Celebrating Hogmanay at Home

Hogmanay is Scotland's New Year's Eve celebration.  This is a very festive event, in the large cities it is a massive street party.  Some of the festivities include torch processions, fireworks, bagpipes and large bonfires. The Scots seem to celebrate New Year better than anywhere else in the world!

New Year's Eve is a busy day preparing to see the old year out and the new year in.  There are several things that are involved in preparing for Hogmanay. 

"Redding" the house - cleaning the house before midnight is traditional, as is cleaning out the fireplace.  Many believed that they could read the ashes to know what to expect from the coming year.  Another tradition called the "Saining" of the household involved the woman of the house purifying each room with a smoldering juniper branch. 

People also believed that all debts and loans should be paid off before the New Year began.  Entering the new year with outstanding debts was considered unlucky. 

Fire plays a big part in Hogmanay. In addition to the torch light processions bonfires are very popular. The use of fire to purify and drive away evil spirits is an ancient idea.  It is believed that they cannot have a new year until the old year has gone. Fire is used to "burn up" the old year and make way for the new year. In some towns dummies are made and burned in effigy to symbolize the old year being burned away and letting in the new year.

As in many countries the stroke of midnight brings kissing, well wishing and the singing of Auld Lang Syne.

Another Hogmanay custom is First Footing. It literally means the "first foot" to step into a house in the new year.  After midnight, neighbors visit each other, bearing traditional symbolic gifts such as whisky, salt, shortbread, coal and black bun. These gifts were to ensure the household would be safe, warm and have enough to eat for the year.  The visitor, in turn, is offered a food and a wee dram of whisky. In order for the household to have good luck in the coming year the "first foot" over the threshold should be a dark haired male.  Redheads and blondes, especially women, were considered bad luck. 

In the morning the first person awake is supposed to take the Het Pint to the other family members. Het Pint is a mixture of ale, nutmeg, eggs, sugar and whisky.  This should give us an idea of the exuberant celebration that occurs for Hogmanay.   

New Year's Eve fire ~ after cleaning the ashes

Our Hogmanay celebration consisted of "redding the house" and Scottish food.  Considering we are in a rental house we figured huge bonfires might not be a great idea. I did want to go First Footing in our new neighborhood.  Since no one knows us it would have been great fun to knock on their doors after midnight. But we restrained ourselves....maybe next year in our next neighborhood!   At our old house we had neighbors where the women was a redhead and the man tall and dark.  She would come over to our house and spend the evening with us on New Year's Eve. When her husband got off of work he would come over to our house, arriving after midnight to be our "first footer".  Those were good years so the luck seems to work!

For dinner we had steak pie....

Scottish Steak Pie

mashed rutabagas and carrots.....

Mashed Rutabagas and carrots

Cullen Skink.... Not only is it fun to tell your family you are having "Cullen Skink" for dinner but it tastes good too!  It is a thick soup made with potatoes, onions and smoked haddock.  I had some trouble finding smoked haddock but eventually was able to get it.  The smoked haddock provides most of the flavor of the soup so I'm not sure how well another fish would work.

Cullen Skink

For dessert we had shortbread and Cranachan... Cranachan is a dessert made with raspberries, oatmeal, whipped cream, honey and whisky.

Cranachan

Cranachan

oatcakes and Scottish cheese

a wee dram

whisky for Hogmanay

not Scottish, but part of our traditions ~ champagne, Chambord, raspberries

a Hogmanay blessing

'til next time...

Our Christmas, the lazy Elf, an unsupervised child in the middle of the night and a Colonial Christmas Dinner

It was strange unpacking my Christmas things this year.  When I packed my decorations away earlier this year I never dreamed we would be spending our next Christmas in a different house.  Knowing that next Christmas will be in yet another place and keep our decor to a minimum this year.  

Except for having two trees. That didn't really fall into the "keeping things simple" plan.   I really wanted a tree to put in front of the big window in the living room but we spend most of our time in the family room so we wanted to have something festive there.  Since this is most likely the largest house we will ever live in we decided to take advantage of the space and have two.  It worked out beautifully, I was able to put my favorite ornaments on the tree in the living room and let the kids decorate the family room tree.  According to my kids the tree must be redecorated every day, their morning ritual soon included moving all the ornaments around on their tree. 

