Baked Pears with celery

2 lemons (I think I used one lemon and something I
thought was a lemon but really was a small orange)
4 cups cold water
1 c. Moscato (Italian desert wine) (I used Paul's
white port)
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. apricot jam
4 firm bosc pears
8 large celery ribs, peeled and cut diagonally into
1/2 " pieces (It's very important to remove all the
strings that you don't get off by peeling)

Oven to 375 -- rack in center.
Remove zest from lemons in long strips with veg
peeler. Cover zest with 2 c. cold water in 1 quart
saucepan and bring to boil. Drain and rinse in cold
water. Repeat with remaining 2 c. cold water and then
pat dry.
Squeeze 1/3 c. juice from lemons into medium bowl and
whisk in wine, sugar and jam.
Halve pears and core. Spread celery in 13x9 baking
dish and add wine mixture.
Put pears on top with zest scattered about.
Bake uncovered, basting 2x, for 60 minutes.
Then cool. Serve at room temp. Can be made the day
before.

(The recipe continues but I skipped this last part:)
Transfer pears to serving dish. Pour cooking liquid,
celery & zest into 10" skillet and boil until syrupy
and reduced to 1 cup , about 15 minutes. Pour over
pears.