Friday, December 23, 2011

Dec 2011

Dec 2010 Strasbourg...The white "moon" may be a rain drop

Happy Holidays

This is indeed a Merry Christmas for us.

Towards the end of October, the doctor had found a tumor on Keith's kidney. Two days later he had an appointment with the head of the department of Urology at the University hospital. Surgery was scheduled to remove Keith's right kidney on the 21st of November. It was a malignant tumor. Our emotions have been up and down and all over the place, as you can imagine, and it was all happening so fast.
He had the surgery, and we were assured that all went well. It was complicated and took 4 hours, but they said they got it all. Keith was in the hospital for one week, the care was excellent. He has been home three weeks and recovering. A bit impatient at times, and not happy by all the rain we have been getting ( not as easy for his little walk each day).
Today he had a return appointment. They removed all of the tumor (and all of the right kidney too). It had not metastasized, which is good. Today we were told that there is no reason for further treatment (yeah), just follow-up scans and blood tests. He will be followed closely.
So, I have been here taking care of Keith, and have not taken many photos, or done much else. I did go for a walk one day and took photos of some of the businesses near the train station. This is to document Gevrey, and not very interesting photos to post.
We did have a day of snow, Dec 19th. I woke up and all was white. Today it is raining again!

Dawn (aube) on the 19th of Dec-backyard
Why is it so dark?

As the sun shown on the Côte -again backyard. The sun did come out on the 19th!

As far as a Blog goes, it has been fairly boring month to write about.

I have to write about the show last night. It was young children in a cooking competition. There were 8 children to start. The first challenge: they all had the same box of ingredients, which included fois gras. They had to cook the fois gras and plate it, with the use of any of the other ingredients in their box. They all knew what to do!! Incredible. Two 11 year olds were finalist, a boy and a girl. They had to cook a dinner for 10 people with venison as the main ingredient.. The dinners prepared and plated by these two 11 year olds were amazing! They had the look of a Michelin three star restaurant! The little girl made cannelles with her mashed potatoes (using two spoons, make in the form of an oval) And the jury was blown away with the quality of the cooking. So I am certain that the future is there for France to continue to have outstanding cooking in the future.

Been making some soups for lunch though. So for this months recipe, lentil soup, quick and easy. Not really 3 star, but quick and easy.

Have a great holiday season.

Recipe of the month
Lentil Soup ( very easy-vegetarian or not)
Ingredients
  • 8 oz prepared lentil
  • 1 onion-chopped fine
  • 1 cube of broth (1 cup) chicken or vegetable
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • optional- cubed ham
I can buy lentils in a can that have carrots added, but not much else.
You can use dry lentils too, then add one carrot diced small (to cook fast)


PREPARATION
  1. Saute onion in the oil
  2. Add the lentils
  3. Add the broth
  4. Cook for 5 minutes ( if using dry lentils, add a little more broth and cook for 30 minutes)
  5. If you add ham, add it at the end and warm another minute.
That is all. It is healthy and hardy winter soup in minutes.