Yorkshire Dales and the Wensleydale Creamery

So we finally made it to the Wensleydale Creamery (remember the cheese with cranberries in it that I'd talked about earlier?) and although they weren't making cheese that day, we still got to meander the gift shop (Wallace and Gromit memorabilia galore!) and snarf down as many cheese samples as we could eat.

I tried one of each type available (which was probably about 15 cubes of cheese) and then couldn't quite figure out why I got so full, so fast, at dinner. They had 3 types of plain Wensleydale, one blue cheese, several types of Wensleydale with either fruit, vegetables, or other flavorings (cranberries, ginger - ew, pineapple, balsamic onions, caramelized onions, black pepper, apricot....the list goes on and on.) They also had double Gloucester and mature cheddar mixes. It was cheese sampling mecca. I picked up a mature cheddar and plain Wensleydale waxed round to bring home.

Here it is!

The drive on the way there was also quite scenic and although sometimes it was covered in fog, the parts we could see were beautiful. It is a very well known area called the Yorkshire Dales.

As usual, we stopped at a pub on our way back and right next to the pub was a very old looking bridge, holding up the railway tracks. We decided to brave the mud in our insensible footwear to get a closer look...

This was at the pub we went to, which I can't remember the name of now, but I just had to take a picture. 

Holy Jumping Salmon, Batman!

The boys and I went for a drive to the salmon jumps and despite their being no leaping fishies at the moment, it was quite a nice walk, although it took a bit longer than expected and got a bit darker, a bit faster than we thought it would, so some of the pictures look a tad creepy.

As we were driving up the hills, towards the jumps, we managed to get just above the fog. Bit creepy eh?

Looks like you're at the edge of the world.

Where the salmon would be jumping... if there were any. 

You can probably tell its getting quite dark at this point. This was the end of the walk. Took us probably about an hour to get here so we legged it back the same way we came as it was getting cold and dark. All the paths were starting to look like the creepy ones in the movies where you know if the kids walk down them, they're going to get eaten by the yeti. 

But luckily, they don't have yeti in England. 

The Inn at Whitewell

After going for our walk, as is custom, we stopped at a pub. This, however, was no ordinary pub. Quite a fancy to do, this one has a pub, inn and church all on the same lot. So, as was helpfully pointed out to me (y'know, just in case I was considering marriage anytime soon....), you could get married at the church, have your reception at the pub and your honeymoon at the inn, all in one go. Quite snazzy though, I must say.

Church

Inn

Pub

How convenient. Its like they planned it that way..

A peak through the window into their wine store

Just try not to smack the dead animal heads off the wall when you toss your bouquet. 

Trough of Bowland

We went for a walk through the lovely Trough of Bowland on Boxing Day. This area is said to be where the Queen herself would choose to retire, should she get a choice...Which, coincidentally enough, she doesn't. You'd think that being Queen, you'd bloody well get to choose.

But it is a lovely area. Nice and scenic. Also, just like the rest of England, its full of sheepies. Enjoy.

Told ya. Sheepies.

Lots of em.

Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart, and hand in hand.

Woke up bright and early this Christmas morning to attend the church service at the Lancaster Priory and Parish Church, which is opposite Lancaster Castle, which is actually still in use as a prison. Lovely!

It actually was quite a scenic church and was a very traditional style service, I was told, with carol singing and the whole nine yards. Very festive way to start the morning. 

Once we got home from the church, we opened a few presents then off to the kitchen!

P.S I got a lovely pair of woolly socks, a Mumford and Sons cd,  Lindor chocolate and a little bottle of whisky in the same box (I don't know why Canada hasn't thought of this before...), a really interesting looking book on sustainable fashion (which means I will actually have a book in my dissertation bibliography and not just websites...take that harvard referencing system!), some beautiful handmade paper and a bag made from recycled newspapers by a community in Delhi. 

Thanks again for the wonderful presents everyone!

While we were cooking dinner, we left a string of dirty dishes and messy substances sprinkled throughout the kitchen...

And didn't quite get the timing of everything down pat for when it needed to be in the oven...

...but it all turned out well! 

(except the bread sauce...but we won't talk about that.)

We made steamed brussel sprouts, which despite tasting sort of like broccoli, are much more work to prepare. You have to take the outer leaves off each one, then cut the nobby bit off the end, then make little Xs in each to help them cook properly. Not sure if they're worth all the effort or if I'd rather just eat broccoli instead. 

The parsnips were a bit of an experiment. I tossed them in honey, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and olive oil, but since we'd run out of space in the oven, we had to put them in tinfoil satchels on the BBQ. Which then burnt the ones on the bottom, and left the rest in a soggy, honey-covered mess. So we tossed those in the oven for a bit to crisp them up. Still came out a bit soggy but the flavor was quite nice.

