Well… today I got my revolting weather. Cold, with howling wind and rain. It was also dark and gloomy. Perfect day to schedule in slothing and swanning about.
So – just going to quickly share Ruby’s Apple Crumble recipe, which I haven’t tried yet!
Confession. I have never made an apple crumble!! Ever!!
I have a few apples left so I really must try this one ASAP!!
The awesome tatty repurposed diary – Ruby’s recipe book!
I confess I tease Ruby a bit about her handwriting and how, based on that she should have been a doctor! She indignantly told me she used to get awards for handwriting when she was in school! 🙂
Shirley and I have translated below 😀 (You’re welcome!)
APPLE CRUMBLE
Cook up your apples – there was no quantity given but it will depend on your dish size/depth of how much you need
Spread into baking dish
Then:
1 cup Self Raising Flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons of butter rubbed into flour
Blend the sugar in and sprinkle over the top of the apple
Bake for about 20-30 minutes in moderate oven (180C or 350F) or until golden brown on top.
It sounds so easy I can’t believe I have never done this. Especially owning two crazy over producing apple trees!!
Well, I caught a cold the other day and I am shaking off the tail end of it.
That meant no visiting Ruby, who I am sure appreciates me not sharing my bugs around.
Happily this particular cold seemed to come and go really speedily (probably all the weeding scared it off)
Soooo… today I was working on some photos getting ready for my upcoming photo challenge on facebook… (I wrote a post here about it if you are interested)
One of the subjects is ‘Bubbles’ so I tried making a super strength bubble mixture and went outside to play!
Getting the knack
It was actually tricky to get a free floating bubble – not least then get the camera aimed and focused before there was a pop.
Fabulous bubble – dubious background
It’s pretty hard to steer bubbles. It was a total game of chance
Wind came by and helped out
Soapy rainbow colours
A few floated away
And more than a few popped before I could even snap the photo
Timing or what??
It was a good start to getting ‘that perfect image’ but I am going to have to enlist Jeff as Bubble-Assistant so I can be free to take the photos while he creates the bubbles! (I am sure he is dying to play with bubbles on his days off)
(Will add the mixture I used today at bottom of post)
I had Pip outside with me, as the sun was mostly shining. He went Mad-Cat half way through the bubble project and shot up a tree!
Something happened in that cat brain and off he went!Up the apple tree
He isn’t generally a tree climber, so impressed he made it that far without falling out!My handsome boy (not that I am biased)
He got down really easily – that is I unclipped his lead and he used my shoulders as a landing pad.
On my way to visit the chooks this afternoon I went into the vegie patch to see what the garlic was doing. I was so pleased – the purple variety, which is an early garlic, has all shot up really well!!
Even the regular garlic is making a move with tiny shoots showing
While I was there, I thought I might as well raid the broccoli patch for dinner
Tasty
One of the other subjects in the challenge is “From the Graveyard”
I visited the local cemetery by the river to see what was there that was aesthetically pleasing.
This graveyard is not used anymore – well, no new additions anyway. There are a few ancestors of mine in here too.
Family graves
A lot of the graves are rundown, neglected and quite frankly look as if the residents are trying to escape!
Frances has been laid to rest in here… I wonder why they thought they needed a 5 foot iron fence surround with spikes on top?? Who WAS this person???
I really like old graveyards. I like reading the dates, names and little notes that people have on their headstones.
The effort that has gone into someones final resting place really is impressive compared to the fairly boring more modern cemeteries.
Elaborate fences around plots
I am not sure if its ok to be amused while walking through a graveyard, or if you are supposed to keep an air of solemn – ness the whole time.
The finger pointing down… Yes, I know they are ‘down there’ !!More spikes, although a little less sharp than Frances’s spikes
I am actually waiting for a foggy night or morning to get my ‘final’ shot as of course a graveyard looks so much more impressive looming though the mist!
Have a lovely day everyone!
Cheers!
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Todays Bubble Mixture
6 cups water
1/2 cup cornflour
1/2 cup dishwashing detergent
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon glycerin
Mix water into corn flour first then add all other ingredients. Let sit for an hour.
