Duck Sauce and Duckee Day

I do not like egg rolls at Chinese restaurants, they are too greasy. I make my own variety at home. Almost guilt free. Here is a step by step of how I make them. My one problem was that I wanted a duck sauce that tasted good and I could make it myself. I searched the internet many times but could not find what I wanted. I tried several recipes and they just didnt have the taste I was looking for.

About a month ago I saw some yellow plums at the market. I bought them. They were horrible, almost no taste and watery. Very bland- what a disappointment. I decided to cook them down. A good choice because the flavor of the plums transformed instantaneously. They were a sweet tart taste. I cooked them down and added some of my apricot preserves, a pinch of garlic and a pinch of ginger and my duck sauce was born. Wahoo! You can see chunks in my photograph. I left them in because I was in a hurry to get dinner on. The sauce was good as is. I froze the rest for the next time I make my eggrolls and I will puree it then.

A warning: If you make this and eat this the stuff at the Chinese restaurants will never be the same again. Bleck! Pittoo!

DUCK SAUCE
Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness

7 plums peeled and cooked down
2 heaping tablespoons apricot jam
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 piece of ginger, grated

Place peeled and pitted plums in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and cook until they break down and "melt". Add remainder of ingredients and heat until jam has melted. Puree and use for dipping.


Recently my friend, her son, my girls and I went to a place called Stokoe Farms. We had a blast. It is a virtual Autumn Wonderland filled with activities for kids and grown ups alike. I can't say enough about it. You see this slide. Whoa. It was a blast! The kids went down this about ten times. Let me tell you they slept good that night after hiking up that hill so much.
I don't have a picture of it but they had these huge wheels to walk in with the kids. Kind of like a big gerbil wheel for humans.
Of course, they had a pumpkin patch to buy pumpkins too. And a corn maze.
They also had some visitors of the four legged variety there for the day. I snapped a few pictures of them before I realized that they charge a dollar a picture. Whoops.
Ain't he cute? I happily can admire him from afar but I sure would not like him roaming around my house- it would just eek me out too much.

A swell family kind of day! Where was my husband? Home installing insulation. Poor guy, we must go again so he can partake in all the fun. I know he would just love the "fly swing" ( a contraption where you stand on this disk and slide down a hill on a wire- kind of like Tarzan in the jungle).