Pear Pies

I haven't written in a while - surprising given it's the Christmas season and, inevitably, holidays. but anyhoo - here is a Christmas recipe for you to try. It's a longstanding tradition to make them, and they are very nice :D
Pear Pies
Prep time: 20 mins
Serves: 12
Cooking temp: Gas 5, 190C
Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients
375g shortcrust pastry, out 20 mins before start
1 orange, unwaxed
15g butter
25g soft light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
25g dried cranberries/raisins
2 pears
Milk

You will also need: Large (7.5-8 cm) circle cutter, star or flower shaped cutter, 12 hole baking tin

Method

1. Heat the oven, and grease a 12-hole baking tray (preferably a muffin tin, as it's deeper and will give you more of a pie).
2. Cut the orange in half and grate the rind into a pan. Squeeze the juice out and add  to the pan.
   
3. Add the butter, sugar, cranberries and cinnamon to the pan. Don't turn it on yet.
   
4. Peel and core the pears and cut into small pieces (about 1 cm3)
   
5. Add the pear to the pan and heat gently for 10 minutes, on a low heat. Take off and leave to cool.
   
6. Dust a work sufrace and rolling pin with flour. Roll out the pastry to a square about half the thickness of your little finger.
7. Cut 12 circles from this - you may have to re-roll if you run out of space. Keep the scraps to one side.
   
   Press the circles into the baking tray holes to form the pie bases. 
   
8. Spoon some of the pear mixture into each one. Try not to over fill - they will burn on top.
   
9. With the left over pastry, cut out 12 stars/flowers and lay one on each pie. Brush milk over each pie (this glazes the pastry)

   

   Yes, I am combining two sets of pictures, taken a year apart... :)

10. Bake for 20 mins until golden on top. Leave to cool for 10 minutes (though they can be eaten warm or cold).
11. Serve with an icing-sugar dusting or creme fraiche.

Another Food Diversion?!

I realise I haven't been putting up many recipies recently... but with Christmas coming there should certainly be a few more! That said, I wanted to share some more un-foody stuff with y'all.

  These are all characters from my trilogy that my sister and I created! I can't add captions because it sends the ordering crazy but anyhoo, I think they are really close to how I imagined them.... can you spot the two odd ones out? :D
From left to right, top to bottom:
Berligo, Aki, Alek
Erika, Cal, Kemmy
Alice :), Dystopia, Wally
Chazmere, Louise :D, Sam
Rentraldi, Riot, Pettifer

Prologue: Part 3

© Ron

She had been travelling for a long time, the man could see that much. The life had run out of her, and even by the warm glow of firelight she seemed to flicker and fade like a shadow. The woman glanced up, her wild, animalistic eyes catching the light. She sat, huddled, a thick blanket pulled up across her frame. Still she did not speak. The only sound was the hissing and spitting of the fire, releasing sparks into the infinite night. The man cocked his head slightly, surveying her. She may have been beautiful, in the past. A striking beauty. Coming in out of the cold she had seemed majestic and defiant, striding despite her exhaustion. Now, she had collapsed, deflated and shrunk back into her shell of terror. Her skin seemed pulled taught across her bones, and though she must have been in her middle years it was as if death were a moment away. He narrowed his pale blue eyes, and unfolded his limbs to reach out to her.  He too had suffered. Once dark-haired and handsome, with midnight blue eyes that flashed with passion and malice, he had been reduced to a mere waif. Pale, bleached limbs, hair the colour of cold ash, and eyes misted as if with cataracts. His strong build had been grotesquely deformed into something else, something with arms like legs and a thin, narrow chest. At least he wasn’t dead. Yes, he grinned, at least he wasn’t dead! The same couldn’t be said for the others. Their bones lay frozen , suspended in the thick grey mud. First, there had been psychosis. Driven mad, they were, by the hellish land. Slowly they died, unwanted by their Creators, suffering the terrible fate of Forget. They were outside the sphere of consciousness, and no longer needed. So they were Forgotten, and in time simply - died. He grinned broader. Not him, though. He was still here. He still had his wits about him.  It was him, after all, who had brought his little band of followers out here, it was he who had had the will to defy. He may have all but forgotten who he was (his name had disappeared long ago) but he was alive! He had done it – he had defied his Creators

The woman would end up the same way. Unable to leave, she would surely die here. Already he could see she was forgetting herself, lapsing into semi-consciousness and jerking back awake. He touched her shoulder and she pulled away, eyes widening. Temporarily, she was fully awake. She remembered what she was here for. Slowly, out came her cargo. The reason she was here, condemned to certain death or else madness. He deftly scurried round, eyes large and smile wider. He plucked it from her hands, and she stiffened, fighting the urge to take it back. But no, this was its fate. This was why it was here. He gently removed the swathes of cloth, and laughed: a short, abrupt laugh that echoed into the night. It almost sounded… sane. He swung his head round to face her. He nodded., A silent decision was made, a decision that echoed louder across the plain than any other sound that night.