Burn's Night Festivities

Yesterday was my first Burn's Night experience. Burn's Night is an evening of Haggis, whiskey in honor of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. There are specific traditions incorporated in this evening, including the Burn's supper of which I took part yesternight at Bara's house. The traditional order of the evening as I understand it is as follows:

Welcome of the Host

The Selkirk Grace
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it.
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.

Entrance of the haggis

Usually accompanied by some bagpipe music, kind of like a little parade for the main course and then there is the address to the Haggis (following) after which the Haggis is stabbed in front of the company gathered.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace As lang's my arm.	(sonsie = cheeky) (aboon = above) (painch = stomach, thairm = intestin
The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o' need, While thro' your pores the dews distil Like amber bead.	(hurdies = hips)
His knife see rustic Labour dicht, An' cut you up wi' ready slicht, Trenching your gushing entrails bricht, Like ony ditch; And then, O what a glorious sicht, Warm-reekin, rich!	(dicht = wipe, here with the idea of sharpening) (slicht = skill) (reeking = steaming)
Then, horn for horn, they stretch an' strive: Deil tak the hindmaist! on they drive, Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve, Are bent like drums; Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, "Bethankit" hums.	(deil = devil) (swall'd=swollen, kytes = bellies, belyve = soon) (rive = tear, ie burst)
Is there that o're his French ragout Or olio that wad staw a sow, Or fricassee wad mak her spew Wi' perfect scunner, Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view On sic a dinner?	(olio = olive oil, staw = make sick) (scunner = repugnance)
Poor devil! see him ower his trash, As feckless as a wither'd rash, His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit; Thro' bloody flood or field to dash, O how unfit!	(nieve = fist, nit = louse's egg, ie. tiny)
But mark the Rustic, haggis fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread. Clap in his wallie nieve a blade, He'll mak it whistle; An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned, Like taps o' thristle.	(wallie = mighty, nieve = fist) (sned = cut off) (thristle = thistle)
Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o' fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware That jaups in luggies; But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer, Gie her a haggis!	(skinkin ware = watery soup) (jaups = slops about, luggies = two-handled continental bowls)

Supper

After giving the Haggis its proper due, a meal is enjoyed. Traditionally, the Haggis is served with tatties and neeps. For a more detailed account of my first experience with Haggis, please see take a look at my next blog. :o)

After the meal there are a series of speeches shared in a specific order. I think that the BBC does a great couple of videos for the example of the speech 'Toast to the Lassies' and speech 'Response to the speech of the Lassies' at the following link. Robert Burns BBC

Our lovely hosts for the evening prepared a big screen experience of a video of Robert Burns, however the dinner conversation carried on so delightfully that before we knew it, it was time to depart. We will have to save the video for another day. However, before I part away from this blog I will tip my hat to another tradition of Burn's Night which is to read some of Robert Burn's poetry. Perhaps this is one with which you may be familiar:

A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

Because my first experience with Haggis deserves a seperate blog entry

Traditional Scottish fair on Burn's night includes Haggis. Haggis, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is:
A dish consisting of the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep, calf, etc. (or sometimes of the tripe and chitterlings), minced with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, etc., and boiled like a large sausage in the maw of the animal.

Don't let anyone tell you those Scots don't know how to party! eh? eh? I mean you would have to be quite drunk to dream up this combination (Although to be fair, there are many traditional foods around the world that seem as if they were created on a dare... lutefisk anyone?) Whatever the history of Haggis, I am glad that it was created. For Burns Night, Bara and Jim prepared a meat as well as a vegetarian Haggis. Not too much of a stretch to make it vegetarian, it already has oats and onions in it. Jim says that the consistency of the vegetarian one is very similar to the meat variety. I did not try the meaty Haggis, but the vegetarian one was delicious!

I think equal to my enjoyment of eating the Haggis was watching it being prepared. Quite interesting. I tried to look up for my blog land readers a detailed description of how the Haggis is cooked, but I kept finding ways in which to actually make it from scratch...hmm..including directions such as, 'wash the hearts lung and liver' and 'spoon the mixture inside the sheeps stomach.' After a few minutes of accidentally reading these recipes (when really I just wanted to make sure I was accurate on the cooking of it portion) I am a bit nauseated. SO! I will interpret what I witnessed in the preparation using my detailed memory, cultural biases, wild (most likely inaccurate) interpretations and of course... photos. Begin:

First step I was not able to capture in a photo, but involves driving around to many stores in order to find Haggis because we do not live so near to the Scottish border as to make it too readily accessible. Thanks again guys for your tireless efforts in hunting down our Haggis!