The potatoes were even more of an experiment. We wanted to try cooking them in animal fat (goose fat was what we ended up with...which looks a bit like milky snot when it comes out of the can...not that different from how the bread sauce turned out, to be honest.) We had to heat up the goose fat, then place the parboiled and precut potatoes in it, coating them, then tossing it all in the oven. They didn't quite brown up as nicely as I'd expected but the flavor the fat gave them was good nonetheless. 

We also had the turkey, with sausage meat stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes with cream cheese/cinnamon/nutmeg/butter/brown sugar/walnuts, chipolatas (tiny little greasy sausages wrapped in bacon), and homemade cranberry sauce. Oh and a never ending supply of wine, sherry and whisky to top it all off. In the end, we were too stuffed to have our dessert (Christmas pudding) and opted to save it for Boxing Day. 

P.S That bowl in the upper left hand corner that looks like cream colored baby food in the bread sauce. Think I may have to try it again as I refuse to be defeated by double cream and breadcrumbs but might opt to let it sit long enough to thicken next time...

Happy Christmas Everyone!

A Christmas Unlike Any Others

This has been a very interesting holiday for me. It is the first time I have ever been away from my family for Christmas and also my first time experiencing the traditions of another's. I thought I would share with you my typical holiday traditions, compared to those of the family I am currently staying with.

My particular family traditions usually involve a bigger Christmas Eve. We serve appetizers of all sorts and a plethora of cookies (home-baked with love by my mother) and enjoy a bit of a buffet style dinner while watching 'A Christmas Story' and the original Grinch animated short. Usually my parents will watch 'A Christmas Carol' together, and I will watch 'It's a Wonderful Life.' Sometimes we watch the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with that elf that wants to be a dentist too. When we were younger, we would get to open one present on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning, I would usually be the first to wake, sneaking through the hallway to snitch my stocking from under the tree then tip-toeing back to my room to sit, excitedly yet methodically, taking each item out of my stocking then placing it carefully back in. I would put my stocking back in place under the tree before waiting until a time when I felt it was appropriate to jump on the beds and knock on the doors of my parents and sister's rooms. We would open our stockings first then the presents, have a breakfast consisting sometimes of chocolate, then spend the rest of the day being lazy and watching movies we'd received as presents.

 

Here, I will be experiencing a very different kind of Christmas. I suppose it is not so different on the surface but there will be many traditions that I shall miss but also some that I may begin incorporating into my own Christmas. Christmas Eve we will, in the tradition of 'A Christmas Carol', watch a ghost story or similarly scary movie. On Christmas Day, their family attends church to sing carols at the top of their lungs, then returns home to make turkey 'dinner', which is actually served around 2 pm. This year, I, along with the two boys my age in the family, will be cooking dinner for the family. It will be, for the most part, a typical British Christmas dinner with proper Christmas pudding and the lot.

I am very much looking forward to cooking a traditional dinner and have to say that I may begin asking for honey roasted parsnips and fire roasted chestnuts at following Christmases, but I will very much miss my family traditions of excessive Christmas movie watching and appetizer and cookie-devouring. I will miss the thrill of sneaking out to peak in my stocking and looking through the old letters from Santa Clause, that were written in the style of the letters J.R.R Tolkien wrote to his grandchildren (see below.)

I am thankful to be spending the holidays in such good company and wish everyone I know back in Canada-land, as well as those I have grown to know here in the U.K, a very happy Christmas. 

Here are a few images of the decorations from around the house as well. 

Kirky Lonsdale and the Lake District

Took a drive to a quaint little town called Kirky (pronounced Kirby) Lonsdale in Cumbria, England. Its right on the River Lune, which you can see a few pictures of below. Beautiful old cobblestone streets and rickety looking houses. There's a bridge in the town called the Devil's Bridge, which is named so because the devil apparently came to a woman there, and promised to build a bridge in exchange for the first soul that crossed it. Once it was built, the woman outwitted the devil by sending her dog across the bridge first. Makes you feel a bit bad for the dog, don't it?

The graveyard at St Mary's Church.

View of the river and the hills behind it.

A 'folly' in the churchyard. A folly is apparently a building made to look like an old ruin or castle turret, as it was once popular to have these in your backyard...so in other words, a fake bit of castle.

The big iron fireplace/oven in the cafe we stopped into. Wouldn't that make some wonderful bread? I had sweet potato, tomato and sage soup. Was quite tasty. Think I'll search up some recipes of that to try.

The church again.

Lovely view of the river.

Notice the little Christmas trees protruding from the buildings? Not sure if they are town decorations but many of the houses had them too. 

After going to Kirky, we drove to the Lake District, which is a beautiful area. Along the highway, we were high enough to see hills and hills of English countryside, all the farmland separated by stone walls, speckled with sheepies. We stopped in Windermere, which is quite similar to Banff in Alberta. Bit of a tourist type town, with a nice lake front and a quarry. In the end though, it was too bloody cold so we ran back to the car after only a bit of shopping.