It's Farmhouse Breakfast Week!

Join us by celebrating Farmhouse Breakfast Week until the 26th January

Farmhouse Breakfast Week is an annual celebration championing the importance of breakfast aiming to get the nation to Shake Up Their Wake Up! Instead of skipping breakfast the campaign aims to get the 47% who go without to enjoy a heathy breakfast more regularly.

Running a B&B we know how our guests really do relish a good farmhouse breakfast...
 and taking time out to enjoy it.

Eggs from the small Millbrae flock

The purpose of the week is to raise awareness of the benefits of eating a healthy breakfast and show-case the wonderful ingredients produced in the UK, encouraging us to eat local and shop local.

A good start to your day - our breakfast buffet

Our Scottish farmhouse breakfasts include our own eggs, Ayrshire bacon, award winning Haggis and sausages from our local butcher and locally produced preserves and yogurts... to name just a few key ingredients.

We are lucky that here in Dumfries and Galloway we have a great local larder and many artisan producers such as:
 The Earths Crust Bakery www.earthscrustbakery.co.uk

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(a family run artisan bakery based in Laurieston near Castle Douglas producing a range of hand crafted slowly fermented traditional, sourdough and speciality breads)

Barlochan Highland Beef www.bhbeef.com (whose Highland cattle graze the fields around Rockcliffe)

Loch Arthur Creamery and Farmshop www.locharthur.org.uk/creamery-and-farmshop/ (for Organic cheese, butter and vegetables).

Galloway Lodge Preserves
www.gallowaylodge.co.uk

Castle Douglas Food Town is a good starting point for sampling and buying the regions products. You can find more details at www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

You can more details on Farmhouse Breakfast Week and lots of recipes for tasty breakfasts at http://www.shakeupyourwakeup.com

Our recommendation to warm you up on a chilly Winter morning is - Cranberry Spiced Porridge

You will need;

100g  Scottish Jumbo rolled oats
50g dried cranberries
qtr tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp cranberry sauce
700ml semi skimmed milk

Putting it all together

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil
Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened
Serve with a tsp of cranberry sauce and a sprinkling of mixed spice

Tips

Use frozen whole cranberries with 2 tbsp sugar or Galloway honey instead of the dried cranberries and cranberry sauce

One of our guests recommends cardamon on your porridge in a morning.

Recipe from

 http://www.shakeupyourwakeup.com/breakfastrecipes

A Recipe for Christmas ....

Galloway Louche Cake - its so easy.

Following on from the success of this fridge cake at our recent Macmillan coffee morning I thought it would be nice to share it with you. Not the cheapest cake to make but a small piece with a coffee makes for special me time and don't even think about the calories! Keeps in the fridge for about five days but I guarantee it won't be around that long.

I have renamed this recipe to give it a local twist and tried to make it using mainly local ingredients as Dumfries and Galloway has such a rich larder. You can pick up all the ingredients in Castle Douglas which has been awarded status of a Food Town. Here you will find many individual retailers selling and producing quality local products.




Galloway Louche Cake

180 grams of raisins

180 grams of undead glacé cherries halved

225 grams of Irvings Shortbread or digestives in 1cm nibs

300 grams dark 70 percent chocolate from In House Chocolates in pieces

120 ml of fresh squeezed orange juice

180 grams diced Loch Arthur I salted butter

1 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup

Icing sugar to dust

23cm square tin lined with baking paper.

1. Simmer orange juice and raisins in a small pan until juice absorbed. Leave to cool.

2. Slowly melt butter, chocolate and syrup in a bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Stir.

Add raisins biscuits and cherries and coat in the mixture.

3. Spoon the mixture over the base of the lined tin and smooth down/ flatten. Cover with cling film and pop in fridge for a few hours until hard.

4. Remove from tin and dust with icing sugar when serving.Use a sharp knife to cut in to squares or fingers.

Enjoy!

Our local suppliers.

Chocolate from In House Chocolates 128 King Street, Castle Douglas, Manufacturers of handmade chocolates. All truly made by hand in their workshop. A wide range of chocolates, truffles , bars and lot lots more.

Biscuits from Irvings producers of traditional homestyle baking based in Castle Douglas. Making a range of biscuits, tray bakes, loaves and sponges.

Butter from Loch Arthur Creamery in Beeswing a working Community which includes men and women with learning disabilities.

Credit: Original recipe from Country Living magazine some years ago.

Afternoon tea anyone?

I shouldn't really be telling you this as I want to make sure there is some left for me, but here goes:


As part of the Flavour Taster Abbey Tearooms are putting on delicious Afternoon Teas this week end from 2.00 to 16.30. A real, old fashioned spread like Granny used to do so not to be missed.


They have just won another prestigious award for their yummy treats and use local produce wherever possible. 


Get more details here


On trips down to Dumfries I try allow extra time so I can call in. It's a very picturesque cottage in a spectacular location, next to the beautiful Cistercian Abbey. A real treat!