Today has been spent getting ready for my Scottish night, when I'll be opening a bottle of Compass Box Spice Tree that was banned in 2006 by the Scotch Whisky Association. Duncan gave me a bottle when I left his employment and I've been hanging onto it ever since, but I decided that the time had come to open it and compare it with a newer bottling. To open it with friends and family would be perfect!
My first job was to stuff the chicken breasts with my whisky-infused haggis and wrap them in bacon and let them chill. I was dreading this but it all went well and I covered them in foil and put them in the fridge, all nicely tucked up.
After breakfast I cleaned the conservatory and set the table before taking Sophie to work. Luckily, Keith was going to see his local football team play this afternoon so he would bring her home. I dashed home to put the finishing touches to the conservatory (a tartan runner looked lovely on the table) and then Keith helped me make the smoked salmon pate. This involved slicing up the salmon and putting it into a blender with cream cheese, double cream, lemon juice and chives and blending until it was smooth-ish.
Once this was done and the pate put into little ramekins to chill, I sorted out all the plates and glasses (I'm fanatical about clean glasses), prepared the veggies and popped to Tesco to buy a bottle of whisky liqueur and to look for a mushroom sauce. However, all I could find were sauces containing garlic, which I didn't want, so I had no choice but to make my own! I went home, made a loaf of wholemeal bread and then started on the sauce. Rather than add the mushrooms as I was stirring the sauce, I left them separate and the white sauce turned out fine this time. It took me an hour to sort it all out so I just had time to clean the rest of downstairs, make the Cranachan (whipped cream, toasted oatmeal, raspberries, honey and whisky all mixed together) and then go and have a much-needed bath!
Keith arrived home with Sophie and she ordered a Chinese take-away from the van in the village. Before they went down to collect it she did my hair and make-up for me and then all I had to do was get dressed.
I kept away from the kitchen when the kids were sorting out their Chinese, but I wasn't too happy about the smell in the living room while they were eating their dinner. Thankfully, we were not using the living room and I went around the house spaying Febreze to get rid of the food smells!
Mum and Dad arrived first with flowers and chocolates and a bottle of Auchentoshan. Just as I was making their whisky cocktails, Sarah and Liam arrived with two half bottles of whisky and some Scottish-themed cup cakes! Wonderful!
The whisky cocktails went down well - I made a Rusty Nail which was two parts whisky, one part Glayva - and then we settled down to taste the whiskies. We tried Dad's first which was delicious and we followed this with Sarah's choice, a half bottle of High Commissioner which she'd bought for £4 in a dodgy shop in Northampton! All I can say is you get what you pay for!
The original Compass Box was up first and thankfully, I thought it was delicious. To be honest, I don't remember much about the taste so one evening Keith and I will sit quietly and compare them again because by now we'd all had a fair bit to drink and I was pre-occupied with thinking about the dinner!
We had our starters of smoked salmon pate and I put the main course on to cook. We tried the second bottle of Spice Tree, the bottle of Glen Deveron that I'd bought in the Duty Free in Orlando (gorgeous!) and then Liam's Caol Ila which was deliciously peaty. A bottle of Jura and my Talisker also made it to the table and then with dinner Keith opened a bottle of the Dark Horse wine so it all became a bit blurry! Luckily the dinner turned out fine and I added the mushrooms to the sauce and simmered them gently before pouring over the chicken. I also heated up some haggis and added that to the food on the table.
We carried on drinking the whiskies (and the wine!) and I served dessert followed by cheese and biscuits. Mum and Dad left shortly after the cheese and the four of us relaxed on the sofas and had a great chat, accompanied by our favourite tipples. I was really impressed with the Glen Deveron which was soft and fruity so I had some more of that.
My wonderful daughter did all the clearing up for me and after Sarah and Liam had gone home, we sat for a little while before going to bed. I didn't feel like I'd had a lot to drink but I did feel pleasantly woozy!
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