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Pears with Brown Sugar, Bourbon, and Millet

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Pears with Brown Sugar Bourbon and Millet – Need to warm your soul on a chilly fall morning? This cozy, hearty, and healthy breakfast will put you in the right frame of mind to seize the day.

Pears with Brown Sugar Bourbon and Millet

Life can be a hustle. The day-to-day responsibilities constantly seem to demand my attention and distract me from the priorities that I hold dearest to my heart. At the end of the day, I’m left feeling exhausted and stretched thin.

Some distractions are necessary and unavoidable. For example, performing well at my job and stocking the fridge. Others feel necessary, like saying “yes” to every favor others ask of me or burden they place on me.

The thing is, in the end, I get to choose whether I say “yes” or not.

You know… I have a boundaries problem. If you have a similar problem I’m guessing you understand the compulsion to say “yes.”

For me, it’s not so much out of the desire to please or gain approval, but it comes from a place of genuinely caring about the people in my life. If someone is struggling, I feel the need to fix their problem, save them, or sometimes just convert them to my point of view. It’s an unhealthy complex.

I think it developed from being a firstborn and growing up in a home where substance abuse was an issue. There’s a belief that “if I just do or say the right thing, then so-and-so will change or make better choices.”

What I’m learning is, more often than not, that’s not the case. There’s a difference between being empathetic and inappropriately taking on the burdens of others. The latter is unhelpful and doesn’t make you a better friend or loved one. Maybe the change needs to begin with me…

Pears with Brown Sugar Bourbon and Millet

There’s a passage in the Bible that says “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” It would seem that I have some speck, or perhaps some log removing to do.

The stillness of early morning, before my 4-year-old releases his bright sunshine and energy throughout my home, affords me some precious time to enjoy a cup of coffee, some breakfast, and a little quiet self-reflection in order to work on some of that speck removal.

Pears with Brown Sugar Bourbon and Millet

This cozy, hot cereal is the perfect accompaniment on a chilly October morning. The millet has a light, nutty flavor and the walnuts add a hearty crunch to the cereal. And who can go wrong with warm pears dripping with brown sugar, bourbon, and a little butter?

Why not make a bowl and share in some quiet introspection yourself?

Pears with Brown Sugar Bourbon and Millet

Pears with Brown Sugar Bourbon and Millet
 
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Need to warm your soul on a chilly fall morning? This cozy, hearty, and healthy breakfast will put you in the right frame of mind to seize the day.
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfasts
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2
Ingredients
Hot Millet Cereal
  • 1 C cooked millet
  • 1 C 2% milk
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • pinch of salt
Brown Sugar Bourbon Pears
  • 1½ Tbsp butter
  • 3 Tbsp organic light brown sugar
  • splash of bourbon
  • 2 pears cut into bite-sized pieces
  • ⅛ C walnuts
Instructions
  1. Combine cooked millet*, 2% milk, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and slowly heat over low heat until it reaches scalding temperature, which is 180ºF. Basically, you'll be heating it until it's about to start simmering. If you see any signs of a simmer or a boil starting, immediately remove the pot from the heat. You can also heat the millet and milk in the microwave, on high, in a microwave safe bowl, in one minute increments until it's heated through.
  2. While the cereal is heating, prepare the brown sugar bourbon pear topping. Place butter and brown sugar in a pan over medium heat. Cook while stirring frequently until it begins to bubble, and then add a splash of bourbon. Simmer the bourbon for one minute while continuously stirring in order to cook the alcohol off. Finally, add the pears and the walnuts to the pan and continue heating until it returns to a simmer, then remove from the heat.
  3. Divide the hot millet between 2 bowls and serve topped with the brown sugar bourbon pears. Serve immediately.
Notes
*For this recipe I used millet that was precooked in a larger batch so that I could use it throughout the week. To precook millet place 1 C of millet into a saucepan over high heat, and toast the grain until it becomes aromatic. Then add 2 C of water to the saucepan, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer the millet covered for about 25 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Fluff with a fork. Cool before refrigerating. It can be stored in a sealed container for up to a week.

Pears with Brown Sugar Bourbon and Millet

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Comments

  6. This sounds like a perfect breakfast, I love millet but am not using it often enough I think. I will love to try this with my canned pears, I have a lot of jars in the cellar. 🙂

    Reply

  7. As always I enjoy reading your posts and seeing what you have to say. I feel like I am also a member of the yes-club, always wanting to care for and help others. As always I enjoy seeing what amazing food you come up with and I am not disappointed – these pictures look amazing and I’m sure it tastes even better than it looks!

    Reply

  8. I could definitely cozy up to this every morning! Thanks for sharing this beautiful recipe, and for sharing your personal struggles too. Saying no can be hard, but sometimes there is only so much we can do for others before we have to step back and do for ourselves:)

    Reply

    • I agree. There’s an art in deciding what to say “yes” or “no” to! I’m a visiting nurse by day and I’m always telling the caregivers of my patients the importance of taking care of themselves. If a person wants to be helpful to others they need to take care and energize themselves first!

      Reply

    • Thanks Whitney! I was recently feeling frustrated with my writing, so that means a lot! And yeah… brown sugar and bourbon…this recipe was developed in a moment of weakness when I was overcome by my sweet tooth.

      Reply

    • Pears are awesome! I feel like with all the pumpkin and apple recipes floating around right now that the pour pear hasn’t gotten enough attention!

      Reply

  16. Thank you Rachel for a glimpse into your inner world. A thoughtful, introspective post with a unique, delicious sounding breakfast. Millet is a grain I enjoy, I just never thought about eating it for breakfast! This looks yummy!

    Reply

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