In honour of the birthday (250 years today) of Scotland’s national bard, we threw a Robbie Burns party last night. Well, we only had one guest... but she is a born and bred Scot... so it felt like a party. On the menu was Haggis complete with Neeps and Tatties (turnips and potatoes) followed by a round of Shortbread and a wee dram while our guest regaled us with recitations of her favourite Burns poems, brogue and all. A rare treat!
The meal was an adventure in and of itself if for no other reason than Sara did the cooking. (Julian is the family cook, especially when and if guests are involved.) Other reasons, however, include the fact that haggis is not a simple dish, neither of us have made it before, and we made a vegetarian version of it. Yes, vegetarian haggis. As our Scottish readers are gasping and scurrying to delete all traces of our blog, we are well aware that there are those who consider vegetarian haggis to be a sin against man and god alike. Our guest confided that she has friends "back home" to whom she could not admit having eaten the actual dish we served, which, I might add, she also opined was very tasty. We are not disclosing her name for her own protection.
A traditional haggis recipe is something like "Take the left over bits of mutton you can't do anything else with, grind them up with a few onions and some oats, and stuff into the sheep's stomach. If you want to go crazy, add some black pepper. Boil."
If interested, a complete recipe can be found here.
Since I would not know where to begin looking for a sheep lung or sheep stomach outside of Almaty's Green Bazaar and considering the fact that Julian is a vegetarian, we opted for the "sinful" vegetarian version. If we do say so ourselves, it was delicious!! Even Zoe liked it! (Though she also recently tried and liked the traditional version!)
Speaking of Zoe, she has backed off of using the potty as much as she did a couple weeks ago. It is still something she asks to do once every couple days and we certainly encourage and praise her every time. But we are not yet forcing the issue.
Bear, on the other hand, has jumped into his potty training with both feet.
Like a good little mum, Zoe checks to make sure he is done before taking him off the potty and reapplying his diaper.
Ready for shopping! 
Zoe was recently gifted with a beautiful, handmade chair. Here she is on her new throne!
Daring to tickle Daddy's feet.
In closing, Happy Chinese New Year to all!
5 comments:
The vegetarian version sounds much more appetizing to me anyway! Though I will have to say I've never heard of the holiday you celebrated! We will be celebrating the Chinese New Year with dumplings tonight however.
Here's something you never knew about me, yet it's true...I am related to Robert Burns.
:) KH
you are hilarious, and that meal sounds interesting for sure....did you make with tofurky? :)
Love Zoe's bear on the potty.
I also love her with her purse. Leeza does that too...purse and phone in hand, pretty funny!
Zoe will probably suprise you with the potty training and one day, she will be trained, and you will be done. You are smart to let her do it on her own time.
As I think I've said before, Sean was 3, and until he was 5, I had to "hold his hand" while he went number 2. Leeza, a very differnet child than Sean, brings us her potty and has a decent success rate. However, she is also into EVERYTHING, constantly, climbing, and dangerous, where her brother was not. I tell Sean is he making up for it now. :)
Happy Robert Burns day, whatever that is. :)
you are super entertaining and it sounds like fun.
I made banana bread for the first time that was actually tasty, so i was excited about that. :)
I believe that Audrey and Zoe would be good friends. They both have put their stuffed animals on their potty's and diapers on them too. Very cute!!
We went to Scotland for our 10 year anniversary. It's something that we very much loved. In fact if we had a boy we were going to name him Glen after a "Scottish Glen."
Haggis is something neither of us has been willing to try. I haven't looked at your vegetarian version but the idea sounds interesting to say the least. So glad your guest enjoyed it!
Eileen
As a celt I know what Robbie Burns day is.....hope you had a good one. We had friends over on the weekend and raised our glasses in his honour!!
Okay so I have one for you......see if you can find the recipe for CODDLE and make it for March 17th!! Hint, it is a traditional dish from Dublin where I grew up.
Mary
PS. At this precise time (7:55pm on Tuesday evening) we are all healthy and on for a get together on Friday morning. Lets touch base later in the week.
Post a Comment