Last Saturday I hosted a Burns night dinner at my house. This is a very traditional and exciting day for the Scots where they celebrate Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland. I had planned the decorations and dinner for at least a month so I was so excited when Saturday came and I dressed the table and cooked the beautiful food. I am guilty to say that I didn’t manage to take any photos of the food as I was running about like crazy to cook and serve that I didn’t take the time to take a photo of each dish regretfully.
I am very excited though to have used a photo filter given by Zanita in the first photo of the table – it creates such a dreamy effect! (and it is the same filter that she used for these photos of Nicole at Gary Pepper Girl, what a massive honour!). Thank you Zanita, you are a cool girl!
For the table I chose a tartan runner and flowers in white and purple with thistles. I am always so happy to use my crystal glasses, a bit like Meryl Streep in the movie “Out of Africa” where she transferred all her crystal from Europe to her new house in Africa. I made red name tags with rafia bows and tree sticks. The “party bags” I gave to my guests had a small bottle of single malt whisky, shortbread (traditional Scottish biscuit) and tablet (traditional Scottish sweetie)!
Dinner was served with cullen skink for starter, traditional and vegetarian haggis (I always eat the veggie option, the other is too much for a greek girl like me!) with clapshot and a whiskey sauce for main, and a cranaghan with juicy rasberries for dessert. You can find it all in the inspiring “Celebrate” book below. And then there was lots of live music and singing. Colin and I have turned our dining room into a music room too. There is a piano, an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, a base guitar, a couple of microphones and speakers and a cajon. Together with a mix of very talented musician we had for dinner, you can imagine it was some party!
To be honest I had turned my nose up when I saw that Pippa Middleton had published a book. I was intrigued enough though to flick through it. Right from the introduction, Pippa won me over with her honesty and the quality of the book and wonderful ideas have made it one of my favourites. It is possibly the first book I will go to when I want to organise a traditionally British event at home especially when you want a twist of glamour to it. So definitely recommended!
Have you ever been to a Burns’ night? Have you ever tried Scottish food?