Wythe decorating their tree

The kids wrote their letters to Santa.  I thought that since handwriting is still laborious for them they may shorten their list a little but they showed remarkable perseverance in laboring over all that handwriting.  It did take a few days to complete the letters but when we went to mail them we realized that our new town doesn't have a Macy's.  Fortunately Peter had a meeting in Northern VA and we were able to go with him and get our letters mailed.

Wythe was given a bunch of Hess toys this fall, they have become his "favorist thing in the whole earth!"  He brought them out to show them his Christmas tree.

introducing his Hess trucks to his tree

Our elf, Notch, had a difficult time finding us this year. I guess he didn't receive our change of address form, he didn't show up until about a week before Christmas.  It was really odd, maybe he was exhausted from the work of trying to find us, but once he got here he just picked a spot and kept returning to the same spot.  In years past we had to search each morning to find him but this year he returned to the tree every-single-morning.  

And that folks, is what we call "lazy parent Elf on a Shelf". 

Our elf, Notch, apparently found the perfect spot this year!

This year we didn't participate in many Christmas activities. I'm sure this town has more than I was aware of but definitely not the options we are used to.  We did do the Gingerbread Express, which is a Christmas light tour.  Before the tour you meet at the children's museum where they serve cookies and hot chocolate then everyone piles into a school bus for a tour that lasts about 45 minutes.  We enjoyed it, the kids were particularly impressed to ride a school bus and somewhat amazed that it was my first ride on a school bus too!   I do think the bus could have been a bit more festive,  some Christmas music would have been a nice touch.  We tried to be jolly and even sing a bit, one other family attempted to do the same but the rest of the bus stared out the window or dealt with fussy toddlers up past their bedtime.  If we do it again we will try to go with a group of people we know.

Christmas Eve

saying goodbye to Notch (kinda feels like he just got here...)

Before tucking the kids into bed we explained that they were not allowed to open any presents until everyone was awake and that 'when it was morning' they could wake mom and dad up and we would all go out and see what Santa brought.
A little before 4 a.m. Wythe woke me up.  "Santa came and brought LOTS of stuff!!!  And he brought me the Hess truck I asked for!!!   I sorted it all out for you and I kind of got into my stocking."
I told him it was too early to get up and put him back to bed.  A little while later we got up and then realized what he had been trying to tell us.  I'm not sure what time he actually got up but it was apparent he had been awake for quite some time before he woke me up.  He had emptied his stocking, laying out everything on the floor, he had eaten many of the treats in his stocking, including the hot-chocolate-on-a-stick mixes in his stocking.  I'm not even sure how one swallows that mix......ugg!     He also sorted out all the gifts under the tree.  As you can see in the previous pictures Santa does a pretty good job of stacking the gifts around the tree in a manner that is pleasing to the eye.  Wythe's way was different.  He pulled out every gift that had his name on it, regardless of whether it said "To: Wythe" or "From: Wythe" and piled those packages underneath the piano.  So, he was busy while we were sleeping soundly!  I do have to give him credit, he didn't open any wrapped gifts!

people around the town probably heard the shrieks "a Frozen watch!!"

"Santa got me the exact truck I wanted!!"

the aftermath

That evening my brother and his family joined us for our Christmas dinner.  Once again I tried for a Colonial/Dickenson Christmas meal.  The menu was:
Peanut Soup
Roasted Butternut Squash
Roasted brussels sprouts with chestnuts
Ham with brandied peaches

Sally Lunn bread

Mince meat pie (made by my sister-in-law)
I normally buy a Christmas pudding from a lady at the local church, this year I didn't get one from her since we had moved.  It was too late to try my hand at making one since it needs a couple months to cure. I was able to find one but it was so tiny that it wasn't even enough for each person to have a bite, so we had a cranberry pie as well.

 

Christmas dinner - wearing our hats from our Christmas crackers

Christmas Dinner 2014

'til next time...

An autumn meal...

As the farmer's market comes to an end for the season I had to indulge in lamb chops one more time.  Paired with roasted beets and kale it made a wonderful autumn meal.

'til next time...

