Jaylee

(Jayelee's notes will appear in red)

Jaylee, you are a pear. Pears are fairly well known, like the apple, but are much more elegant. Pears fit in nicely at fancy dinners and like to get dressed up. Although you personally don't like chocolate (I like chocolate, I just don't prefer it as my drug of choice), pears can be drizzled with chocolate and make a very fancy dessert that way. Pears don't look it, but they are a little bit delicate so they often times keep away from fruit that they know won't be around for too long (that's awesome). Their subtle flavor allows them to blend nicely with just about any fruit though. This is especially true when it comes to juice. I find that there is pear juice in almost every juice blend at the store because it adds a particular sweetness that is needed by many other fruits. I've never had canned pears because it just doesn't sound appealing to me. It was only a few years ago that I started eating the real thing and that was during canning season. I found that I really needed to devote myself to getting to know the pear before I really appreciated it. That, and I needed to learn when it was ripe. You can't bite into a hard pear, it just won't taste very good. Because the pear and the apple look so much alike, I think the pear is misunderstood quite often (alas, the story of my life). People think they are going to get one thing, and get another without knowing what exactly to do with it. That's their loss, because pears are great, especially when you know what other flavors enhance them. My favorite dish has wilted spinach, chicken, pear jam and bleu cheese on top. That bleu cheese is so tangy and good that it just makes the pear delectable! Finally, there is the core of the pear. When you split a pear in half you might not get all the core out without losing some of the fruit. There is a stem portion that is on the top, more slender part of the fruit (ahh, slender, say more words like that), and then the pit sort of digs in deeper to the belly of the pear. It's a mess to get all of this out without the proper tool (hint: a bag of doritos and a girls night out also seems to work). I've used the tool, when I canned several boxes years ago, but it was a friend's tool. I do know what it looks like though and was quite skilled with it when I used it. I think that helps me understand the essence of the pear.