Burns night, with pictures, but no kilts.

[curiouswombat]

Last night was our rather belated Burns' Night Supper. It doesn't seem as if it is a year since I wrote about last year's - but it is!

Anyone who is unfamiliar with the traditions of a Burns' night Supper, and is interested,
Click here to read my description from last year
S2C was at work, and so couldn't come, but Daughter-dear decided that she would like to come and see what it was all about, which was lovely. My sister was doing one of the speeches, and under the cut are pics of me with D-d, and me with sister - all in our posh togs!



My daughter really does have such pale translucent skin - it goes with her eye and hair colour - and I am not wearing dark make-up - I have got much more of an olive complexion than her - but somehow the lighting accentuates the differences here - not to mention the chins! On the other hand it is the first picture on which she has smiled for 18 months, whilst she had her braces on, so a noteworthy picture!





The menu for this year was
Cullen Skink - a creamy soup with potato and smoked haddock.
Haggis on tatties and neeps.
Steak on a potato cake with roast root vegetables and a whisky gravy.
Chocolate and Drambuie Cream Basket - a dark chocolate case half-filled with blackcurrants and raspberries, then topped up and off with whipped cream laced with drambuie.
Coffee with chocolate dipped petticoat shortbread.

The calorie count was probably into 6 figures!!

This picture shows me with my baby sister -




I love that dress of mine - the roses are velvet, whilst the rest of the dress is a very heavy voile, and so the roses show differently depending on how the light catches them. I went through three or four alternative outfits, but went back to it, it is so comfortable.


Also - I've been busy these last few days - what with going out last night, and doing a lot of housework today - and so although I have been through my FL, I haven't left as many comments as usual!

Comments

[gillo]

That's a gorgeous dress, and three very lovely ladies. It all sounds like fun.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I love the dress - I bought it in a five minute break in a local 'posh frock shop' at half price two years ago, to go to a friends' wedding. It has a matching jacket, but I thought a wrap would make a change! It is a really comfortable thing to wear, but cut so well - to hide possible lumps and bumps of the spare tyre variety!

[gillo]

It's a beautiful colour. Kat has the most lovely smile, BTW - but you knew that.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

All three of you ladies look lovely and very festive. When I was in Edinburgh they gave us a "Scottish" night part of which was serving haggis to everyone. The waitress dumped it all over Sis starting from one shoulder, down the chest and into her lap. The word "haggis" can never again be mentioned in her presence.
I'm sure however your evening went well and no haggis accidents.
Neeps are turnips yes?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Meep! I can imagine that that would definitely put you off something for life! Yes - neeps are turnips - they are the traditional accompaniment - and somehow haggis tastes better with turnip, and turnip tastes at its best with haggis.

[opalescence.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe it has been a year since you wrote about the last one, either! Now you must explain what tatties and neeps are.
Do you enjoy haggis?

I love the photographs! Your dress is quite pretty and so are you! You daughter is beautiful, as always!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the nice compliments.

Tatties and neeps - potato and turnip!

Actually haggis is nice - it is one of those foods with a fearful reputation, but is actually just a highly spiced mixture of lamb and oatmeal. They spoon it out of the outer pudding skin, and it always reminds me rather of the traditional stuffings used with poultry.

[desdemonaspace]

How lovely you all look! (I was hesitant to click, as my dialup makes graphics loading like watching paint dry, but the wait was worth it and you all are ogle-worthy.) That's a fabu dress, and D-d looks so grown-up (well, she is, isn't she?) No pic of Speakr in a kilt, though. *shrug*

One tiny "meepish" American thought: in the New World, a skink is a lizard.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I love that dress dearly - and even more so because I got it for half price in a sale! My brother in law took the one of D-d and I - it's a pity he didn't take a full length one as well, as she had a long brown skirt in vertical sections of velvet, linen and lace, a brown lace top, and that little black bolero type thing you can see in the picture.

I have no idea why smoked fish soup is called cullen skink - it is a sort of off-putting name!

Can't see us ever getting him into a kilt, somehow!

[makd.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos; sounds like a merry time was had by all. And the daughter? absolutely lovely.

thank you for sharing this.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you. She's cute, isn't she?

[jerusha]

You all look lovely!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, dear.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My earrings were made for me by ezagaaikwe - they are lovely.

D-d's earrings are stunning aren't they? I don't have a long enough neck - they'd drag on my shoulders!

And yes - the pudding was to die for!

