Happy Haggis Day to Joyful, Jubilant Learning!

Here’s something from Scotland as my contribution to the JJL first birthday party: a haggis.

Contrary to popular belief, the haggis is not a small animal that runs around the Scottish countryside, but a form of sausage that’s cooked – at least in century’s gone by – in a sheep’s stomach.  It’s also one of Scotland’s national dishes - although we don’t actually eat it that often, mainly around Burns night when people address the haggis (reciting one of Robert Burns’ poems) and burst the skin of the sausage open with a large knife, allowing the steaming contents to burst out…

You can listen to the address to the haggis here – plus a little bit of help with the translation!

So how on earth is Joyful Jubilant Learning like a haggis?  Well:

• It’s made up of a mixture of unusual ingredients – making a fabulous end result
• It’s a recipe that can clearly stand the test of time
• It inspires people to go off and write great things
• It provides much needed sustenance
• You get the most enjoyment when you open it up and jump on in!

Happy birthday!

Comments

[Rosa Say]

Joanna, what a terrific sharing. I took all of your links and listened to the Burns address - delightful!

We have way more in common than you may think, for this reminds me of the Portuguese paniolo (cowboys) of my Maui family and their sausage, also made of "nasty bits" and absolutely delicious when you have learned to gobble it up as a child in the midst of delightful holiday celebrations. By the time you learn what it actually is made of, you are an adult firmly locked into both the tradition, and the thought that, "oh what the he**, life is short, and this is still soooo good!"

Who needs another sugary birthday cake when you have sausage?

[Steve Sherlock]

Joanna, haggis is something that if I had heard about it before, I probably would have passed. Now if I get the opportunity comes around, I'll have to try some.

Thanks for sharing. Many thanks for sparking our confident writing!

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Who'd have thought that being sausage-like could be so fun and so awesome. Thanks for sharing this Joanna, and for your continued contributions to the JJL community.

[April Groves]

Hmm...I feel a bloggy question coming on...
What ingredient would you be?

Happy Birthday and thanks for the great picture!

[Joanna Young]

Hi April et al

I'm going to duck that bloggy question. Although there are some that would work well - like heart, and a spice rack of ingredients to add the flavour, some of the others are just a bit too offal (if you'll excuse the pun!)

By chance I got a 'thought for the day' e-mail prompt in my inbox yesterday suggesting that life was like a sausage machine. You get what you put into the machine.

The suggestion was that "if you're not sure what you've been putting into your sausage machine, check the flavour of your sausages. That will give you a clear indication of what ingredients you've been using."

Checking the flavour of the blog posts and comments round here... I'd say we were putting in some pretty amazing ingredients.

Glad everyone enjoyed the extended party over the time zones!

Joanna