Pineapple sage

I have been growing pineapple sage for a few years. It grows almost like a weed and it is fairly easy to divide and transplant. The plant grows tall, over 5 feet tall and has more leaves than I will ever be able to use! The leaves look similar to sage, they have that downy look that regular sage has. But the sage fragrance is so faint as to be almost non-existent. What you do smell is a lovely, tropical pineapple scent.

There are many uses for the leaves and I haven't even begun to make use of all of them.  A few things I have tried are using the leaves as garnish in drinks, iced tea is a favorite. Chopped up and added to salads is nice too. Or course you can add the leaves to fruit salads but it also works well in a lettuce salad when using a lemon vinaigrette.  The leaves minced and mixed with cream cheese make a delicious spread for bread or crackers. I have used the leaves in a mango salsa as well as in a marinade for pork or chicken.  I had thought to try making a sorbet this year but never tried it with the pineapple sage, I would imagine it would be very refreshing!  I have read that you can dry the leaves and use them for a tea. I have tried drying leaves but have found them to loose their scent.  As  I do with all my excess herbs I throw some cuttings into the chicken house to freshen it up.

If you do grow pineapple sage make sure you don't cut it back in the fall until after it blooms.  The blooms are a vibrant red, very much appreciated as most everything else will be finished blooming and growing by this time.  I have heard the blooms are edible but I have never tried them, I enjoy leaving them on the plant to enjoy their beauty.

'til next time...

Last gasp of summer...

The other day the temperature was in the 60's and all I could think about was warm food, apples, soups.  But the past few days have been warm and I've been trying to enjoy those last tomatoes off the vine.  

There are still a few peaches and nectarines at the Farmers Market but we are at the end of that season. This year I tried a couple new recipes using peaches and nectarines for dessert. One of our favorites was from Aiden at Conjugating Irregular Verbs.  This recipe for poached nectarines was absolutely delicious and I look forward to using it again next summer!  I didn't have as many nectarines so I cut mine in half to serve, her picture of the whole nectarines looks even prettier. 

Poached nectarines in Herbes de Provence with simple syrup

The simple syrup definitely makes this a dessert fruit and is a perfect end to a summer meal.  Head on over to Aiden's blog to check out the recipe, click here for the link.

'til next time...

Winding up the summer with pasta....

Summer pasta salads are so refreshing. You can add almost any vegetable from your garden and can mix with a variety of dressings. 

This summer I made quite a few salads from our garden using peppers, tomatoes, green beans or whatever was growing at the time.  The salad in the picture was dressed with basil pesto but I have also tried some flavored grapeseed oils from Wildtree. The Zesty Lemon Grapeseed and Basil Pesto Grapeseed oils are both delicious over a pasta salad. 

Fall weather is in the air and I'm looking forward to the autumn flavors but I'm also trying to squeeze in as many last bits of summer food as well. 

'till next time...

Summer Squash Soup

Almost every summer we have squash coming out of our ears and I'm always looking for ways to use it.  We love squash but after awhile....well, it starts to lose its charm.   

This year my garden has been less than stellar so I haven't had the over abundance of vegetables that I normally have.  I did, however, have enough squash ripe at one time to make soup. This soup is best slightly warm or room temperature so it is easily enjoyed on a hot summer day. 

Summer Squash Soup

5 yellow squash

1-1/2 TBSP butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

salt and pepper

2 tsp Better Than Bouillon chicken base (or two cubes bouillon)

3/4 cup heavy cream

garlic croutons

Parmesan cheese

Steam squash till tender.  Put in blender and puree.

Saute onion and garlic in butter till onion is translucent and slightly caramelized.  

Add the squash to the onion mixture. 

Add chicken base and bring to a boil. After the mixture has reached a boil pour into blender and puree.  

Pour pureed mixture into a pan and add cream, heating over medium low heat till warm through.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Depending on the water content in the squash you use you may need to adjust the liquid in the soup. At this point you can thin the soup with more cream or thicken with flour.    

Serve the soup with Parmesan cheese and croutons sprinkled over the top. 

'til next time...

Making basil pesto

Since my basil plants were on the verge of bolting I decided it was time to make basil pesto.   I had just pinned a recipe from Pinterest and was inspired to try it out.   The recipe I used was from the Heather Bullard website, click on the link to see her recipe.

I made the pesto according to her directions and it turned out great. I then made a couple other batches with a few changes as I was running out of ingredients. 