[spikendru.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you all had a lovely time - and all three of you look gorgeous! Love your dress. Your daughter certainly resembles S2C, doesn't she? And she has a beautiful smile!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - she is a nice amalgam of both of us only prettier! We missed the smile whilst she had the braces on - all the other pictures of her on my journal have an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile due to the mouth full of metalwork.

I love the dress dearly - especially because it was half-price, or possibly less, in a sale a couple of years ago.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

Everyone looks lovely in their gladrags. Your daughter is a cutie. I'm so partial to redheads. The strawberry tresses skipped me, but both my children are fair redheads.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I love that colour hair as well - I am very envious of her. Both the husband and I have/had one parent with that colouring. When she was about 13 she desperately wanted different coloured hair, but now she says she wouldn't change in for anything. (Of course being a teenager this is subject to change at a nanosecond's notice...!)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

You all look great! Your daughter's so beautiful, it makes me wish I was ten years younger. Oh, I'd still be too old for her; it's just that I *always* wish I was ten years younger. :-) But seriously, you should be very proud that you have an offspring who's lovely inside and out.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I *always* wish I was ten years younger.

I know the feeling!

you should be very proud that you have an offspring who's lovely inside and out.

Thank you - as you'll know, having similar aged ones, daughters of that age can be good fun.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Yes, when they're not driving us crazy. Which is part of the fun. I think. Hm ...
:-)

[gillo]

My daughter is six months older than CW's - and I can agree wholeheartedly - beautiful, fun, great company - except when she's most definitely not.

devil teens

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

My kids are usually okay except for when they're together. As sad as I was when my oldest moved in with her fiance, at least it separated her from her sister before they killed each other.

Kind of made me nostalgic for the days when my brother and I fought hard to kill each other ...

[pfeifferpack.livejournal.com]

Lovely, lovely! Thanks for sharing. So you have to be honest with me (because I've never had the nerve to try it)...How is Haggis? The description sounds so....well...I'm sure it must taste better than the description.

Robert Burns is a favorite poet of mine and I think this tradition is wonderful.

Kathleen

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Haggis is actually very nice - it is a mixture of minced lamb (sometimes half & half with minced beef), oatmeal, onions, coriander, mace, salt & pepper which is traditionally cooked in a sheep's stomach, but you don't eat the sheep's stomach, you split it and spoon out the filling onto the whole family's plates (and most haggis is cooked in an artifical skin these days anyway). It reminds me of a well flavoured stuffing/forcemeat that you might have with chicken. In Scotland, and also in the North East of England, they make a big 'sausage' of haggis mixture, then deep fry them, and you get them at the chip shop (fast food outlet). The Hilton had made potato nests, then put the turnip in the bottom, and the haggis carefully shaped between two spoons on the top - very decorative! Then they brought the big haggis which had been ceremonially addressed and 'carved', and gave out extra portions.

[pfeifferpack.livejournal.com]

You make it sound pretty good! I love stuffing (although in the US that's a whole regional controversy in and of itself. Depending on where you live it is only proper if...cooked inside a large fowl or not cooked in a large fowl. Only correct if mad from cornmeal, or not proper unless it's breadcrumbs. It must have oysters or currants or ....whatever to be proper stuffing. In fact even the name speak of where you live. It's stuffing or it's dressing and one is definitely wrong, wrong, wrong. ) I love breadcrumbed based, sage and onion infused yumminess cooked either in or out of the bird personally. *G*. I might give Haggis a go. Yes, oddly enough way out here in New Mexico we have an annual "Celtic games" event that has dances, caber tosses, sheep runs (now that just sounds bad....), and food aplenty including Haggis. I was once active in the Irish American Society which, along with the Scottish American Society puts on this event.

Kathleen

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It really is quite edible - the first time I ate it was at a Burns Supper - and I approached it with trepidation, thinking I could get away with just eating some of it with a lot of potato and turnip to mask/dilute the taste - then discovered that it was rather tasty!

[spikereader.livejournal.com]

You all look lovely - how nice to have an occasion to dress up for. Great smile from D-d, and such beautiful hair. Love the colour of your dress too.

Shame about the kilts - I think there's something about a man in a kilt ...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

There were quite a lot of men in kilts - I just haven't got any pictures of them!

I love my dress dearly - it is amazingly comfortable as well.

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

You all look so nice and I've always thought it would be fun to participate in a Burns Night Supper. Sounds like it was a nice evening.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you- it really is a good evening - and a good chance to put on the glad-rags!