Pear with Yellow Cheese

Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best. When reading Eulalia, a pear with yellow cheese was briefly mentioned. At first glance it may sound odd or even gross, but pears and apples with a hard, slightly salty cheese can be very good. The natural sweetness of the fruit compliments the sharpness of the cheese quite nicely. You can make this recipe with thin slices of cheese or shredded cheese, so use whatever you have on hand.

Pear with Yellow Cheese

Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 1 Bartlett pear
• Sharp cheddar, either shredded or thinly sliced (amount to taste)

Directions

1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350F.
2. Cut the pear in half. Remove the seeds and, if desired, the hard flesh around the seeds and stem.
   
3. Cover the cut faces of the pear with the desired amount of cheese. 
   
4. Bake the pear for 10-15 minutes, or until the flesh is soft and the cheese is melty and beginning to brown. 

Baked Apples

Baked apples are a pretty common dessert this time of the year as the harvest comes around and people start craving warming spices (and the warmth from turning on their oven...). There are a lot of ways to make baked apples, but I got this idea from The Outcast of Redwall, when Sunflash was teaching the cook at Salamadastron what is good food:

"See this apple? Stuff the corehole with candied chestnuts and a dribble with honey, bake it in the oven, then serve it piping hot with meadowcream."

So that's just what I did. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Baked Apples

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes
Total time: 1 hour

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 4 apples of your favorite type (I used Ida Reds)
• 8 chestnuts (I found peel, roasted chestnuts in the Kosher section of my supermarket)
• Honey
• Cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Wash the apples thoroughly, then cut them horizontally in half, so you have a stem half and a bottom half.
   
3. Using a melon baller or a strong spoon, scoop out the core and seeds from the center of each apple.
   
4. Place the apples in a baking dish -- any size that will hold all of your apples.
5. Chop the chestnuts roughly, then fill each hole with a drop of honey and the chestnuts.
   
6. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon.
   
7. Wrap the dish in aluminum foil. 
   
8. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until soft and fragrant.
   
9. Serve hot and, if desired, topped with meadowcream.

Dandelion, Fennel, and Hazelnut Salad

This particular recipe struck me as odd when I first read it in Salamadastron, since fennel and dandelion greens don't quite overlap in season. They get close enough, however, that around this time of year you should be able to find both nice and fresh in your grocery store's produce section.

Dandelion, Fennel, and Hazelnut Salad Recipe

Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

Yield: 6 salads

Ingredients

• 4 cups dandelion greens
• 1 fennel bulb
• 12 radishes
• 1 can reduced-sodium white beans, rinsed and drained
• ¼ cup chopped hazelnuts
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Directions

1. Clean and chop the dandelion greens, fennel, and radishes. (To chop fennel, cut off the green stalks and dispose, then chop the white bulb.)
2. Mix together with the beans and hazelnuts.
3. If you have a shaker, shake together the oil and vinegar, mix into the salad, and separate into 6 bowls for serving.
4. If you don’t have a shaker, separate the salad first, then drizzle each serving with ½ tbsp. oil and 1/3 tbsp vinegar.