Burns Night and Australia Day Traditions
It’s January again! I cannot believe that I started this blog last year and I’ve pretty much kept up to date with it. Delighted with myself 😊.
January always brings with it Burns Night (25th January) and Australia Day (26th January) and of course tales of our Scottish life and life down under. Just before emigrating to Australia Stu and I were living in Caithness. At the top of the UK, it’s a blustery beautiful place, largely unspoilt with dramatic coastlines and expanses of true wilderness. It was here that we got married…
To give our lovely guests a taste of Scotland we had a buffet consisting of haggis parcels, Scottish poached salmon and roast beef amongst other delicious food! Haggis, believed by some to be a small rough haired creature (see Wild Haggis – All About Haggis – The Haggis | Stahly Quality Foods for some interesting reading) is also a yummy savoury pudding, made of various bits of sheep minced with onion, suet and oatmeal, spices and encased traditionally in natural stomach (most commonly now in artificial casing). If after reading the tales of haggis you still fancy trying it, haggis parcels are an ideal place to start. Head over to Haggis and neep parcels | Tesco Real Food for a super easy recipe to try 😊.
Burns Night and Australia Day Traditions: Haggis and Neep Parcels – Courtesy of Tesco Real Food
An integral part of Australian life is the ‘Women’s Weekly’ cookbooks, especially the birthday cake book. First launched in 1980 it is an part of Australian childhood that all children love to browse and choose their next birthday cake from! Jasmin was gifted her book for her 1st birthday and even though she is now 16 years old she still uses it to bake all our family’s birthday cakes
Over the years, Stu and I have made many of the cakes, including a fairy toadstool that my then 2 year and 4 year old girls thought would be great fun to eat whilst it was cooling in the kitchen, and I was on the phone! And yes, I did then stay up until 3am making and decorating another one for their joint party the next day 😉. Sadly, I can’t find a photo of that one, but here are a few we have made …
Another staple recipe from Women’s Weekly I always return to is for Anzac biscuits. Anzac biscuits are claimed to have been sent abroad to soldiers by their wives and girlfriends, as being made of rolled oats, flour, sugar and butter amongst other ingredient they didn’t spoil during transportation. Recipes for the biscuit seem to have changed over time, with the first recipe containing no oats at all. Although they’re not commonly known about in the UK they are certainly well received whenever we make them and I take them into work!! So if you’re looking for an easy biscuit recipe, that is fun to make and tastes great I encourage you to try a ‘Women’s Weekly’ Anzac biscuit recipe. The best Anzac biscuit recipe of all time | Australian Women’s Weekly Food (womensweeklyfood.com.au)
Burns Night and Australia Day Traditions: Anzac Biscuits – Courtesy of Australian Women’s Weekly
If you enjoyed reading this you might love our Pizza night post.
We hope you keep warm and cosy and we’ll see you in February.
