Adieu 2020!

Adieu 2020!

Well, it's the last day of the year 2020! 

There hasn't been a lot to write about, has there? I look back on my posts, and they're abnormally slanted towards recipes. I threw in a little sky, but nothing like the sunsets from our old place. I generally tried to stay off the coronavirus topic, but it impacted so much, there was really no avoiding it! 

Still, we are so much luckier than many. Even those who did not get sick have had their lives torn to shreds. At our phase of life, all we had to do is put things on hold, and practice patience.

My year started with my application for French nationality (yes, finally!). My year is ending still waiting for the interviews - practicing patience!

So, in keeping with the year, here's how our last day of it is going...

Out our Living Room Window

From the kitchen balcony

We turned on the fire,

and had Dinner, spanning approximately 6 hours:

Champagne and Fois gras

Moule marinière - I cleaned the mussels yesterday. 5 minutes cooked in white wine, and they're ready!

Spanish style - use one pair of shells to pull the mussel from the other

Squash soup - I roasted the squash with olive oil and salt on Sunday. Today, I added chopped cooked chestnuts and broth, then blended.

Dessert - orange crème w/ chocolate. I made a batch on Sunday (had to make sure of it, right?!?). I kept two servings in the freezer; thawed, then planned to add chocolate shavings. We decided to have dessert early, because we aren't really used to sugar anymore, and didn't want it too close to bedtime. Then we decided to skip it entirely! LOL - New Year's Day is going to be sweet!

Pork tenderloin with mushrooms - my favorite cherry, chocolate, chipotle glaze!

Before

After

Baked Potatoes - a splurge!

Ginger Carrots

Green beans with garlic

Before

After

Porto / whisky to end the day.

Tomorrow? Leftovers! Yum!

Coronavirus Year End Update

Coronavirus Year End Update

Today, in France:

- 3.5% of the population currently has Covid-19

- 0.1% have died from Covid-19

- daily new cases are still above 10,000

- daily deaths are still nearly 500

Before our second confinement, hospitals were at or nearly at capacity, all across France. Our local hospital had nearly 100 Covid patients.

The goal of the second confinement was to consistently have fewer than 5,000 new cases per day - obviously, this wasn't met. The good news is that the number still dropped significantly. So our confinement was slightly eased, but not as much as hoped. 

And of course, the best news is that the vaccine is here! They've started in the nursing homes in Paris, and they'll start here next week! There are different schedules published, so we aren't sure whether we'll get ours in April or in June/July. Still, it's in sight!

~~~

In Sète, as of today, 83 patients have died in the Sète hospital (Bassin de Thau) from Covid-19, just in the second wave. Three died in the last week. The average age of these patients is 83 years.

This week, 13 new patients were admitted, making 19 patients hospitalized, including 6 in ICU. 

Since the start of the 2nd wave, 442 Covid patients have been taken care of.

~~~

Worldometer

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/france/

Winter Solstice in France

Happy Winter Solstice!

Here's a close-up

As they say, it only gets brighter from here...

Bricolage - DIY

Bricolage, aka Do-It-Yourself

I had quite a list of tasks* to do around the apartment - I kept waiting for the right tools...

Well, I finally gave that up as a lost cause. We went to the Bricolage center (like Home Depot), and got most of what we needed. Then, to work!

The rolling shutter was stuck partway down, or at least we didn't want to force it. Some silicone spray did the trick!

We had good-sized holes in the walls behind every radiator! I confirmed with the helpful fellow at the Bricolage how to take the radiators off the wall. Then (after *cleaning* them - omg), I filled the holes with stuffing, and spackled them closed. While I was at it, I spackled a few other places. It's much cozier now!

We've been fighting mold! Our bedroom is North-facing, and the walls are concrete block. I haven't been able to keep up 😭. So, yesterday, I sprayed with a commercial mold killer, and today, I painted with moisture barrier paint. Game on.

We have a shelf-mounted dishwasher that's perfect for us. But! Some time ago, the shelf supports broke, and so the darned thing has been supported by a pot that happened to be underneath. It still worked, but it was lower than we wanted, and we couldn't use the storage underneath. Well, one of our Bricolage purchases was a board (almost 2x8), cut to form supports. How to get them under the shelf, without removing the dishwasher? Jack to the rescue!

My neighbors must have thought I was crazy, taking a wheel-changing kit from the car into the apartment! But it worked! Bonus - I now know where the jack is, and how to work it...

~~~

*This may seem like a lot of work we're doing for living in a rental, but the laws are different in France. It's quite a change - in our Albuquerque apartment, they even changed the (fluorescent) bulb for us; here, only very major things (like parts for the water heater) are covered by the landlord.

Steak Haché ?

The humble steak haché (hamburger), plus:

Chipotle
Zucchini, onion, red bell pepper, garlic, allumettes fumées (chopped bacon)
Mashed parsnips and carrot
Allongée tomatoes with basil
Cheese (for me 🙂)