RIBE, Andy's 63rd birthday

We had a fabulous day today for Andy's 63rd.

Sourdough toast and butter for brekkie (brought from home, my sourdough bread and good French salted butter, our idea of heaven).

We had a great wander around Ribe.  It's an incredibly pretty town.  Every which way and the Danes are so friendly and fluent in English.  We had lunch in a little cafe with craft beer (the food was great: vegetarian tomato spiced beans with sourdough bread, great value but the craft beer was bloody expensive!!).  

We had dinner in a little gastro pub just over from our apartment near the cathedral.  On Tuesdays they have a set menu this Tuesday it was roasted pork on the bone with a pig tail each.  Served with browned cabbage (sweet) and a cold shaved fresh salad.  Very very very tasty and incredible value.  We sat at a long table and felt it wasn't right to take photos. Our end of the table was full but we didn't take photos of it as we didn't want to be rude.

Pig tail....ummmmmmm yummmmmmmmm.  If you see pig tail (which we do in France) buy it and slow cook it.  Divine.  We are going to seek it out when we get back. 

We talked about many things.  The Danes are very open minded and are concerned about the movement towards exiting the EU.   

Ribe 

Beer at lunch (which turned out to be expensive bloody beer but at least it was harvested near the town church 

Vege beans for lunch in Ribe with a slice of decent sourdough.  Very very delicious.

This beautiful cathedral is opposite the place we are staying...the bell has the most unusual ringing times!

Pork cooked on the bone with a pig tail each.  Brown cabbage and a fresh slaw of raw carrot and beetroot.  

Soooo didn't feel comfy taking a photo from our end to the other side which was full.

Ribe, Denmark

I can't show from photos how perfect this place is but it's really really PERFECT.

We premade a spice mix and bought some chicken, celeriac, beetroot, onion and potato enroute.  

We had a huge drive today.  Almost 700kms.  But the knock up of a spicy chicken with the best season celeriac and beetroot, along with potato and onion.... utterly UTTERLY yum.

We are so stoked with hour little place here in Ribe.  It was raining like cats and dogs when we arrived so we will venture out tomorrow.  It looks like the most gorgeous town to spend Andy's 63rd birthday.  For his birthday brekkie tomorrow we brought with us one of my great sour dough loaves and proper salted butter from France.  Toast with butter.....yummmmmmmmmmm

Tomorrow we are going out to a local for dinner (preset pig and cabbage, more on that later).

Right now we are quite knackered after a long drive in very heavy rain.  

Dinner in Autumn........

Smoked chicken breast with cauliflower puree and roasted fennel, apple, onion and celeriac on the fire.  No waste of heat. AND and a bonus it was summety scrum. 

Meanwhile....earlier today little Nudgicles found a new toy.  He's so cute.  What's not to like ...  So cute. 

Daylight savings

Our petit chat was soooooo confused today.  We switched time zones (well, we ditched false time).  His brekkie came out as scheduled, then Andy changed the clock on his feeding machine.  So..the wee blight was extremely out of sorts all day.  He doesn't understand a change from daylight savings to no daylight savings.  All he was after was his lunch (at 11am).  And his dinner, frankly didn't pitch up on time either.  Poor wee guy.  He soldiered on as cats do,  had a sleep.  Cat nap "they" call it.   Ours sleeps like the dead.

Thank god the wee guy doesn't have to cross time zones and travel.  He would not be amused AT ALL.  (but, we aren't particularly OK with that either and we know what's what.  Time zones suck).

Anyway, he's so cute.  He knows his timings does our wee blight.
Very smart is our little Nudgicles.  For a cat. AND he's just a wee baby after all.

He tries to open the doors, he reaches up and gives it a good old try, even from the side table outside out bedroom, he tries.   He's very very smart is our little Nudge... (well not really but we live in hope 😔)

Lieu Noir with spiced crust, cauliflower and pea puree, celeriac courgette and leek dauphinoise.

 Black Pollack/ Atlantic Pollock/ Coalfish/Saithe/Coley... The name here is Lieu Noir.  It's really good value for such an incredible and sustainable fish.  Cod/haddock like with it's succulent large flakey meaty moist textured lobes but cheaper.  AND more sustainable.

We dusted it with a thick crust of spice ( turmeric, ginger, coriander, cumin, a good garam masala, kashmiri chilli, sweet paprika, fennel seeds salt) and cooked it in butter, finished with lemon zest.  Served with a spiced cauliflower and pea puree.  AND a gorgeous little side of simply cooked celeriac, leek and courgette (a little milk, salt and pepper).  It was sublime.  We would roast tomato next time to give a sweet acidic note but this was delicious and being a knock up.  It took no time.....just drawing on our spice knowledge.  Yum.

While I was cleaning up the cat went to bed,. On my side. The wee guy is so cute.  But, it'd be nice to get into bed!.

Lieu Noir with spiced crust, cauliflower and pea puree, celeriac courgette and leek dauphinoise.   

Nudgles....  He's Andy's mate.  

Getting our new Carte de séjour

Yay!  Today we have them in hand, for another year. We celebrated with pork fillet cooked on high heat in our amazing pan, than rested.  With roasted fennel, celeriac, onion and apple. Along with a leek, fennel and cauliflower puree.  Some extra liquid came out of the puree but it tasted very good indeed.   Not a pretty dish. Star anise and sage were the flavour points.  Very very scrum.  To top off a super awesome day.   

Our Visas

We collect our new visas tomorrow in Chaumont.  There was the weirdest delay.  I had my notification to collect my visa 10 days ago and Andy's only arrrived  today.....finally.  Whew.  We were getting a little concerned because we applied at the same time in the Chaumont office.  It goes to show how busy France is with visa processing.  Mine was done first, 15 minuets later Andy's was completed.  We are in rural Chaumont but the central office in Paris processes everything  and a 15 minute delay means over a week.   It'd be a bit of a head scratcher if we didn't get our visas right now.

So, we will pop into Chaumont tomorrow to collect our new cards, for another year.  Which for us seem to be easily renewable until we decide to leave, but who knows.  We've lived visa to visa for decades now and never ever take it as a given.

Update on this......new visas collected.  in at 0830, out by 0845.  Love this place.