Today, we had a nice treat.  A friend of mine stopped by with a 20 pound box of delicious pears!  We love pears, but I didn't think we could eat them all before they went bad.  So, what do you think we did with all those pears?  We spent the afternoon peeling and coring pears and made the best pear sauce I have ever tasted!  We canned the sauce so we could have some for months to come!  My girls helped me in the process and earned a couple of hours towards their high school home enconomics credit!  It's so nice to be able to have fun with my girls, give them the opportunity to learn something new and let them earn high school credit at the same time!  Here are the fruits of our labor!  Of course, you can't taste it, but I think it sure looks good!

The pears are boiling and slowly breaking down into more of a sauce.

The "canning" process

Four of the seven quarts canned and ready to store!

If anyone reading is interested in trying the recipe...here it is!  Enjoy!

Pear Sauce

9 pounds Bartlett pears peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup water

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (optional)

1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (optional)

1. Combine pears and water in a heavy 8 to 10-quart pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring often, until pears are soft, about 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Add lemon juice, and the sugar and cinnamon, if desired; bring to a boil. Simmer sauce, uncovered, until as thick as desired.
3. Fill hot, sterilized jars with hot sauce, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Gently run a narrow nonmetallic spatula between sauce and jar sides to release air bubbles. Wipe rims and threads of jars clean; top with scalded lids, then firmly screw on bands.
4. Place jars, slightly apart, on a rack in a boiling water canner or other deep pan half-full of hot water. Add more hot water to cover jars by 1 to 2-inches.
5. Bring water to a simmer; then cover and simmer for 15 minutes for pints, 20 minutes for quarts. Lift out jars and let cool on a towel away from drafts. Test seal of each jar by pressing lid; if it pops when pressed, there's no seal. Store unsealed sauce in the refrigerator and use within 1 month.
6. If you like, you may omit processing and ladle sauce into freezer containers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace for pints, 1-inch headspace for quarts. Apply lids; then freeze for up to 1 year or refrigerate for up to 1 month.

Makes about 6 pints or 3 quarts.

Tomorrow, we make homemade yogurt.  We'll see how that turns out.  I regularly make Kefir, but have not made yogurt yet.  I've heard it's not too difficult, so we'll see.