Honey Roasted Pears with Greek Yogurt

I’ve never been a huge sweets person.

I only started making dessert because other people like dessert. If it were up to me, I’d rather hand out lasagna squares than cookies, but somehow, people respond better to cookies. There are, of course, some exceptions.

When I was still back in Canada, and I was making this lasagna a lot, I had a pan of it in my fridge before I was planning to leave for the weekend. I posted on the Livejournal community (oh yes… Livejournal was still a thing) that I had some to give away, and a person I had chatted to once or twice said he and a friend would be interested. I had never met said person, but he seemed harmless enough, and so I agreed to meet the two boys in the lobby of my dorm*.

Of course, when they came, instead of having them upstairs for lasagna, we went down the street to Tim Horton’s and ate Timbits. Which brings me back to my point. When it comes to social food — at least until you’re of the age to start throwing dinner parties — dessert is king. After the lasagna debacle, I started making cookies instead. When I posted on MSN (…yes, MSN was still a thing too) that a batch of cookies was coming out of the oven, it was just a matter of time before I could hear my friends — the English One, in particular — clambering down the hall… and then slowly wandering towards the door and pretending they were just stopping by, no reason, “Oh, you made cookies?”

All this to say… I’m not a huge fan of dessert. But I like making people happy, and people like dessert. So I make cakes and cupcakes and cookies and pancakes on Sundays, and I dole them out to people and hope that that’s not the only reason that we’re friends. But when I’m making dessert just for me… it usually looks more like this. Something simple, a little bit sweet, but mostly just fruit 2.0… That’s all I really want, when the choice is truly mine.

*It really wasn’t weird. They went on to become two of my very good friends.

Honey-Roasted Pears with Greek Yogurt

2 pears
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. honey
2 cups Greek yogurt
apple juice (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Quarter the pears and remove the seeds and stem. Meanwhile, melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the honey.

Line a baking dish with foil. Add the pears. Drizzle the honey-butter mixture over them. Toss to coat.

Roast the pears for about 30 minutes, tossing once or twice, until they’re nicely browned and caramelized.

Divide the yogurt amongst four bowls. Top each with two pear quarters. If the caramel is already loose enough to pour, drizzle it over the bowls. Some pears don’t release enough juice, so you can add a bit of apple juice to thin the caramel enough to be able to drizzle it.