Burns in the Blue House

 Yesterday was January 25th,  Burns Night, celebrating the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Because of COVID, I've missed the last 2 years when this event was held down at the Beer Museum. Unfortunately, although I love the patrons down there dearly, and even have friends among them, because so many of them are anti-vaxxers, I've not been down since the pandemic took a firm hold of our little town. 2019 was a memorable year down there, with the haggis paraded through the bar and whiskey flowing plentifully. There were plenty of toasts and Burns' poetry read aloud, and it had been a superb evening. I'd been aware of the date passing by the last 2 years and decided this year was not going to be another miss.

I ordered a haggis online and invited a dear friend, Bill, and his son to come round. Bill is not a fan of offal or lamb, so I was particularly impressed that he agreed to show up, but then that's what good friends do, isn't it? I didn't want to serve up the traditional 'neeps and tatties' both of which are simply boiled. 'Neeps', being turnips are not a favorite vegetable of mine, I find then rather tasteless, so instead I cooked swede, (rutabaga), and parsnips, mashing them together with butter, sour cream and seasoning, with melted cheddar on top. For the 'tatties', rather than boiled, I cooked a pan of roasted potatoes. I also made a mushroom gravy, as haggis on its own can be rather dry.

I laid the table, not forgetting the glasses for wine and shot glasses for the whiskey. Bill called before arriving, saying his son couldn't make it. A shame, so I had to put away his place setting, but cheered myself up with the thought that there'd be more for the rest of us.  I'd stopped at our local florist on the way home to see if they had thistles, a last minute idea I'd had. Luckily, they had some thistley kind of blooms, which were close enough, and being that some of them were purple, I brought them home for the table. Elliott found 'Scotland the Brave' played on bagpipes and we were ready to go. I showed Bill the haggis when he arrived and he didn't look too impressed, poor chap, so we pulled it out of it's casing and mixed it in with a good helping of gravy, making it look more like a ground pork dish. Then the bowl was placed on a silver platter of my Dad's and we marched it into the dining room with the bagpipes blasting out. With all the fodder on the table it was hard to not just attack! But I had to toast the haggis first, and did so, in the English version, because although Robert Burns was a fine upstanding poet, dearly loved by millions, and celebrated yearly, I haven't a clue what his poems mean, and certainly can't pronounce them. This page has both the Scottish and English version. We did have a few chuckles when I read the 'easy' version.
 

We raised our glasses, filled with Glenfiddich whiskey, and toasted the haggis and Robbie Burns. And then we lifted our diggers and got stuck in. God bless Bill, he did valiantly try a mouthful of the haggis but the mushroom gravy could not disguise the flavor of lamb offal and the oatmeal with herbs that make up haggis. He screwed up his face, swallowed, and then concentrated on the veggies. Thankfully, there was a thick layer of cheese on the top of the swede and parsnips so he did get some protein. Elliott was quite taken with the haggis, actually surprised that he liked it. He later revealed that he'd been rather apprehensive about eating it, so was very happy to find it going down so easily, so easily in fact, that he managed 2 platefuls of food. I have to admit that it had all turned out pretty well. I'd rushed home from work, with only an hour and a half until Bill was due to arrive, so was stoked that the meal was a success.

To keep the Scottish theme with the dessert, I wanted something light and easy, so decided to try making shortbread. I'd made the dough the evening before, so all I had to do was roll it out, cut it into slices and throw it in the oven for 15 minutes. We left it 10 minutes to cool down and then tried it tentatively. It was delicious! The plate emptied quite rapidly but a few were left for later consumption. We spent the rest of the evening, rubbing our extended bellies and chatting. The photos are few, since I was enjoying myself too much to think of them, and these were taken with my phone, but I'm glad we have the evening on record, glad we got to celebrate Burns Night in our own home, and especially glad that I had Elliott and Bill to share this event, that I find so special, with me. Kind of strange since I'm English, but there you go. Slàinte Mhath!