Cinnamon Pecan Pear Muffins :)

Many times you find yourself looking for recipes in order to cook something to use up your leftovers. This is what frugal, domesticated women do in my eyes. If you buy all of your food little by little for each specific recipe. You could start spending a fortune. You need to always have the staples: spices, onions, potatoes, etc. Or in my kitchen the staples are sour cream, cream cheese, ranch, etc. Just kidding. Maybe next year I will have to start a more healthy blog. Anyway, over fall break I had the opportunity to go pear picking. It was an absolute blast. I have actually never gone fruit picking before, if I can recall. Which is sad, because my mom always tells me stories about how she used to go strawberry picking and ate so many in the field that she started to break out in hives. Anyway, I had around 2 dozen pears and I had no idea of what to do with them. So, I decided to make pear muffins. Pears are similar to apples, but more juicy. So, pear muffins are similar to apple muffins, but are more moist. Sounds perfect to me, and they were. :)

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
about 6 medium pears (I used about 8 because they were smaller)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

First, you need to gather your pears. This means you need to go to the store, or if you are lucky like me, go PEAR PICKING! 

Then you need to remove the skin off the pears, because we do not want those in our muffins. YUCK! I used a potato peeler, but you can use a knife, or any other sharp object that you wish (make it safe, get your tetanus shot).

Then you will need to core all of the pears, and cut them into fine little pieces. Let's use some logic, how big of pear chunks do you want in a pear? Consider the size of the muffins, how many pear pieces will be in each muffin, ratios... Ok, I love math I am getting ahead of myself. Just cut the pears. :)

Then you will need to make sure you chop your pecan up. Sometimes you can buy chopped pecans at the store in the bag. However, I would chop them a little bit more AND it is always cheaper to buy stuff that is not prepared, like pre-chopped. Chop if your self. :) Save a dime.

Next, you will combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine eggs, vanilla, and oil. Combine the wet mixture to the dry mixture and fold in pears and pecans. If you do not know what fold means... if means to gently pretend like you are actually folding the batter, this will make is so your pears do not get leak all their wonderful juices into your batter. :) If you are making blueberry muffins, folding is important so that you do not have purple or blue muffins. I did not do this once, they were tie-dyed purple, but I have to admit... it was kind of cool :)

Then put paper muffin cups into your lovely muffin pan. Then fill about 2/3 of the way with the muffin batter. It should look a little something like this. :) Then put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. So, yes you should have preheated at the beginning of this recipe.

*I also like to sprinkle a little brown sugar on them before they go in the oven. Then makes a crunchy streusel topping without the big mess!

This recipe will make two dozen!! So, if you are a cheap college student and only have one muffin pan, put it in the oven for 30 minutes and then do it again. :)