Apricots.

At our house we have two massive apricot trees and today we picked a whole lot before the birds could get to them.
Fresh fruit off a tree in your backyard is probably the most wonderful thing ever. My housemate bought some apricots from a shop a couple of weeks ago and they were completely bland compared to the ones we've picked from our backyard.

Heres some things I plan to do with the mass amount we just picked:

Apricot Jam:
Pretty much, same amount of white sugar as you have fruit.
If you have 1kg of fruit you need 1kg of sugar.
Cut up the fruit, remove any stones, cut off any bad bits, then put it in a massive saucepan with the sugar and let it sit for half an hour or so to soften the fruit, then put it on medium heat and let it slowly cook for a few hours, until a little spoonful on a plate sets in a few minutes and you can run your finger through with it keeping shape. (not runny)

Put the jars and lids you're using in another large saucepan with water and let it boil. Remove the jars with tongs and fill them while they're hot. Put the lids on straight away.
If the jars are sterilised enough it will keep in a cupboard for ages. Once its open its worth keeping it in the fridge though, just in case.

Apricot crumble
Some ripe apricots
Caster sugar
Oats
Butter
Plain flour
Brown sugar
Coconut, or flaked almonds, or anything else you'd like to add to the crumble.

Cut up the apricots in halves or quarters and remove the stones, put them in a saucepan with (for about 1 - 2 cups of apricots) 1/4 - 1/3 cup of caster sugar. Put it on a medium heat and let them stew, it should take about 20 minutes depending on how many apricots you use.

Preheat the oven to about 180.
Melt about 60g of butter, add about 2tbsp of brown sugar, about 1 cup of oats, 1/3 cup of flour, and half a handful or anything else you wanna add. If its too dry add more melted butter.
This recipe can easily be doubled or whatever if you're making a really big crumble. Same for the apricot part. And this crumble can be used for anything, I also make apple crumble, apple and raspberry, apple and rhubarb, pear, whatever. And it can make a really easy dessert if you get tinned pie fruit, I love always having a can handy for random dessert-craving. You can make one up in about 15 minutes easy.

Once the apricot is stewed and the crumble is made, put the apricot in a little pie dish or ramekins or whatever you want to use and top it with the crumble. Then bake it for about 15 minutes just until the top is brown and crispy.
Its wonderful with custard, or icecream.

Apricot muffins (makes about 3-4 large ones)
60 g butter, softened
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup oats
Stewed apricots

Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and mix quickly and well, add 1/4 cups of flour and tbsps of milk until its all combined and light and fluffy, then stir in the oats and apricots.
If the mixure is too wet add some more flour, but I like to keep it pretty wet so that they turn out lovely and moist.
Have the oven preheated to 180, put the muffin batter into muffin trays (you can make them big or little, it doesn't really matter.) and bake for about 15 minutes (maybe a bit longer if they're really big, shorter if they're little) until the top is a bit brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.