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My New Year’s resolution was to eat more fruit – surely raspberry chocolate counts as a fruit?! |
Needless to say, I’ll be making a huge effort on the healthy eating front for the whole of February (which will be less of an ordeal, because there are three days fewer on which to be good – a cunning plan, n’est-ce pas?).
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One of our best wedding presents, nearly 24 years ago, was an electric raclette grill from a kind German friend. A brilliant way to enjoy cheese with family and friends 🙂 |
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The Swiss way: just melt the raclette cheese (ours came from Loch Leven’s Larder near Kinross) and serve with baked potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions and salad. We also had home-made chutney (see below for photos of the making of said savoury delight!). |
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Keeping up the continental theme… This lovely French cake arrived in the post after Christmas – an edible New Year’s greeting from friends in France. Most welcome 🙂 |
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And of course, there was birthday cake – better still, a chocolate birthday cake. The sponge was as light as a feather (so it was definitely safe to have two pieces!). |
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Roo’s Leap certainly believes in kicking off the way they mean mean to go on: this giant plate of nachos was just for starters! |
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Chicken satay for main? Don’t mind if I do… |
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And of course no meal is complete without a hot fudge sundae… |
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Oops! Mustn’t forget the gorgeous birthday cake (rude not to try a piece…) |
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And talking of chocolate cake, DD1 made this one for one of her best friends at Uni this week. Just as well they’re safely down in the deep south, or I’d have been tempted! |
Continuing the theme of delicious dining in January (which will conclude next Friday night with the local Church Burns Supper, just to round things off nicely!), I was lucky enough to be invited to a local friend’s house for a girly supper just two nights ago. Fortunately for the seven guests in attendance, our hostess is blessed with the culinary equivalent of green fingers (floury fingers?!). The meal was absolutely superb – and the dining-room looked pretty darned good, too…
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No table I have ever set looked as lovely as this: the centre- piece was comprised of twigs decorated with white flowers and tiny tartan bows. What a hostess! |
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After sampling Arbroath smokie on oatcakes for starters, I tasted quail for the first time in my life: it was served in a port jus, with chestnuts and skirlie. Fiddly to eat, but delicious! |
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You may remember I mentioned serving home-made chutney with our raclette supper. We’d had a glut of green tomatoes from the polytunnel, so it seemed criminal to waste them. |
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And in go the raisins… |
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Here’s the finished result – it doesn’t look anything special, but (to my incredulity!) it tastes pretty good! |
Last but not least, here’s a brief summary of what the furry, hairy and woolly critters hereabouts have been up to of late…
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What a wuss of a puss! FatCat slunk away, tail between his legs when new cat on the block Horace arrived “in town”. |
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FatHorse and the chocolate sheep enjoyed a little winter sun on their backs – their paddock is a mud-bath most of the time at the moment, thanks to relentless rain. |
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Breakfast’s been served up, so it’s heads down at the trough! |
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To our amusement, the new kids next door (owners of Horace!) have nicknamed Mungo the tup (ram) “No go” because of his fearsome horns. |
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“You just can’t get the staff these days,” reckons FatHorse each breakfast time. |