Poached Pears, Wormy Oat Flour

I was in the mood for pears so I bought a big bag from Costco. Even though I've had 1-2 pears each day for the past 5 days I STILL have about 5 pears left. Oy. Costco will do that to you. Overload!

This is what I did with 2 of them (only one shown). I steeped some earl grey tea, added sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon juice + zest. Then added the halved pears and poached 'em. Put them in a dish, reduced the sauce a bit, then poured the and chilled. Pretty tasty, but I wasn't brave enough to serve them after dinner with friends. Didn't seem to be the kind of dessert everyone would enjoy. I also made some ginger cookies that were a DISASTER. Mainly because I substituted 1/2 of the flour that was called for with buckwheat flour. Yeah, they tasted like ginger-lemon flavored cardboard. They would have been sooo good, too.

HowEVER, next time will be awhile. At least 4 weeks. I went to the naturopath (having him manage my thyroid issue now) and he suggested I retest for food sensitivities. I thought I'd give it a go again as last time wasn't too difficult. I eliminated dairy, eggs and wheat and felt really good. This time 'round I'm sensitive to HEAPS more foods. It's gonna be a lot harder. Here's the list:

All gluten flours, soy, all white fish except cod, almonds, cashews, pistachios, peanuts, blackberries, yeast, yogurt, corn, coffee, milk, cheese, black pepper, dates, nutmeg, whey.

I went to the store the next day to replace at least one of the things I'll miss the most (peanut butter) and discovered sunflower seed butter. YUM! Wow, all the goodness of sunflower seeds minus the annoyance of getting them stuck in your teeth! Really, the only use I'll have for it is in my morning oatmeal. Breakfasts are going to be very limiting. Oatmeal, rice porridge, quinoa with berries and nuts. I'll miss Egg McWahlins.

The next big item I needed to replace was flour so I can still bake and Wes and I can still have pancakes. A mom friend recommended this market in Issaquah that sells organic and alternative, nongluten flours on the cheap. As Wes and I approached the place, we got kinda sketched out as we had definitely entered the low rent district and were a bit hesitant to go inside. What was this market really all about? Exactly why is it an outlet? When we entered, we noticed the proprietors were a friendly older couple and they really did have every flour known to man stocking the shelves. It didn't feel nearly as sketchy upon first judgment. We picked up a bag of oat flour for 2 something, 3 fairly decent sized bags of spices for $1 each, some lentils, New Zealand salt (I recalled salt mines on the northern end of the South Island; can't beat $1 for nostalgia) and $1 bag of Kettle Chips (needed a snack). I immediately texted my mom friend, relaying my excitement for this rockin' find. I could see myself becoming a regular.

Then the next morning came. We were set to have pancakes, so I was came down the stairs to Wes announcing he had some bad news. No pancakes this morning ;( But whyyyy??? Yeah, there were WORMS in the flour. #(@)*%& WORMS! You can't see them in this photo (well that's probably a good thing), but they're there. We were going to take everyhting back the next day, but they were CLOSED. Until Wednesday! They're only open Wed-Sat. Shady. What are they doing the rest of the days? Digging up worms to add to their flours? TGTBT. Their reaction should be interesting. I'll try to remember to post again after I go back Wednesday.