The day started dim and foggy when I went to let the chooks out. It weirdly seemed to get darker as the day went on instead of lighter! I posted the photo to facebook and mentioned this, when a friend asked me if I had slept the whole day and mistakenly woke at dusk. I am not known for my enthusiasm for mornings so fair question! (This friend is the one who helpfully and unfailingly asks if I have wet the bed if she sees me online before 8am – nice….) 😀
So – best cheer ourselves out of the gloom by lighting a fire and baking a chocolate cake!
Will share recipe at bottom of post – this one is a goodie!
I also made another mad chicken smash for the girls – I cooked some more of the old potatoes in a soup mix I had found out of date in the pantry, along with some noodles. I put it all on the fire to cook while I was doing other things. Why use electricity when we had the fire going anyway?
Kettle simmering as well as the chooks afternoon tea!
I also had a pineapple to cut & slice. I bought a real one since tinned pineapples seems either impossible to find, or if you find it, its a tin at half size for double the cost!
Fresh pineapples smells so good!
By this stage I had already done a few rounds of dishes – we don’t have a dishwasher, so I kept washing up as I was going along.
Then because I hadn’t done enough dishes, I decided to wash and de-label all these little jars
Best place to dry them was in front of the fire – along with a few pumpkin seeds I was saving.
Too lazy to hand wipe the jars
My idea for the little jars instead of throwing them into the recycle bin, was to fill them with seeds and make them look ‘cute’ for the market stall (If I ever get to go back again!)
I would still need to label whats inside, but just popped some washi tape around the jar to jazz them up slightlyPerfect for the big runner bean seeds that are too bulky for my normal seed envelopesSaving seeds – fireside perfect place to dry them
I also baked some of the pumpkin that I cut into the other day and later made it into soup
Lovely baked pumpkin (Ruby-frugalness creeping in with the use of the butter paper as baking paper!)
More dishes!! Who else hand washes their dishes?? I still have some sitting there leftover from having dinner and I am in no mood to do more before bed!
I am totally hoping the weather clears tomorrow so I can escape the house and do some outdoor stuff!
My Favourite Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
1&1/3 cups Plain (all purpose) flour
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup buttermilk (you can substitute a tablespoon of lemon juice and top up with milk, mix and leave for a few minutes)(That is my money-saving tip of the day) 🙂
2 eggs
125gms (4.4oz) Butter, melted, cooled.
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Chocolate Icing Ingredients
1&1/3 cups icing sugar
1&1/2 tablespoons cocoa
20g butter room temperature
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and grease & line a cake pan (20cm diameter- 6cm deep)
Sift flour, bicarb, cocoa powder into bowl, stir in sugar
In a separate jug, combine butter, vanilla, buttermilk and beaten eggs
Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in buttermilk mix.
Notice lack of well…
Using electric mixer, beat until thick and creamy.
Pour into prepared cake tin
Precarious job cooking with one hand and photographing with the other – and not spilling anything!! Bonus points to me.
Bake for 40-45 minutes
Icing.
Combine ingredients and mix in a small amount of hot water to make into smooth paste and spread on cake.
Well I made a grand start today on clearing out and sorting the pantry. Part-way through, our young cousin Abbey dropped in to say hello. (She moved to Melbourne and has been home for a short while) So we had a beautiful relaxing afternoon by the fire catching up. Abbey also brought with her a freshly made apple crumble!! Scrumptious!
So tomorrow will have to be the day to finish sorting out the pantry problem. I did, however, discover enough egg cartons to sink a small raft.
I will have to bring the chickens in so they can see the job they have ahead of them to fill up this lot!
Yesterday I made a “Busy Day Pudding” or as it is known in my family “A Pints and ozzes pudding” (I had pronunciation issues as a kid) (I pronounced the old fashioned measurement pint as in ‘pinto’ without the ‘o’ and an oz (ounce) … well… as ‘oz’ 😀 )
Anyway, its a lovely old fashioned steamed pudding so I thought I would write down the recipe for those interested since I have nothing else fabulous to share tonight.
