears. So many wonderful galleries have open access policies for works in the public domain, allowing you to download the images. I thought it would be fun to look at a few paintings up close. I’ve included the links which enable you to zoom in.

But … why???

Simplicity & Perspective

The more I write these posts, the more I realise I keep returning to the theme of simplicity.

When Paul Cezanne said, “With an apple I want to astonish Paris” he was talking about simplicity too. He took a simple, well-known subject – the still life – but then turned it on its head, and made a more complex thing of beauty, by looking at his subjects from multiple perspectives.

I think it glorious that something as simple as a pear, which has been feeding us for thousands of years, can continue to find new ways to delight and astonish. That so common an object in nature, or in the kitchen, can continue to be celebrated for its simple beauty. That’s a nice perspective to have for a cook!

Realism. John F. Francis (1808-1886), Basket of Pears and Crabapples (n.d.). Oil on board.

Realism. David Johnson, Three Pears and An Apple (1857). Oil on board.

Impressionism. Eduard Manet, Pears (1880). Oil on canvas.

Post impressionism. Cezanne, Still Life with Apples and Pears (1891/2). Oil on canvas.