Roasted Pear Salad with Blue Cheese

Sometimes before I make a new recipe for company, I try it out first, or if it happens that I have ripe pears begging to be used.  In this case it was the former and the latter.  I made this Roasted Pear Salad earlier in the week and it was wonderful. The newlyweds, Cherise & Todd are coming this Sunday for an early Thanksgiving. When you have a blended family,  holidays are complicated, to say the  least. I will be making this great salad again Sunday.

You are going to love this salad, if you like pears. The pears are filled with the crunchy toasted walnuts, craisins,  blue cheese, and roasted to perfection, and basted  with  a tangy, sweet, sauce. Now, I'm definitely not a fan of blue cheese, but my hubby loves it.  I didn't put any blue cheese on mine.

First you start by slicing your pears in half.. Then, you take a melon baller, and remove the core and make a hole for filling. The filling is roasted walnuts or pecans,, craisins, or dried cherries, and crumbled blue cheese. Make a basting sauce of cranberry juice or apple cider, and brown sugar, and port wine, perhaps.  Pour sauce over filled pears and roast for about 30 min, until pears are soft. When the pears are done, place on serving plates with your favorite greens.  Drizzle the basting sauce over the pears and greens and serve warm. Enjoy!

I had my cholesterol re-tested last week.  Remember it was 226  three months ago?  Well, now it is 194, Woot! Woot!  With the help of eating oatmeal, (rolled oats), almost every breakfast, with a few exceptions, riding my aerobic exercise bike, and hardly eating any bad carbs, white flour, white sugar, corn syrup, starchy vegetables, etc., I was able to drop my cholesterol  32 points, and still don't have to take the meds!  Just in time for Thanksgiving!

I now know that my 226 reading three month ago wasn't hereditary.  I was eating too many carbs and not moving enough, and getting older, even though I am thin. I have femoral nerve damage from a previous hip surgery, so the exercise bike is about the only type of aerobic exercise that I can do. Now, I believe that controlling my cholesterol is a lot about the "M" word, moderation, which I will try to practice.  Now back to the recipe.

Roasted Pear Salad Adapted from foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• 3 ripe but firm Anjou pears
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 ounces coarsely crumbled blue cheese or Feta cheese
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped
• 1/2 cup cranberry juice, apple juice or cider
• 3 tablespoons port (optional)
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• ¼ cup olive oil
• Favorite greens; Baby Spinach, Butter lettuce, Arugula

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

Peel the pears and slice them lengthwise into halves. With a small sharp paring knife and a melon baller, remove the core and seeds from each pear, leaving a round well for the filling.. Toss the pears with some lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. Arrange them, core side up, in a baking dish large enough to hold the pears snugly. 

Gently toss the crumbled blue cheese, craisins, and walnuts together in a small bowl. Divide the mixture among the pears, mounding it on top of the indentation. 

In the same small bowl, combine the apple cider, port, and brown sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour the mixture over and around the pears. Bake the pears, basting occasionally with the cider mixture, for 30 minutes, or until tender. Set aside until warm or at room temperature.

Just before serving, whisk together the olive oil, and basting liquid in a large bowl. Divide the greens among 6 plates and top each with a pear half. Drizzle each pear with some of the basting liquid, and serve warm.