'Wot RoTT' exchange

[Maureen A.]

Ok Rosemary,
Is it cause I'm from the US or am I just really out of it, but I never heard of Burns Night or of McSween's haggis.
Lori

Burns Night is a Scottish tradition celebrating the birth & works of Robert (Rabbie) Burns. He was an 18th century poet, who wrote in the vernacular of his day. You probably know one of his songs without realising it - Auld Lang Syne! http://www.robertburns.org/works/236.shtml Another slightly well known one starts 'My love is like a red red rose' http://www.robertburns.org/works/444.shtml

There is also an 'Address to a Haggis' http://www.robertburns.org/works/147.shtml. There are a lot of myths about the haggis, some say that it is a bird-like pig type of animal, others swear that it is more of a pig-like bird, but every one tends to agree that they are very hard to hunt & shoot!

The Clan MacSween happen to be the best hunters & providers of the haggis, in my opinion http://www.macsween.co.uk/ or you could try here http://www.scottishfoodoverseas.com/...FSgntAod7yDItw

Haggis is traditionally served with mashed neaps & tatties. (Neaps I think are swedes, and tatties are potatoes)

If anyone wishes to disagree with any of the above information please feel free to do so

Rosemary, Did you also know that the Haggis has one leg shorter than the other so it makes it easier to run round the Scottish hills and mountains. It is definitely a round animal with a pig like snout.

Up here in Scotland we call the round root vegetable a Turnip, the English call them Swede!!!

[Maureen A.]

All the blocks & recipes are scrumptious!!
Love the personal "flavor" (sorry!) from Dawn and Maureen.
Shall we each contribute a recipe with our local flavors
and then they can be matched with a reel somehow...rather
than feel like we need to come up with something for our
own reel???
Not that it's forbidden to have a recipe that does
match with our reel.
And since I'm part of the book team, will be happy to do the
match-ups.
Comments? Opinions? Discuss!

Roseanne, although I said I was giving my reels a Scottish flavour (British spelling) and called them Clootie Dumpling - the colours in the reels are actually the colours in the Clootie Dumpling before and after cooking.

[Maureen A.]

When I visited the UK a decade ago, I kept a travel journal, and in the back of it, I kept a glossary of British English words compared to Canadian English words. The glossary was almost as long as the journal itself! It was hilarious! You'd think you were speaking the same English, but, nope. Then I went to the Southern US ( Georgia etc. now, There's a different class of English - harder to understand than the Brits -

as long as a 1/4 inch = 1/4 inch wherever you are, at least for quilting then we don't have to worry about understanding each other. But, here in Canada, we use cm. (centimetres, so we're translating all the time) What measurement are we going to use for the cookbook?

What's a swede/neaps?

PS - I'm an English teacher LOL

Terri, even though Rosemary and I live in the UK and both speak the Queens English, sometimes we say different words for the same thing. It all depends on what part of the British Isles we live in. UK are in metric now and have been for a while. That is hard on my generation as I still think in Imperial measure and in Pounds, shillings and pence. :cry: :cry:

[Maureen A.]

Ok Rosemary,
Is it cause I'm from the US or am I just really out of it, but I never heard of Burns Night or of McSween's haggis.
Lori

Burns Night is a Scottish tradition celebrating the birth & works of Robert (Rabbie) Burns. He was an 18th century poet, who wrote in the vernacular of his day. You probably know one of his songs without realising it - Auld Lang Syne! http://www.robertburns.org/works/236.shtml Another slightly well known one starts 'My love is like a red red rose' http://www.robertburns.org/works/444.shtml

There is also an 'Address to a Haggis' http://www.robertburns.org/works/147.shtml. There are a lot of myths about the haggis, some say that it is a bird-like pig type of animal, others swear that it is more of a pig-like bird, but every one tends to agree that they are very hard to hunt & shoot!

The Clan MacSween happen to be the best hunters & providers of the haggis, in my opinion http://www.macsween.co.uk/ or you could try here http://www.scottishfoodoverseas.com/...FSgntAod7yDItw

Haggis is traditionally served with mashed neaps & tatties. (Neaps I think are swedes, and tatties are potatoes)

If anyone wishes to disagree with any of the above information please feel free to do so

Rosemary, Did you also know that the Haggis has one leg shorter than the other so it makes it easier to run round the Scottish hills and mountains. It is definitely a round animal with a pig like snout.

Up here in Scotland we call the round root vegetable a Turnip, the English call them Swede!!!

I'd forgotten about the legs :wink:

As for turnips/swedes, what I call a turnip has white flesh, whilst a swede is yellow coloured, but they are both round root vetegables, so lets just boil them up & mash them with lots of butter & seasoning.

The other major necessity is definitly whisky - lots of it!

[Maureen A.]

Rosemary
I agree wholeheartedly. Please pass the Malt when you have finished mashing the neeps. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Rita C.]

