A Gorgeous Winters’ Evening

It was still as a still thing, not a breath of wind, so we decided a fire was in order.

Andy popped loads of wood in the outside firepit and viola!

We had a fabulous night snuggled up in our blankets around the fire, talking and listening to music.  The best thing was that Andy was able to get some wood and light the fire after his broken ankle.  He's still soooo sore but he can at least get about a tiny bit more.

Good Evening Signeville, you are a delight.

We love this wee spot

Cabbage

OK, so not the most fabulous looking dish but I have to explain.....

I cooked a piece of cabbage in smoked chicken stock.  It was cut though the base so that it was like a huge steak that held together, I cooked it off so that the stock was imparted through the cabbage bit (I seriously think cabbage needs a rebrand because the word cabbage is so cabbagey.) I shoved some pork fat on the top (sorry Katya) so it had a beautiful pork fat flavour throughout .  Cooked again and then a final grilling to make it all toasty tasting.  

This could have been vegetarian without the pork fat etc... but I'm not.  So I served it with smoked chicken breast, roasted apple, roasted celeriac, cabbage puree (frigging delicious, first time I'd done it) onion puree (one of my staples and also utterly delicious) and crispy sage.  

Yes, granted, looks a bit messy but it tasted a treat and made me think of how many ways you can cook cabbage (sorry cabbage, I feel sorry for you every time I say your name).  The braised roasted chunk was similar to scallop in flavour and texture.  

Siggie

It is a stunning night here.  I’ve taken shots like this before but I’ve gotta say, it’s so pretty.  

It is a very very simple house but so personal to us. 

I simply love this place.  AND even though Andy has a broken ankle and isn’t able to get about. AND, I have to get the wood in for the fire (and light the fire). AND I have a tendon injury in my foot which I can't afford to disrupt so have been completely off exercise......

AND we are always questioning our decisions and what the future holds for us including language (we work on our French language every single day).

BUT, despite the constant self-doubts, we love having Germany and Switzerland and Belgium and the UK and Spain and Italy as our neighbours.  It’s become our sort of normal and I can’t explain it to anyone other than Andy and my family.  

But even to family it is so hard to explain sometimes. 

I wish I had better words to express myself, but for now all I’ll say is that I like the neighbourhood of being in Europe rather than being in Australia or NZ.

siggie

02 Feb, Anniversary dinner 31 years.....

Roasted glazed smoked ham hock, roast fennel, braised cabbage with apple, sage and butter sautéed potaoto with onion puree....

31 years married!! WTF?  Andy has a broken ankle.  I have to stoke the fire, bring in the firewood, do all the man jobs.  The poor guy, he’s so sore but no complaints from him whatsoever even though it’s so frigging frustrating.

All we were doing is doing our best.  We went out for a run, decided it was way too icy and to come back from the top of the village as carefully as we could.  

We were literally 50m from home when Andy skidded, his leg went under him, it was a bad skid.  Initially I thought he had a compound fracture to his knee because it was badly grazed and he had taken a huge hit and his whole leg had twisted all over the place in front of me.

Andy is a trooper, that’s a fact.  He has 2 breaks in his ankle.  But it could have been a shit load worse.  

We had a good anniversary, if somewhat odd given we were supposed to be in Giethoorn in the “Water Villa” I’d booked but had to defer.  I don’t give a f..k about a water villa, all I want is for Andy to be OK.    

I love my man.  He is my true partner in life.  I have no words on that.

What I will say is that the ham hock was a little rich.   But it tasted good. The fennel, apple with sage, potato and onion puree were delicious.  The hock was cooked until melting.  But for us, far too rich.  

We had a fun day and an awesome night, looking back on our history and thinking of my wee Nana who was born on the same day as our wedding anniversary.  

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.