Plum Butter

When I got to the grocer planning to order a case of prune plums, they already had them in back for me-just in case I wanted them. Now that's great customer service! That's also long term employees who know what they're doing. I scurried home with my thirty pounds of prune plums (that cost me 1/3 of the retail price, YAY!)and started cooking. As I mentioned in the last post, I made two batches of pie filling, and tonight I made plum butter. One pint exploded in the canner (boo!) but it left me with plenty to enjoy. Some years I make it plain, other years add cinnamon. This time around I added 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice. My husband said it made the house smell like Christmas, which can't be a bad thing.

I still have quite a few plums left. I'll dry some, and make some glace plums for Christmastime, maybe some fruit pate. Otherwise, I'm kind of stumped for anything exotic beyond perhaps a batch of dumpling sauce. I've made plum orange conserve in the past, but unless Mr. ETB starts eating duck more than twice a year, I don't know what to do with it.

Of course, if they keep grabbing a handful of fruit (the plums are quite small) each time they pass the kitchen, I may not have anything left by morning.

I had someone return one of my Christmas pudding moulds today, which struck horror into my heart realising October will be upon us (I make my puddings mid-October) and I haven't candied any cherries yet. We still have excellent cherries around, so I'll need to get on that quickly. Moving house really disrupted the way I schedule my life, and it will be so nice to get back to a routine.

It is predicted to be 101 degree F. tomorrow.