Monach of the Glen

Mr Beehive and I had a fun weekend just gone. My folks came up as we'd bought my mum tickets to go and see Cliff Richard and the Shadows. She's looooooooong been a fan of the wrinkly old sexigenarian and I was dutifully brought up on a diet of Bachelor Boy and We don't talk anymore (and that was before I was the one saying it as a teen lol!), but she'd never actually had the opportunity to scream and wave her smalls at him (although I'm thinking he's not really a knicker kinda guy!)...so, she and dad had a great night out amongst Glasgow's finest Cliff fans on Saturday evening much to her surprise as we'd kept it secret for over 7 months!!

Sunday, I'd bought Mr Beehive a Highland Safari trek as part of his birthday pressie. We went up to Pitlochry to "stalk deer" in the hills. It was a really fun, if not freezing cold day. We were the only ones on the tour, so had the enjoyment of "Golly" and the Bothy picnic all to ourselves. Poor bugger had to sport the uniform of fully scottish dress in temperatures of around 5 or 6 degrees c!! It was incredibly windy too....and yes....he was dressed modestly ;-)
Look hard! There are deer on that hill.


Today my kitchen smells like Christmas. I've started on my mincemeat. It costs more, is more labour intensive, but there's nothing like the smell, likewise, the taste in your own mincepies!

It's a long drawn out process, that involved me standing on the school playground yesterday with a brown bag and a bottle of brandy peeking out - at 3.15pm! Obviously the sun wasn't past the yardarm and the whole bottle ended up in with the fruit...I promise - I hate brandy!

So, if you fancy making my adaptation of mincemeat, here's your recipe:

(Oh and don't expect precision - you know how I cook!)

Around 1lb of dried sultanas and raisins
approx half lb of cranberries
bag of vegetable suet
juice of one lemon
rind of the same lemon and one orange
2 large apples peeled, cored and grated
around 200g dark brown sugar
35cl brandy or rum
3 tbs apple juice
1 tbs dessicated coconut
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp clove powder
1 - 2 cinnamon sticks


Put it all into a bowl bar the apple juice and coconut, stir it up and add the alcohol. Cover and leave to stand for a minimum of 12 hours.

Add about 3 tablespoons of applejuice and the coconut. Put on the heat and allow to simmer gently for about an hour.

Bottle into sterile mason jars or smaller jam jars if you're giving it as a gift.