I'm sitting on the hardwood floor in my living room.  There is glass of red on the floor beside me and a 'touch of sea salt' dark chocolate bar calling me gently but persuasively.  It sounds idyllic. It should be one of those moments in life which bring me deep satisfaction... except I feel like I've been hit by a truck.  One of those big ones withe more wheels than you can count.  Not those little things that people call trucks but are really just little SUV thingy's.  Nope a big, fat, hairy tractor trailer truck.
Yep.  There it is.  I'm not even sure why exactly.


One of the bright spots in this 'short-work-week-that-feels-like-two-work-weeks' was this bread.  I've made this bread before.  Hell, I've even blogged this bread before.  This time is a little different though.  I'm using pears this time.  Those crazy canned pears that I made last fall.  Those crazy pears that I made wayyyy too much of.  Those pears that I still have 7 jars of in the cold room.  Yeah.  Those pears.  Hindsight being 20/20 I totally could have used 3 cups of pears here.  If you were using fresh fruit then 3 cups would probably be about 3 large or 4 med/small pears.  In jar units that would be about 3/4's of a jar.  It would make for a slightly more moist bread and might therefor increase the baking time.  If it meant getting through almost an entire jar of pears then it would be worth it.


Work is in an odd place for me at the moment.  It's equal parts completely exciting and awesome and absolutely frustrating.  It took a lot of years to get to the 'exciting and awesome' part of the job that I'm starting to see now.  I'm trying to figure out a way to keep the 'absolutely frustrating' part from completely tainting the other part.  I understand that every job has it's 'challenges' and I'm more than willing to accept that and work with it.  This 'challenge' is really starting to rock my core though.  It goes a little deeper for me than just something that bugs me.  I gotta figure out how to turn this around but just at the moment I'm stumped... and utterly empty.


I won't tell you how big the slice was that I took to work with me today but I will tell you that it was what got me through the day with my hair intact ie. not pulled out of my head via their roots.


Pear Bread with Streusel adapted from 'More with Less'
makes 1 loaf

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sour milk or buttermilk
2 cups diced pear or apple
1/2 cup streusel (find recipe here)

Butter and flour a loaf pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the four, baking soda and salt together in a bowl.  Set aside.
Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and mix until all fluffy and well combined.  Add the vanilla and mix.
Add the flour mixture and the sour milk alternately beginning and ending with flour.  Mix thoroughly.
Add in the pear and stir until mixed.
Pour the batter into the greased/floured pan and bake for about 55 - 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean (I think mine took about 65 - 70 minutes this time around).