"Rosemary, Did you also know that the Haggis has one leg shorter than the other so it makes it easier to run round the Scottish hills and mountains. It is definitely a round animal with a pig like snout."

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Hic! Oops! ops:

[Cath P.]

I love to bake!! But it normally involves chocolate because my whole family is addicted.. So the purple reels and a recipe to match is a challenge. I'm also famous for ice cream cakes and cheesecake - but none of them are purple either! Soo purple macaroons are going to be in my oven shortly just to be sure the recipe works! Lol! I'm loving the English/Scottish interchange. My FIL was Scottish so a lot of this is familiar. And us Aussies definitely have the strong English background! And I mash all those root vegetables too!!

Spools are going in the mail today. Will post photos later.

[Lorraine R.]

Thank you all for the interesting explanation to my inquiry about the haggis and Burns Night. I did watch that you tube video about the haggis and now I know what they were talking about. Will have to look at some of the links listed.
My spools will be in the mail end of this week. They are light blue with some brown, but after a glass or two of wine they begin to look slightly light purple. Not sure what to name them.
Lori

[Lorraine R.]

Blueberry muffins?

[Lorraine R.]

Dear Lori;

How about “Truffles” as in American chocolate truffles, not mushroom truffles? Is that correct. . .anyone. . anyone??

[Lorraine R.]

My heavens there are a lot of posts since I looked in yesterday! Let's see, 1) I am on the team which doesn't cook generally, only do it to keep my family from starving 2) although I live in the Midwestern United States, I thoroughly enjoyed the local Burns Supper on this past Saturday. And I not only ate the Haggis but I enjoyed it! My husband was born in England of parents born and raised in Scotland so bagpipes and all thing Scottish have been part of my life since I was 15. 3) I picked up the customs forms and the flat rate envelope from the post office today as well as a new cartridge for the printer so I can printout labels to sew on my reels and will get them off to Lorna in the next day or so. I'll sent Lorna and Rosemary an email when I do. 4) i cant speak or understand any other languages like French or Spanish but growing up in the midwest, spending lots of time with Scots, Brits, Irish and Aussies because of my husband's family and their close friends, then living in Georgia for 15 years, I am fairly fluent in a wide variety of "English" variations!

This is such a lively and fun group!

[Lorraine R.]

YUM!!! Blueberry muffins. That reminds me that I made Blueberry Oatmeal Clafoutis this morning, great way to start the day. Makes a 9 x 13 dish and will last several days or you can cut into squares and freeze. Pop a square in the microwave and drizzle with maple or agave syrup. That's it, my spools are officially named Blueberry Oatmeal Clafoutis.
Gee, those truffles sound good too.
Lori

[Deborah W.]

YUM!!! Blueberry muffins. That reminds me that I made Blueberry Oatmeal Clafoutis this morning, great way to start the day. Makes a 9 x 13 dish and will last several days or you can cut into squares and freeze. Pop a square in the microwave and drizzle with maple or agave syrup. That's it, my spools are officially named Blueberry Oatmeal Clafoutis.
Gee, those truffles sound good too.
Lori

I am definitely with the non-cooking group, not because I can't but because I don't really enjoy it that much. My grandmother, aunts, mother and sisters are wonderful cooks. I cooked a lot when I was still living at home BECAUSE if you cooked you didn't have to do dishes and I liked to do dishes even less than I liked cooking!!!! :lol: And Lori--what is clafoutis?

[Deborah W.]

Debbie - I googled clafoutis because there is beginning to be so many things food related on this forum that I don't know about, I was embarrassed to ask. But thank you for your humility!
ops:

I even mixed up Robbie Burns with Guy Fox! oops! They have a day for him too!

Maybe we could come up with a few uniquely Canadian things...?

[Deb A.]

[quote="Scoopie"]Oh Lotti, your recipe sounds soooooo yummy. I have a confession for all of you! I do not cook. ops: I do not like to cook! ops: Oh, I prepare the meals, but simplicity is the key! A good piece of meat, a fresh veggie, and a salad. I seldom try new recipes. Now I have to say, DebbieW guided me toward a Kraft recipe site, and I think it was made just for me! 3 or 4 ingredients, and open a can or jar! So, this recipe requirement has me shaking in my boots. I sew! I do not cook. Oh, sorry, I already said that! Why did I name my spools Creme Brulee? I do not have a creme brulee torch to caramelize the top sugar crust! Maybe I should change that to blackened tilapia! I do that REALLY well, with the help of Chef Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic!

Dawn your recipe for Huckleberry pie is one I will try . It really sounds yummy. Honestly here in Minnesota hucklyberries are not very common at least in my area. But we are going to Montana in June and I plan to look for those berries , or at least pie or jam !!.
I made purplish reels and was looking for a name and recipe ....... hmmm perhaps I will borrow this one . Thank you.
I work full time plus ......... so I appreciate meals that are healthy and simple.