This is a perfect dessert for the days following Christmas holidays - it´s light, delicious and requires minimum of work. I got the recipe from an old lady in my grocery shop as I was purchasing those sweet and juicy pears. She advised me to choose ripe but firm fruits that will hold their shape once cooked. You can modify the recipe according to your taste and the remains of that luscious holiday table. Add lemon zest, a pinch of cinnamon, some rhum, or use gingerbread and spice cake leftovers.   

I love picnics! Never mind the season or the weather. It´s gorgeous to pack a checkered blanket and enjoy the first truly warm day of spring under a meticulously selected tree in bloom on a sunny meadow. In summer I can spend days on end on the seaside, curled in a hammock with a book while sipping my favourite wild thyme and ginger lemonade, or in search for unbroken seashells, waiting until the sunset colours the sky flamingo-pink. Autumn picnics have their particular charm, they are full of rituals: the sipping of hot tea from thermos bottle, the rubbing of frozen fingers and hiding my red nose into knitted scarf. Then we must make a fire and eat something comforting.