Back to Cloves

There were those wonderful pear desserts that my Grandma would make when we were coming over for a Sunday dinner. Pears cooked in syrup, served with velvety egg-vanilla cream... Delicious... Grandma knew I and my sister loved them, so mostly there were extra servings waiting for the two of us. I still remember the flavor and aroma of those pears - and I admit that I have never managed to get even close to them with the ones I am making sometimes. And I guess I never will - the dinners at Grandma's, blue chairs that I hated because the textile on them was so rough, old white plates with some floral border, big forks and knives (those I hated just as much as I hated the blue chairs. They were so damn heavy...), all these are beautiful memories of my childhood. You can't compete with memories, can you? So, I stopped trying to reproduce that taste I remember. Let it belong to my Grandma's pears in cream, let it be ever special and ever the best. Let it come to me in memories every time I am cooking pears and the kitchen is full of the cloves' aroma. Good thing there are cloves and they always smell the same...

Pears in Wine
(4 servings)

4 big pears
1.1/2 glass white wine
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cranberry preserve
4 -5 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons sherry
whipped cream and a little bit of cranberry preserve to serve (optional) 

Pare the pears, leaving them whole with the stems attached.
Put all the ingredients except sherry in a skillet, bring to boiling.
Turn down the heat, add the pears and let them simmer for about 40-45 minutes - just until they become transparent at the edges. Get pears out and set them aside to cool.
Add sherry to the syrup, bring it to boiling and let boil for another 20-25 minutes, until it becomes very thick. Pour syrup over the pears, chill thoroughly.
You can serve these pears with whipped cream and a little bit of cranberry preserve, but they also taste very nice just by themselves.