Covid, Asian Pear Bounty, and Too Much Pickling Spice

One of my daughters came down with Covid for the first time this last week after just one day in the classroom as a sub. She's doing fine. We're all taking turns delivering meals and beverages to her door until we're sure she can't pass it on to the rest of us. What I'm very glad of is that I had several quarts of chicken stock in the freezer. I made two large batches of chicken noodle soup for her, which she really appreciated.

Early Saturday, my neighbor knocked on the door with what we thought was a request for help with a tree. Part of her Asian pear tree had come down. My neighbor is older and lives alone. We all try to look out for each other. The three of us that aren't sick grabbed our work gloves and headed over to her property. As it turned out, she just wanted us to collect the Asian pears that had fallen onto her driveway and take them home to cook them into something. There were 3 flats of Asian pears that had fallen, and this was after she had collected a bunch to give to another neighbor. We also helped pull the large branches off her driveway and to a back area of her property, so she could get her car out if needed. 

Anyway, the daughter who has not been sick worked with me for 3 hours on Saturday washing, peeling, chopping, slicing, and trimming these pears so I could process them. All had some level of bruising, so it was imperative that we deal with them promptly. With the pears I made unsweetened pear sauce for the freezer, ginger-pear butter, dried thin slices of Asian pears for snacking, small dices of peeled Asian pears to freeze for adding to gingerbread cake, and large chunks with peel on to freeze for cobblers and crisps.  What I didn't know was that cooked Asian pears turn pink. The other thing I didn't know was how juicy Asian pears are. It seemed like forever for the sauce and butter to cook down. The sauce and butter turned out delicious. I brought some of what I made over to my generous neighbor. When I bake a pear and gingerbread cake later this week, I'll bring some of that over to her as well.

I inadvertently ended up with more pickling spices than I could use in a dozen seasons of pickle-making. Earlier this month at WinCo, I was buying bulk spices. I had used all of my pickling spices in last year's pickle relish. So I knew I needed more for this year. The bulk bin for spices is the type of dispenser where you pull a lever and out it pours. I wasn't paying attention and before I knew it, I had a full bag of whole spices. There's no way to put the excess spices back into the dispenser, so I bought them. 

Here's what I discovered. A spoonful of pickling spices adds nice flavor to chicken stock. I cooked the stock alone with the spices for an hour then strained them out before adding vegetables and noodles. I also imagine a spoonful of pickling spices could be tied up in a piece of muslin and cooked with the stock and additions, removing the spice-filled cloth just before serving. At least I now know going through this entire bag of pickling spice will be a do-able thing, and they won't go to waste. Next time, I'll pay attention when dispensing spices!

One more thing -- happy autumn everyone! How was your weekend?