Second step is to take the haggis, wrap it and foil and boil the hell out of it for a long time. hours.

After the Haggis is all boiled, you stab it like you were in a pub fight, or at the end of a great hunt! rarr!

After the stabbing bit, the Haggis explodes (see video below!!) and oozes out of stomach lining (or whatever casing it may be.) This is a tricky step, artfully managed by Jim, where the steaming hot innards of the haggis are squished out of their casing into a bowl for everyone to enjoy.

Equally important, but I believe not an official step is to make sure that the cat does not get to the main course before we do. Down kitty. Well, that is basically how it is prepared, but equally important on Burn's night is the way it is presented. Please see Burn's Night entry for the details. :o)

Wandering around Wales-Llangollen

After submitting two massive essays, I fled from Leeds to enjoy more of the English countryside. Taking a break from most academic work as well as my blog. I drove with Tim down to Chester and after mentally resting for a few days we went on a lovely walk around a tiny place in Wales called Llangollen. It is strange to see Welsh written everywhere, and I tried this treat called a Welsh cake that was delicious! We had good luck with the weather and walked along the canal periodically stopping to watch the ducks dip in the water. I love it when they do that completely upside down thing, it is just hilarious. We managed to walk over to a really lovely Abbey, Valle Crucis Abbey founded in 1201. I am amazed at the way in which the United Kingdom is littered with historic old sites. They are so saturated with these beautiful old sites, that this Abbey is actually bordered by quite a large trailer park. Which is kind of amusing to me. Old beautiful ruins, trailer park, sheep, did I mention a few rope swings as well? Yup. All in a days walk.

My mother is a Christmas cookie genius

This is the reason for the season. Every year my mom whips up some of the most tasty cookies for the holiday season. As I was snowed into my parents house for the first week of my holiday break, I had plenty of time to sample the festive Christmas goodies... YUM!!! The cookies that you do not see featured on this plate are called Peanut Butter Kisses... they are my favorite; which may explain why... by the time I got around to taking this photo... they were gone :o) But I have included the recipe following for anyone who feels adventurous. They are not the healthiest item on which to nibble... but hey! It is Christmas!

Peanut butter kiss cookies

1 c. butter
2/3 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. granular sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
16 oz. pkg. chocolate kiss candy

Combine butter, peanut butter and sugars; blend until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; blend. Mix flour, salt and soda, add to cream mixture; stir well. Roll dough into quarter size balls. Roll ball in bowl of sugar. Bake dough at 350 degrees for 8 minutes, take out, place chocolate kiss in center of each cookie. Bake an additional 2 minutes.

These Cats are on the Naughty List.

These are my mom's cats: Thelma in the back, and Louise in the front. As the title of this blog entry may suggest, they are on the naughty list. The teacher in me wants to say that they are not bad cats, but it is their actions which are of a deviant nature... but I am not entirely convinced that this is true... I can handle them unplugging the Christmas tree once, but everyday? Multiple times a day?? Christmas lights on... off... on.... off... there must be a solution to this. I foolishly left the ear buds for my Zune sitting on the bed, and when I returned they had detached the left ear bud in what I can only imagine to be rambunctious playtime... however, the following day I returned to find the other ear bud mangled from its source... I can only conclude foul play... also carelessness on my part.

The picture above was taken after I had left to make a cup of tea... which takes so much longer at my parents' house because they do not have an electric kettle... To say that these cats are needy is a bit of an understatement, especially Louise. She will actually run up onto the back of a chair and try to jump into your arms so you will pet her. Quite cute actually.

Please don't misunderstand me, I love cats. I have a kitty cat blanket that my grandmother made me when I was a child, I was a black cat on Halloween for a decade of my childhood, not to mention the blue ribbon (okay now I am just bragging) as I was saying... the first place blue winner mcwinnerson ribbon I won all by myself in kindergarten for drawing 100 cats in the district wide art competition. (In storage in my parents front closet, viewings available upon request.)

I guess the moral of the story is that whilst the cats are indeed a bit mischievous and troublesome, I have enjoyed their company in my mornings of jet lag since returning to Washington State... we are on the same schedule. 5am! time to wake up! I can take a little bit of their penchant for trouble (as long as I hide my electronics!!) if it means I have a friend with whom to snuggle next to the fire during the winter storms. :o)

breaking news..... Okay a little amendment to this blog entry. Louise (the primarily white cat) just came sprinting into the living room as if her tail was on fire, obviously startled by the Starbucks bag she had managed to fall into and get the handle caught around her neck... oh man. I wish I had taken a video. The cat is fine, startled but fine, and my mom and I could not stop laughing. Of course there are now Starbucks gifts all over the house, and Louise was wearing the paper bag handle like a necklace, but my sides hurt from laughing... so I would say I got the good end of the deal.

