Pears, Pears, Pears

Anybody get that? (motley crue. not sure why songs always pop into my head when coming up with titles. we'll just go with it!) This week's BSI (Pears) was chosen by Erica over at Itzy's Kitchen. While I've made some things recently with pears (Sausage w/Lentils and Sauteed Pears and Fall Harvest Butter), I picked up another one at the store last night to make something different. I also incorporated another first for me...

Jicama!!!

I can't say for certain whether I had ever tried this, but knew I wanted to :) I have no idea whether it's "in season", or if it even grows around here, but... for the sake of experimentation and my health, I picked it up. Jicama, or yam bean (bean, really???), is the edible root of a poisonous plant!

With this in hand, I decided to spend my night cutting away while I watched the Phils... until it was way past my bedtime and then they decided to CALL THE GAME. ~sigh~ I enjoyed it for dinner tonight, so the flavors had some time to meld which was nice. Great slaw, so crunchy, full of fall flavors (but i still miss summer!). Look at those colors!!!


Jicama Fall Slaw
slaw by Shannon, dressing from Pinch My Salt

1/2 jicama, peeled and cut into matchsticks (i have no idea how much it weighed... sorry folks)
1 honeycrisp apple, cut into matchsticks
1 bartlett pear, cut into matchsticks (any pear would work, this one was just the cheapest!)
1 large carrot, grated
1/4 red cabbage, thinly sliced (i think mine was ~1/2 lb)
pomegranate arils, for garnish

Honey Vinaigrette
(I doubt I used the amount of olive oil called for, but I whisked until it came together)

Since I was preparing this the night before, I put the cut jicama, apple and pear into water spiked with lemon juice for a bit until everything else was ready to roll. Then I just mixed it all together (except arils) and let it sit in the fridge until dinnertime tonight, adding the arils just before serving!

ps- my hands were all sorts of colored after all this cutting... maybe you want to use gloves?

Somebody wanted a closeup...


What's the other addition to my plate? Another trial for me--tofu! I've done the silken tofu in various desserts, but this is the first time I've used the firm tofu, pressed, marinated, and baked! Came out pretty good (the marinade was from something else I'll post about later), but even with more slaw this did not fill me up... although I wasn't hungry, I was just left feeling like something was missing. I often feel like this when I don't include meat, even when I have alternate forms of protein (tofu, legumes...). I think it's all in my head. I'll have to work on that, since I'm thinking it'd save me some of my heard-earned-too-quickly-disappearing $$.