Recipe (Stir It Up)

• Spent most of yesterday sleeping. It was good (and needed, to kick this cold) but also made me very tired today.
• In order to fight the tiredness/try to achieve a decent bedtime, I tackled some recipes. Winter and I went to HomePlus to find heavy cream, so I can try my hand at caramel. Then I decided to make a juice cocktail because I have a bunch of different juices in my fridge: equal parts strawberry, plum and apple juice, plus juice squeezed out of 1/2 a lemon. Mmmm :) After that, pear problem-solving time. I cut up a Korean pear to eat the other day only to discover it was way too bland for me to enjoy plain (tastes much more like an apple than a pear). I bought the cream to make a caramel dip, but I've been itching to make another cake. Shinshine.com provides a great recipe for pear upside-down cake (which Abby verified this weekend) but ginger powder at HomePlus is 9000+ Won! That's too much, Bob - I'll wait to buy it at the market. So I found a pear bread recipe instead (included at the end of the post). I was worried that it might not turn out - it's for a regular oven, and I only have my rice cooker - but it's fantastic! Smells so good and yum yum yum. And since it has pears AND raisins in it, that means it's healthy, which means I can eat it for breakfast every day until it's gone without feeling guilty :D

Pear-Raisin Bread Recipe for Rice Cooker

Ingredients

(I made 2/3 of the recipe so I wouldn't have to waste batter.)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter, softened (may substitute 3/4 cup vegetable oil)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups peeled and finely grated ripe, firm pears
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup raisins, other dried fruit, pecans, walnuts, etc. if desired

Directions

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder,
salt, and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, combine butter, eggs,
sugar, pears, and vanilla.

Add the pear mixture to the flour mixture,
stirring just until flour disappears and
batter is evenly moistened.
Stir in raisins, nuts or other add-ins.

Grease rice cooker pot. Pour the
batter into the rice cooker pot. Cook 
in rice cooker for 2-4 cooking
cycles. Check after each cooking
cycle to avoid overcooking.

Once cooked, let it cool, and remove the
cake by turning the pot upside-down onto a plate.

Enjoy!