Good enough to make Rosemary Stanton blush

So I had all these oats from making cookies, as seen below in glorious technicolour, and I had a bit of a quandary. I don't want to waste my dry goods, but I don't want to be eating nothing but chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies for the rest of my life. And porridge, let's face it, is kind of bland.

So I asked myself what I often ask myself. WWRSD?



What would you do, Rosemary Stanton, Australia's best loved crispy-haired, wan, dyspeptic looking nutritionist? I suspect she would do any of the following.

(a) Eat some roughage.

(b) Eat some more roughage.

(c) Eat something that would make you poo.

(d) Cook up something delicious with lots of sugar and cinnamon and cloves but call it healthy because, even though every vitamin has been simmered out, it contains fruit, damnit.

I chose the latter option. Here is what I made and how I did it.



I got up very early (okay, 10) and removed a bag from the fridge containing two navel oranges, a punnet of strawberries, and four Granny Smith apples. I stemmed and quartered the strawberries, cut the orange into thin wedges, which I skinned and de-pithed, and wedged the Granny Smiths. These were put into a pan with two cloves, a cinnamon stick, a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar and a squirt of golden syrup for good measure. Then I added some water.

In retrospect I probably should have added a scant half cup, if that, but I got a bit carried away and wound up having to boil the lot vigorously to reduce the liquid. It's pretty damned tasty, but I suspect it would be better if it wasn't so damned water logged. Anyhoozle, I brought the whole lot to the boil, twiddled the gas until it settled to a nice rollicking simmer, and did the dishes. Once everything looked appropriately mushy and the kitchen smelt like nanna I turned the heat off, made some porridge and ate. I'll tupperware the rest and live like the happiest nanna that ever there was all week.

Rosemary would be proud.