Along with some dodgy photos. 🙂
Busy Day Pudding
Ingredients:
Pudding:
1 & a half cups of self raising flour
3 tablespoons of cornflour (cornstarch)
1 teaspoon salt
2 oz (60 grams) butter melted
2/3 cup of milk *** (that would be two thirds of a cup NOT two or three cups of milk. As a teenager venturing into the kitchen for the first time, this was a trap I fell into. I dumped the first two cups in then called to Mum to announce that ‘It was a bit sloppy’ So avoid my mistakes, cranky mothers and a family that never lets you forget it. 🙂 )
Sauce:
1/3 cup sugar
2 oz (60 grams) butter
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1 cup water
Method:
Sift dry ingredients then mix in butter and milk. You will end up with a pudding ball… place that in steamer bowl
Put larger pot of water on stove and heat to boiling while making your sauce
Put sauce ingredients into a pot, melt butter and bring to boil.
Pour boiling mixture carefully over pudding
Pudding should swell and bob to top
Carefully place uncovered pudding steamer bowl (sorry – no idea what the technical term/name is for this bowl!!) into the larger pot of boiling water. Put lid on larger pot and steam pudding for about 30 minutes
Today couldn’t be more different from the last week!
Hello!
Apologies for the lack of “Ruby Tuesday” I just didn’t get over there today for a story – so have to take a rain check!! (so to speak)
Today was amazing. Warm, blue skies and no wind. I was in a t-shirt mostly.
Pip enjoyed a bit of outside time too – he was sick of being cooped up inside
Eating some grass, no doubt with plans to come back inside, pick a nice spot on a bit of rug and perk it back up.
Even the little cows out the back looked happy not to be rained on today! They stayed close to the fence all day!
Cutie
I decided that the main living areas in the house needed a good cleaning. When you have this continual soggy weather, a wood fire and an old house… it just gets manky, no matter how much you try to keep the outside from being tracked in. We had to put the outdoor shoes and boots inside because the rain was blowing in under the veranda to the back door. That meant storing some wood inside too – and it sheds.
So I got thoroughly domestic – Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift. Probably thought he woke up in the wrong house! 😀
I did get side tracked and sorted my garlic!
These guys are trying to sprout already!
I have enough cloves I think to fill the area I have prepared – around 150 cloves. They need to go in tomorrow, so I am hoping the weather will continue giving me a break.
Ready to plant
I picked some leek – these had self seeded. I made them into a soup with potato, bacon, garlic & chicken stock!
Leeks are hard to wash… they hide dirt in every fold!
Also raided the herb garden to bake a loaf of garlic-herb bread to go with the soup tonight
Can’t get much fresher than that!
I want to share an easy little recipe I found the other day.
I had planned on having ‘Beef Surprise”
Basically because I am getting down to the packets of meat that lost their labels when I had to chisel apart all the frozen lumps.
So I have to thaw out an anonymous lump of meat to see what it is before I can decide on how to cook it.
What I ended up thawing was some stewing steak. I knew I had a tin of coconut milk in the pantry & so had a taste for a curry of some sort. Most recipes I found had ingredient lists a foot long and just looked too fiddly. I wanted something basic or straight-forward.
This one was a gem and we loved the taste. Will definitely cook it again!
1kg stewing steak (2.2lb)
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic (I did a few as I like garlic)
2 tablespoons curry powder
2&1/2 cups beef stock
400ml can coconut milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Rice to serve
Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
Cut beef into cubes – I put into a bag with a bit of oil and seasoned with garlic salt. I then browned in pan in batches, putting each batch into the casserole dish as I went along
Reduce heat in pan, add oil, cook onion and garlic for a few minutes.
Add curry powder and mix in until onion coated.
Slowly add the beef stock, stirring as you go.
Add coconut milk and brown sugar and bring all to boil.
Add all to casserole dish and stir to combine.
Cover and cook in oven until tender.
I also thickened it a little with cornflour (corn starch) once it was cooked
It really didn’t take long to make up. And being only the two of us, it was dinner for two nights! Bonus!!
Well, I am going to take a leaf out of Pips book and get some sleep! (After getting some more beef surprise out of the freezer!
I was lulled into a false sense of security when I was greeted with puffy clouds, but bright sunshine, a good breeze and lots of bits of blue sky… so I put some laundry on.
Then I got a bit cocky, and put a second load on because the weather looked so hopeful.
Less than five minutes after the first load was hung?? Rain. Of course!
Its hard to tell, but its bucketing down.
Sigh. Oh well… I moved the clothes onto the veranda line
Under cover
Once they were safely under cover the sun beamed out again. I did NOT beam back at it!!
