Fat Scotsman

Pleasanton California Highland Gathering

arielnh56 — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:26:52 +0000

The Caledonian Club Of San Francisco presents the 145th Scottish Highland Gathering & Games! September 4 & 5, 2010 at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. Lots of Scottish food to be had. One of the biggest events of its kind in the USA. Lacks the traditional Scottish weather!

Jurassic Whisky

arielnh56 — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:25:03 +0000

Whisky from the 1907 Shackleton Expedition to Antarctica has been defrosted in New Zealand and 10 bottles appear to be intact. The recipe for “Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky” has been lost, but Whyte and Mackay, the owners of the Mackinlay distillery are being sent samples so they can resurrect it.

Follow this at http://www.themasterblender.com/2010/08/13/shackletons-whisky-revealed/
and http://whiskythaw.canterburymuseum.com/

A Little Book of Scottish Baking

arielnh56 — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:36:09 +0000

We turned up this little gem while sorting out one of our book piles. 28 recipes for the well known Scottish food like scones, shortbread and Dundee cake, basics like pancakes, baps and tattie scones and old traditional fare – oatcakes and three kinds of bannocks. Of course there are multiple cakes to choose from too.

We’ll be trying these recipes soon, I’m sure.

Great article on Scottish Food

arielnh56 — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:28:19 +0000

http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/scottishfood

Dinosaur Shortbread

arielnh56 — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:32:42 +0000

So today I tried my hand at making shortbread today, which is also my first attempt at baking in years.

Working from Maw Broon’s Cookbook: The Nation’s Favourites page 179 as a starting point, I found that I didn’t have the right ingredients, so I substituted powdered sugar for caster sugar. The flour we have has some wheat mixed in it, so these turned out more brown than golden. As we don’t have a shortbread mold I used the dinosaur cutter that we use for the boy’s sandwiches.

The theory is that they’ll try anything if it is dinosaur shaped.

Converting the weight measures in the book to volume measures (we have no scale), and halving everything for the first try, I came up with:

1/2 lb (two sticks) butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups flour

Pre heat the oven to 325. Soften the butter (10 seconds in the microwave) and beat it together with the powdered sugar (we have one of those Kitched-Aid machines). Then beat in the flour. Finish up the mixing by hand. Grease the baking tin (with the paper from one of the butter sticks), and roll the mix out thick and cut into shapes and place on the baking tin. Prick all over with a fork (very important).

Maw Broon calls for 30-40 minutes “or until firm tae the touch”. We did 35 minutes which was just a little long, so we will try 30 minutes next time.

These were a great success, the gannets scoffed them all in about 5 minutes.

Wii Certifies The Fat Scotsman

arielnh56 — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:39:44 +0000

If the wee Wii machine says I am fat, then it must be true. I am not Wii, any road up.