Pears in Red Wine

2 pears
2 tbsp granadine
1 tpsp salted butter
2 cups dry red wine

1. Peel and core pears. Half, then half again, then half again. Each pear yields 8 slices.
2. In a small mixing bowl, thoroughly mix together red wine and granadine.
3. In a small sauce pan, melt butter on medium heat. Saute pears in butter for 5-10 minutes.
4. Pour wine and granadine mixture into the sauce pan, and bring the mixture to a slow boil. Let boil for 5 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes until sauce thickens and reduced to 1/2 cup.
6. Serve pears and wine sauce on top of vanilla ice cream. A spig of mint makes it all pretty.

Wet Spice Rub for Lamb Chops

This is enough for 6 lamb rib chops.

1 tsp each:

• rosemary
• thyme
• marjorem
• garlic powder
• fresh ground pepper

1/2 tsp each:

• cayenne pepper
• seasoning salt

1 tbsp each:

• dry red wine
• balsamic vinegar

Mix all spices in one bowl. Rub the mixture on the meat. Let sit for about 15 - 20 minutes. Drizzle olive oil on the surface of the meat right before cooking.

The chops can then be grilled or broiled (in an oven or even in a toaster oven*). These chops are best when cooked medium rare to medium(for you technical people, that's an internal temperature of 140 F) . Any internal temp past that will ruin the meat. Let the chops rest for a few minutes before you serve it; in this case, five minutes will be good.

*For broiling something in the toaster oven, get one of these racks:

We got ours at a Sur La Table store. Amazon has it for $9.99.