The Grim Adventures Of A Refined Savage: Family

As a Brit we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, however, this year I’ve decided that I’m going to use it as an excuse to put together a big old family roast dinner, though I’m actually going to wait until Saturday afternoon since we’ve all got the weekend off. I’ve been out, looking more than a bit weird buying all the Christmas staples a month early, and bought myself a fat assed turkey crown, a stack of pumpkins, cranberry sauce, bacon strips for days and a plethora of roughly seasonal vegetables, I have enough food to feed a small army. To try and make the meal a little more authentic, I’ve also spent the last few days looking at popular American Thanksgiving sides and trying to come up with my own take on a few of them, the results of which can be seen below.

Green Bean Casserole

You will need:
2 tbsp butter
1 large onion, chopped
200g mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp plain flour
300ml milk
500g green beans
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven the 150°C.
2. Melt the butter in a large, high sided frying pan over a medium heat.
3. Add in the onions and mushrooms and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, until the onions soften.
4. Add in the garlic and cook for another minute.
5. Add in the flour, stir thoroughly and cook for 2 or 3 minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste.
6. Slowly add in the milk, stirring continuously until smooth.
7. Add the beans to a casserole dish, pour over the onion mixture and bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes.

Old School Stuffing

You will need:
1 tsp butter
1 onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
6 slices of dry thick cut bread, cut into chunks
2 fat pork sausages, skinned and cut into chunks
150ml chicken stock

Method:
1. Preheat to oven to 150°C.
2. Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat.
3. Add in the onions and celery and cook until softened.
4. Add in the herbs, salt and pepper, cook for a further minute before removing from the heat.
5. Add the bread to a large bowl, pour over the onion and herb mixture, add in the remaining ingredients and mix well.
6. Line an oven proof dish with greaseproof paper, pour in the mixture and spread out evenly.
7. Bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes.

Brussel Sprouts

You will need:
1 tbsp butter, melted
500g sprouts, halved
A pinch of salt and pepper

Method:
1. Preheat to oven to 150°C.
2. Toss the sprouts in the melted butter to get an even coating.
3. Line an oven proof dish with greaseproof paper, tip in the sprouts, spread out evenly and season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes.

There are a few other common sides, but I don’t think most of them need a recipe. I think it would just be patronising trying to tell someone how to bake a sweet potato, wrap bacon around a sausage or mash the humble spud.

So Easter has now been and gone, it’s back to normality and back to work. Over the Easter period I made use of the bank holidays to get a few days off to spend with Kell, we decided to take the opportunity to have a few days away together in Scotland. We both love Scotland, we love the rugged scenery, we love the peace and quiet, we love the history, we love the amazing places to eat and we love the people (or in my case the fact that there’s nowhere near as many of them). The thing we love most is the fact that it allows us to see Kell’s grandparents, because they live so far away from us Kell doesn’t get to see them as often as she’d like and spending time with them always makes her happy.

Normally when we visit we stay with Kell’s grandparents who are always more than welcoming, this time however we were staying in a small hotel owned by a local family friend. As it turned out the hotel had not been operating as an actual hotel for some considerable time, the owners had shut it while they refurbished, meaning that we would be the only people staying in this large 3 storey, spooky, old grey stone building. To make things even spookier because of the refurbishments most of the rooms were completely empty so we were staying in one of the few rooms that had yet to be started. The room itself was large, with high ceilings and a very large old sash window, it could have been a really gorgeous room, unfortunately it looked like it had been badly decorated in the 1970s and had remained completely untouched since. Literally everything in the room was dark brown and despite having a large window, letting in plenty of natural light, the room always looked dark and felt quite oppressive. Needless to say our first night there was terrifying and generally horrendous, neither of us slept a wink, the following morning I moved a few things around and forced the old window open which thankfully lifted the atmosphere in the room.

After our first night there we discovered a benefit to staying in the hotel, the hotels kitchens where closed and having no facilities in our room to make breakfast, this meant we would have to walk into town to find somewhere to eat. In town we found a lovely little café which boasted of being the runner up in the “Best Scottish Breakfast Awards” and in all honesty I can see why it came so close to winning, the food was excellent. I can’t remember having eaten a better cooked breakfast, good quality local produce cooked perfectly with a little Scottish twist, I heartily recommend the Glaisnock Café to anyone visiting the Wigtown area. With a lovely breakfast inside us we were ready to face the day so Kell and I set out to visit a few of the local sites. We started by taking a walk round the book shops in Wigtown, where we picked up a few interesting books, before moving on to visit Gate House Of Fleet, the mill on the fleet and the book shop inside it. The book shop in the mill is a real curiosity and such an interesting place to spend a bit of time, everywhere you turn you are confronted by a wall of books of all different subjects and ages, you could almost get lost amongst the chaos and can literally spend hours browsing, often times coming away with nothing but a sense of bewilderment at what you’ve just seen.

