NYE 2020 Signeville, the photos

              Tandoori lamb straight from the grill.

 

NYE 2020 in Siggie

We had an awesome day, kicking around the house, cooking, and doing our thing.  We watched John Wicks 1 in the afternoon and The Man from U.N.C.L.E in the evening.  Both great movies which we've seen more than once before.

We prepped our lamb shoulder for dinner after a rather late brekkie.   Andy did the spiced tandoori marinade before going out into the freezing cold to fix the cave door which had a bent hinge.  He came back in, he was freezing but it was fixed.  At least he came into a cosy house because he lights the fire first thing.

While he was fixing the door I scored our gorgeous fridge dried lamb shoulder (there's so much extra flavour keeping something in the fridge uncovered for a few days with a little salt) and slathered on the tandoori marinade.  We knocked up sauteed onion and parboiled potatoes in butter with toasted cumin seeds and cooked them off until crispy and delicous.  I made a simple fresh mango chutney with lime zest, lime juice, fresh green chilli and toasted cocoanut.  We knocked up a simple salad, steamed basmati rice, made a riata and in the final 2 hours of that lamb cooking added sliced onion to cook in its fatty tandoori juices before grilling it off. Charred flatbreads finished off the meal.

We decided to ditch an entree.  There was enough food.

We took the whole thing down to the cave.  It had been snowing most of the afternoon and it was incredibly pretty.

 

Christmas 2020

Little Nudge starting the day as he always does, pops up on my lap and drags in my arm to sleep.

Then he moves to Andy's leg cushion which Andy needs for his ankle, and once again.... Nudge sleeps on

My beautiful Chrissy pressie from Andy.  Vocalise fragrance from Maitre et Parfumeur et Gantier 
which he's bought for me since our first trip to Paris.  

After my run, breakfast was Andy's kaiserschmarrn.  I cannot emphasise enough how delicous this brekkie was.  

A lightly spiced pancake, twice cooked broken second time round in a little butter,

served with very sharp berries, spiced pain d'epice liqueur and semi frozen berry yoghurt.

We started prepping dinner not too long after brekkie.  This involved celeriac fondant (in lots of butter)

Entree was my sourdough blini (I made big blini rather than little wee ones)

I'm pretty good at my sourdough blini.  We had them with smoked salmon,

charred smoked salmon (Andy's idea to mix the two variations), creme fraiche, proper caviar (the real stuff) with a tiny hint of lime zest and chive.  Absolutely divine with a decent Chablis we bought from..... Chablis.

Main was outstanding.  It was difficult to take photos. Anyway.  Pork fillet cooked to perfection wrapped in pork proper fatty pork mince which was flavoured with fresh sage, fennel seed and sweated down onion.  It was wrapped and tied in cling film, cooked in water unwrapped and browned off in the pan last minute.  Served with onion puree, That amazing celeriac fondant we had prepped earlier, the buttery juices from the celiac fondant, roasted apple and the most bloody amazing Jerusalem artichokes you will ever eat ever.  Guaranteed.  We lightly precooked them, scooped out the insides and baked the shells in duck fat until they were crispy and chewy and delicious.  We served the scooped out inside as a separate puree. All dusted with browned and ground onion skin.  It was an absolute delight.  

We ate entree upstairs and took main down to the cave.  With Andy's second Bose system.  It was fun.

Frankly, I don't think any restaurant could have given us a better experience.  

 

Christmas and Family....

We had the best Christmas.  It might sound weird saying our best Christmas was in lockdown.  OK, so to edit that, it was a seriously good Christmas here in France, during the various COVID restrictions and taking into account the toll it's taken upon us independently, throughout the world.  

 My memories of rustling my pillowcase at the end of my bed are my dreams for a lifetime.  

 

We never believed in Santa Clause/St Nicolas/Father Christmas as kids but we knew our mum and dad were prepping for ages and they stealthily came into our rooms (but I always heard them, I never slept on Christmas eve) to pop our massive pillowcase of pressies right at the end of our toes, just at the point, so if we squeezed just a wee bit more with our legs we could rustle them.  My favourite thing was to rustle my feet at 1,2,3,4,5 am before finally jumping up, exploding with excitement. All 3 of us would jump on mum and saying "is it time? is it time?:

 

Joey and dad worked so hard and went to extreme lengths to make Christmas always an absolute delight for us kids.   

Looking back, I don’t quite know how they pulled everything together.  We had full sit down cooked breakfasts.  Every single day.  

We were supported.  Even when I had to go to the bloody emergency weekend creepy doctor with a big ‘LOVE A NURSE’ pin on his creepy sweaty shirt to get the morning after pill, Joey was there. Without question (but she also of course agreed that doctor was F…ing creepy)  Uhhhgh, he was sooooo fucking gross.  Thank Christ mum was with me that day.  

 

I love you my wee Joey and dad.  Little sis and big bro. 

