November

Happy Birthday Mr Country Cottage!

November is Mr County-Cottage’s birthday month and this year it was a Big One. We wanted to celebrate the occasion with family and friends at home, and so we decorated the whole cottage with balloons and streamers, installed a barrel of traditional beer from our favourite small brewery in Strathaven, and prepared all the food ourselves. As it is November, and likely to be cold outside, I decided on a buffet table of both hot and cold foods, including my now famous Haggis Bake (see my January blog for the recipe), a mustard and honey baked ham, a chicken lasagne, cheese and chive baked potatoes, a selection of finger foods and cold salads including feta and olives, prawns in a seafood sauce, a bread basket, and my own personal favourite food - smoked salmon from Loch Fyne (you’d think it was my birthday!) For dessert, we had sticky toffee pudding and/or mincemeat lattice, followed later by a selection of delicious cheeses – and, of course, last but not least – the Big Birthday Cake! Then at midnight, under clear skies and an almost-full moon, we all went outside into the cold November air to watch a firework extravaganza, prepared in advance and executed to perfection, by Number Two son and his very good friend M. The party then continued inside to dancing in the kitchen or conversation by the fire in the sitting room and a good time was had by all until around five thirty in the morning!

Smokey air outside the cottage, after the wonderful firework extravaganza!

The weather this month has been mostly wet, and mid month, Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway experienced the worst flooding for over thirty years when a whole month’s rain fell in just twenty-four hours. Living half way up a hillside as we do, we were not in danger of being flooded, but the steep dirt track outside the cottage became a fast flowing river of torrential rainwater during that time – and now that the rain has finally subsided, we have been left with a trail of deep muddy ravines and rocky potholes instead of a track to the cottage.

Flooding at Dumfries (Photo: BBC News)

The hens have not enjoyed the wet cold weather and have needed an extra feed of corn to keep them going. It’s dark now by four o’clock and they seem to spend a long time in the hen house on their perch. Poor things. On drier days they still enjoy getting out on the hill – as you can see from the photo below.

Ruby and Polly, our West Highland terriers, have spent a lot of their time recently, not in the garden, but by the Aga in the kitchen or curled up by the fireside in the sitting room. Another favourite spot is the sofa. A cosy place to snooze while they wait for the rain outside to stop.

The 22nd of November this year is the last Sunday before advent and, in our house, the day we call Stir Up Sunday. This is the perfect time to make your Christmas pudding or cake, giving ample time to then ‘feed’ the cake with alcohol over the next few weeks. In our house we use whisky, but you can use brandy or rum or even just fruit juice, if you like. All the family should take a turn in stirring up the cake mixture while making a wish on Stir Up Sunday. In previous years, the children have all taken part in this precursor to Christmas but this year it was just me making the wish. How times have changed!

Another special day in November for all Scots is the 30th of the month. It’s St. Andrew’s Day and since 2007 it has been a national holiday in Scotland. This year has also been Scotland’s ‘Homecoming’ and many events are taking place around St. Andrew’s Day all over Scotland to finalise the celebrations. In Dumfries and Galloway, the Dumfries -Reel Thing will be a feast of traditional music - including Bag-Rock (rock music on bagpipes!) from The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, street theatre, fireworks, and the switching on of the Christmas lights in Dumfries. I do hope the weather allows for a good St Andrew’s weekend.

Bagpipe Rock!

To conclude - my recipe for this month is not for cake or pudding but a recipe I put together while expecting friends for lunch on a particularly cold and wet November day. I call it November Casserole and it is made with smoked bacon pieces, chunks of chorizo sausage, beans, - I used butter beans but you can use any type or variety of bean or use chick peas if you have them in your larder – the last main ingredient is either pumpkin, squash or sweet potato, cut into chunks. I used sweet potato. It was so delicious I wanted to share it with you.

November Casserole.
Ingredients:

Chopped and chunky smoky bacon pieces.
Chopped and chunky pieces of chorizo sausage.
One small onion.
A dab of butter and a dash of olive oil.
One pint of stock – I used knorr ham stock.
Tablespoon of plain flour.
One tin of chopped tomatoes.
Four fresh tomatoes, chopped into chunks.
A sprinkle of coriander – either fresh or dried.
Chunks of pumpkin, squash, or sweet potato.
Tinned or soaked beans or chick peas.