Pretty nice clouds today
So the second load finished so I hung it on the main line and took Pip for a walk
The boundary checkInspecting the broccolini
I had liberated a nice bagful of stray lettuce leaves from the supermarket yesterday for the girls. (and before anyone says ‘tsk tsk’ – we are in the country and no-one cares about that sort of thing!) 🙂 (Actually the nice thing is people prefer it goes somewhere useful and not the bin)
Fresh snacks
I spotted a rainbow so ran across the road to get a shot – I missed the rainbow but saw this!
This didn’t look like clothes drying weather approaching.
By the time I got back to the clothes line they were spinning like a top and the rain hit! (Again)
Thought I had better bring them in before I was collecting my undies from the neighbours paddocks!
What I couldn’t fit under cover, went on the fire flue as I had kept that going during the day today!
And the rain went and the sun came back!
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LEMON BUTTER TEA CAKES
Just wanted to add the recipe for these cupcakes I made yesterday.
Today the paper came off them a lot more easily. I dropped some in to Margie & her husband Des, who both pronounced them “really good” and of course one for Ruby, who was going to indulge in hers at dinner.
The lure of learning to make lemon butter was great. So I went back down to Ruby’s to have a go! Because of her eyesight she needs someone to help measure out the ingredients, but she is certainly comfortable around her kitchen.
Ruby’s lemon tree is a fabulous beast! It is NEVER without lemons!!
I can’t wait for my poor little lemon tree to grow up! Ruby’s tree is amazing
So you need three lemons.
First step is to put into a pot
4oz butter (125g)
1lb Sugar (500g)
1 breakfast cup of water. – (225ml or half pint according to google)
Heat ingredients
Melting butter & sugar in the water
Then mix one egg with two tablespoons of plain flour (all purpose) and a smidge of water to make creamy paste.
Perfect coloured yolk!
Add the juice and zest from your three lemons into the egg/flour paste and mix well.
Add the hot mixture to the cold slowly & stirring. Then put all back into the pot over medium heat and stir constantly until mixture thickens and boils.
Was such a silky beautiful colour and mixture
(BTW at this point you are meant to panic and throw in a bit of salt – because ‘I always throw in salt into whatever I cook!’ was the answer to my worried ‘But the recipe doesn’t say salt!!’)
Salt added, stirring continues
Heat about 4 jars in the oven to sterilise while the lemon butter is cooking.
Jug ready to pour
I had a nervous few moments as I was put onto stirring detail while Ruby clambered about on a step stool looking for extra glasses in case we didn’t have enough jars!!
Sigh.
Without any major mishaps, we made 3 & a half jars of lemon butter. What I scraped out of the pot to try was really good and I am very keen to go make myself a piece of toast in a minute to try it now that its cooled!
As I dashed into see Ruby this afternoon the weather had gone from on again-off again sun to completely off along with a drenching downpour, and icy winds just to round things off!
I found Ruby in her lounge room, rugged up with the heater on knitting, as cosy as could be!
I didn’t stop for a cuppa today – just caught up on news of her weekend travels with Margie as they visited several friends & overnighted with family in a posh rental house! 🙂
More from “The Recipe Book”
I promised you the Chocolate/Apple cake recipe, and Margie was kind enough to write it out for me! I think I will have to cook this tomorrow. The weather isn’t going to let up its current behaviour, so will be stuck with indoor tasks.
Chocolate Apple Cake
4oz butter (125gm)
1 cup sugar
1lb apples (cooked) (500gm)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4oz plain flour (125gm)(all purpose flour)
2 tablespoon cocoa
1 cup Self Raising Flour (self rising flour of course)
1 level teaspoon bicarb soda (baking soda)
Seriously!! Translating English into English!!
Anyway –
Cook apples with a little water until soft
Sift cocoa & flours together
Cream butter and sugar (Apparently Ruby pops the butter and sugar in the oven as it begins heating to soften it for easy beating)
Add vanilla essence
Stir the bicarb soda into the apples and while all is ‘frizzling’ (A Ruby word) add creamed butter and sugar. Beat well.
Add half of the flour mixture at a time, beating well.
Put in 8″ sq tin (or equiv.) and cook at 180C (350F) until cooked. (Skewer test)
I’ll let you know tomorrow if I can do one as well as Ruby can! (Doubtful)
I am aiming for this perfect
Have a great day & if you want to see my salvia dancing in the wind, head on over to facebook to see my dodgy time-lapse efforts!
