NYE 2024

We stumbled upon Pousse de Claire Label Rouge in the supermarket.  

Wow.   I was so delighted once I'd researched these beauties.  Andy shucked them beautifully.  We ate them with sourdough bread and butter but the sourdough had a hit of buckwheat flour which makes the bread so nutty and delicious with oysters in particular.  The Pousse de Claire with the Label Rouge is a specifically unique oyster in the way it is harvested and grown.  The taste is a revelation for oyster lovers.

Then we had duck leg,  Yum yum yum. With braised red cabbage, celeriac puree, duck sauce with orange.  The duck was so crispy, the leg melting away, with orange and 5 spice. Hmmmmmmmm It's lick your lips stuff.  

Desert was fine apple tart with berry sorbet.  I didn't do a good job of taking a photo of my fine apple tarte but it was fine and delicious.  An absolutely fabulous NYE for us here in Siggie.

    

 

Chaumont shopping at Christmas time....

We love going to the E.Leclerc in Chaumont.  It is simply a fabulous supermarket.  We've been to many a supermarket in Europe and I can honestly say this one is the best we've seen and it's only 20 mins drive away.  It's particularly delightful over the Christmas New Year period.  The selection is unreal.  We like to leave early to get there on opening to grab any 50% specials, of which there are often many.  We've tried so many varieties of cheeses for this reason alone.  Never for seafood though, we draw the line at getting 50% off seafood!  Talking about which, their seafood selection is outstanding.  Anyway, this morning we tucked the cat into his onesie, Andy lit the fire, and off we popped.  

Our little house is lit up with lights and even down our tiny teeny road there's Christmas lights.  My favourite Christmas light though is the chu chu train light on the aquaduct bridge in Andelot just down the road from our village.  It's as cute as a button.  

Our main objective today was to get some more exclusive oysters.  This time we picked up some Pousse en Claire Label Rouge.  We're quite excited to try them tomorrow night for NYE.

The lights down our tiny teeny road

The house all cosy for when we arrive back

The chu chu train

The quality of chicken is exceptional

These boned tied yummys are stuffed with farce.  They're delicious

Foie gras anyone?

Stacks of oysters.  

Crustations & oysters are particularly popular this time of year

This is the specialised cheese section,  there's also a whole isle of other cheeses

We've tried at least 100 varieties but I'd say a lot more 

Smoked salmon delicacies

Beaucoup snails

And even Kangaroo!!!

 

Christmas Day 2024

We had done our pressies on Christmas eve so on Christmas day it was just dinner to have.  We had bought a huge Turkey leg.  Andy made a sauce from the juices.  Roasted veg etc with an entree of blinis, hung yoghurt, caramalised onion and charred salmon.  We had it outside because it was a lovely day with no wind and enjoyed a nice bottle of Bourgogne wine.  I'd randomly bought Andy a Ninja ice cream maker so we played around making a version of ice cream.   It's really yum actually and had only greek yoghurt, berries and sweetner.  You'd never guess, smooth, creamy and delicious.  Nudge got nadda because he gets aged Gouda every day so every day is Christmas day for him in my opinion!  I think he'd be confused by normal cheese.  He'd look at me with a look of "WTF?"

Christmas Eve 2024

 We did our main celebration on Christmas Eve this year.  We went to Chaumont on the 23rd and bought some delicious things as per normal but in addition we bought a côte de boeuf and some Belon oysters (highly prized flat oysters).  We opened pressies with Champagne and had those amazing oysters which Andy shucked with Champagne, fresh sourdough and butter.  Jeez they're yum.  We'll definitely get those little beauties if we see them again.  Then reverse cooked côte de boeuf (cooked slow to 53 degrees then rested and hard seared) with hasselback parsnips cooked in duck fat, roast onions, red wine sauce, celeriac & onion puree ... yummy scrum.  

Little Nudge slept amongst the Christmas pressies all day.  He's so funny.  We used the huge very ancient cast iron pan Philippe gave us to sear the beef.  It did an epic job too.  It's well seasoned so completely non stick.  It weights a ton.  Bizzarely I bought Andy a Ninja Creami ice cream maker.  So we'll have icecream for dessert on Christmas day.  

It's so cute here with all the Christmas lights even down our tiny road and the train on the way to Chaumont is the highlight.  There's a Christmas light train on the aqueduct bridge in Andelot which is as cute as a button.