Posted by Douglas Fisher on Tuesday, July 21, 2015 in News.

Jo Ann McIntire, the College Halls Administrative Assistant, pointed out that the Vanderbilt Admissions blog had a recent post on selected eateries in the vicinity of Vanderbilt (http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2015/07/what-we’re-eating-summer-2015-edition/). Jo Ann’s idea was to do something similar on the College Halls blog — what a great idea! We’ve been wanting more activity on the blog, and what better topic than food to encourage participation! Everyone loves food. I’m hoping that Jo Ann does the kickoff post on favorite places to eat around here. Lets see what she comes up with.

I’ve been making some progress of the food front too, but at home in Warren 503. I’m hoping to help my wife Patricia out at Fisher’s Fresh Baked Friday’s, so named by alum Head Resident Samara Lieberman, a master of alliteration. I’ve also been getting in touch with my Scottish heritage. In particular, I’ve been cranking through variations on Scottish oatcakes from different regions of Scotland. My absolute favorite are adaptations from “Scottish Fare” compiled and self-published by Norman and Gordon Latimer (1983):

“MIDLOTHIAN OATCAKES”

“Oatcakes like shortbread are made in many different varieties but this recipe is a favorite around Edinburgh and the Lothians.

1/2 cup plain flour

1 cup medium oatmeal

3 oz. butter

1 teasp. baking powder

1/2 teasp. salt

water to mix

Place flour, oatmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Melt the butter. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add the melted butter and enough water to make a stiff dough. Roll out the dough on a floured board and cut into rounds about 2 1/2  ins. in diameter. Bake in a warm oven (300F) for 30 minutes.”

You may need very little water, and I’d add it a teaspoon or two at a time until you know what you are doing — the dough should get just beyond the crumbling stage. Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch in thickness. These are the oatcakes I remember my grandmother making!

The lack of sugar results in a very subtle sweetness from the oats and butter, but I will typically add a 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of stevia powder to the dry mix for a slightly sweeter version. I’ll add about a tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese to the dry mix for a savory version. I’ve also used olive oil instead of butter, should you want a vegan version, and its delicious — I can’t tell much of a difference. I’ve also mixed in a bit of peanut butter — all good. The variations on this simple recipe are endless.

These are good out of the oven, but I like to grab them from the freezer. I’ll probably be cranking these out en masse on selected Thursday nights for the early crowd at FFBF. I dropped some oatcakes off with Matthew and Andrea Sinclair, along with scones (yet another story), and apparently they did something very smart — Matthew took the oatcakes and Andrea took the scones — these are very wise people! (Professor Lovensheimer was out of town, but he’ll benefit from my next batch).

The oatcakes are the rounders around the perimeter, and scones are in the center.

Why are my oatcakes worthy of a blog post? Because there was serious talk last year of a College Halls Cookbook, something that could serve as a resource for Warren and Moore’s four student kitchens, student kitchens around Vanderbilt, and anywhere else if the WaMily cookbook (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_cookbooks) is Web accessible. And as easy, delicious, and healthy as these are, I’m advocating that they be the inaugural entry.

If you have thoughts on a crowdsourcing platform that could serve as the College Halls WaMily Cookbook, I would love to hear it!  And if you want to design a cover for the WaMily Cookbook, let’s talk too! And if you want to do a blog post on food or other topics, then please let us know as well — we want to have lots of student involvement on the blog!

And thanks Jo Ann for opening our imagination!

This is a guest post by Doug Fisher, Faculty Director of Warren College. This post reflects Doug’s opinions, which are not necessarily the opinion of Vanderbilt University (but these oatcakes are pretty darn good).