On a Saturday afternoon.

Papa was up in his loft and dug out the old Hornby train set.  It certainly made a little boy very happy.

And both boys were soon lost in the game.

A fresh warm batch of pancakes for the train drivers' tea break.

and then dinner cooked by K, home for the weekend

helped by his lovely girlfriend L.

Joined by John and daughter Kristine - a  fuzzy but warm family meal. 

Teamwork!

I cut the fruit  and vegetables,while James puts it through the juicer.  Orange, beetroot, carrot and kale today - very nice.

Papa needed to go to the bank and for some shopping, but Gran is feeling the cold a lot just now, so she came here.  James kept her entertained. She is not really able to do much at all now, and she likes to keep her coat and gloves on, but she still responds to James and his chatter.

Robbie the dog had been out in the garden and had very muddy feet when he came in.  James helped his Dad dry them off.  James is reassuring Robbie, as he hates getting his feet dried.

After that James helped Dad to fix his big sister's car. She will be pleased when she comes home!

When Papa came back, he helped make the lunch for us all.

And I made these (well-fired) spelt and oatmeal loaves.

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Let it snow

 I am so thankful that we have no places to go right now, and can just be home enjoying the snow and finishing off our preparations for Christmas Day.  Mostly playing out in the garden and clearing up the paths this morning and lots of baking this afternoon.  Tomorrow  will hopefully be spent getting ready for the feast - doing as much in advance as possible, so we can all relax and enjoy the meal.  This is likely to be the last one where my Mother will be home -  Alzheimer's Disease is stealing more of her away all the time, and it looks likely that a care home could be a reality during the coming year. That's in the future though - right now we are all looking forward to spending the day together and ten of us will sit down to a traditional Christmas dinner.

There may even be some of this stollen cake left to have later on.

Sending warmest wishes to you all for a wonderful happy Christmas.

Cranberry Mincemeat

At my parents house on Saturday, I happened to catch this programme (Grow your own drugs for Christmas).  Well, I just loved it and can't imagine how I have ever managed to miss it.  Hmmm - maybe not having a TV could account for it, but nevertheless I was very taken with everything about this show. So, first thing on Sunday morning I was online searching for the recipes, and we decided to make the cranberry mincemeat. I have copied the recipe below,  but they are all available on the website.

1 kg cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 Bramley apple, chopped - I used 2 large apples from the fruit bowl
1 tsp mixed spice
100g unsalted butter
100ml maple syrup
300g soft brown sugar
3 tbsp dark rum or Cointreau - Cointreau every time for me.
100g candied orange peel
Flour, for dusting
2 rolls ready-made shortcrust pastry - I made my own, as I didn't have any frozen stuff
Icing sugar, to dredge
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Distribute the cranberries and chopped apple between two roasting tins. Sprinkle over the mixed spice and fleck with the butter. Drizzle the maple syrup over. Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the fruit is slightly shrunken with a golden tan.
3. Remove the roasted cranberries from the oven and place in a bowl. Mix in the sugar, rum or Cointreau and candied orange peel.
4. Sprinkle flour onto a work surface and roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 3mm. Using a 7cm cookie-cutter, cut out discs of pastry and place into a greased mince pie tin. Prick the base of each pie with a fork and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven, and spoon the cranberry filling into each pastry cup. Return to the oven to cook for another 5 minutes. - We added little pastry hearts and stars and so cooked them a bit longer - 10 mins maybe. 
6. Leave the pies to cool, then dredge with icing sugar.
(by James Wong - Grow your own Drugs for Christmas BBC)

I have loads of mincemeat left, so it is sitting in a large jar in the 'fridge until my big baking day, currently pencilled in for Wednesday.

I have to say that these were the most delicious mincemeat pies I have ever tasted - and I have tasted a lot in my time.  These were light, sweet, tart, fruity......  can you tell I liked them?  Everyone else did too and they disappeared almost instantly. 

Good job James made a batch too!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Vegetarians look away now

Game birds hanging outside a butcher's shop. A sad little scene I photographed a couple of weeks ago in Oxford's covered market. Still, it is good to remind ourselves where our food actually comes from.
Lots and lots of shadows on display every weekend at Hey Harriet.  Do check them out.  

Shadow Shot Sunday - Apple

A sliced apple in a bowl made a nice shadow in the morning light.  See more shadows from around the world with Tracy at Shadow Shot Sunday.

Unschooling ambrosia

Today James didn't want any lunch but as John and I were eating ours, he came up to the table with one of the little pots of rice pudding that he likes. So - there we were chatting away when I noticed James looking at the pot and saying the names of all the family - Mum, Dad, Kristine etc. I asked him if he was reading the pot and he said he was. Then he began to point to each letter and ask me what it said. It took me a few seconds to realise that he really was asking me to tell him the letters! So, I did - that's a Bee - that's a mmm and that's esss. Then he made the cute sound that he always makes when chasing us with his toy snake!!
I so love this journey :)

Ur ye haudin Hallow e'en?

