In the kitchen

I will have to admit, as far as kitchen skills go, I am not a great contender.  My biggest concern coming to Scotland was finding a can of cocoa powder to feed my insatiable need for hot chocolate, and then there was all that stuff about cooking food and eating things to maintain a conscious life (as I have said before, fainting from hunger is embarrassing).  So I was able to trot off to a local grocery store and obtain the holy grail of cocoa powder: a large canister of the stuff.  Now we are not talking drinking chocolate or those hideous packets of mix-in-hot-water stuff regardless of tiny marshmallows in the mix, I am talking baking cocoa.  The stuff you have to lovingly mix just right or it is ruined.  (If you have never tried hot chocolate with baking cocoa and are deluding yourself with said packets, I dare you to try it:  one to two heaping teaspoons of baking cocoa, the same amount of table sugar, add dribbles of milk one at a time while stirring.  Once it forms a paste looser than peanut butter, you can add the rest of the milk and stir to mix.  Nuke til hot or heat on the stove if you still live in the stone age.  Adjusting the amount of cocoa powder and sugar make the drink either milk chocolaty or dark chocolaty as you prefer.  Add one scant drop of vanilla extract and float off into chocolaty goodness)  sigh...

So, having purchased the cocoa powder, I am eager to make some hot chocolate.  As they have generously supplied the sugar, I head to the sugar canister to scoop some up and never anticipated this:  Packets of sugar!!  Not kidding.  How many packets of sugar equal about a tablespoon?  Quite a lot.  How many packets are left after two weeks?  Not a lot.  I'll have to order more.

After fun with cocoa, I went to oatmeal.  How hard could that be?  After all it is a simple ratio of water to oats just like rice and homemade syrup.  Here are the instructions on the bag of oats: for best results cook on the hob.  Allow approximately 50g oats per person.  Place oats in a small sauce pan and add 300ml cold water.  Alternatively milk may be used instead of water to give a more luxurious, creamy porridge.  Bring gently to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously.  Add sugar or salt                                                                                     to taste.  DO NOT REHEAT.

There were no measuring cups to use, just the scale.  Could this giant scale actually measure out a scant 50g?  That would be the first 5 lines on the scale.  Most scales aren't very accurate under the first 10 parts.  But I'll give it a whirl.  So, I assumed the 50g goes with the 300ml for one serving and measured it out.  Worked out great!  Never made anything by weighing the ingredients before.  And the scale was quite accurate.  It even measured the weight of the paper towel.

There's two down, actually three down.  On my first night here I made rice with no measuring cups.  I did have a teacup, so I made rice like my grandmother did.  One teacup of rice, two teacups of water.  Done deal.  The next challenge:  seafood.  As it happens, a seafood truck comes once a week to the resort and sells freshly caught seafood.  How can you pass that up?  Now I am a lover of Minnesota seafood, you know, the stuff that comes from Red Lobster.  Nobody knows how it actually gets here still fresh, but it magically does (we being so close to the coast and all).  I have heard from those people on TV who claim that really fresh seafood is sweet.  Or at least it has a sweetness to it.  Like coconut shrimp at Red Lobster...mmmm...shrimp...

Anyway, my longtime standing favorite is scallops.  I've only had them about three times in my life, but remember liking them quite a lot.  So logic dictates that fresh scallops should be better than the magical whatever we get in Minnesota, so I bought some.  And I asked the fish guy how to cook them.  He said cook them on the hob, not at the highest number, but just one less.  Flip them when they are toasty and cook the other side the same.  I can handle that.  I ordered three and thanked him and took my treasures home to cook them.  

First thing I notice, is that the scallop is not just a round chunk, but it has another fleshy bit hanging off the side with an orange tip.  Don't know if you eat it or cut it off, so I left it and fried them up just like the guy said to.

Regular magic Minnesota scallops, if you've ever had them, are a bit tough, stringy, and a bit fishy.  And if you are lucky, they have a bit of grit in them somewhere that surprises you halfway through chewing.  Scottish caught sea scallops cooked the way the fish guy said to cook them are soft, creamy, and weird tasting.  I can't even explain what it tastes like.  I did eat them.  I am not sure I enjoyed them.  But the TV guys are right, they do have a sweetness to them.  Not sweet like sugar, but sweet like fresh water, if that makes sense.

Notice the extra bits that are orange?  They are orange all the way through!  I did not eat them.  Andrew Zimmern i am not.  Yick.

Ticket to Ride

Let me tell you, the train revelation was a good one.  Here's an addition to it's awesomeness:  the train station in Inverness is right next door to the Bus Depot!  I know!  So adding to my riding of public transportation in foreign lands ability, I added a bus trip to the Culloden Battlefields.

