A beautiful winters night

We do have the most amazing spot IMHO. 

ICE

After our visit to Nogent we thought it was better to see a specialist rather than get an ultrasound.  I found a well reputed orthopaedic specialist online with an appointment 3 days later (a cancelled appointment) at 0840 in Nancy.   I'm not the best driver and certainly not the best with my shit night vision.  But we had to leave at 0630 to accommodate traffic etc.  I did find it a bit hairy (and I'm sure Andy did too!!).

Well, as it turns out it is bloody broken.  He has a fractured fibula.  Damn.  He's amazing about it.  I have taken days off running since.  If there's any hint of ice I don't go.  It just so pisses me off!  Not about the days off running, simply because we were doing our bestest.  We ran separately up to the village and then met up (10 mins in) and decided it was tooooooo slippery so we'd just be sensible and walk back home together.  His injury happened 100m from home.  FAR OUT!!!! AND I watched it happen in front of me in slow motion.

He has a control X-ray next week.  I just hope it's healing.  I think he's doing too much and not immobilising it enough and then he'll need more bracing which would be a big crapper.

The Ice

Soooo, we are very very careful when it comes to ICE.  ICE holds the power. We have huge  respect.  So, when we went out the other morning for runs we decided at the top of the village … “far out, too freaking icy, lets walk back carefully”.  Which we did.  And were doing.  Until 30m from our house when Andy miss stepped on our own road and went down quite slowly (I can replay it in my mind).  He grazed his knee and made breathing holes in his leggings (thank goodness for the leggings).  But the worst was his ankle twisted right back.  We immediately thought it was broken.  He twisted at the oddest angle.  

We’ve been to the doctor in Nogent (our lovely doctor who is unfortunately moving after being there for years).  He says it’s not broken and needs an ultrasound for tissue/ligament damage.  Because he’s leaving on the 29^th for Troys and the ultrasound appointment is for the 29^th we decided to find a specialist which we did, in Nancy and he had a cancellation.  We have an appointment for 24 Jan, early morning.  Whew.  At least it’ll give us some guidance as to where to from here.  The poor guy is completely incapacitated and I have to do all the man stuff which I’m not used to doing, especially in winter with the fire etc!!! And the woman stuff too like keeping up with my bread and cooking and cleaning (Andy always does the floors and now I have to do them too!!!).  Andy’s a great trooper.  He doesn’t complain and is using the desk chair which has wheels to go to the bathroom from our bedroom.  

CHRISTMAS DAY 2019

 Our Christmas day was odd this year.  We started off the day OK.  We did our runs and had our brekkie.  Then our usual lunch which is what we always do on Chrissy.  We don't do a big breakfast or lunch, we like to savour our dinner.

But for dinner….  We were doing this incredible duck main with Indian spiced panna cotta, coconut beans and foie gras.  

So…. I had coconut beans that I had frozen successfully in the past but as it turned out these were far past their used by date.  They did not taste good AT ALL.  The foie gras was also frozen too long.  It was not great.  Note to self Nat …. Proteins can freeze forever but moisture based products including foie gras cannot!!

Alors….

Our entrée of a beautiful crisp brik pastry round, filled with smoked salmon pate, salmon roe, crispy dehydrated Jerusalem artichoke and beetroot shavings was good.  Avacado would have lifted it because the salmon roe just took it to the edge of salty.  It was a textural delight though.  I will make mention to those brik pastry rounds, they were phenomenal,  made by Andy.  This entree is something to work on because the textures were utterly unreal. 

Main, hmmm.

I didn’t like it at all.  The panna cotta was perfect.  The duck was good.  But the beans and foie gras were off due to as said above over freezing.  How ghastly is that!!! On Christmas Day FFS!₊!! 

Dessert was a delight.  Layered apple with aged Christmas pudding, cooked down until sticky, served with cripy brik pastry shards and icecream.  

Overall though, gotta say, Christmas 2019 here was not the best we’ve had.  At all.  We have had incredible Christmases here but this one wasn’t one of ‘em.  

The ONLY thing I'll say is that it was pretty warm.  We had a high of 8 deg on Christmas day.  All I could think about all day is my little Nana saying to me "it's the weather dear" because it felt off all day.  My wee nana knew her stuff!!!

Brik pastry rounds, Andy made for entree.  Super delicate and delicious.

Entree, in the making

Wine, from the cave

Entree still in the making

Nibbles

Entree complete

Et voila!.... breaking into entree

Duck main (pars bon)

Hmmmmmmm

Little Nudge loved the bag our Chrissy pressies from Joey and dad came in.

Dessert was a delight!  Whew.