Holiday baking

I baked a couple treats this past week and was proud of both. One was a pecan pie. I'd never made one before and I'm always looking for recipes that are easy to throw together since I have little time. It turned out really tasty and got good reviews during Christmas, so I'm making another here soon. The taste of this pie is exactly as she describes on her blog. Not too sweet, nutty, buttery, and actually a little salty, which compliments the sweetness really well.

I also made a pear galette and managed to get a few pictures during the process.

This also turned out well and got great reviews (so great that I didn't get to try it myself). I had such fun cooking this. I'd never made a galette before and it involved such simple ingredients and techniques. A friend said it was the best thing they had tasted in awhile and they had just visited Napa (which I guess says a lot even though I haven't eaten much good food in Napa but know they are all about gourmet in that town).

It would have never crossed my mind to make a galette but my sister recommended I bake one with the pears she gave us for Christmas from Harry and David. Michael and I found the enclosed pamphlet with the pears kind of humorous, which read:

"Of the world's delights, the rarest, most delicious pears are the ones we call...

Royal Riviera Pears - so big and juicy, you eat them with a spoon."

When buying fruit, we usually don't choose pears so this was a suprise/treat. Baking with them was the perfect answer. I combined a couple recipes online, here and here. I used pre-made rolled out dough which I always keep on hand in the freezer, 2 pears, fresh lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, flour, butter, and egg wash on the crust with raw sugar sprinkled over it. I have two pears left. Guess what I'm doing with those?