Burns Nght Post #4: The Wrap Up

The Dinner:
As y'all know, I rarely eat meat, but for Burns Night I'm happy to indulge in a little haggis. Stephanie has been making a veggie version for years, but last year Wendy brought the real deal. She brought it again this year, & I loved it. It didn't last long, & I feel that it's gotten a bad rap in culinary circles. I get the fact that it sounds nasty... sheep hearts, lungs, & livers ground up & mixed w/ oats & potatoes & then stuffed into the sheep's stomach... but it's delicious.

Stephanie's veggie haggis consists of red & brown lentils, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, & peanuts. It's awesome. We had it again last night & there are leftovers so I'll be having it again today or tomorrow... if it makes it that long.

I made Brussels sprouts w/ chestnuts. I sauteed the chestnuts in ghee w/ apple & red onion while boiling the Brussels sprouts. They then go into a casserole dish & slipped into the oven w/ more ghee. Brussels sprouts, along w/ haggis, get hated almost universally, & I don't get it. They're really good.

Rachel brought the neeps & tatties... mashed potatoes w/ turnips. Along w/ the haggis, it's the other traditional half of the Burns Night dinner.

Stacey brought oranges (orange & blood) steeped in Drambuie... they were a big hit... & as it turns out, Drambuie is pretty damn good.

Once the other food was gone, Dawn showed up w/ awesome bridies & pasties from Ackroyd's Scotch Bakery in Redford.

The Desserts:
Stephanie made Honey Creams. They're homemade ice cream w/ honey, scotch, whipped cream, egg whites & sugar... they're delicious.

Mary brought fantastic scones w/ whipped cream & fancy homemade jams.

Of course, there was also cheese, chocolate, & spotted dick... & lots & lots of Scotch.

The Scotch:
Dewars... This was mainly for the Honey Creams, but a couple pulls helped the readings go smoothly.
Abelour... I wrote about this a couple weeks ago & decided another bottle was in order.
Laphroaig... I picked this up last week. It's a nice peety Islay. It goes down smooth.
Glenfiddich... I called my dad a couple weeks ago & he was @ the duty free shop on his way to Windsor. I asked what kind of Scotch they had, & he said the Glenfiddich was 35 bucks. I said, "That's not much better than retail. He said, "For a 5th?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "These are liters." I said, "Hook us up!"
Oban... Pete brought this one. It's a nice mixture of the Islay smokiness & the Highland sweetness... It went down smooth.
Caol Ila... Andy brought this one. A fantastic Islay. Everyone loved it.

The Entertainment:
Aiden read "The Selkirk Grace" before the meal. It's the traditional Burns night grace. He practiced the pronunciation for quite a while & did great.
I read "Address to a Haggis" after the grace but before the dinner.
Jim read "To a Mouse" during dinner. He was great. no one could understand a word he said, but he was great.
Andy & Matt both read poems, but I don't recall what they're called, but Andy's was about brothers-in-law & Matt's had something to do w/ the deflowering of a young girl... I think.
I then read about 1/2 of "To a Louse" before it faded away as people lost interest... it was too late in the evening for another reading.
Jim & Joe also played some music... some Mayflys originals, plus some Beatles, GD, & RA covers. Isaiah loved watching them, & so did I.

The Photos:
Here is a link to Stephanie's Facebook album from the party.
Here is a link to Rachel's Facebook album from the party.

All in all, a good time seemed to be had by all. I can't wait until next year. Maybe we'll have to have something sooner like a Tartan Day party or Bloomsday in June. That might be good.

Holiday Post #5: Martinis & Pickles

Friday night, a group of people from work went to Goodnight Gracie's for Emily's b-day. We had a great time & Emily got completely shithoused on some froo-froo fancy-ass martinis like the Chocolate Covered Strawberry & something that tasted like a White Russian. She was so drunk that @ the end of the night, I had to help Jenny get her back to Jenny's car 5 blocks away... "keep walking... there's a curb here, don't trip... I said, there's was a curb there...." I, on the other hand, was a responsible adult & just had a couple Rob Roys which were pretty good, but that bar is way too expensive. It's trying to be something out of Sex and the City, but it doesn't quite cut it. Also, it's really small, but the band felt they needed to be amplified for a large ballroom. The other problem w/ the band is that they were one trick ponies. Their improvisation was cool, but needed some more texture to really fill it out. The other problem I had w/ them is more personal... blues just doesn't really do it for me; it all kinda sounds the same. I recognized the bass player though; I think I worked w/ him at Borders a few years ago. Theoretically, Kristen will be posting some pictures of the night on her facebook profile some time soon.

Last night, I went to Nik & Jim's for a tree-trimming/hide the pickle/naked cookie party... here are the top 5 things I learned:
5) When one is on a road in Farmington called "Metroview," that person shouldn't be surprised when there is neither a metropolis nor a view. Similarly, when in Farmington & on a road called "Green Hills," there are no hills & nothing is green.
4) Ryan knows way way way too much about television.
3) When people have tree-trimming parties, it's really just a way to get out of decorating their own trees. It's like when Tom Sawyer tricks the other kids into white-washing the fence. W/ this in mind, I'd like to invite you all over for a bathroom cleaning party. It'll be sweet.
2) Germans are fucking weird. There is this tradition, "Weihnachtsgurke," of hiding a glass pickle ornament in the tree & then having everyone look for it: the winner gets a present. Only the culture that produced Schumacher and Hitler could have come up w/ this. Of course, Hitler wasn't actually German, & according to Wikipedia neither is the X-mas pickle. My wiki-info suggests that it's really an American tradition which has been wrongly associated w/ German culture. Then again, the Wikipedia entry for Nathaniel Hawthorne used to begin "Nathaniel Hawthorne, who liked to stay up late having hot gay butt sex,..." so I'm not sure what to believe.
1) Naked cookie decorating means that the cookies are naked, not the decoraters. This was a bit of a let down. Maybe if we'd opened up the bottle of tequila it would have been different. I guess there's always next year.
Here are a few pictures from the evening:

Shannon, Nicole, Kristen & Nik decorating naked cookies

Joe, Rachel, Jim, Nik, Kristen & Emily trimming the tree

In the X-mas fucking spirit Again, Emily is offended by something I said