Mitchells Dairy are Cream of the Crop

As we’re sure you noticed on Facebook and Twitter, we were delighted to have won two awards at last week’s Scottish Grocer Awards at a glittering black-tie ceremony in Glasgow’s five-star Hilton Hotel.

The Scottish Grocer Awards, which were hosted by sports TV presenter Georgie Thompson, with entertainment from comedian and magician Pete Firman, recognised the best in Scotland’s community retailing scene.

Fortunately for us, the best included Mitchells - as we landed the Sustainable Retailer of the Year and Health Promoting Retailer of the Year!

The Sustainable Retailer of the Year award, sponsored by Resource Efficient Scotland, paid homage to our increasing awareness of environmental issues, while the Health Promoting Retailer of the Year recognised us for the role we have played in helping to create a healthier Scotland.

Thank you to all our friends and customers for your kind wishes and continued support. Our fantastic team always strive to provide the freshest, tastiest and healthiest products to our local community in Inverurie, so we were over the moon to be rewarded for our efforts.

You can see some of the photos from the evening below, and once we receive the official photos, you will be the first to see them!

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Shake Up Your Wake Up With Mitchells

Are you one of the 50% of people who skip breakfast at some point during the week? Or one of the 21% of people who do so purely to spend longer in bed? If so, this week is the time to change - as it is Farmhouse Breakfast Week!

Organised on behalf of UK cereal farmers and producers who grow crops such as wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape, Farmhouse Breakfast Week and the Shake Up Your Wake Up campaign encourages more people to enjoy a healthy and tasty breakfast.

The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness of the benefits of eating a healthy breakfast and demonstrate the wealth of wonderful breakfast produce available around the country - and we will be doing our bit to support the campaign at Mitchells Dairy.

Running from Monday 27th January to Saturday 1st February, we will be offering our great selection of tasty breakfast options from 7.30am - 5.30pm - and regardless or whether you sit in or take away your breakfast as food on the mooove, there is no better way to start your day.

Breakfast options include hot filled rolls (bacon/sausage/egg or a combination), cereal, toast, croissants, butteries, fresh homemade scones, porridge and eggs/omelettes.

If you are looking for healthy breakfast options, you can purchase wholegrains, rapeseed oil and oats from our Grocery Shop, or if you want to forget about your diet for just one day, why not indulge in our all day breakfast - a plate brimming with hearty home-cooked, locally produced eggs and sausages and a whole lot more?

Whatever type of breakfast you choose, we look forward to welcoming you throughout Farmhouse Breakfast Week and helping to Shake Up Your Wake Up!

You can see Mitchells’ promotion on the Farmhouse Breakfast Week site HERE, as well as any other local events at the Events and Promotions page, and if you do visit us, remember to pick up a complimentary Easy and Tasty Recipe booklet.

If you want to help support Breakfast Week, why not send us in your photos of your Mitchells Dairy breakfasts from the Dairy Tearoom, or ones that you have cooked at home using our delicious ingredients from the Grocery Shop?

Simply upload your breakfast photos to the Mitchells' Facebook page, or upload them to Twitter or Instagram. If you do so, use the hashtag #BreakfastWeek, as you could be in with a chance of winning a UK seaside break courtesy of Shake Up Your Wake Up!

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Celebrate Burns Night with Mitchells Dairy

If you are planning on beating the winter blues and having a Burns Night celebration this weekend, you will be glad to know that you can find everything you need at Mitchells Dairy.

From locally grown neeps and tatties, to a range of haggis from the likes of Macsween of Edinburgh, Scotts of Huntly (a Scottish Haggis championship winner no less!) and Presly of Oldmeldrum, we can guarantee you won’t need to look elsewhere for your traditional Burns Supper ingredients.

Of course, a delicious dessert is a fitting ending to any Burns Supper, so to complete your meal in style, how about a mouthwatering combination of Mitchells Crannachan ice cream made by Rizza’s of Huntly, raspberries from Barra Berries, and toasted Aberdeenshire oats to give a true taste of Scotland?

If you fancy yourself as something of an amateur baker, you may even want to try your hand at Paul Hollywood’s Cranachan Cheesecake, which featured on Paul Hollywood’s Pies & Puds, and which imaginatively used Mitchells’ handmade oatcakes as the base of the dessert.

If you aren’t quite full by then, we also have a wide selection of Scottish shortbread and cheeses, which are absolutely delicious with our aforementioned handmade oatcakes.

Of course, no Burns Supper is complete without whisky, and you will be glad to know that we have a great range of whisky at very competitive prices to toast the Bard.