Cheers – I am heading back to my fire! Its a bit icy this evening! The weather page says its 7.9C (46F) but they also add that it feels like 1.9C (35F) I won’t disagree! I am totally going to turn on my electric blanket too! 😀
Well… just to let you know, its not all Beaches & Sunshine around Norwich House. Behind the scenes I am getting on with a few tasks as well as acting Chicken Wrangler – gently introducing the new girls to the old.
I finally got around to making some pickled beetroot
Beetroot grow really easily around here
I had some vague instructions from Ruby, so I just went for it
I adore the colour of beetroot
To be perfectly honest, it tastes bloody awful, so I put the whole thing, pot and all, in the fridge and thought I had better ask Margie for a proper written recipe. The lovely lady handed that over today, so I will be able to hopefully rescue it in the next day or two.
I picked and roasted the rest of my beetroot to make chutney
I had to cut the biggest in half to roast
I’ll add the recipe for this at the end of the post, for those that are interested.
The recipe calls for three Granny Smith apples, but there is no way I was going to especially buy apples when I am still snowed under with our own!!
I did forget about getting some orange juice… happily I remembered I made some orange juice icy poles a while back, so I saved myself a few bucks there!
Handy icy poles!
I had to scrape together a hodgepodge of jars and lids to finish the job as the order I made a couple of weeks ago seemed to have been lost in the ether…
Beetroot relish – a delight mixed in cream cheese as a dip
Naturally five minutes later I find a bunch of boxes on the back porch full of jars, bottles and lids!!
I like the fat long chillies as they are less fiddly to cut, so I saved a bunch of seeds to hopefully restart next season
Preparing for next season
The rest of the scraps I put in one of the Origami bins as they can wrap and compost easily, with less chances of the chickens getting into them. I am not sure if they are bad for chooks, but I can only imagine laying an egg is tough enough without the burning sensation of overdoing it on chillies!
Handy box
I managed to get 9 bottles out of this batch, Mana is getting one to take to Melbourne with her as apparently it “is the best tasting sauce in the whole world” (I am not sure I embellished much 🙂 )
So here we are at 10.30pm finishing up making sauce!
I had to open a window! This was eye-watering!Done!
Chickens
Not too many arguments yet
I’ve been slowly introducing the new girls into the old girls company. So far so good… the biggest of our new girls doesn’t take any guff from anyone, so that’s good. The three younger ones are a bit more timid, but they can hang out together. Tonight I transported them all into the main coop – they are sharing two to a nest. (They look cute cuddled up together)
These girls are silky soft to cuddle – altho I had to wait until they were asleep to pick them up
Tomorrow I will pop them up on the roost so they get used to that. Some wing clipping will be in order too… they fly up and over fences too easily and I am not keen to go racing about the paddocks with the cows and electric fences to get them back! (the last time I went near an electric fence I got zapped on the backside – VERY undignified!)
We also have a crook chook – she has had a bad leg for a while. At the moment she is pretty listless with not much appetite. We have her inside at night in the cat carrier and in the hothouse by day where she is warm and sheltered but not too cooped up.
Hothouse chook
Dunno if she will survive, but she will get every chance.
Pretty scraps
I am also attempting at the moment to make some cider vinegar
Tonight for the first time I got it out of the cupboard to stir it up
Fizzing up!
I was quite pleased how it fizzed up. That’s a good sign right???
Its back in the cupboard, but it smells pretty good. I’ll have to find the recipe again to check what I have to do and when. Since its only scrap apple, water and a bit of sugar, its not much of an investment if I get it wrong.
Of course I am still putting apples through the dehydrator. I suspect Jeff is eating them almost as fast as I make them!!
Yet another batch of apple
Despite the rain and cold weather there are still a few pretties in the garden – photographed a few in between rainfalls
Since Mana is catching a plane tomorrow, we dropped in to say goodbye to Margie & Ruby. (Not least Macca!) Of course there was cake. (A sponge from Margie!! Yummo)
Until next time…
I am now going to sit for a few minutes with my rediscovered crochet skills before bed!
Cheers!
