Caramelized Fruit Over Ice Cream (Weird Fruit Soup!)

I am sure lots of people can relate to the feeling of "blah".

I felt this last friday evening like I was the pure human embodiment of the word "blah".

I just felt drained. It'd been a long week of class and work plus there were snow piles out and I was one big ache from falling over, into, and around them. It was a friday night and my roommates were out working and my other friends wanted me to go out drinking and having a grand time but... all I wanted was pajamas and a hot shower and an overdose on advil.

So I did the scary thing. I spent the night on my own.

To some, this is probably exceptionally trivial a thing. Spending one night alone for me hasn't happened in...years. I'm from a big family back home, I've got 3 roommates here at school, and even if I didn't, College isn't a social dynamic that really creates time to yourself so! I cannot remember the last time I spent a night to my own devices.

While at first this was the result of my bad mood and body aches, I eventually decided that I was going to make the most of my spoiled night in and wanted out of my funk.

And the best way I could think to fight a funky, boring, ugh-I-am-so-mundane-and-worn-I-don't-imagine-I-can-ever-be-interesting mood was to make something completely new.

COMPLETELY NEW!

So, I went to the local grocer and picked up some produce I had never seen, heard of, or cooked with before. I ended up with Cactus Pear, Star Fruit, and Asian Pear.

And strangely enough, I felt much better almost immediately. I hadn't know I was going to buy fruit, I just went to the store with the plan of finding an ingredient for some much needed inspiration. And when I saw some unidentifiable prickly fruit, I decided that I was going to go for food adventure.

I came home, and quickly sliced all the exotic fruit up. I tried everything raw and, I've got to say, Star Fruit won, being a sort of sweet but tart flavor. The Asian pear was just a pear but, it seemed harder and grittier then the typical pear. And then, the cactus pear was too sweet for my taste. But, very cool red coloring. 

I added some peaches and plums, and then tossed it into a frying pan to caramelize with a drizzle of syrup, a handful of cinnamon & sugar, and generous sprinkling of brown sugar. Because really, what fruit doesn't taste good caramelized in it's own juices plus sugars and then served hot over icecream? 

I bought some very delicious Ben & Jerry's Icecream and it turned out amazing. I recommend this game of buy and try to anyone! I figure you can't go wrong with fruit sliced and sugared so, no matter what random combos you try, I'd bet it'd turn out well.