Here are a few of the changes I tried, successfully and non-successfully.

I substituted walnuts for pine nuts and even though it changes the flavor a bit the walnut pesto is still delicious.
I ran out of olive oil and tried substituting grapeseed oil. This definitely changed the taste of the pesto and left it a little bland. The olive oil does add flavor to the pesto.
I found it is important to use a real grated hard cheese, such as Parmesan. My last batch I was running out of "real" Parmesan and substituted a store brand "grated Parmesan" that is a softer cheese.  The texture of the pesto changed and got a little gooey.

'til next time...

Grilled Chicken with peach salsa

For Wythe's 4th birthday party I served grilled chicken with a peach salsa. This is a great dish for these hot summer days, very refreshing.  The chicken can be grilled ahead of time and served cold. In my previous post I included the recipe for coconut rice, the rice made a fantastic side dish to this chicken.

Grilled Chicken with peach salsa
6 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 TBSP grapeseed oil
2 TBSP lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper


Combine all ingredients and let marinate 30 minutes. 


Cook chicken on charcoal grill, set aside.


Peach salsa:
3 peaches, peeled and diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/3 cup sweet pepper (red, orange or yellow), diced
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 TBSP fresh mint leaves, chopped (optional)
1 TBSP fresh lemon-lime basil leaves, chopped (optional)
1 TBSP fresh pineapple sage leaves, chopped (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp brown sugar
1 TBSP lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper


Combine all ingredients, let sit at least 30 minutes. Can be made up to 1 day ahead of time and kept refrigerated. 
Spoon salsa over grilled chicken and serve. 
Serves 6. 

Coconut Rice Recipe

For Wythe's 4th birthday party one of the dishes I made was coconut rice.  It is amazingly easy to make and made a nice side dish to the chicken with peach salsa. 

Coconut Rice

14 ounce can coconut milk

1-1/2 cups water

2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 cups jasmine rice

parsley, chopped

Combine coconut milk, water, sugar, salt and pepper in pan.

Add rice, bring to a boil. 

Simmer for about 15 minutes till liquid is mostly absorbed. Mixture should be very wet, almost soupy.  Rice can easily burn because of coconut milk, be careful to not overcook. 

Garnish rice with chopped parsley. Serve warm or room temperature. 

Serves 6-8

Note:  You can leave the sugar out of the recipe but I found that the coconut flavor was more pronounced adding the sugar. 

'til next time...

Celebrating Valentine's Day with small children...

...or rather, attempting to celebrate Valentine's Day with small children.

Pre-kids Valentine's Day was usually a romantic dinner for the two of us, something more like this.

But now that we have a 3-year-old and 2-year-old it is not quite the same. Celebrating the Hallmark version of Valentine's Day would entail making reservations at a restaurant, hiring a sitter and not nodding off during dinner, all those pesky details.

The past few years we have splurged on "ready to cook" meals from my favorite grocery store and indulged in desserts from the European bakery.  This year I had the brilliant idea of including the kids in on a nice dinner with us. In my fantasy world, we would sit around the table, eating our fancy food, discussing the history of Valentine's Day. The children would be well mannered, would eat the food served to them, listen attentively and learn about Saint Valentine, drink from their crystal water glasses without spilling, and never once think that it would be fun to stick things in the candle flame.

The table before the kids were seated....my fantasy is still alive.

My rosy tinted view of Valentine's Day dinner started to fade when every five minutes one of us was leaving the table to do this.

We don't always raise a glass of champagne to toast potty training achievements, but it was Valentine's Day after all.

As anyone who is acquainted with young children would know, my fantasy world came crashing down around my head.  We quickly shoveled food down the throats of the little beasts, shoved their arms and legs into pajamas and tossed those little ambiance destroyers into bed.

Then we shut the door to their room, turned up the Andrea Bocelli music really loud, rearranged the table to look like this...

...and attempted to ignore the outraged protests coming from our heathen offspring.

Without the savages at the table the romantic atmosphere seemed to return.

We gazed at the floating candles....

...and at the roses my husband brought me...

...and consumed the following...

...and that's how you celebrate a romantic Valentine's Day with small children.

'til next time...

The downside to Pinterest

Can there be such a thing??  I mean, I haven't yet heard any stories of a family starving to death while mommy pins away but I am sure there have been some close calls. 

