Heaps of snow and heaps of cookies

Seriously Good Venison: even the office has antlers

Being rather fond of my food, I was only too delighted to be invited to be one of this year's Crail Food Festival volunteer bloggers. My "onerous" (not!) duty was to visit Seriously Good Venison near Newburgh and find out a bit more about the company and its products. You can read what I found out during my chat with owner Vikki Banks here at the Crail Food Festival website.  And if you're partial to a bit of venison, I can certainly recommend trying some Seriously Good Venison for yourselves: it was perfection on a plate.

It’s probably just as well that venison is one of the healthiest meats around, because in every other way Yours Truly’s “get fit for 50” diet has been in complete abeyance these past few months.  And any last crumbs of dietary restraint were obliterated recently due to the presence in my kitchen of DD1, whose Nigella-esque cookery and bakery skills shame into complete submission those of us who tend more towards the Heinz 57 school of cookery.

DD1's latest recipe, acquired in her temporary home city of Paris (though I firmly refuse to believe any self-respecting svelte Frenchwoman would ever let one of these calorie bombs pass her lips!) was for triple chocolate cookies. With DD1’s boyfriend plus DD2 also being under our roof for most of the week, multifarious batches of these tortuously tempting treats were dished up at regular intervals, interspersed with batches of equally enticing millionaire shortbread. And, just in case Yours Truly suffered withdrawal symptoms when DD1 returned to the French capital last Monday, the thoughtful girl left me some ready-made cookie dough in the fridge. I shall miss her immensely – though I’m not sure my waistline will!

Triple Chocolate Cookies - three times as tasty

Doh! Here's some I made earlier...

Melt-in-the-mouth millionaire shortbread

The Sparrowholding (which is by no means big) felt fit to burst at certain points during the week, as we were also hosting two Canadian rugby players - members of a touring team visiting the local High School.  Sadly, snow had been falling for several days prior to their arrival, and the school pitch could best be described as "deep and crisp and even". However, the local lads were determined not to disappoint their visitors and, on the morning of the match, they arrived at school bearing shovels instead of books, and proceeded to clear almost every inch of the pitch.  The result was a sight to behold: a rectangle of green, surrounded by heaped banks of snow.  Although Son+Heir and his cohorts were soundly trounced by the superior force of the Canadians, I imagine that the match will go down in the school history books as a triumph of sheer dogged determination (and digging) over the uncooperative Scottish weather.

Ice cool rugby players

The reason for the recent rallying of the Sparrow troops was a close friend's 21^st Ceilidh taking place in the local village hall on the Saturday evening. Just to keep life interesting, the snow fell steadily and determinedly during Friday night, all the while being whipped up by a mischievous wind. Because so much of the white stuff had been blown away, the road looked OK at first on Saturday morning, so DD1 plus boyfriend T set out dutifully in our aged wee automatic Renault to help decorate the village hall. But before they had gone even quarter of a mile, they found themselves stuck in a snowdrift – HunterGatherer was at work, so it fell to our kind Landrover-owning next-door-neighbour to come to the rescue... 

The Good Samaritan - complete with tow rope

Fortunately, his mission proved successful, so crisis was averted. Needless to say, we took a different road to the Ceilidh that night, given that none of us particularly fancied trying to push the car out of a drift in our kilts and dresses. Getting there did prove a bit hairy at times (see photo below), but all the guests made it through and a wonderful night ensued, with the lively Ceilidh band almost raising the rafters (just as well the snow was holding the roof down!). 

Snow bother!

HunterGatherer and DD1 in full 'birling' mode

Dressed for the journey: purple frock with matching wellies