Cullen Skink

Though I sampled the local specialties of Haggis and Black Pudding while in Scotland and ate so much salmon that it came out my ears, it was the chowder-like soup called Cullen Skink that all three of us loved and ordered over and over again.

A creamy soup made from smoked haddock and potatoes, it was on almost every menu.

Whether at a pub, a road-side rest stop or the café at the Kelvingrove Art Museum, we found ourselves enjoying it for lunch or snack quite often.

We grew quite fond of it despite its funny and unfortunate name, skink being too close to "stink" and the slang term of "skank" here in the U.S.

The first part of the name comes from the Northern fishing village of Cullen where the main ingredient, Finnan Haddie (haddock smoked using green wood and peat), was made.   The second part of the name "skink" isn't as easy to track down and theories abound.

After coming home, we were eager to find a good recipe and re-create this Scottish chowder to share with friends and family.

First we found this article in The Guardian which compared methods of preparing the soup.  It seemed that the secret to a good skink was poaching the smoked haddock and using the resulting liquid as the base for the soup.



Though we found lots of cooked smoked fish, it was harder to find uncooked Finnan Haddie.  We couldn't find it anywhere locally and were starting to give up until our Scottish friend Evelyn turned us on to this online source.

Haddie in hand...



Jimmy set out to make a batch of Cullen Skink to take to our family Thanksgiving gathering that we had this past weekend.



It's a simple recipe...fish, leeks, potatoes and milk...



Jim is the chef in our house and loves nothing better than chopping and preparing food.  He finds it relaxing.

I find it relaxing too since he's doing it and not me!!  We're a match made in heaven.



The soup turned out just as we hoped but the family results were mixed.

All of the adults loved it; but the kids?

Well, even before tasting it there was...

"There's FISH (with wrinkled-up nose, disgusted-face looks) in this soup?  oh......."

And after tasting it...

"It's pretty good considering it has fish in it."

Let's just say, there were lots of left-overs in the kids' bowls for parents to enjoy.

Happy Soup Days to all of you.

The "Most" Chocolate Cake

Most of you know I'm not a cook.

But over the years, thanks to a sister who is a brilliant cook and lots of friends who share their best and easiest recipes (No three-hour recipes need apply.), I have learned to get by fairly well.

Check out this cake...

I made this.

Now, it looks pretty great, right? And you might be tempted to think that I actually spend time in the kitchen and am a brilliant baker as well as a stitcher, right?

Wrong.

I'm just a lucky imposter who happens to have found the right recipe, the right cake plate, and the right neighbor. She not only gave me the recipe but she also lets me use her rose-shaped pan.

So every year I borrow her bundt pan, make this super-easy and awesomely-delicious cake, put it on that pretty plate, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and add fresh holly from the yard.

And Voila!

Not only am I out of the holiday pinch of what to take to a party...I'm also not embarrassed to have my cake sit amongst the beautiful displays of hand-decorated cookies and deliciously-crafted edibles of the real bakers in the world.

Yesterday, we had our EGA December meeting which also doubles as a holiday party...And every year I take this super-simple, awesome cake. And everyone wants the recipe...

Which just puts one more monkey on my back at this busy time of year...I have to remember to whom I made promises, find their email addresses, etc etc...Geez. What do they think, it's Christmas or something?

Well, this year I was one-step ahead of all those monkey-hangers, and I say that in the most loving way.

I made up the recipe cards ahead of time...adding a little clip art to make them spiffier...

Voila again! No monkeys on my back.

Maybe there's someone else out there like me who is culinarily-challenged??

So for you...

An early Christmas present, here's the recipe and the card...

You're going to have to find your own neighbor with the pan!

Bon Appetit!

P.S. Any bundt pan will do...But make sure you use non-stick baking spray LIBERALLY....and let the cake really cool....also, baking times will vary based on your altitudes and ovens...Trust me, it is a really awesome, super-chocolately easy cake. Did I say that already??

P.P.S. This cake recipe is not my creation and no one can figure out where it originally came from so I can't give credit. If it was YOU, or you know who it was, let me know so I can bow down to the brilliant soul and give credit where credit is most definitely due.

I'm Sticking to my Knitting...

I have a great friend who invited me to a "Cookie Party" over the weekend. She's temporarily living in California and I haven't seen her in months and months so I accepted. I honestly didn't think I was going to make cookies, you understand, just to visit and catch up. I thought it was a Stop-In-Anytime-While-I'm-Baking-Cookies-Open-House kind of party.

I should have had a clue when she called the night before to say that they were getting an "early start" around 9 am and what time would I be coming?

I had my Annual CQ Ornament Exchange Extravaganza so I told her I would not be able to come until the afternoon. I promised to bring sugar cookie decorating supplies and I didn't give it another thought...


When I arrived at 2:30 pm, the five women present were in full production. They were making 20 different kinds of cookies that day and they had already completed 11! I began to worry -- they were smiling and laughing but, my friends, they were working! I mean, flour-covered, moving fast, and busy, busy...Two ovens going, six trays of cookies at a time -- I started to sweat.

I poured a glass of wine and quietly sidled over to my friend and asked...


"And, why did you invite me?"

I mean, let's be honest, cooking stresses me out! Not to mention, I set houses on fire when I cook...

She said, "What do you mean? I love you! We're having the time of our lives -- this is so much fun!"

I started to hyperventilate, gulped some wine and sat down to work. At first I made little crescent moon shapes for almond crescents but one of the ladies came by to cut off my bottoms so they would sit flatly in the pan -- evidently I had lumpy bottoms.

The next thing I tried was rolling out the gingerbread dough (I thought I could be successful here since I make them at my own house.) There was a mergers/acquisitions lawyer whose passion is cooking "helping" me on this one.

Evidently, I used flour to roll out the dough and the directions said use powdered sugar. Also, I wasn't supposed to "overwork" it (I guess I was rolling too hard?)...I was fired after my first batch in the oven when I got distracted talking and laughing...Ms. Acquisitions Chef goes to check on my cookies -- "How long have these been in here?" "Um, I don't know. A few minutes." "Well, what time did you put them in?" "I don't know -- I was just going to watch them..." "Oh...(awk silence) -- well, ok then, next time its for 8-10 minutes" -- After that, I didn't make one move without running it by MAC (short for the Mergers/Acquisitions Chef) and we ended up enjoying each other a lot. I just hitched my future success on her coattails and rode that way to the finish line!

OK, not really, it was really because I found something where I could be successful...

You see, I was really good at unwrapping all of the Hershey's kisses for the Peanut Kisses cookies.


When it was all said and done -- these five women had baked ALL of their cookies, cleanup up and boxed up all of their cookies... and I was exhausted. And, I couldn't believe it...they kept talking about how much fun they had....

I left at 7:30 pm after only five hours compared to their ten! I just wanted to go home and go to bed.

On the flip side, I think I served as comic relief for the day... I mean, I did laugh at myself a lot...and we consumed more wine because I was there. Not sure if they were drinking with me or because of me...


Before I left, they tried to give me an "equal share" of cookies for the day. Mon Dieu! I could not accept...I mean, I was a mistake...I had clearly been invited to the wrong kind of party...

But imagine if we had done dying this way? And I had walked away with piles of fabric or thread? Oh Betty! Still my beating heart!!

If they do decide to invite me back next year, I just want to be on the Decorating Team in the Beautification Department...


I told them that... Try outs are in January.

Or, maybe, I'll be promoted from Head Kisses Unwrapper to

Chief Wine Steward and Cookie Pan Washer!

Two titles instead of one! That's better, I'm thinking...