Beauly Train Station

On the bus

Here's how it goes:  drive to the train station in Beauly and catch the 10:19 train to Inverness.  Then take a right out of the train station and wander around a bit.  Ask for directions to the bus depot.  Follow directions to the bus depot, stand in a long.. slow.. moving.. line.  Ponder the possibility that while you are standing in said line, you may be missing your bus to the Culloden Battlefields.  Once it's your turn, inquire about a bus ticket and inquire where to pick up the bus (very important!) because it is not at the bus depot.  It is somewhere else.  Go to the somewhere else and check out the buses as they go by.  You need the 5A.  You see the 5A.  You don't just get on it and hope for the best, you ask the driver, just in case, if he is indeed going to the Culloden Battlefield.  He responds, no, but he is going near it.  You can take this bus and I'll drop you near the battlefield.  It's a five minute walk.  Or you can take the next bus in 20 minutes.  Near or next...near or next...near could mean anything.  It's near...right through that cow pasture, on the other side of that river, past this next town, down that giant hill.  I ask him if you can really walk to it from there.  He assures me it is a 5 minute walk and hastens me to make my decision.  Fine!  I purchase a round trip ticket from him and get on, trusting in his five minute walk.  And away we go!
The last stop the bus makes is at Cumberland Stone, next to a stone.  Really.  A real stone.  Anyway, he motions for the rest of us on the bus, here's the stop for Culloden Battlefield.  He points us down a small hill.  You can see it from there and there is a sidewalk all the way to the front door.  Being impatient pays off.

Culloden Battlefield is a museum on the cite of the battlefield where the Jacobites and the English fought over the sovereignty of the king; the King of England or the Stuart King from Scotland.  There's a whole lot more to it than just that.  Google it if you want to learn the whole story.  It is a complex matter rooted in all kinds of political intrigue.
At the museum, the displays take you through the entire story from both points of view, the English and the Jacobites, with a collection of memorabilia to add to the story.  They have a 360 degree room where you stand in the center of the battle and witness it firsthand.  Once through the museum's displays, you can go outside and walk some paths along the battlefield.  They have a row of red flags marking off the English line and a row of blue flags marking off the Scottish line.  You can barely see the one side from the other.  It is quite astonishing how large a battlefield actually is.  I couldn't imagine the amount of soldiers, horses, and canon that filled the place on that day.

The pointy rock nearest the bottom is the rock I set on the stone

As you follow the paths, there are markers where certain people fell in battle or where they stood in line.  I found a spot where the Macdonalds fell and took a photo of the memorial stone.  It is customary to leave a small pebble on the stone as a rememberance, so I did.
There is something sobering and sad about the place; not just that it marked the deaths of so many soldiers, but that it also marked the death of a way of life as well.

The Train! The Train!

There is a train in Scotland and it stops in Beauly which is a pretty easy drive from Eagle Brae. There is a parking lot at the train stop in Beauly which is signed and pretty easy to find.  If you wait outside for a while a train comes by and it is pretty easy to get on it and go somewhere else.  Today I took that train to Inverness and walked around the town all day!  Oh, and did I mention once you get off the train in Inverness, you are already in the city center so all you have to do is walk out the door, wander around aimlessly and you will find all kinds of really fun shops and eateries.  If you happen to be sensitive to gluten and dairy like I am, none of those eateries have anything you can eat in them.  I did inquire at a specialty food store if there were any gluten free eateries out there.  She said there is one called Nourish, or something like that, and gave me directions.  I thanked her and spent the next hour trying to find the place with no luck. I eventually settled on a cafe and had a quiche (which was served cold!) and a salad and a lactaid and prayed for the best.  Thankfully, I got the best and went on my merry way without crippling stomach pain (sometimes you have to roll the dice between stomach pain and fainting from hunger and fainting is so embarrassing).

Looking down High Street

My daughter, who shall remain nameless, has been homeschooled since first grade and every year I have purchased for her a school uniform.  Why?  Because she likes them.  She asked me to pick her up a school uniform with a badge on it from Inverness.  I thought, seeing school is just about to start, how hard could that be?  I walked off the train, out of the train station, turned down the first street I was on and there in the middle of the block was a school uniform shop.  It was as if the clouds parted, sunlight shone down from above, and angels sang.  I didn't even have to ask for directions!  In I went, got her a sweater with a badge on it and a pleated skirt, mission accomplished!

My older daughter wants a sweatshirt that says Scotland on it to go with the seven thousand other sweatshirts she has that don't say Scotland on them.  I haven't found the perfect one for her yet.  But I trolled lots of stores looking for just the right one.

