Tag: Food

Life in France

Double or nothing

When Bill and I first got together nearly 30 years ago, we moved almost every 18 months. No, not because the rent was due but because job changes within the same company for me required it. With all of that packing and unpacking we came to an agreement that if we had not used something within the last year then it was not going with us to the new location. I think that we’ll be invoking that rule and a companion one as well, especially once we’re in place.

That new rule, called “Double or nothing” means that anything we buy in France to replace something that we’ve left behind here must do more than one thing. For example, we have two popcorn poppers, an air one and the oil kind. They each do just one thing: pop corn. The ice cream maker you could argue also does frozen yoghurt, sorbet, and sherbet but they’re all just variations on a theme. The juicer juices. The tortilla press makes tortillas. The apple peeler peels apples. You get the picture. Continue reading “Double or nothing”

Unknown's avatarBob3 Comments
Before leaving the US

Shopping in the pantry

While I was growing up on the southeast coast of the US where hurricanes were a routine summer event, Bill was often subject to the threat of tornadoes in the midwest. With disaster a part of our psyche, we both have an ingrained “hurricane mentality” where we hoard food and drink, just in case. If the electricity goes out or the water supply becomes contaminated, we will survive, by golly! We even have a gas powered generator that will run our two refrigerators and our our two freezers if necessary. The three waist-high wine racks in the basement are always full as a back up to the gallons of water that we have stored down there as well. Although we are not zombie apocalypse people, we’re ready for them too!

The closest grocery store to us is what we call the “scratch & dent” store where they buy odd lots, open crates, imperfect items, foods soon to reach their expiry date, or other perfectly edible goods that the chain grocery stores won’t stock or don’t want to sell. Boxes of cereal for $1; big bottles of ketchup for 50 cents, salad dressings for 25 cents, on and on. Imagine the hurricane mentality set free in this place! Continue reading “Shopping in the pantry”

Unknown's avatarBob