Method:
Put the chorizo sausages in the oven or under the grill to cook.
Meanwhile, fry the bacon pieces with the butter and oil in a pan or cast iron casserole pot. Add the onion and cook until softened but not browned.
Chop the cooked sausage into chunks and add to the bacon and onion in the casserole.
Stir in the flour until it absorbs the oil and butter and coats the other ingredients.
Then add the stock and stir until thickened slightly. Cook for one minute.
Add the tin of tomatoes. Sprinkle in the coriander. Add the fresh tomatoes, the pumpkin, squash, or sweet potato. Stir it all together and bring to a slow boil.
Add the beans or chick peas and put in a simmering oven for 40-60 mins.

November Casserole

See you next month, when the boys will be home for the holidays and we will be celebrating Christmas at the cottage!

Janice x

October

The hawthorn-trees blow in the dew of the morning

Robert Burns.

At this time of year, while outside the cottage is a swirling mass of gold and rust coloured leaves, the hawthorn trees in the lanes and the hedgerows are at their best. With its abundant clusters of blood-red ‘haws’ the hawthorn tree heralds the onset of Winter. Many people think its berries are only fit for the birds but they are very tasty, high in vitamin C, and can be made into jams, jellies, preserves, and even wine. Folklore in this part of Scotland tells of how a circle drawn around a hawthorn tree provides a special trysting place for Fairies!

Country walks at this time of year are particularly refreshing. Polly and Ruby love to play in the fallen leaves and pine cones. The air is both fresh from the hills and pungent from the pine forest and, while walking through the fallen debris, I am continually having to stop to inspect the fascinating array of fungi hiding beneath it all. The landscape picture shown below is my all time favourite view from the cottage. Whatever the weather or season this scene is constantly changing colour and it both inspires and thrills me. The colours are fiery just now and the hawthorn in the foreground, although it looks bare, is actually full of bright-red berries and is where I took this month's opening photograph.

The view from the cottage

October has been a difficult month in the henhouse. Prince, the new cockerel, has been given many chances to settle in and numerous opportunities to behave himself but I’m afraid he has to go – and it’s not just Kylie, Britney and Beyonce who are afraid of him – I am too! He raises his illustrious feathers whenever I come near and he hisses: resembling a rather terrifying Raptor from the Jurassic Park movie.

The Cockerel formerly known as Prince

His bad behaviour, at first, I put down to him being in a strange new home and, as he had obviously suffered from being previously pecked, he has been given plenty of time to settle down. However, he had gone from being understandably defensive to downright offensive and the ‘girls’ are not happy. I’m not happy either, in fact, this morning, for fear of being attacked by him again, I asked my six foot four inches tall youngest son to open up the hen house and lay down the food. Although, I still have to plan how to retrieve the eggs (if he hasn’t stamped on them) and clean out the hut. I expect the cockerel formerly known as ‘Prince’ not to be with us much longer…

On a lighter note, Polly and Ruby have had their Autumn hair cuts and are feeling very proud and pretty. You might think they would prefer long thick coats in the wintertime - but they will be much easier to keep clean (and white!) with short coats as the wetter and muddier weather sets in.

Polly and Ruby with their new haircuts

This month, Mr Country-Cottage and I had shared rare quiet time and evenings out together when our youngest son decided to spend his half term in Edinburgh visiting his brothers who are at university there. Then, in complete contrast, we had a busy weekend mid-month when they all returned home. Suddenly the washing machine was going non-stop, the bathroom floor was continually laden with wet towels and, although I had filled the fridge and baked lots of tray bakes and cakes, every scrap of food in the cottage had disappeared by Monday. It was wonderful to see them!

We had a lovely time socially this month when we were invited to dinner by some good friends who live in a converted mill just a few miles away. My dear friend JB is a wonderful cook and a perfect hostess and she always sets the table so beautifully. I took a photo (with her permission) of the impressive table centre she had created on an Autumnal theme.