Hallow e'en has always been a big event in our family. Not least because it was my Grandfather's birthday, and my Gran always made a Clootie Dumpling for the occasion. A clootie dumpling is a sweet fruit, spice and suet pudding, mixed up and tied in a floured and sugared cloth then steamed for several hours. The smell of the boiling cotton mixed with spices is one of my abiding childhood olfactory memories, along with the aroma of charred turnip wafting from the carved lanterns. Both can transport me instantly back to frosty dark nights going round the neighbours' houses 'guising'.

Guising (or going in disguise) goes back at least to medieval times, and probably longer. Originally it was a Hogmanay custom for adults who disguised themselves and there are reports of groups of 'Guisards' going around from house to house offering some entertainment in return for some hospitality. Of course Hallow e'en was originally the Celtic New Year's Eve, so there may be some connection there. In any case, as children we would go to houses where we knew there would be a welcome, and performed our poems, songs or joke telling in return for a tangerine and some nuts. As we called at each house in our homemade costumes, we would ask "Ur ye haudin Hallowe'en?" none of this "Trick or Treat" that we get now. And - we were expected to sing for our hallow e'en. On the rare occasion we are visited by guisers, I always invite them in to do their turn. Usually now it is some mumbled joke that we have heard several years in a row, but now and again there is the odd gem.

So, Hallow e'en for us this year meant introducing James to the customs. It is such good fun seeing these things through a child's eyes again. After breakfast he asked me if we could go now.
"Go where?" I asked
"To Halleen!" he replied impatiently.
As I put out peanuts( or monkey nuts as we call them) in a bowl I showed him how to crack them open, revealing the dark red nuts inside. He loved them, and soon the place was littered with shells.

Then I made some toffee apples

and James decided to make his own Hallow e'en concoction - chopped pork, 2 eggs (and the shells) some goats milk, a handful of suet, two apples and half a lemon. Yummmmm! He wanted to bake it and do you know? It smelt quite nice when it came out of the oven! I didn't try it though, and he had lost interest by then and moved on to something else :)


Later he put on his Bumble Bee outfit and we went to visit Gran, who is having a week of respite care in a Nursing Home. She enjoyed seeing him, and he enjoyed bouncing on her bed!



Back at home it is now my role to make the Hallow e'en dumpling. An onerous responsibility, especially when there are lots of expectant and hungry faces watching the great unwrapping. The hallmark of a really great dumpling, however, is the skin which is formed first of all by the flouring and sugaring of the cloot, and then careful drying in front of the fire. What's the verdict?



It's strange to think that my Grandfather was born 111 years ago tonight, in a coal miner's cottage just a few hundred yards from where I am sitting now. He died when I was 14, but we had such good times as I was growing up. I loved to help him in his garden and had my own plot outside his greenhouse. I learned so much even as a small child, that I still remember today, as I tend my own garden. He also had a love of Scottish history and legends, and told me stories and taught me songs that fired my imagination. he was such a great influence on my life, so Here's to you on your birthday Papa.

Here is my Gran's recipe for Clootie Dumpling - although I have adapted it a bit.

1lb plain flour
8oz currants
8 oz sultanas
8 oz raisins
8 oz suet
1 cup sugar (as this is an old recipe I assume the cup to be a teacup and not a cup measure)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp treacle (molasses) - warm it to make it easier to mix in
milk to mix to a soft but not runny mixture (about 7 fl oz,)

Mix all ingredients together (get your hands in about it)

Prepare your cloth - I use a muslin square, but any cotton will do - an old pillow case was my Gran's pudding cloth.
Scald the cloth in boiling water and wring out when you can handle it. I lift it out with a pair of tongs and let it drip until it is cool enough to touch.
Lay out flat and dredge with an even layer of flour and then sugar. (Very important step this!)

Tip your dumpling mixture on to the cloth and then tie up into a bundle with string.

Put a plate into the bottom of your big pan and put the pudding on top.
Almost cover the dumpling with boiling water and boil hard for 30 minutes
Continue simmering for 3 - 3.5 hours.

Lift out and put on a plate or I use a colander to let the excess water drain out. Open up and invert the dumpling on to a heatproof plate.
Carefully remove the cloth and you should see a nice white sheen on the surface of your beautiful dumpling That is the skin - the best bit!
Dry in front of the fire, turning occasionally for half and hour or so - or put in a low oven.

Serve with custard, or cream, or whatever you fancy.
Leftovers are great eaten cold the next day - or fried in butter even.

I was very pleased with this one. A bit wet at the top as I cut the string, but it dried out nicely and the skin was almost perfect. I may add a bit more spice next time, as I did feel it could have done with a bit more pep, but otherwise it was just delicious.

