Fabulous Fife Food in Foaties!

Well, what a busy week!  Saturday we went to the farmers market in Dunfermline (http://www.fifefarmersmarket.co.uk/) and the Fife Diet Christmas Fayre in Burntisland (http://www.fifediet.co.uk/).  Sunday saw the event that was the 4th annual Festive Lasagne at Casa Blair. Alister and I plus 3 of my very best and long suffering friends gathered for our usual pre-Christmas stuffing of our bellies.

This is the table all set and ready for the girlies:

We had the obligatory Blair family recipe home made lasagne, which I used to help my dad make when I was just a lass.  I'd probably struggle to write exactly what I put in the bolognese sauce but roughly speaking it's pancetta, onion, carrot, steak mince, peppers, mushrooms, tinned chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, Italian seasoning, bouquet garni and seasoning. But you can't use a fresh bouquet garni. Oh no. You have to use the shop bought ones that look like a teabag because for years that's what my dad had me believe it was. It always makes me smile when I pop it in and I remember that and remember happy times with him.

Dessert was a rather yummy milk, dark and white chocolate cheesecake from M&S.  I would have made something myself but at this time of year life is so hectic with festive goings on that there just isn't time.  After the dessert was coffee and mince pies and a beautiful but small cheese board. I'd much rather have a small amount of good cheese than a whole host of cheap supermarket cheeses (not that you don't get good cheese in supermarkets these days!).  It was the Dunfermline Farmers' Market on Saturday, however, and I had bought a big chunk of Anster cheese and of Red Anster cheese from St Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company (http://www.standrewscheese.co.uk/).  Anster cheese is a Fife cheese made with unpasteurised milk, it has a real nice tanginess to it. The Red Anster has garlic and chives added and is slightly addicitve! Those gorgeous cheeses were served very simply with 'Fife Cut', wonderfully rough oatcakes by another Fife company; Your Piece Baking Company (http://www.yourpiecebakingcompany.com/OurOatcake.htm). They are the roughest oatcakes I've had and the creaminess of the oats in your mouth is so lovely with the tangy Anster cheese.

I also bought venison burgers, pork sausages and chorizo at the farmers market. More on them at a later date:

Also on Saturday we had gone to the Fife Diet Christmas Fayre in Burntisland, which is where I bought the amazing oatcakes. Wow!! What a great afternoon! If you are free next year make sure you go along! We made a lovely wreath for our front door to which I added a big red bow later and it looks beautiful (well, I think it does, what do you think?)...

Not bad, eh?! After that, Alister made gingerbread biscuits at the cooking workshop. There were a few local maker stalls there and we bought some beautiful bread from The Steamie Bakehouse (http://www.steamiebakehouse.com/) as well as the oatcakes from Your Piece. The bread is a white bloomer and a fruit loaf.  I ate about half of the white loaf just with butter and a few glasses of red wine on the Saturday night when Ally went to bed, heaven!!  The fruit loaf was full of plump juicy raisins and lovely sticky bits of candied peel with a wonderful warm spice in the background, all topped off with the most wickedly sticky and delicious glaze on the crust. It's lovely just sliced and munched, or try toasting it with some butter melting into it. Yum!!!!

Then Ally had a lesson in knitting, turns out he's a bit of a natural! After knitting a few and purling a few we moved on to the wee cafe area for a big slice of home made Victoria sandwich and a cuppa before heading over to the Christmas tree decoration workshop where Alister made this very cute addition to our tree:

After about half an hour in the storytelling room, the boy re-emerged to ice his gingerbread biscuits (no photos, they were pretty much inhaled as soon as the icing went on!) and then we headed home.  All of the workshops were free and we had a brilliant afternoon. It will definitely become part of our annual Christmas plans!

Lots more been going on but I'll spare you all for now!

Hope you're all enjoying your Christmas preparations. I'm full of festive joy, I can't wait!

Love, Jill xx