Grutze!!!

Gesundheit!
but seriously
Grutze (according to Wikipedia) is...."A popular dessert in northern Germany ... Rote Grütze", red fruit pudding, which is made from black and red currants, raspberries and sometimes strawberries or cherries cooked in juice with cornstarch as a thickener. It is traditionally served with cream, but also common with vanilla sauce, milk or whipped cream. "Rhabarbergrütze" (rhubarb pudding) and "Grüne Grütze" (gooseberry fruit pudding) are variations of the "Rote Grütze"."

I have wonderful memories of strawberry rhubarb grutze as a kid,and if memory serves,it was one of my Opa's favorite treats (and Opa? He loooved his treats...and his butter, an inch thick. So does Oma but that's another story, let me just tell you that in this house? butter is a food group, potatoes are vegetables, and Oma's biggest complaint? that I make her eat according to the food pyramid (a new concept apparently) lucky for me I'm used to picky kids)

So after hitting the farmer's market on Saturday (where I saw lots of caveman club-sized zuccinnis) I returned home with 2 bags of plums (we had a gorgeous and huge plum tree in the yard in Or...one of the few things I'll miss about the property) so I bought them for nostalgia sake...and then thought "what the hell am I gonna do with all these plums?" I was going to make a PflaumKuchen but....then I remembered...the oven? yeah it kind of blew up last week (don't get me started on the appliance situation in this house...suffice to say Oma and Opa bought the appliances (fridge/oven-range) USED in the 50's!!! - so yeah, they don't work so great anymore, but hey, they definitely got their 20-bucks worth)
so, baking not being an option we decided to try making a Pflaum Grutze...and it was 'nu-mee!! Molly helped and Oma supervised and we each ate 2 bowls for dessert!

Usually it's made with berries, but cherries or plums work fine and I'm going to try with peaches next week.
here's a "recipe"
it's not very precise (Rachel Ray I'm not!)
take your fruit, however much you have...in our case, 2 bags of plums when cut up turned into I'd say roughly7 cups of fruit
put it in a pot with enough water to "cover" the fruit (4 cups or so) bring to boil on a medium heat
add sugar (in our case today we added 3 cups)
you can also strain the fruit after it boils if you want a clearer grutze but we left the peels for tartness and "tooth"
bring back to a boil
now take some cornstarch (the technique used here was the "old fashioned" method of 2 "heaping" forkfulls for each cup of liquid...give or take....mix it up with water and add to the
fruity goodness in the pot
(I think this is kind of like thickening gravy...but when was the last time I made gravy???)
bring to boil again then serve in cute little teacups and let cool.
Oma likes hers with sugar sprinkled on top (because nothing is sweet enough) and milk (but surprisingly no butter) I like mine plain.
I think I'm having some for breakfast
and in our continuing adventures in German cuisine...I think I am going to use the potato ricer tomorrow!!! and maybe make some "Gurken Fleish" ...that's cucumbers & meat folks! mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........