To ensure you have your ingredients in time for Burns Night, simply ask in-store at the deli counter. If you would like any haggis or Burns Night items sent to family or friends anywhere in the UK, please contact us on info@mitchells-scotland.com and we will be happy to help.

We hope you all have a fantastic Burns Night, and from everyone at Mitchells Dairy - to the immortal memory of Robert Burns!

If you are having a Burns Night celebration, please share your pictures with us on Facebook and Twitter, and feel free to share your recipes with us too - we would love to tell our community about them.

 

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Festive Foodie Fundraiser

Our Festive Foodie Fundraiser on Thursday 21st November will see us team up with the Charlie House Appeal charity as well as some of our suppliers to host a fantastic evening of food and fun!

We have committed ourselves to help raise awareness and funds for Charlie House Appeal, a local charity helping families right here in OUR community, which 'engages in activities and projects to support children with complex disabilities and life limiting conditions'.

Tickets are available in advance, and on the night you will receive a welcoming glass of mulled wine, after which you will get a chance to mingle around the shop and tearoom trying different delicious samples from some of our suppliers:

Cocoa Ooze Chocolates
'Cocoa Ooze Chocolate was set up in October 2008 by award winning chocolatier Jamie Hutcheon to bring a new fresh offering to the local and national marketplace. The team at Cocoa Ooze create a array of mouth watering and scrumptious chocolate delights made in our production faculty in Peterculter, Aberdeen.'

Downies Fish
'As well as top quality fresh Scottish fish, Downies supply frozen fish, naturally smoked fish such as Finnan haddock, hot-smoked mackerel hot-smoked salmon as well as naturally smoked cod, haddock and mackerel fillets.'

   

Glen Garioch Whisky

'Shielded from the world’s prying eyes, deep in the fertile ‘Granary of Aberdeenshire’, and only ever produced in small, precious batches, Glen Garioch is a rare find indeed, but warmly appreciated by those who like a hearty Highland malt, non chill-filtered as nature intended, with a wholesome maltiness, honeyed sweetness and delicious creamy texture to savour.'

Cairn O’Mohr Wine

'Cairn O'Mohr is a Scottish business promoting local produce with locally sourced ingredients. Owners Ron and Judith strive to make a quality product and are proud of the wines that they produce. Cairn O'Mohr has won several accolades including gold ‘Taste’ awards; the delicious Sparkling Strawberry won the highest prize of a 3 star gold award, one of only 83 awarded from 5000 entrants.'

Haigs

'Haigs is a small family owned business established in 2007 by James and Julie Haig. They are a specialist food hall situated in the heart of Aberdeen city centre, specialising in fresh meat, fresh fish, fresh fruit and veg, bakery and pies.'

Cambus o May cheese
All of Cambus O'May's cheeses are handcrafted using unpasteurised milk from traditional recipes. Unlike mass-produced cheese that is standard in consistency and often unexciting in taste, cheese made with raw milk boasts a wealth of interesting flavours and textures. Part of the charm of producing raw milk cheeses is the difference in flavour that comes with different seasons so expect subtle changes in the cheese as the year goes on.'

JG Ross Bakers
'JG Ross Bakers provides an extensive range of high quality bakery, sandwiches and meat goods to satisfy even the most discerning customer. Because JG Ross source ingredients of the highest quality, and many of its products are made during the night, they can provide customers with the assurance that they will receive products which are continuously full of flavour and of an excellent standard.'

As well as these samples, representatives from Charlie House will be attending to host a raffle as well as sell their Charlie beanie bears to raise money for the charity.

There will also of course be an opportunity to browse our range of Christmas hampers; which can be a bespoke creation of your choice, or you can pick from our already designed range!

With every hamper bought or ordered on the night, a donation will be made to Charlie House from us at Mitchells!

Tickets can be purchased in person, by phone (01467 621389) or via email (judy@mitchells-scotland.com) in exchange for a suggested donation price of just £5 to the Charlie House Appeal - we hope to see you all there!

If you want to find out more about how Mitchells contributes to the local community in Inverurie, please feel free to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Yet More Retail Excellence at Mitchells

It has been an excellent year of recognition for us here at Mitchells Dairy in our 85th year- and it just keeps getting better and better!


Judy recently had her 15 minutes of fame in London, and we cannot forget about the rest of the Mitchells team, that’s why we were delighted to be awarded the SGF (Scottish Grocers’ Federation) Healthy Option Retailer of the Year at the first ever Retail Excellence awards!

The SGF promotes responsible community retailing and works with the government and the media to encourage a greater understanding of the contribution convenience retailers make to Scotland’s communities.

Our fantastic team always strive to provide the freshest, tastiest and healthiest products to our local community in Inverurie, so we were over the moon to be rewarded for our efforts.

