31 January 2026

Weekend weather

Since Christmas we've had more bad weather days like the ones were having this weekend than not. Cold rain is getting me down again. And we still have February and March to get through. The little red dot on the map above is approximately where Saint-Aignan is, and the black dot just to the left is the city of Tours. Paris is pretty much due north, in the rain belt.

This is the coldest, wettest winter we've had in years. Meanwhile, the eastern half of the U.S. is experiencing frozen precipitation of all sorts, and Arctic-like temperatures. Florida is having its coldest winter in decades. Coastal North Carolina, which gets snow about once a decade that melts away in less than 24 hours, is expecting icy weather for the next three or four days. The capital of Russia, Moscow, has had more snow this winter than in any year out of the last 200.

What has happened to global warming?

30 January 2026

Vegetables, precipitation, and an arachnid

We made another batch of roasted vegetables yesterday, using a parsnip — un panais [pah-NAY] — and a big turnip un navet [nah-VAY] — left over from the first roasted vegetables we made a few days ago. This time I used the air fryer to cook the vegetables and I think they were better than the batch I made in the oven. Those were delicious, though, and the leftovers from them went into a delicious soup a couple of days ago.

This morning when I got up and went downstairs to the kitchen to make a pot of tea, look what I saw on the wall over the stove (below).

27 January 2026

Légumes rôtis au four [2]

Before roasting them in the oven, we cut the winter vegetables into approximate one-inch cubes, tossed them in a small amount of olive oil, and seasoned them with black pepper, allspice, and herbs (thyme, bay leaves, and oregano).Toward the end of the cooking time (45 minutes, we added a few chicken tenderloins and drizzled some honey over everything.


26 January 2026

C'est quoi qu'on mange à midi ?

Des légumes. Je parle de légumes d'hiver — des navets, des panais,  des oignons, de l'ail,
 des pommes de terre, une patate douce, et une carotte. On va les faire rôtir au four
avec de l'huile d'olive et des fines herbes, et peut-être un peu de miel et de poulet.


Bon appétit...