please, enough with the pears already.

In the Mooth household, we have a serious pear problem: three -- count 'em, three -- deliveries of Harry & David pears within the space of about three weeks. We have 14 pears, and two people. Clearly, too many pears.

Pears are fine (and truly, these pears are delicious), but we're not huge winter-fruit eaters, and with only two of us, we just don't go through them quickly enough. (Plus, Rob has a little, erm, issue with them, which I won't go into here.)

So, what to do with all the freakin' pears?

Cocktail maestro that he is, Rob found in the Diffords Guide a recipe for a cocktail made of pear puree. So into the blender will go several of these blushing beauties. I'm a fan of sliced pears wrapped in proscuitto for a nice snacketizer. So that'll take care of another one. A recipe for salad of grilled chicken, blue cheese, red pepper, diced fennel and diced pear in a spicy cayenne-pecan dressing will no doubt be on the menu for Monday. And perhaps a pear crisp might need to happen.

Please, Harry & David, do not send any more pears. Ix-nay on the ears-pay.