Crossing the River Ness

So, after shopping all over town, I hit the information center, got a map and took a walk along the river and around two islands in the river, then on to the Inverness Botanic Gardens, and back to the train station.  The walk took about a bit over an hour and the Botanic Garden was really a neat place to see.  I wish I could take plants back home with me because they had some really nice potted heathers for sale.  They also had ice-cream.  Everywhere here has ice-cream.  I think it may be a national obsession.  Seriously, everywhere ice-cream.

Inverness Botanic Gardens

The Loch Ness Monster

All you've ever wanted to know about Loch Ness and its famous monster is packed into a very well made production you walk through and watch at the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition in Drumnadrochit.  Parking is well managed and flows up the hill and around the back side of the castle-like structure.  Walking in to the front doors, you purchase your ticket for the show, watch an introductory video, and enter a series of cave-like spaces for the tour.  Each stop has a video of about 10 minutes describing a portion of the history of Lock Ness and the monster sightings.  Each chamber of the tour houses set pieces and props to go along with the topic of discussion.  The entire production is very well researched and science-based, and very interesting.  The entire show lasts about 45 minutes.

So, here's what you do at the Centre:  go first to the ice cream shop (called the Necessity) and purchase boat tour tickets for the next hour (it takes 45 mn to see the show so get the boat tour for afterward), go see the show, bum around the gift shops for a bit, then board the small bus outside the hotel restaurant that will take you on the boat tour.  Enjoy the boat tour!  It's worth the money.  (Take your dramamine beforehand so you don't vomit on the boat.)  Then arrive back at the Centre.  Have a bite to eat there or better yet, cross the street in front of the hotel and follow the sidewalk around the corner and over the bridge and enjoy a cute little village of shops and eateries two blocks walk from the Centre.

From Loch Ness Urquhart Castle

This is down the street in Drumnadrochit

Waterfalls and Pony Trekking

Today I drove out to Pladda Falls to walk the waterfall and enjoy the day.  The waterfall was stunning to say the least.  They are always my favorite things to see and if you can get right up close to them all the better.  This one has an excellently marked trail system, well laid trails, and excellent view points.  To get right down to the falls required going off the well made trail onto a small muddy trail that hitched around a tree at the edge of a cliff (right at the edge, not even an inch away) and down almost a vertical drop.  Hmm.  Mud.  Vertical drop.  I debated the worst case scenario.  If  I slid on my backside all the way down, would I actually fall in the water or could I slow myself down by clutching at passing trees?  Could I look like I meant to slide down the trail gracefully instead of tumbling like the uncoordinated middle aged woman that I am?  And if I reached the bottom without incident, could I manage to climb back up the slippery slope?  Had I been twenty or so, I would have chanced it.  But being older and wiser and having ungracefully tumbled down far too many muddy trails, I decided caution was the better form of valor and went the other way;  half to save me the embarrassment of having someone of official status come haul me out of the river, half to save myself from mangling myself right before a trail ride.   (I have discovered in my 40 plus years that it is never a good idea to mangle yourself if you have other plans that day.)

The trail around the falls was surrounded by blooming heather and tons of wild blueberries.  Wild flowers spread around and huge trees towered overhead.  I actually saw a few fat bumblebees fly into a hole in the ground right in front of me, and some large mushrooms growing around the mossy tree roots looking all the world like fairy gardens.  It was truly beautiful.

After about an hour or so of walking, climbing, and photographing, I got back into the car and rode to Cougie Lodge for pony trekking.  Sasha and Iain Macintosh have quite the setup.  I arrived a bit early, but no matter, Iain was busy getting the ponies ready for the ride while Sasha was just coming in from a previous ride.  Friendly and knowledgeable, they got everyone ready for a two hour trail ride.
I haven't been on a horse for probably six years, but years of horsemanship lessons at camp kicked right in and I found no difficulty riding an English saddle versus a Western saddle.  If anything, I found the English saddle a bit comfier.  Although truth be told, we just sauntered down the trail, no trotting or running, so I can't attest to falling off in less than favorable conditions.
Sasha was a masterful horse lead, managed the trail ride like the professional she is.  I was able to manage my own horse, and the other two riders, a mother and girl about 10, were happy to allow Sasha to lead their horses on ropes for them.  It was so enjoyable to listen to the girl chatter on joyfully about everything and nothing, squealing and giggling over the pony's antics, and just fully enjoying the experience like children do.  We adults chatted with each other while we drank in the scenery.  Oh to live in such a place.  It reminded me of moving to Wisconsin where it was so quiet and beautiful (icky house and poor company notwithstanding).

www.highlandponytrekking.com