I'll be home for Christmas...

Just after Thanksgiving this year, I decided to fly to Washington State to visit my friends and family in the greater Seattle area for the holidays. It was quite an adventure, I chose to keep my homecoming a secret surprise from my mom as well as from my housemate for two years and friend, Tracey. I do love giving a good surprise! I flew in on Thursday, and not a day too soon! Turns out that Thursday night the northwest was hit with the worst snow storm in at least a decade! People are stranded at the airport unable to get connecting flights out, or in... I had an unusually large amount of good travel karma for my trip... I think maybe stored up from all the bad luck I've had with trains for the past few months... Not only did I score a direct flight on British Airways, but it was fully booked and I was bumped up to business class :o) free wine! better food! It was one of the more enjoyable flights of my travels thus far.

Coming home I had my dad go in first then knocked on the door and my mom almost choked on her broccoli as she came to the door to give me a hug and trilled repeatedly: "Rachey's home!" Was great fun surprising her. :o) I've decided to include a little photo I took in the height of all the excitement as she called people to tell her that I had returned for the holidays. ha ha ha.


It is lovely being with my parents for the holidays. I arrived amidst the flurry of snowy weather, but also amidst the flurry of Christmas cookie preparation... one of my favorite bits of Christmas is the over abundance of cookies made especially by family... especially by my madre. As any one of my longtime friends will attest, my mom really has the magical touch when it comes to baking. I think it is because her recipes include love. Yup. that's right... LOVE...


Friday I was off to surprise Tracey. I arrived at the Tacoma house and it was really strange how normal it was to sit and chat with Mike on his lunch break, as if I hadn't been gone for months. Eventually I cozied up in Tracey's bed and waited for her to arrive home from cross country skiing. When we finally heard her come through the front door I put the blankets over my head and waited for her to walk into her bedroom where she thought someone had been taking a nap in her bed until I popped up and said, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" She proceeded to tackle me witha big hug and hit me on the back saying, "What are you doing here!?!" "You are suppose to be in England?!?!" "How are you here!?!" And though I will be a little bruised on my back... it was so worth it; I'll never forget her face!

All in all not a bad start to a holiday. I think it really set the right tone of celebration for me. I have no gifts to bring but tea and some jaffa cakes, and the real present for me is being here with people that I love, an added bonus is the realization that being present with the people you love is a gift you can enjoy anytime you come together... anytime of year... Merry Christmas!

Chester

After finishing course work (excepting essays) for the term, and before going home for the holidays, I took a little trip to the historic town of Chester! What a great little mini-break! I adore Chester, the city is fantastic, retains a small town feel whilst having all the pubs and shops for which one could hope. I also really enjoy the fact that Chester is also the name of my brother's pet bunny, so when I often think of my brother :o) This first picture is me under Eastgate clock. I am told it is one of the most photographed clocks in England. I can see why, it is really lovely. One thing you can't sense from this picture, however, is the smell of the donuts shop that is directly to the right under the bridge. All good sense tells me I should abhor the smell of fried dough covered in sugar, but for some reason in that moment it completed the clock experience.... and made me hungry...

View from the bridge. Chester is unique because it has the remains of a the Roman wall that still surrounds most of the city and all these lovely Tudor style buildings that those crazy Victorians saw fit to build. I think the Christmas lights are fairly modern.

I went to my first proper tea shop whilst in Chester. It was great! Tim and I ordered tea for two and then I wavered between the Victorian sponge cake and crumpets. In the end, after having the proprietor of the tea shop explain to me the different types of cakes, I went for the Victorian. I am practicing my British smile in this picture :o)Friday night, Tim and I went to this really awesome celebration on the waterfront in Chester. I think they called it some sort of wish festival and involved ambient hippie music and ethereal paper lanterns that they then ceremoniously released into the water, glowing as they floated past the crowds. the lanterns and paper shapes were floating from the trees and all around, it was beautiful. There was one point that defies description, but I will try my best by saying it involved large electronic swans the size of small boats and there was a person on the back of each of these swans doing an interpretive dance. Yup. I think that sums it up. Then there were the fireworks... best display I have seen in quite sometime! I very much enjoy Chester.