Thank you for being amazing UNREAL parents and siblings.  Love you guys.  xxx

The cave....

All set for dinner.....

 

Pork curry

We've been eating in the cave every night.  We have so many candles down there it is a dream like scenario.  It is seriously like stepping into another world.    

The heaters under the table are the reason we go down now it's cold.  Andy added extra conduit and sorted out a switch that he drilled in under the table, so if we go down to set things up we hit the switch and voila, the heaters are on full, one at each end next to our feet.  As an added bonus now, the Christmas lights also light up.  It is utterly surreal.

Anyway, as I said, we've been eating down there every night for weeks.  It's like an amazing extra dining hall.  We take down our music and bose speaker.  

Tonight, for example (no photos, we couldn't be naffed), Andy made a pork curry which was unreal.  He browned huge chunks of fatty pork with browned onions, a melange of spice toasted off, white wine, chicken stock, tomatoes and sherry vinegar for acidity.  He adds a touch of Dijon mustard and tomato ketchup (tomato ketchup, sherry vinegar, quality chicken stock or beef stock cubes and NZ marmite are incredible flavour enhancers). With chunks of potato and a few lentils, it was sitting on the fire all day to cook until it was meltingly delicious.  With a simple lettuce salad, steamed basmati, charred flatbread, and thick yogurt with dried onion (it's a good mix trust me), the whole meal was utterly scrumptious. We have leftovers for a pie. Yummy yum.   

Nudgles

Our wee Nudge will live another day.  

He has a wee virus and a wee temperatue.  Our lovely vet gave him a shot to bring his temp down and some antibiotics we pop into his eyes.  He has to stay inside for the 2 week period we give him his antibiotic.

The wee guy peed in his cage on the way there.  Acutally the trip was fraught from the start. He was really really difficult to get into his cage even though Andy plucked him out from a deep sleep.  Then, because it's lockdown and Andy had to cross the boarder from the Haute Marne into the Vosges to get to the vet we were worried he'd be questioned.  The whole thing at the moment is so bloody wierd.  But, it' all turned out OK.

Our vet is a complete treasure.  She's so loving and kind. She even cleaned his cage and popped his cushion he peed on into a plastic bag and popped a nappy type thing into it for the way home.  She even gave Nudge a wee clean.

The receptionist sprays and wipes the door even though she herself opens it each time for each individual animal owner to come in and out.  Our vet must have told her to do that.  She is very thin.  Hmm.

Anyway.  All good.  Mask and clothes washed.  Everything sanitised just in case and Nudge is asleep on our bed. 

Whew.  At least he doesn't have wierd brain worms or something dispicable.  The most important thing today is the F...ing US election.  

Update on Nudge

 His eyes are still all over the place.  They come right for an hour or 2 and then viola, they are odd.  

Our lovely Vet, even with lockdown she's managed to fit our wee guy in.  We think he just needs antibiotics.  We are super lucky to have a caring vet who knows Nudge from 6 weeks old.  Actually the first she met us was asking her to put Nudge and Smudge down (when they were 2 weeks old).  She refused.  Then wee took Nudge into our house at 3 weeks old. She knows his history.  I think she has a weak spot for wee Nudge.     

Our Nudgie

He is so sweet is our wee Nudge.  We think he's a bit sick at the mo. His eyes are all wonky.  We are trying to get an appointment with our awesome Vet but during lockdown it isn't easy.  Actually even during normal COVID it isn't easy because she's super cautious and only lets one person in at a time there is no waiting room.  The waiting room is outside.  In the car or wherever.  So, hopefully we get an appointment.

 

Our New Lockdown

It's been over 6 months since we finished our severe lockdown and we are heading into it once again.  

Our personal lifestyle doesn't change much.  We are so super COVID aware it's on the brink of crazy.

But I'm a little pissed off with having to get my head back into my 1km from home route with running.  It's tough mentally.  

There's a lot of stress that we carry with COVID that we don't share but it's there.  

So, once again.  Within the boundary of 1km runs.  Up and down the hills (I do keep my fitness up with my cap down.) 

And, I feel like I am a bit of a criminal when the occasional car passes.  It's back to that feeling.  Damn.  

FFS France.  Couldn't we have just tried a bit harder after the first lockdown?  What's with the sudden openening of all restaurants and bars?  Why do we still have to pay on the autoroutes? Pressing all those buttons and coins and credit cards, car after car.  What's with the supermarket trolleys? We still have to shove the 1euro coin in there.  AND WTFF (what the flying F) is with the general blood clinic being the testing place with no self distancing and there is only one in our region???????? Even when you just need a routine blood test you line up with COVID peeps.  FFS.  

Grrrrrrr

Anyway.  Heading out, once again tomorrow for my fucking 1 hour COVID 1 km run while the French Govt are really not doing enough to crack this thing on the head.  

