Okay, I'd try the trifle

Cullen skink is not a million miles away from your smoked haddock chowder. Very tasty.

Haggis is just the most delicious sausage you'll ever taste - "Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!" - and NOBODY makes their own, HopefulNC! I'll bet yours did not have the ingredients that NG listed - they would have turned your stomach to make. But to eat...yum.

You buy a McSween's haggis from the supermarket!

We just make plain old mash potatoes. I didn't know that the traditional way is with onions - I must try that.

You're supposed to sip whisky throughout the meal, but we don't like it! Neither did we pipe in the haggis with bagpipes, or wear kilts.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut ye up wi' ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they strech an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit!' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect sconner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o 'fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!


Robert Burns

(I have no idea what he is talking about.)

You ain't alone!

Just so my colleagues here do not get the idea that we Northern folks only eat things that squirm, I post what I'm making for Super Bowl Sunday:

PAPA JOE�S 5-ALARM CHILI AND PAINT REMOVER
Ingredients
� 1.5 tablespoons red pepper flakes
� 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
� 1 tablespoon ground red pepper
� 1 tablespoon chili powder
� 1 tablespoon paprika
� 1 tablespoon oregano
� 1 tablespoon cumin
� 2 pounds ground beef
� 2 cloves garlic, minced
� 1 tablespoon oil
� 3 10.5 oz cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
� 1 16 oz jar hot salsa
� 1 cup chopped onion
Directions
1. Mix dry spices together in large bowl. Add ground beef and garlic, mixing WELL, until beef has lost its red color.
2. Heat oil in large skillet (cast iron if available) over medium-high heat. Cook and stir meat mixture until fully browned; drain excess fat. Add tomatoes, salsa, and onions; mix thoroughly.
3. Transfer to slow cooker. Cover; cook on LOW 3 to 4 hours.
4. Serve over hot rice, preferably with fresh cornbread.
Chef�s Notes
1. Steps 1 and 2 can be done in the evening, with transfer to cooker done in morning, and cooked all day.
2. LOW setting on cooker should just barely cause eventual bubbling of mixture. Cooker should be experimented with to determine specific setting.
3. Traditionally, I have prepared this in a 1.5 recipe portion, adjusting all spices, and using 4 cans of tomatoes, and 2 16oz jars of salsa.

Go Giants!

I don't know what all was in it, I don't know where it came from. I do know there was something encased in a stomach, in a pan. My friend loved Scotland, wanted to move there, and tried to cook traditional scottish dishes. Seeing as we both could render Hamburger Helper inedible...

I miss my friend dearly, she was my only friend in our new area. She passed away very suddenly of a heart attack 8 months ago.

Language warning - if stronger terms than "Oh poo, I burnt the muffins!" offend you do not click!

Haggis does not sound much worse than the following:

- Pig brains w/scrambled eggs
- Pickled pig's feet
- Pig's ear
annnnnd the best (worst?) of the lot...
- Chitlins (if you've smelled them cooking, eating them is impossible)

When my granddaddy killed hogs, he didn't waste a thing.

Although you guys might be more uncomfortable with mountain oysters. Traditionally from the bull, but I'd hazard a guess they probably ate the ones from the boars as well. No sense wasting meat...

PS:

HAPPY MARDI GRAS !!!



Tonight, I'm making Jambalaya, with ham, sausage, and shrimp!

Honestly, NG what strange customs you have over there.

It wasn't Mardi Gras, it was Pancake Day! the custom here is to use up luxury foods like dairy produce and flour (?), and the solution is to turn them into pancakes. In some villages the tradition of pancake tossing still survives, where wives run a race tossing pancakes as they go. I don't know what the prize is!

Anyway, you are supposed to have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. You can have them for the starters, main course and pudding, if you like, with appropriate fillings. We just had ours for pudding, with caramelised apples and ice cream inside, and lemon juice sprinkled on top.

They were wicked.

And "jambalaya" just sounds like a nation that misheard the proper name, "paella".

Pancake Day? I think you mean Paczki Day.

Jambalaya is cajun-spiced, and in many cases (like mine) contains (are you ready for it, Tex?) OKRA!

Markos: Two points for you for adding Paczki to the discussion. Your favorite? Apricot? Prune jelly? Bride used to make them at home before our children moved out. Now making two dozen or so of those belly bombs with just us at home to consume them is...inadvisable!

yes, yes.... Olney, England versus Liberal, Kansas...... They compete every year in the pancake race. Whoever has the best time, wins the race!

Olney, England... eh?

I know that we trace back to England on my mother's side... but you first have to go back through the Indians with the surname of Olney - Captain Nathan Hale Olney was the progenitor of this English name onto his children with an Indian woman he decided to shack up with at Fort Dalles.

Foods expected from this line;

Salmon in various preparations, deer, elk, fish egg stew, various roots... and huckleberries.

Or, my favorite; fried bread (even better with huckleberry jam). I really have to get off my duff and learn to make it myself, though it's not complicated.

At the rodeo and powwow on the res, they serve up fried bread smothered in taco fixings and call it an "Indian Taco."


Mmmmmm.....

Well, I live and learn! We have a sizeable Polish population here, and I have a good Polish friend, but I didn't know about this. It's the same principle as making pancakes before Lent, but it seems much bigger than even Pancake Day for you.

From Wikipedia:

In Poland, pączki are eaten especially on Fat Thursday (the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday). Many Polish Americans celebrate Pączki Day on Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday). The traditional reason for making pączki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, because their consumption was forbidden by Catholic fasting practices during Lent.
In the large Polish community of Chicago, and in other large cities across the Midwest, Pączki Day is celebrated annually by immigrants and locals alike. In Buffalo, Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, South Bend, and Windsor, Pączki Day is more commonly celebrated on Fat Tuesday instead of Fat Thursday. Chicago celebrates the festival on both Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday, due to its sizable Polish population. Chicagoans also often eat pączki on Casimir Pulaski Day.

In Hamtramck, Michigan, an enclave of Detroit, there is an annual Pączki Day (Shrove Tuesday) Parade,[4] which has gained a devoted following. In the Metro Detroit area, it is so widespread throughout the region that many bakeries have line-ups for pączki on Pączki Day.[5] The Pączki Day celebrations in some areas are even larger than many celebrations for St. Patrick's Day.[citation needed] In some areas Pączki Day is celebrated with pączki-eating contests. The eating contest in Evanston, Illinois, started in 2010, and is held on the weekend before Fat Tuesday, while Hamtramck's contest is held on the holiday.

So, who is giving up what for Lent?

Perhaps this thread should become "What's NOT for dinner?" temporarily.

i used to give up mc donalds. this year ...affairs and lying and all the other crap maybe being angry, but i have to start that friday, if thats ok (dday tomorrow). but i think this year i will keep micky dees on my to do list. oh yes, wine, chocolate, nails, clothes, hair and all that girly stuff. i am plan a-ing myself.

my mom would say why dont you also just do somthing nice for others during lent.

Beanee Weenees for dinner here in the back country of NC. One of my favorite quick, cheap meals when I strapped for time.

We learned about it from discovering Paczki in Wal-Mart two years ago. Never heard about it before that at all.

Prisca loves paczki as do the kids. Truth is to me they are "lousy donuts," so I abstain, but I enjoy making a big deal out of buying them.