Festive soup

Go into any Shetland kitchen at this time of year and you will find a large metal pan on the cooker which contains some kind of soup, traditionally made on reestit mutton (salted, cured yowe) and including, onions, tatties, neeps, keel and carrots.

Now I am not a big fan of this (too salty) and it could also be because I am a bit crap at making soup and various other dishes, it doesn't help that I am plagued by a family of wonderful cooks. And yes I know soup is one of the easiest things you can make, Billy (he of the 24 hour, hunder weight o tattie soup marathon), but I am really just not that good at it. So, I decided to give it a go, first to get the meat, and I decided on ham (or smoked hough, ham joint, have to get the terminology right) and I did get a lovely bit from the Globe butcher (simply the best butcher in the world, ever!), it also helped that it came vaccuum packed. I knew what had to go in the soup but wasn't sure in what order, does everything go first, or do you boil the meat first, so I did what anyone would do in that situation and phoned Rachey (I would have phoned Mam but she was in bed with th sickness and didn't think she would appreciate talking about food). I boiled the meat with an onion for 2 hours as instructed , tasted it (a bit like hot water with oil on top) and again, as instructed added stock cubes (what would this world be without stock cubes, it doesn't bear thinking about) to give it a taste, and do you know I had already bought ham stock cubes in anticipation and they come wrapped in baby pink foil - brilliant! So I added the rest of the ingredients and cooked for a further hour and would you believe it wasn't actually that bad, and quite tasty once I added the ham from the hough thingy.

So I will head off to town tomorrow in search of reestit mutton (I'll be bloody lucky at this time of year) and I shall attempt to make real tattie soup.

Now there's a new years resolution, to make soup (wonder if Billy would be willing to give lesson's?, I promise not to make fun of him and his soup making).

See you next year.

Christmas and beyond

So with all the presents wrapped, all the cards sent (even managed to catch last date for 2nd class stamps), I thought me and Rob would go up to Whiteness and visit Mam, Susie and Minty (they were staying at Rachey and Billy's to look after the dogs over Christmas whilst they were away in Hong Kong). We had a lovely night, swopped some presents had some drams and ended up staying all night. The next day me and Rob went to Lerwick to find flowers, and not a one could we find! We did end up ordering a bouquet from Stems (beautiful as ever Steve!), which I sent me Man in to pick up later on.
We spent Christmas Eve beside the in laws, had loads of food, swopped lots of presents and had quite a few drams, then came home and gave each other our presents, I got a Sex and the City boxed set (just need a few days in front of the telly to watch it now), and lots of other lovely things, oh, I even got a plastic gun thing which catches spiders (will be great for the shed!).
Got up on Christmas Day, quite late (9am), I think Rob has finally grown up, and didn't want to get up for Santy (usually awake at 5am), but I dragged her out of bed and we went through, and would you beleive it, I got Santy too!!!!!!!!! It was great. We had Brunie (or Huffsie if you come from Whalsay) and tea, then cracked open the bubbly and fresh orange.
We had a taxi booked to take us up to Whiteness for Christmas dinner, and after Mam calmed down because the oven wouldn't cook the Turkey, 'Soooosin, I telt you we should have put on da Turkey at nine o'clock, it's all your fault', we had more presents and more drams and an absolutley fabulous dinner.
Maggie and Sparky couldn't come up to Whiteness, as Millie (Minty's dog) would probably have killed them, but we got pictures of them under the Christmas tree looking very festive.
The last few days have been very lazy, sleeping late, eating at the wrong time and generally lying around.
So the next round is Hogmanay and into the new year.

Update

It feels like month's since I was here last, but I must post an update on what's been going on.

CHILDREN IN NEED
We had a party at big sister Rachey's house for Children in Need, it was a sort of auction night, everyone had to bring clothes to auction and a good raffle prize (I took a Burra Bear), the other lasses had brilliant ideas, Rachey donated a gourmet meal for 2 (in your own home), Susie donated a full house Susie shine (top to bottom house spring clean), Sharey donated her time for a day to do anything (she's pretty crafty, and can turn her hand to anything), Billy donated a boat trip, Big Tam donated a paint job, Melanie donated a smoked trout, and Mam donated 2 of her Mam's makkin ponchos. There was a prize for the best dressed (from a Charity shop), and Sharey won, she came dressed as Teenie Ingamore (see the photos)
, she was hilarious, Mam didn't even know who it was to begin with!! So on top of all this we listened to BBC Radio Shetland's Children in Need and bid on items in their auction. We won such delights as a Poly Tunnel, tickets to the local Panto and a chance to name a fudge. There was also the auction (in house) and Rachey and Billy were stand in's for Harry Hay, as he couldn't make it. So all in all it was a lovely night with good food and many drams, and we made over £400 to go to Children in Need which Rachey left with the Radio Shetland Team.


DECORATING
You know, decorating is one of those thing's that once you start it's really kind of hard to stop. For those of you who followed me in the Shetland Weekly, you wil recall the decorating antics. So we started once again, this time on the end room (used for office, dressing room, studying room etc etc etc). Now this wasn't a case of slapping on some paint and paper, the whole 4 walls and roof had to come down and be re-lined and insulated, which was rather nice as most of it was the dredded V Lining. So me Man started, and all the room's contents had to be emptied and found new homes in the garage, bedroom and the living room (it was really quite a small room, but there was some pile of crap that came out of it). So the dust rose and settled for a few weeks, then he painted, the furniture arrived and I now have a rather nice room which actually looks like what it is meant for, an office!
While all this was happening I had a lovely big envelope arrive through the post one morning with Rachey's writing on it, and it was wallpaper samples and within half an hour I had phoned her up and she had ordered the ones I liked. It arrived the very next week and I called Colin (the decorator who is simply the best), he came within a few days and the kitchen and dining room were looking perfect (I did try to scrape off the old paper, spent about 3 hours, got about 1 metre square done and gave up). Praise be to the decorator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PANTOMIME
Around this time of year the Burra players hold their Pantomime, and it was all set, we were in rehersal (after me making a fuss about not wanting a big part, and getting my own way), when came the news that it had been cancelled due to one of the main characters having to go for an operation doon sooth. Now after being delighted and punching the air excitedly, I did think it was rather a shame it wasn't going ahead. But we had the after show party (without the show) and that was fun, although I do have vague memories of getting home from the Sooth End hall, I checked the camera the next day as I did remember taking photos (see me, Bobby and Gordon, team for the Quiz, can't rememer if we won?).

OTHER STUFF
So in between doing all of the above I have been madly making Burra Bears, as we have to work as well you know. Spending most nights out in the Shed sewing, stuffing, finishing, labelling and generally trying to get all the orders done in time for Christmas, but with the help of my fabulous Teddy Bear makers we did it, and with a week to spare would you believe it!
So the weekend before Christmas I was all set to go shopping for presents as I hadn't actually done anything about that side of it. And then the snow came, now I did attempt to get into Lerwick but got to Scalloway, and my little C2 started to protest by sliding all over the road, so we stopped, skidded around for a while before actually managing to turn around and headed for home. As with most Shetland weather it disappeared as quickly as it arrived, and the next day (Sunday) we headed for town, got there around 12, did a little shopping, had lunch, did some more shopping and was home by 6pm with all presents bought (think that has to be some sort of a record). The next night I wrote out all Christmas cards, wrapped all presents and got to bed about 2am, absolutely delighted with my achievements and a little drunk (well, you need somthing to see you through all that).