Outlanderday Dinner

Ahhhh does it always seem that the show goes by so quickly, then all of sudden you  feel that same kind of emotional  let down that you have when you turn the last page of an excellent book and realize it’s a long wait for a next one? Or maybe the same feeling you get when you go to pour another glass of rhenish wine and  realize you’ve drank it all? Yes, that’s it… a sudden feeling of despair, sadness and frustration, a loud wining of “What is this? Where is the rest, I want more. No, I do not want to wait my turn patiently…” You then realize too that you are wining out loud at the television and half expecting it to give into your wining and provide you with the next episode. It does partially comply with your command… it replays the just watched episode in hopes that will console you? And, for some reason you are happy to sit through the episode again, if only to catch all of the little things you missed while being so engrossed in it the first time!

Because I know there are probably some who have not watched tonight’s episode yet, I will not give away any spoilers! I will just give a few comments on the episode in general. What an excellent job by the show and by Gary Lewis in his portrayal of Colum MacKenzie! I was wondering how they would present his disability. It was incredible and so  difficult to watch him move around, so very real it was.

 

Ohhhh Yes, Geillis Duncan made her first appearance tonight as well and quickly put on her most charming and yet still witchy face for us!

Geillis Duncan/ Lotte Verbeek

We also met Mistress Glenna Fitzgibbons, who was aghast at Claire’s less than proper attire upon her arrival at the Castle, and even more dismayed by Claire’s “French” underwear!  I just want to add my own small comment on Claire’s appearance… What a splendid job they did on creating the wild mess of her hair.   It’s definitely the little things that we take notice of and that matter to us!  Now, about the sneak peek of next week… I do believe that is a deviation from the book as I do not recall Mrs. Fitz ever being horrified and throwing around such witch accusations at Claire… For me, I am fine with the deviations they feel they need to make for the story line to run smoothly in television format!

 

Ok, enough of the show recap. On to our dinner that went with it! It turned out quite successful despite a few minor errors or glitches on my part. I used the bannocks recipe from Outlanderkitchen.com and they turned out very tasty, although I think I could have left them in the oven for just a bit longer. I baked them for the 15 minutes and did not want to over bake them so took them out. They did not turn a nice golden on the tops but as I said, they were still great! My one glitch in the ingredients, the oatmeal… I sent the son to get quick rolled oats, but he brought home the long cooking oats instead.  Theresa Carle-Sanders from Outlanderkitchen did have a suggestion for dealing with this on the site. She uses a coffee grinder to grind the oats up more. I do not have a coffee grinder, so I put them in my blender which has chop/grind function on it. That easily solved the problem!

 

Mrs. Fitz inspects our meal and does not sigh, moan or throw up her hands at us so I am qualifying it as a moderate success!

 

Mrs. Fitz inspects our dinner!

 

I am going to give it the moderate success because of my slight errors with the bannocks, and also because I was not all that impressed with the pre-made Pork Pies. They were rather odd… I was expecting some sort of pork filling, maybe with gravy or something? The filling was a pork type meat along the lines of Spam consistency! They weren’t bad, just not at all what  I had expected.  I most likely would not purchase them again or order it from a menu now.  I know this picture is a bit blurry, but here is what the filling looks like.

 

filling of pork pie

The Brussels sprouts were as usual, delicious!  I fried the bacon until just lightly crispy, drained the grease and sautéed the Brussels sprouts in a cube of Land of Lakes Saute Express, garlic and herb flavor.

Brussels sprouts with bacon

The dessert of fresh raspberries and crème was easy and excellent! I made the crème as follows: half of a small container of Mascarpone cheese, softened in the micro-wave, add enough crème fraiche to give it a creamier sauce type consistency, I also added a small container of  raspberry Greek yogurt. Blend it all together well and add more crème fraiche if you feel it’s not quite thin or creamy enough. It depends on your personal taste as well! Fill the bowl about half way with fruit, add the crème and top with more berries!

 

One last note, I did have cheese and jam for the bannocks but we ended up just eating them warm with butter!

Previous Outlander post:  https://timeslipsblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/outlanderday/