In praise of Papa Soup

My Dad is the ultimate soup maker in our family - possibly even the world. He takes carrots, leeks, onion, turnip* and pearl barley, combines them with a stock and produces the most amazing soup you have ever tasted. I have tried so many times to replicate his recipe, but I just can't achieve that unique taste. I don't know what it is - a kind of lightness, yet it is so full of flavour.
It is a basic Scotch Broth, but is known in our clan as Papa soup. It's fame has even spread to Canada, where he spends his visits to my sister making Papa soup for my nephews and all their friends. The last time he went to watch one of the boys at baseball training, several of the Moms came up asking if he was the famous Papa, and how much their sons loved his soup. He was more pleased than he let on.
Anyway, James and I were delighted today when he arrived with a large tub of freshly made Papa soup - just right for lunch with a few slices of toasted Scottish plain bread.

Harvest Feast

On Saturday we went to a Harvest Feast organised by Linlithgrow - a local climate challenge project which aims to get people buying and eating local food as well as encouraging growing your own. It was a very well attended event and the food was delicious. The event was held at Bonnytoun Farm, a fantastic estalishment producing local organic and free range meat, fruit vegetables and flowers. Here are some shots from the day.

Preparations for the feast.

James and John having a go in the Welly Throwing competition!

The band played all afternoon. Great stuff!

And the food? Well 3 clean plates and bowls says it all really. John is holding tightly to that glass of farm brewed beer :)

Lots of local apples - James said this was his favourite - he even ate the core!

Time to go home.

The Giraffes who came for tea.

Along with Pooh Bear and the neenaw car - it was quite a party :)

Raw

I have been experimenting a bit with raw food lately, after finally coming across a raw no-cook book that contains recipes that are actually accessible - do not require several pieces of horrendously expensive equipment or bizarre ingredients sourced from mountain lakes in the middle of the high Andes. Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy has some of the most delicious recipes I have tasted. You do need a some kind of blender or food processor - even a stick one works.
Just before we went off on our break, I made Not Meat Balls in a raw Marinara sauce with courgette pasta.

Forgive the blurred photograph, but if you are ever to try a raw food recipe it should be this one - especially the sauce
I have a veg peeler which does very thin pasta shapes, so I used that to slice my courgettes, but I have done a tagliatelle type with a potato peeler.

Marinara Sauce

1 ripe tomato
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes in oil (or soaked for 30 mins if dried)
1/2 red pepper
2 tbls olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 crushed garlic clove
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
dash black pepper and dash cayenne.

Blitz in blender or food processor and keep in a sealed container (up to 3 days in a fridge)

Not Meat Balls

1 cup walnuts (soaked for 6 - 8 hrs)
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp tamari
1/4 tsp garlic powder
dash salt
1 tbsp minced parsley
1 tblsp minced onion

Place everything except the parsley and onion into a food processor and blend into a paste. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and still in the parley and onion. Will keep for 5 days. Make up into ball shapes and serve on top of courgettes with sauce drizzled over.

This boy

Has not had a bath since Saturday and does not ever want to go to bed. He wants to stay up all night and eat corn on the cob.

Aweebit

As James becomes more and more talkative, I realise that many of the phrases he comes out with are ones he has heard me say first. So - one of his well used phrases is " aweebit" This is used in many situations - usually involving food. If I am cooking, or preparing the dinner, or even opening the fridge - he will stop whatever he is doing and come running up shouting "A wee bit Mummy - just aweebit!" I do feed him - honestly. Sometimes if he wants to breastfeed during the day, he will pull at my top, smile so sweetly and say "aweebit Mum"
I must say this a lot too - "OK. Just a wee bit then" At least it is a wee bit positive.

Happy Birthday

My elder son was 18 on Wednesday. It hardly seems possible that so many years have passed so quickly. His was the easiest and quickest of all my births - and he certainly has been the most laid back of all my children. It was also his lovely girlfriend's 18th on Saturday, so an action packed week of celebrations has ensued. Sadly, I didn't get any usable shots of Friday's party (aarghh!) so here are some others taken during the week.

Wednesday night was a big night out in Livingston with friends, but he made time to blow out the 18 candles on his raspberry victoria sponge cake, with us before he left. Little brother James helped, of course.

Opening his present from big sister Karen.
(Ignore the temporary barricades in the background. These were meant to keep the hens in their own yard - they obviously worked well as you can see!)

Out for a lunch in a posh local restaurant today with Gran and Papa, Karen and husband, Daniel, grandson Finlay, John and James. Other daughter, Kristine, is away at T in the Park, and K's girlfriend had to work.

Anyway - Happy Birthday K . He is off to university soon to study Chemistry (with a year in Australia). Then he will save the world by inventing a sustainable and totally renewable, non polluting fuel. wonder what he'll do in the afternoon?

Summertime...

...and the living is easy.

Sunny things for a summer's day.