There were only eight awards available on the day and for us to win the award, with the size of the SGF community, is truly humbling.

Keith, who was presented with the award at the 5-star Prestonfield House in Edinburgh, said: “I am delighted for everyone - all our local suppliers here at Mitchells, and I cannot express how happy we are to be recognised in such a way for our efforts in promoting healthy eating.”

Here is Keith being handed the award by Barry Cuthbertson (Muller Wiseman Dairies) and Robert Sider (SGF President) and Kaye Adams at the ceremony:

Everyone at Mitchells echoes Keith’s sentiments, and we would just like to reiterate how proud we are to be awarded this fantastic honour.

If you want to find out more about how Mitchells contributes to the local community in Inverurie, please feel free to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Privilege to be in Pies and Puds

As Britons, it is not news to hear that two of our favourite foods as a nation are Pies and Puddings. 

Both of which are perfectly encapsulated in Paul Hollywood’s new book, “Pies and Puds”.

Hollywood said: "Man cannot live by bread alone—not even if the man is me. With this book, I want to rekindle our affection for straightforward, honest food.

Pies and puddings really sum up the strengths of our culinary culture—there's something about a home-baked deep golden pie or simple steamed pud that warms the cockles of your heart like nothing else."

The new book has countless recipes on sweet and savoury pies, as well as many delicious pudding recipes.

You will find “meat and potato pie, pork, apple and cider pie, lamb kidney and rosemary suet pudding, sausage plait and luxury fish pie” amongst the pie roster.

As well as these, the ‘Queen of puddings’, spiced plum pizza (yes, pizza), chocolate volcanoes and apple and Wensleydale pie will all be gracing the pages under the “Puddings” heading.

Turn to p.197 and you will find the Crannachan Cheesecake recipe that our oatcakes are used in!

Whether you're a sweet or a savoury person, a keen novice or an expert baker: it's time to get baking pies and puds.

The book will be released on Thursday 24th October on Bloomsbury publishing.

It will be available in all supermarkets, WHSmith and online.

The “Pies and Puds” tv series will air in November also, so keep an eye out for Mitchells and Judy!

 

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Mitchells Films in Hollywood

In last week’s blog post, we spoke about Judy and her adventure down to London, to film with none other than the ‘artisan of baking’; Paul Hollywood!

And since word got out of Judy’s London adventure, she’s become quite the celebrity herself, featuring on the front pages of two of Inverurie's local newspapers last week!

Today, we’ll fill you in on some of the information and tasty details of the episode that Judy and Mitchells will be featured in!

“Each of the 45-minute shows will see Paul cook three mouth-watering recipes. He’ll produce a signature pie and a signature pudding, but in between he’ll create something a little bit different, inspired by a guest expert.

Paul and his guest expert will cook the dish together, often showing off their unique technical skills such as sugar spinning or fondant icing.” - Sourced from BBC.

First of all, in August we hosted the Spun Gold tv crew, who travelled up to Inverurie to film our delicious oatcakes being baked on the girdle (“griddle”)

They filmed the handmade process in our bakehouse, that has used the family recipe of Great Grandmother Agnes Mitchell since 1928.
It can sometimes be a slow process but as the old saying goes, “Quality over Quantity”!

In our featured episode, the kitchen saw Paul welcome Sharon and Chris Peacock from Cockerham Goats. Cockerham Goats is a family run business that is one of the UK’s longest established pedigree goat herders.

Their premium Boer goat meat provided the main ingredient for the Goat-herders pie and is featured in Paul’s new book “Pies and Puds”.

Rachel Allen is the guest Chef featured in this episode. Rachel is a celebrity chef from Ireland who has written four best selling cookery books. She is regularly on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and she even has her own show on RTE: "Easy Meals".

Paul and Rachel cooked up a tasty baked brie brioche and a coconut raspberry pudding.

Finally, after eagerly awaiting on the sidelines Judy gets her air time! After a dusting of powder from the make up artist, she enters the kitchen to make a crannachan pudding while Paul bake’s the Crannachan cheesecake.

Cheesecake is usually made with crushed sweet biscuits , however Paul’s recipe imaginatively used savoury oatcakes as the base of the dessert. Melted butter, raspberries and Highland Fine Cheeses Crowdie cheese made up the rest of the ingredients in the Cheesecake.

After all the food was prepared and cooked, Judy, Paul and the others all sat around a table and tasted the food. We know that Chris DEFINITELY loved the Crannachan as we have a photo of him. enjoying the leftovers!

Keep an eye on the Mitchells Dairy Blog over the next few weeks to keep up to date with Judy’s Adventure and the Mitchells’ involvement in Paul Hollywood’s TV show & his new book!

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