Happy Birthday Rabbie Burns!

Another Burns Day is upon us. Time to get out the kilts and the tartans. The Poet of Scotland, Robert Burns, is celebrating his birthday on 25 January. He'll be 254 years old, and still lookin' good and ready for some partyin'!
As always. I got myself volunteered in the food preparation in the church kitchen. I don't know why I do that, I make the same mistake every year! First we peeled 50 pounds of tatties and about 70 pounds of neeps (that's potatoes and turnips to the uninitiated!).

Then it was all cooked, mashed, salt and pepper and butter added and piled into serving dishes ready to be heated up the following day.

One of my tasks is to heat the haggis, and here they are in my kitchen, ready to pop into the oven. The national dish of Bonny Scotland - sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach.... doesn't that sound appetising? Best eaten with your eyes shut!

The haggis is traditionally piped into the dining hall with the diners standing to attention, and Burns' "Ode to a Haggis" is recited over it as it is ceremonially opened with a sharp knife. We drank a toast to the haggis with apple juice... the closest we'll get to Scotch tonight, this is a church function!!!

My dinner.... roast beef and horseradish, haggis, peas, tatties and neeps, all smothered in gravy, with some coleslaw on the side.

After the dinner is consumed and the tables are cleared, the entertainment! Traditional Burns' poetry, Scottish songs from the church choir and from Susan, a soprano with the voice of an angel, memories of Scotland, a Scottish singalong, and of course, no Burns Night would be complete without the dancing girls! First Sarah demonstrating an energetic Highland Fling.....

.... and then a strathspey and a reel from our Scottish Country Dance Group.... I'm peering over everyone's heads from the back row.