You want to know what this is, don’t you?  If you don’t know, then you are not living out here in the northwest where everyone I know is buying vodka and brandy and stuffing fruit into jars and comparing fermenting times.

Because I am avoiding writing a short story (due Wednesday, uh-oh) and because I am avoiding packing up the lake house and because I am avoiding packing the car and mailing my clothes and cleaning closets and washing floors and defrosting a freezer….I thought it was a good idea to use the pears Dancing Mandolin Player gave me and make pear liqueur.

What you see are peeled, cut up pears soaking in vodka.  Two jars have vanilla beans, two jars have vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks and two jars have vanilla beans and the zest of Mayer lemons.

Of course, there will be a lot of tasting to see which one we prefer.

These jars sat in a cool, dark place for three days.  Then I removed the vanilla beans and let them sit for several more days.  On Wednesday I will add pear-infused simple syrup and give these jars a good shaking.  They will sit, in all of their loveliness, for another week or so, and then I will strain and bottle the liqueur.

And when I am finished writing, packing, cleaning, defrosting and mailing, I will drink some.