RHUBARB AND APPLE SHORTCAKE... TANTALISING AND JUST OUT OF THE OVEN...

Served with Hokey Pokey icecream and still warm... so easy to make and a delicious treat.

RHUBARB AND APPLE SHORTCAKE

2 stalks of rhubarb and a couple of cooking apples.
3/4 cup water
3/4  to a cup of sugar... depending how sweet you want it.
Stew gently until pulped

125 gr butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1  1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, flour, baking powder and mix well. Knead into ball and press half the mixture into a pie dish. Spread cooled stewed fruit over and place remaining rolled shortcake over the top. Bake at 150 celsius for 30 minutes in a fan oven or at a higher heat in a conventional oven... 180c or so.

Our Burbank plums are landing on the ground and need to ripen up inside. Others were blown off the tree today as the wind picked up. When fully ripened they are sweet and delicious.

It's a case of  'waste not - want not'  and gathering up the passionfruit that continues to fall to the ground and scooping into containers before putting into the freezer is proving to be a good idea afterall. Great in a fruit salad with some liquid sweetener... not mouth puckering despite most being unripe.

Have you ever seen anything as odd as these characters..?  I bought a few plants from Palmers on a whim, but will not bother next year. Russian Red are heavy croppers and usually there's plenty to fill up the freezer and tide us over through the winter months. I like to add plenty of them to casseroles and so on. The Heritage tomatoes have taken up room and the result is disappointing.

This grapevine is the only one with any fruit on it this season due to being cut back when we were
painting. It is a large black grape and will not be ready for some weeks yet. The sweet green grape will be appreciated again next season when it gets back to normal.

I do love these old fashioned phlox. Wonderful in a little container and last for a long time. These have sat happily in the sugar bowl for over a week, but just on their last legs now. There are still plenty of them flowering in the garden and they are great for filling up those little spaces here and there.

Well, so much for cooking and gardening. I need to concentrate on some really early spring cleaning and the dreaded oven will be first on the list... and it's a long one............................................................