Assurances - météo - cuisine

Assurances in French is what we call insurance in the U.S. Car insurance, in this case. Today is my day to go down to Saint-Aignan and modify my car insurance policy. I need to add the Citroën, which I'll go pick up on Monday morning, and I need to modify the coverage (le contrat) on the Peugeot. It really doesn't need to be covered tous risques (collision, liability, comprehensive — all that) now. It's not worth much any more.

Here in France you tell the insurance company how many kilometers you think you'll drive in the coming year, and you pay accordingly. If you go over the figure you gave them during the year, you have to go back and have the policy modified. I don't remember ever declaring what my maximum mileage would be when I was in California.

On the left: this seems to be the color of the Citroën. I found it somewhere on the web, with the RGB values specified.

Meanwhile, this is the kind of weather we've been having for a few days now. Low temperatures right around freezing, with a cold wind blowing, have brought us periodic morning snow flurries. The afternoons are slightly warmer. It could be worse.

So it's time for good, hot, comforting food. I've noticed that Berie the black cat is eating much more than he does in warmer weather, and we probably are doing the same. How about this sauté of pork tenderloin (filet mignon) with spices, raisins, chickpeas, and sweet potatoes?

Cut the tenderloin into chunks and rub the chunks with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, fenugreek, smoked paprika, hot red pepper(piment fort), black pepper, and ginger. Sauté the pork with onions and garlic, and then add some water or broth to the pan to braise the meat with cooked chickpeas and, if you want, some raisins. After 30 minutes, add two or three sliced raw sweet potatoes to the pan. Ten minutes later, when the sweet potato is tender, it's done.