JB's Autumnal table centre

I was delighted and excited to be given a ‘Lovely Blog Award’ this month by my dear friend, wonderful writer and writing mentor, Anita Burgh. The rules say that you should:

1) Accept the award, and don’t forget to post a link back to the awarding person.
2) Pass the award on.
3) Notify the award winners.

So, I happily accept the award from Annie and pass it on to two friends who have very interesting and consistently updated blogs. They are (drumroll) Rosemary Gemmell, a multi-talented writer who writes articles, short stories, poetry, and novels. And, Sue Houghton, a wonderful writer whose blog is always informative and entertaining.

Finally, this month I’m cooking venison. I consider it a flavoursome treat and something to look forward to eating at this time of the year. The richness of the meat, which is low in fat, is complimented by many of the other long awaited seasonal treasures - like chestnuts, wild mushrooms and seasonal vegetables. I source my venison locally and inspect the carcass for myself. This assures me that the animal I am serving to my family has, until recently, lived a good life on the land around me; that it has been shot for the table by an expert marksman and that, even in death, its life has been respected. This is important to me as a meat eater. Some of you might find the picture below a little distressing but I’m showing it to you because I absolutely believe that if we choose to eat meat, we have to take responsibility for it, and to know that while it was alive, it had the opportunity to live a free or a well-cared for life.

Photo: courtesy of A. Treadaway

Recipe for October:

Roasted Shoulder of Venison with seasonal vegetables
As venison is so low in fat, I always marinade the meat overnight before roasting it and this is my basic venison marinade recipe:

Venison Marinade:
4 tablespoons of good quality oil – I use olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 small glass of red wine
1 grated lemon rind
A sprinkle of nutmeg
1 tablespoon juniper berries, crushed
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 dessert spoon tomato puree
1 dessert spoon soy sauce
1 level teaspoon mustard – I use wholegrain
1 teaspoon brown sugar
salt & pepper

Venison in Marinade

Method:
Place the marinated venison meat, in this case a whole shoulder, into a suitable oven tray, covered for half the time in a roasting oven of 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for about one and a half hours. Then prepare the seasonal vegetables. I’m roasting potatoes on the shelf above the venison and boiling carrot and swede. When the meat is done, slice it and make a gravy with the strained meat juices. Pour the gravy over the sliced meat and serve with the vegetables.

Next month, in November, we are planning a Big Birthday for Mr Country-Cottage, with friends, family, and fireworks. See you then!

Janice

Welcome - Blog Intro

Welcome to A Year In A Country Cottage. ©Copyright

This is a personal blog created to record a year living in a small stone cottage deep in the Scottish countryside. My family and I (husband and three teenage sons) have lived in this once derelict cottage, which used to be a shepherd's bothy, for almost twenty years now - and having moved here from the city – we love it. The views from the cottage are breathtaking, no matter the weather or the time of year. In the summertime, the garden produces flowers and vegetables. In the wintertime, we can be snowed in and it is important for us to be as self-sufficient as possible. As well as our teenagers, we keep four hens, Madonna, Kylie, Beyonce and Britney, and two West Highland doggies, Polly and Ruby.

My plan is to update this blog on the last day of every month.

As a keen cook, I'll tell you what's cooking on my Aga and I'll share with you my own exclusively developed recipes. I’ll talk about the weather, my hens, and my dogs, and note the progress of whatever I’m managing to grow in the garden. I'll include lots of photos and blog about all the joys and achievements, the trials and the tribulations, of living a country lifestyle.

So, if you’d like to drop in now and again, I’d be delighted - and even more so if you decided to leave a comment!

Janice

These photos are of the Nith valley on a bright day and also on a bitterly cold day, in January 2009, as viewed from the dirt-track outside our cottage and from the hillside behind it: First photo by Janice - the second photo taken by #3 son, while out sledging.

See you on the 31st January...?

Janice

NB All rights reserved. Extracts or photographs may not be reproduced in any form except with the permission of the author.