Burns Night!

Today, being January 25th, is Burns Night; a celebration of the last Scottish winter festival after St. Andrew's Day and Hogmanay and of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns who wrote the Selkirk Grace:-

Some hae meat and canna eat,

An' some wad eat that want it,

We hae meat an' we can eat,

An' sae the Lord be thankit.

Vegetarians wouldn't want the meat whether we had it or not. However, we understand the sentiment.

A Burns Night supper normally constitutes a starter of Cullen Skink or Cock-a-leekie soup, neither of which are vegetarian. However, a thick vegetable or leek and potato would work just as well. Then comes the haggis, probably the most off-putting food for a vegetarian, given the offal (awful) ingredients (thankfully most are encased in a synthetic sleeve rather than the sheep's stomach these days). This is accompanied by neeps and tatties (turnip/swede and potatoes) mashed together to make clapshot. This is totally acceptable and can be baked in the oven with a sprinkling of grated cheese on top. And yes, we can drink the whisky and we can eat cranachan, a lovely dessert of raspberries, honey, cream and oatmeal, oh and whisky!

However, that leaves us without a main to go with our clapshot. Luckily many good supermarkets now sell vegetarian haggis and it is very good. Or, you can have a go at making your own and there are many recipes to try. The main ingredients are pulses in the form of split peas or lentils, oatmeal and/or pearl barley, assorted nuts, carrots, onions and mushrooms plus pepper, spices, herbs and flavouring from soy sauce, vegetarian worcestershire sauce or marmite. Black treacle is sometimes added to bind and give sweetness.

We once hosted a Burns Night Party and labelled the food "Scottish Salmon", "Aberdeen Angus Beef", "Scots Porridge Flapjack", "Loch Ness Jelly" etc. We even had an empty plate which said "Scotch Mist"!

If you can't find a vegetarian dish to eat on Burns Night you can always deep fry a Mars Bar - delicious!

Keeping cosy with a cuppa!

January 18th and possibly the coldest night of the winter so far. The snow arrived over the weekend and with it - for us - a power cut! At Christmas I said what a sucker I was for candlelight but only in addition to electricity for heat and light. So, by the glow of the gas fire, candles and torches, I put the kettle on the gas hob and made us all a warm drink. The comfort of hot coffee slipping down my throat and the glow of heat reaching my fingertips as I wrapped my hands around the mug was just what was needed.

However, we vegetarians have to be careful when drinking coffee and tea as they contain chemicals known as polyphenols. Whereas carnivores get their iron from meat, vegetarians rely on plant based foods and polyphenols can lessen the absorption of iron in plant foods by up to 70%. Therefore, those beverages should be avoided within 1-2 hours of eating iron rich foods to allow for this.

I love the seasonal drinks offered in coffee shops with gingerbread being my favourite. Whatever coffee I have I do like it extra hot - a lava latte in fact!

Whilst working at an interior design company myself and another colleague would question why a third person always brought his own flask to work, despite drinks being readily provided by the company. What was in that flask? we mused. One day when everyone was out we crept across to his desk and gingerly unscrewed the lid and inhaled. We were like Spy kids crossed with Bisto kids; ahh, coffee! What were we expecting?

Upon flying into San Francisco one day we went out in the evening to a restaurant on Fishermans Wharf.  Finishing our meal the cheerful waitress inquired "coffee?" "Yes I'm very happy" replied my husband, not yet used to the American accent. We fell about laughing at him as he protested he was just jet-lagged. Maybe he was; the rest of the family thought there was a huge ship in the bay - it turned out to be Alcatraz!

PS after last week's post a friend informed me that fossilized monkey puzzle trees are the source of Whitby jet, a semi-precious stone known as black gold - another reason not to be put in Room 101! 

Out with the old!

New Year was all about ringing in the new, but what about getting rid of the old? Maybe a good clearout before the looming spring clean? Maybe a visit to Room 101?

Room 101 is a BBC comedy started in the 1990s where celebrities are invited to banish their pet hates forever. The name was inspired by the torture room in the novel Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell.

My pet peeves are:-

Artificial flowers displayed when the real thing would be out of season, i.e. snowdrops in summer.

Memorial flowers with their cellophane wrapping still on - it soon gets dirty & looks so sad.

Loo brushes - yes they serve a purpose, but eew so unhygienic!

Monkey puzzle trees - planted when young and (possibly) cute but grow to huge dimensions, usually right outside someone's living room window! Also, they remind me a bit of the aforementioned loo brush!

However, the trees provide a nutritious vegetarian food in the form of the monkey puzzle nut which is a good source of protein and apparently delicious.

The trees date back to the Jurassic Period when dinosaurs used to graze on them. They take a long time to grow to their 30-40 metre height and only bear fruit after 30 years!

The trees are native to South America and were worshipped by tribes who used to wait for the nuts to drop off the tree, then harvest and eat them as a staple part of their diet.

They are named monkey puzzle trees due to the fact that you have to climb like a monkey to reach the top but then the branches are so well armoured with spikes that it remains a puzzle as to how to harvest the cones. Those South American tribesmen obviously had time and patience and were well rewarded. Perhaps, after all, monkey puzzle trees are an asset and should not, in fact, be consigned to the oblivion that is Room 101.

New Year's Resolutions!

Another year older, another year wiser!  Hm maybe.  The wise thing would be to not make resolutions as they are always so hard to keep.  For some reason we always feel the need to restrict or deny ourselves, ie giving up alcohol, getting fit or going on a diet.  Wouldn't it be more fun to learn a new skill, give time to a needy cause or just to go out every single Friday night?

My resolution a few years ago was to go running regularly.  Good one, you may think.  Well yes but a tricky one for a vegetarian running on beans, pulses and vegetables.  With every step I became more and more wind-assisted with the sound of a woodpecker hot on my heels!  This caused my running partner to laugh so much that she would wee herself.  Needless to say, our running relationship was not an ideal pairing!

In a job many years ago I worked for a Consultant Gastroenterologist and shared an office with secretaries to an Endocrinologist and Rheumatologist.  The latter came back from clinic one day with a tale about a rather well-to-do-lady whom he had been asking to do straight leg raising.  "Oh no doctor" she said "if I raise my leg any higher I shall surely fart!"  I am guessing she was probably a vegetarian.

So yes it is a well known fact that vegetarians are usually a little on the windy side but, in a roundabout way, carnivores actually produce more methane gas.  Each year 300 million cattle are slaughtered and consumed.  Each adult cow can produce 500 litres of methane from their burps and farts every day!  Well, you do the maths!  Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and it has been calculated that an adult cow produces the same effect on global warming as a family car!  Even I can't compete with that.