I adapted this recipe from the original from pear liqueur recipe at eatboutique.com and it turned out so yummy.


Put the apples and spice in mason jars, close the lids and shake them several times;
Put away the jars in dark and cool cupboard for 1 week. (Do not peek)

After a week, drain the liquid into a bottle;

Boil 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups water over medium heat to make simple syrup. It should take about 10 minutes (but mine took much longer. I also used palm sugar here. It has distinct flavor but tastes good;

Let the syrup cool a bit and pour into the bottle. Shake the bottle a bit.

The concoction is ready to drink but you can put back into the dark cupboard for 2-3 more weeks or months for even sweeter and more gorgeous elixir :)

Persimmons are in season again...Yum! There are generally two kinds available here in California: Fuyu persimmons which I love to eat fresh and Hachiya persimmons which are horribly astringent when raw (and I learned that the hard way :)), but turned divinely sweet when completely ripe. The other day, I was wondering if persimmons would make good cakes and found this super easy recipe on http://allrecipes.com. I tried half of the recipe with hachiya persimmon and a little modification and they turned out really great. I've found another favorite recipe :) INGREDIENTS  (Note: for this batch, just to try it out, I made 1/2 of everything and reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup. The half recipe baked as cupcakes only needed 40 minutes baking time. So keep your watch. Half recipe yielded 8 cupcakes. For convenience, half recipe is shown in red:
  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour / 1 1/4 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder / 1/4 t. baking powder  2 teaspoons baking soda / 1 t. baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt / 1/4 t. salt 1 1/2 cups sugar (reduced from 2 cups in the original recipe) / 3/4 c. sugar 1 cup milk / 1/2 c. milk 2 cups persimmon pulp (I only had 1 fruit that only gave 1/2 c. but it still turned out great) / 1 c. persimmon pulp (about 2 persimmons 2 eggs / 1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla extract / 1 t. vanilla extract   DIRECTIONS   - Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch loaf pan or line muffin pan with muffin cups  - Whisk together the flour baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl, set aside. - Whisk together the eggs, persimmon pulp, milk, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl until smooth. Fold the persimmon mixture into the flour mixture until no dry lumps remain. Pour into the prepared pan.  - Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes Half recipe needed only 40 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan, and allow to cool completely on a wire rack     Fast Facts: The word Diospyros means "the fire of Zeus" in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant. The word persimmon is derived from putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, from Powhatan, an Algonquian language (related to Blackfoot, Cree and Mohican) of the eastern United States, meaning "a dry fruit". (Source: wikipedia)