I had been knitting so much I had forgotten how to crochet.. Went to see Margie for a refresher course! 🙂
Beetroot Chutney
INGREDIENTS
5 beetroots
3 brown onions
3 granny smith apples (or whatever you have)
500ml balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup orange juice
2&1/2 cups raw sugar
½ teaspoon ground cloves
METHOD
Bake beetroot (Approx 2 hours) then dice
chop apples and onion
Put all ingredients in pot and simmer 1 hour
I love this on top of cheese & biscuits (crackers). Also mixed into some cream cheese with a squidge of lemon juice makes a wonderful dip!
Since Jeff and I have been a bit pathetic with colds this last week, we have been staying away from Ruby, since she is under all this pressure not to “fall off the twig” before we can celebrate her 100th birthday later in the year – so why make life harder by sharing colds around?? 🙂
So I will write up a little look over Ruby’s garden from a season or so ago, which some of the One Hundred Dollars a Month readers will possibly be familiar with.
Its only been the last couple of seasons that Ruby has enlisted me as “Garden Staff” to help a bit with the heavier digging around the place – I guess when you are in your late 90’s its ok to call in the cavalry. Not that she slacks off! Still a familiar site to see her in the garden, perched on a milk crate digging up weeds.
Getting ready to plant
Ruby’s soil is a dark sandy soil. Quite a lot different to our red soil just up the road. It requires a bit more work, and a bit more water. As you can see, she has several patches that she rotates her vegetables around each season. At the beginning of the season she maps out where each of her vegetable plots will be, and we try to get the peas in early enough to make sure there are fresh ones on the table for Christmas dinner!
Peak of the season
Its a massively productive plot and you would think she was growing food for an army! Very little goes to waste. Food is stored and preserved and given away – and of course eaten!
Even the weird shaped vegies go in the pot!
Creative Carrots
Plenty of potatoes
Tasmanian’s are serious about their potatoes!
Even tho Ruby’s eyesight has almost failed her, she knows her way around well enough to go up into the garden to pick something for lunch and then cook it up. Main meals are in the middle of the day and dinner is usually a sandwich
I love dinner at Ruby’s
And oh, can that woman bake a turkey! Yum!! You can float on the aroma from the front gate!
The hothouse is a really important part of Ruby’s garden. She can get her early tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber on the go in here.
Hothouse in full swing – getting a drink
I discovered that in years gone by, she has manually taken out last seasons dirt, and wheelbarrowed in new soil from somewhere else in the garden so it didn’t get too stale! Wow!
This season just gone, Jeff and I got a trailer load of mushroom compost and dug it right in – and didn’t her hothouse go mad! She was pretty proud of the massive crop of early tomatoes that just kept on growing!
I have totally given up on trying to beat her with the first ripe tomato of the season!
First tomatoes
Beans & peas of various sorts are a staple here too, so each season we get out the rebar, old clothes horses and anything else handy for climbing vegetables and set it all up. Usually before I can get back, Ruby has it all fertilised and planted!!
Use & re-use!
Ruby also has a beautiful variety of flowers, flowering trees and shrubs all through her garden. No matter the season, there is usually something pretty to look at that is attracting the bees
Keeping the garden prettyAlways something colourful & gorgeous to see
Its a space that gives Ruby an independent lifestyle as much as she can and a reason to get ‘up and doing’ in the morning.
An impressive sized yard for someone of Ruby’s age to manage!
The Best Recipe Book
Each week I will try to share a gem from this brilliant tatty old diary-recipe book!
PLUM WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE
This is one of my favourite sauces to come out of Ruby’s cookbook.
She has a beautiful dark plum tree up the back which generally produces a ton of fruit.
Plum blossoms – the first stage of sauce!
I enjoy using Worcestershire sauce in a lot of my dishes, is an ingredient in my BBQ sauce recipe and it makes home made rissoles/hamburgers fabulous!!
You need a really big pot
3lb dark plums
3lb white sugar
2lb Brown sugar
3 tins of treacle (approx. 850gm tins each)
7 pints vinegar
1/2 lb garlic
1oz white pepper
1oz allspice
1oz whole cloves ( I use ground)
1/4oz cayenne pepper
1/2oz ground ginger
2 tablespoons salt
Put all ingredients into the pot and cook until stone leave the plums.
Strain out stones & skin and reboil for about an hour. Bottle up.
This will last you a LONG time! So its worth the effort.
Once you are done, copy Ruby and have a little rest!
