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.