Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
cooking up a storm at the edge of the world
and a Sunday walk around the southern tip of West Burra, Shetland. What a beautiful summer we’ve been having! This summer has honestly been one of the best summer’s weather-wise, we’ve had in a very long time. The BBC news reported recently that it’s been sunnier up here in Shetland than it has in Cornwall, …
“Mum, you should make this soup in a restaurant! It’s SO good!” This thick, creamy and delicious cauliflower soup is made with bacon and leftover Christmas brie; perfect for pouring into a soup flask and taking on an adventure. Random fact #1: my husband qualified to play at the Norsk Bordtennis Mesterskap (Norwegian Table Tennis …
A delicious to-go soup recipe plus the Big Outdoor Bloggers Cleanup! This week sees the Big Outdoor Bloggers Cleanup – a country wide litter pick helping to tackle the problem of single use plastic. It’s also my husband’s week off work (the nature of his work means he works six days a week for five …
A winter orca-chasing coastal walk and a warming bowl of soup. There seems to have been an increase in the number of orca sightings around our beautiful islands over the last year, for some reason. So much so that a Facebook group (Shetland Orca Sightings) has been set up by Shetland Wildlife specifically for people …
Our weekly bite sized review series. Last weekend saw our annual Shetland Food Fair attract over 3000 visitors to taste test and shop the wealth of quality food and drink produced on our remote North Sea island. You can read my account of it on the Shetland News website and see a selection of photographs …
Burra Ness Broch is an ancient archaeological site on the island of Yell in Shetland, Scotland. This Iron Age structure, known as a broch, is a type of drystone hollow-walled structure that is unique to Scotland. The broch at Burra Ness is situated on a promontory, offering stunning views of the surrounding sea and landscape. …
The Swan LK243 is a restored herring drifter built in 1900. This vessel was one of the finest built during the herring boom here in Shetland in the late 1800s. She’s survived two world wars and near destruction, found partially submerged in Hartlepool harbour in the 80s. The Swan Trust was set up in Shetland …
A quick and easy soup made with courgettes, fresh basil and a hint of Parmesan. Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 20 minutes Difficulty: Easy I’ve got a stinking cold. I should have anticipated this and batch-cooked some comfort food in advance. When the kids go back to school after every single holiday break, they …
Use leftover mashed potatoes in these light and moist herbed potato bannocks, which are ideal for summer picnics. Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes Difficulty: Easy They say that familiarity breeds contempt. I’ve called Shetland home for over 17 years. Shetland, in case you don’t know, is a little island archipelago in the …
Part two of two of my long bank holiday weekend bike ride to the most northerly tip of Britain. I had a very comfortable sleep in Windhouse Lodge, the gatehouse to Shetland’s most haunted house, built in 1707. There were no signs of any ghosts, unfortunately! If you haven’t read Part 1 of this series …
Part one of two of my long bank holiday weekend bike ride to the most northerly tip of Britain. Regular readers will, by now, be well aware that I am planning an epic 250 mile mountain bike cycle from my home on Shetland to Fort William, where I’ll be climbing Ben Nevis – all part …
I had one of those I love my life moments yesterday. That’s me standing on the edge of that cliff you see there. Taking advantage of the predicted fine weather and the long school holiday weekend, DD and I packed a packed lunch, gathered our provisions and met up with a friend for some coastal …
Happy New Year! I hope you have had a lovely festive period, and that the New Year was greeted with a bang. Have you made any resolutions? What sort of things did you get up to? Over the last few years we’ve started a new family tradition of bringing in the New Year watching the …
Old Norse: feitiland – fat land, rich pasture Situated at the most northern tip of the Shetland mainland, Fethaland’s fertile soil has a long history of settlement. There is evidence of an Iron Age prehistoric round house or broch (there is some disagreement on this), the circular wall outlines of a Neolithic house and the …
Hams of Muckle Roe: old Norse for havens (or harbours) of the big red island. I lost the entire month of July to working full time and then August seems to have flown by. The winter weather is going to be starting up again soon, confining us indoors again. This last week has given us …
The Iron Age in Europe occurred between 1200 BCE – 1 BCE. I’ve rekindled my geocaching bug – well, my friend Julia’s rekindled my geocaching bug. In 2010 a crafty friend of mine (Julia – who blogs over at Jaydee’s Ramblings) introduced me to the wonderful world of geocaching. For those of you who don’t …
Survey and Excavation of Coastal Archaeology in Shetland 1995-2008 If you were to judge this book by its cover and title you might think it is the latest work of popular fiction; an adventure story set in a wild, rugged and remote island archipelago, a battle between the effects of the passage of time and …
No electricity, no wifi – 48 wonderful disconnected hours. After our unfortunate attempt at camping on the top of Rona’s Hill, Shetland’s highest hill, for the Simmer Dim (summer solstice), my family (ie: my husband!) inwardly groaned when I suggested we go camping again, this time for the whole weekend. I didn’t bother checking the …
#24 Kayak into a sea cave. Complete. Earlier this Spring I completed my one star kayak training with the Shetland Canoe Club, meaning I was qualified to go out on trips with the club this summer. We’ve done a few small (5-6 mile) trips on club nights and I’m delighted to say that thanks to …
Simmer Dim – Shetlandic for ‘summer twilight’ Sometimes I have good ideas. Sometimes I don’t. I’m not sure where on the spectrum of good-bad ideas this camping trip idea lies – somewhere in between, perhaps?
