First month bliss or bust?

Monkey. Baby. Love. Dumpling. Text messaging, long phone conversations and hours of kissing…even in public. Ladies and gentlemen, I have turned into the type of person that makes me nauseas. I have become a face-chewing, dumpling-baby-boo coo’ing kinda girl. While floating along this first month, lately I find myself tripping over a couple clouds and mildly freaking out. Which makes me wonder, could this first month month lead to bliss or bust?

Deep breath Melissa.

I will admit, I’m no pro at this. If I had to submit a resume to a potential partner, it would list a plethora of failed relationships and some very embarrasing moments when in the presence of men (like tripping over my own feet and collapsing at Jamie Kennedy’s Wine Bar – on a very busy Saturday night). I’m not good at relationships. In fact, I’m much better at being single. I have to remember to look at myself in the mirror and remember not to forget me and not give too much. I morph into another superhero character that is every relationship’s worst enemy…Ms. Self Protecto. She’s defensive, she’s gun shy and she’s ready to duke it out to protect her greatest asset…her heart.

Then there’s the good that pushes the reservations out of the way (for now): the spoon that fits just right and the goosebump induced flashbacks from the evening before when play turned into christening every room in the house.  Yes, first month bliss is certainly delicious, but how long can it last before the butterfly back flips get butchered?

Trying to hold onto every ounce of sweetness that I’ve been savouring, I decided to take to the kitchen to cure one very big sweet tooth.

SEXY COCO-SAFFRON PEARS
1 bottle white wine (Riesling preferably)
1 cup water
5 ounces Essential Living Foods Coconut Sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
4 firm Bartlett, Anjou or Bosc pears
1 pinch saffron
Flaked coconut for rolling

Place the white wine, saffron, water, sugar and vanilla bean and pulp into a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

Core the pears from the bottom. Decrease the heat to medium low and place the pears into the liquid, cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the pears are tender but not falling apart. Maintain a gentle simmer. Remove the pears, roll in flaked coconut, transfer to a serving dish, standing them upright, and place in the refrigerator.

Remove the vanilla bean from the saucepan, increase the heat to high and reduce the syrup to approximately 1 cup of liquid, approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Do not allow the syrup to turn brown. Place the syrup in a heatproof container and place in the refrigerator until cool, approximately 1 hour.

Remove the pears from the refrigerator, spoon the sauce onto a plate and place pears in the centre and serve.

If you haven’t used saffron, you’re missing out. Granted, these little threads are down-right expensive (about $70/ounce). To pluck one pound of saffron it requires plucking from 75 thousand crocus (cousin to the garden flower)…crazy. However medicinally, it detoxifies the liver, is a blood cleanser and a nerve and heart tonic. Not to mention it has been used as an aphrodisiac…um last thing I need at this point. Only small amounts of saffron are needed, since larger amounts of it can be toxic.

Also, you might be a little curious about coconut sugar…I know I was.  After a little research, I noticed that this amazing sugar alternative is at a low 35 on the glycemic index scale, making it easier on the blood sugar than agave (plus more ecologically friendly given that bats feast on the agave cactus for food).  Plus 100% of the money from growing, harvesting and primary processing of this ingredient stays in the local community that it comes from.  Good food supporting communities.

Coupling it with fragrant vanilla, sweet pears and crunchy coconut flakes makes just about my favourite dish. Yum.

Licking up the sticky goodness off my plate, I’ve decided to breathe and just ride things out. I’ll set my boundaries not walls and just go with it. Instead of panicking and ending it when I start tripping over clouds, I’ve decided otherwise. Because somehow I’m beginning to think that there really is a sweet spot to all of this that just might be worth sticking it out for.

So will it be bliss or bust? Who knows unless we really try…
Maybe I am getting better at this relationship thing…