Dinner in Scotland

The number of additional titles this post could have is numerous. They would be along the lines of "The rotten day where I lost my patience" or "How very, very close we came to not actually having this dinner" are a couple which come to mind. Yes, it was that kind of day. 

It started out well enough. G. and I did the barn in less than an hour, so that was very good. My plan was to spend part of the morning doing map work to (finally) finish our travel journals before we start school next week. Well, one child could not find the journals. This resulted in me going into this child's room to see if I could find them, and was instead appalled at the amount of garbage (actual, literal garbage) that was shoved into various places. Why? So I might have lost my mind a bit.

This was followed by realizing that books were also strewn about, so I spent some time repairing them. Having to repair books is always the precursor to a great big lecture about good stewardship and being careful with our belongings. 

I decided that while they were doing some major picking up and searching for the lost journals, I would put away last year's books in order to make room for this year's books. Well, this led to the discovery that some very crafty people who also really like to look at books had made a pretty significant mess in the studio. It was pretty much the final straw. I put myself in time out by taking a cup of coffee into my room, closing the door loudly, and reading the end of the novel I was finishing. I may have suggested that I didn't feel like making a special dinner for them tonight, and they could all just eat eggs.

Well, the journals were found, my mood was helped by getting away and volunteering at Horse Power for the afternoon, and we did have our final special dinner. 

What we did not have for dinner was haggis. I realize it is a pretty quintessential Scottish meal, but it did seem a bit much even for my fairly adventurous eaters. Plus, it's not as though it was Burns' Night or anything. I decided to go for something more every day, so we had tatties and mince. This is pretty much a deconstructed, upside down shepherd's pie, with a ground beef and vegetable mixture in a gravy served over mashed potatoes. It was good, and the people who enjoy mashed potatoes liked it and those for whom mashed potatoes are one of the plagues of the Western world happily gave their portion to a sibling.

For dessert, we ended with a bang, having chosen, I realized, the most expensive dessert I have ever made. We enjoyed cranachan, which is a sort of Scottish trifle with whipped cream, oats, raspberries, and....

Scottish whisky.

It's in every layer of the thing... whipped cream, oats, and raspberries. I also made a non-alcoholic version for the younger people, substituting orange juice. Most of the older people agreed we actually liked the flavor better with the whisky.

Want to see what it looked like all put together?

This was half of them. I made 12 all together. And now we have a very nice bottle of Scottish whisky which J. and I figure will last us the rest of our lives... unless I decide to make this dessert often, in which case it won't.

Now, with the missing journals found, I hope that we can finish up last year's school year before this year's school year begins. I'm truly not sure how it got to be the end of the summer.