We spent the remainder of the morning visiting a few small villages and doing a bit of general site seeing before returning to Gatehouse for lunch in the Galloway Lodge, a lovely little restaurant with a nice atmosphere and a fair amount of character. I ordered a BLT sandwich which came with handmade local bread and local free range bacon, once again the food was excellent. Simple food prepared well using great quality local products, it really doesn’t get a lot better than that in my opinion. Our few days in Scotland were shaping up to be a bit of an unexpected food adventure.

That afternoon we headed back to Wigtown to drop off our purchases and spend the evening with Kells grandma and granddad before returning to our hotel for the night. Thankfully the second night was a much more comfortable affair, largely thanks to the fact that we had left the window and doors open allowing the dust and stale atmosphere in the room to dissipate.

The following morning we awoke bright and early with the intension of enjoying the unseasonably nice weather and visiting the coast. After paying a brief visit to Kells grandparents we headed out along the old coast road to visit Port Patrick, along the way we came across a large expanse of beach in the middle of nowhere with literally no one on it. Pulling over onto the grass verge we walked down onto the sand and spent some time taking photos, walking, skipping stones and paddling in the sea. During this time we saw only one other group of people and they had seen our car and pulled up behind it to do exactly the same as we were, had we been in any other part of the country on a day like that, in the school holidays the beach would have been full of people. It was beautiful, peaceful and tranquil, a perfect moment in time. After an hour or so on the beach we decided to move on and make our way into Port Patrick.

Port Patrick is a lovely little fishing village nestled between two sets of very steep rugged cliffs, as you come through the winding roads onto the main street you can see that this was once a thriving working place, the tightly packed squat stone houses speak of tough winters and hardworking people. Even though it is now mainly the tourist trade that keeps the place alive there are still several working fishing boats in the harbour and still money to be made in the fishing industry. After a walk through the village and investigating the local shops we settled down at a local pub for a drink, soaking up the local atmosphere and enjoying the coastal air. Being a little after lunch time and both of us becoming aware that we hadn’t eaten yet we decided to have lunch at the pub, expecting the standard pub grub I ordered fish and chips for myself and a bowl of chips with onion rings for Kell. When the food arrived we were very pleasantly surprised to see that all the food was obviously freshly made and prepared and cooked from scratch on site. The chips were chunky and rustic, cooked with their skins on and had obviously been double friend. The fish was fresh, flaky and pleasantly moist in a crispy breadcrumb and herb crust with just a hint of lemon. The onion rings were plentiful and coated in a very light beer batter that had just a slight bitterness to it, contrasting with the sweetness of the fried onions perfectly. Washing it down with a pint of a local pale ale, I couldn’t have asked for a better lunch by the sea. Having had our fill of food and drink we walked down to the harbour to take a few photos and sit on a rocky outcrop looking out to sea.

Sometime around mid-afternoon we decided to head back and spend the evening with Kells grandparents before retiring for our last night in the hotel of horrors, which by now was actually starting to feel quite homely. The following morning, after allowing ourselves a little bit of a lie in we packed up our bags and carried them down to the car, ready to take over to Kells grandparents, where we would be spending our fourth and final night in Scotland. We spent the remainder of the morning helping Kells granddad setup his new broadband router and moving a few bits and bobs of furniture before taking her grandma and granddad out to lunch at the Glaisnock Café. Far from being a one hit wonder the lunch time menu at the café has a reasonable amount of variety with a few daily specials thrown in for good measure. I chose a steak and ale pie with vegetables while Kell had a burger and chips, once again we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. My steak and ale pie was rustic and homely with a light puff pastry lid and large chunks of tender steak in a rich flavoursome gravy. The veg was simple, lightly steamed peas and carrots that still had a little crunch and texture to them, which for me is extremely important, I hate mushy veg. Kells burger was hand pressed in a soft bun with a very fresh looking salad, once again the chips were obviously hand cut and cooked until just lightly brown giving them a pleasant crunch and a slight sweetness. The thing that really lifted Kells meal was the homemade chilli chutney, sweet and flavoursome with just the right amount of heat so as not to be over powering. We finished the meal off with a slice of the homemade cake of the day which was a chocolate and peanut butter cake and that too was excellent.

That afternoon Kells granddad took us out so see some local beauty spots, driving right out into the middle of nowhere he took us up to visit Bruces Stone. All I can say was it was definitely worth the drive, Bruces Stone overlooks a beautiful sweeping woodland valley with a river running through the middle. The view is truly awe inspiring and absolutely breath taking, very rarely have I been to such a beautiful place. By the time we got back to Kells grandparents house it was already getting dark so we decided it would be a good time to settle in for the evening and watch some TV before heading to bed.

The next morning was our last day in Scotland so we decided to spend it with Kells grandparents, after a fairly relaxed morning we said our goodbyes and left a little before lunch time. On the drive home we took a minor detour along the Gretna Tourist Route and took in some of the amazing coastal scenery along the Solway Firth. Scotland is a truly amazing place to visit with some stunning countryside and beautiful woodlands, we love it there and we hope we can visit it for many, many years to come.