Covid

 It's a disaster for the world.  Right now, in France, 10% of the population have been infected and it's escalating.  Every day even though we are mandated to wear masks.

I was in the supermarket yesterday and a woman was coughing.  I was near her in fruit and veg when I heard her coughing, then FFS she was there when I was next her to the Dijon mustard isle and she was fucking coughing.  And just to lay the whole disaster to rest, I was caught behind her (no kidding) in the checkout isle.  

OK, yes she was wearing a mask.  But she was coughing into the air.  Not using her elbow, just coughing into her mask like it was all good.  And she looked unclean (of course).

I had a bit of a panic attack when I got home.  I simply lost it.  I really did and that's not me.  I do the best I can do to keep us safe and then there's this unaware person just doing their own thing.  WTF?  

So it had me thinking about the US (more than I usually do because the situation there is forefront in my mind).  I think about the politics and the flagrancy of F. Trump.  I get pissed off.  I watch CNN.  I watch Trevor Noah etc....

But yesterday it reminded me (I know this woman lives in France not the US of A) that unaware people need true and utter guidance. 

Here, at least the Govt are doing their best, to keep the economy afloat whilst mandating the wearing of masks and social distancing.  In the US,  it is one fucked up situation.   I feel fucked off with Trump.  I can't speak for what's going on in India.  I've no clue at all and the sad thing is nor do they.  But for us, right now we have a complete inept president "of the free world" (hate that term) who's not fit for purpose.  We have a virus completely out of control, doing our heads and our bank statements in and a "president".... leaving it there.  

My sourdough

 It's never perfect.  But it's a fascinating journey.  

 

First fire this autumn....

 

My wee bubs in the morning....

 

Poor wee Nudgicles.....

We thought he was coming right, but no.  I consulted Juantiz. She's like a vet is our Juanitz.  She said she thought he was OK.   As long as he's drinking and eating, he's OK.  Poor wee blight.  The thing is, taking the wee guy to the vet right now is complicated.  One at a time, standing outside (or sit in the car hoping you'll know when you are called in). I admire our vet making things so absolute.  She is precise and super clean (and lovely)  but it becomes tricky right now if we need to take him to the vet.  Thanks Juanitz, we will continue to monitor the wee blight. 

Overproofed sourdough, the result inside....

 It might look OK but to me, it's a complete failure.  Disregard the blurred photo 😶.

This is not a good sourdough bread result.  The crust isn't there, the crumb is too tight (although still a good bread to eat).  It certainly didn't taste like a yested bread but it wasn't a great loaf.  It's quite technical and I am going to report my failures more.  

Overproofed sourdough....

 I completely overproofed my bread last night.  I meant to pop it into the fridge before bed but completely forgot.  I've forgotten a few times before but instead of letting it carry on as normal, tonight I just baked it as is.  It was OK.  

So a big fat lesson to me.  If I've overproofed my dough,  just bake it Nat.  It isn't as good.  The crust isn't as perfect but at least it's still a nice loaf of bread which I thought was completely fucked.  Wait until the next day and it's a disaster.  Whew.  Still learning......

Dinner tonight.....

Another gorgeous night in the cave.  Actually, we were happy not to go down there given it was the perfect 26deg but the wind was really strong, verging on pretty unpleasant.

 

We did another pasta dish, fresh pasta as we’ve been making, with a ragu sauce, charred flatbreads and salad.  We love this pasta.  It def makes home made pasta easy and servable but most of all absolutely delicious.  

 

Yum.    

 

Little Nudge has had a touch of the flu

But he's all good now, sort of.  He slept it off for 36 hours and his dry nose became wet again.  He's a wee trouper.  He's not 100% hence me being able to take this photo of him and his cuzzie bros.  And his dad.  

 

Our dinner tonight

I took the day off running and we went into the big smoke (Chaumont).  The reason was for Andy to get a blood test.  He went 1 week prior at 0900am to only find a huge line of people not distancing themselves and I mean huge lines and then the diagnostic clinic itself was stuffed full. So, he came back home immediately. 

Today we went together and pitched up at 7.30am only to find the same huge fucking line of people not just out of the clinic but in the clinic also.  We did some research. France is using diagnostic clinics to check for COVID.  I mean WTF?????

 

Anyway, Andy did not go in.  We did a drive-by.  The same as he did the previous round.  

 

There is no way we are risking catching COVID for a simple blood test.  Geez, France!! What’s up?

 

We went to the gorgeous E.leclerc supermarket in Chaumont and sat outside the place until it opened at 08.00am.  

We bought Gilt head bream, sea bream, dorade.  Whatever you call it it’s a gorgeous fish

and it was so fresh.  As fresh as fish gets.  

We were going to eat outside, but then a storm hit so we sent everything to the cave.  We cooked the fish on the big pan Philippe gave us and Andy had pre-seasoned.   It was a delicous dinner and really cool, sitting in the cave with the storm outside.