The problem with Pinterest is that there are just So. Many. Daggone. Cool. Things.  And frankly, sometimes it is more fun to collect ideas rather than actually do them.  I have looked at enough kids crafts and activities to keep my kids busy through college. 

And recipes....if I randomly picked out one each day I could probably have our meals planned for the next few months. But like I said, it is easier to ogle recipes and pin them than to actually fix the meal. 

All that being said, I love Pinterest and I'm sure I will continue to find ways to justify the amount of time I waste on the site.

'til next time...

Addition update - Christmas parties, Santa bread, picking paint colors and tile....always tile

 My eyes hurt.

I'm tired of looking at paint samples the size of your thumb nail and trying to envision what that will look like in an entire room.

Or looking at a piece of tile and trying to decide what this will look like on the wall.  Should it run in a straight line, run it off-set, on a diagonal? what color grout should we use?  where should the decorative pieces go?  Just when I think I have it figured out I find out that I need to change it.  I have redrawn the plans for the tile pattern many times but it seems that the basic design has been worked out.

The hours we have spent on this bathroom...I had better get some good soaks in that tub!

This weekend we had some friends over for a Christmas brunch and gift exchange for the kids. Once again we said "this will be the LAST party we hold in the addition!"   It would seem we are starting an annual tradition of saying "this is the last event we will hold in the future master bedroom", maybe this is indeed the last.  Looking at some pictures that were posted on Facebook I realized that it looked as though the kids were opening their presents on the diaper aisle at Walmart.

All those boxes are full of books from the bookcase that we just moved.  Oh well,  it could have been worse, the other boxes we had were all liquor boxes.  Better if the pictures look like we are holding a kids party on the diaper aisle rather than the liquor store.

"Santa bread"

'til next time...

Being thankful and eating, lots of eating...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year.  We celebrated and feasted with family and some very dear friends!

And....the festivities all took place in our master bedroom.  A.K.A., our ongoing addition project.  One day, in the future as we are enjoying our new master suite, it will be funny and strange to think of all the entertaining we have done in that room. "oh, the parties we have had in here...."

Last year my parents and brother joined us for Thanksgiving, we sat in the addition and said "well, it sure is nice to use this area one more time before it is finished!  Next year we will have a real dining room to sit in!"

Wrong.

But it all worked out for the best.  We had a total of 16 people this year and would have been hard pressed to fit anywhere else in the house!  I did most of the cooking, it was a lot of work but also very fun to fix a feast.  Thanksgiving is a meal that I want to have many side dishes, that only works if you are cooking for a crowd.

Here is a picture of the adults table

and the picture of our feast...

The food was delicious and plentiful but the company and conversation was amazing. There were lots of laughs but also lots of deep thought provoking conversation too.  It was a perfect Thanksgiving for me!

'til next time...

A Beatrix Potter birthday party

I was struggling to come up with a theme for my daughter's 2nd birthday.  She really isn't into princesses, butterflies or most of the "girl" themes you see.  She is actually into trains and cars, if I was really having the party for her, like I pretend I am, I would have had a Lightning McQueen party, that would have made her happy.

But I didn't.

Instead I happened upon the cutest Beatrix Potter theme party ware.  Which also happened to be the most expensive stuff they had in the store, Of course. But since we are made of money (HAHA) and since she got cheated our of a real party last year I decided to splurge. Click here  for her fabulous 1 year old party she had last year.

These were the plates...

and the napkins...

gift bags...they had miniature Beatrix Potter books, a bag of cheddar bunnies and a bag of veggie sticks.

One of the decorations was a Beatrix Potter carousel, it was unbelievably cute!

I did not make a cake, just carrot cupcakes with these cute little toppers.

Utensils, rolled and in a pail.  Wrappers on the utensils said "Happy Birthday Ainsley!"

The food was labeled with characters or stories from Beatrix Potter.

This wasn't really healthy, and I'm sure the other moms secretly hated me for it, but the idea was just too cute to pass up!

I printed off images from the Beatrix Potter books and hung them from the ceiling for decorations.

And here is the birthday girl....

Don't you just want to smooch that sweet face?!?

We had a great party, there were 16 children here age 3 and under.  

Chaos, would probably be the right word, but it was fun chaos!

'til next time...