Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
fuel that adventure
I may live as far away from Glasgow as I possibly can and still be considered to living in Scotland, but the Commonwealth Games have touched our rural island village in the middle of the north sea. On the 1st of July the Queen’s Baton Relay came to our village. The buzz on the day …
Last May, because of some confusion while moving email addresses, I ended up with three days to write a piece for the summer issue of 60 North, Promote Shetland’s quarterly magazine. For this article I needed a foodie hiking photo or two, so when, on Day 2, the sun shone brightly and warmly down on …
This week, for PODcast’s Alphabet Photography Challenge I is for Iron Age. The youngest and I recently went on a little adventure to the south mainland to drop off our elderly neighbour at the airport and on the way home we went puffin spotting at the Sumburgh Head RSPB Nature Reserve. We were in luck …
Two years ago I started volunteering with the Royal National Lifeboat Institute at Britain’s most northerly lifeboat station, on the little rocky outpost in the North Sea that I call home. I was asked if I would like to be their Press Officer as their current one, at the time, was standing down. They knew …
The seafood industry in Shetland is currently worth £300 million a year to the islands and surpasses the value of the oil, gas, agriculture, tourism, and creative industries combined. Fishing has supported generation after generation of Shetlander, protecting our rural communities and remaining an integral part of our island lives.
Last year I blogged about the fantastic experience I had at the continental market held on Commercial Road in Lerwick, the main town here in Shetland. I am delighted to announce that they are returning again this year! Delicious home made baklava and exotic cheese – here I come!
On the 17th of May this year The Shetland Skatepark Association saw their dream of having a skatepark here in Shetland finally realised. More than 20 skaters and BMX bikers attended the official opening, which we read all about in that Friday’s Shetland Times weekly newspaper.
The sun came out in Shetland the other day. This means one thing: screens get switched off, the housework gets abandoned and we head outdoors for some proper exploring adventures. After all, it could be weeks before we see the sun again!
Our youngest has a thing for maps at the moment. He absolutely loves them. So when the sun came out in Shetland for the third day in a row yesterday we decided that when our youngest had finished nursery we’d get him to find a place on the Ordinance Survey map 467 for us to …
Contrary to what opinion you may have formed of Shetland after watching last night’s BBC 1 adaptation of Anne Cleeves Raven Black, Shetland is not always dreary, sombre and misty. When the sun shines on Shetland it transforms, like a blossoming flower, into a place of magic and beauty.
Up Helly Aa is an annual fire festival celebrated here in Shetland, marking the end of the Yule season and the return of the light after the long, dark winter.
I went for a beach walk yesterday, the last day of 2013. I hadn’t planned on going for a beach walk that day – my day was supposed to be spent blogging and tidying the house for visitors
My regular readers will be aware that I participate in quite a few monthly food blogging challenges. These challenges provide a great opportunity to experiment with ingredients, encourage creativity and broaden ones food horizons. They sometimes introduce me to ingredients (and people) I never otherwise would have encountered, like today.
Shetland Cheese Ltd is the UK’s most Northerly producer of cheese. Established in 2009, they are located in a former smokehouse on the west side of Shetland, a remote archipelago located in the North Sea midway between Norway, Iceland and the mainland of Scotland; closer to the Arctic Circle than to London.
Friday evening I had the great culinary pleasure of a sneak preview of the Shetland Food Fair, the newly relaunched foodie event of the year in Shetland!
St. Ninian’s is the site of one of Shetland’s many perfect beaches and it is one of our favourite family escapes. The beach is the largest active tombolo in the UK connecting the mainland of Shetland, a remote archipelago in the North Sea, to St. Ninian’s Isle, a now uninhabited island.
I have fond memories of home made jams and preserves from my Canadian childhood. Alas, preserving is not something I’ve become skilled at, yet, but this Autumn I am giving it a bash.
Great Britain is in the grip of a heatwave. With temperatures on the mainland soaring to over 30 degrees Celsius Shetlanders (well, my friends anyway) are flocking south in their droves to go soak up some summer rays. Our family, on the other hand, hid from the sun, and travelled north for our summer holiday …
When I woke yesterday it was cold, windy, raining and dreary day in Shetland. Warming comfort food would be required for the evening meal, so I popped a shoulder of locally reared Shetland lamb into the slow cooker with some Moroccan style seasonings.
There are very few trees on Shetland.
