Adventures in Cooking

Thanks so much to everyone who responded so kindly to me by e-mail after my last few posts. I really all of the support of my wonderful family and friends.

So, I am a sucker for going to the supermarket here. It’s a tad more expensive than the shops around our neighborhood, but they carry some things you just can’t find anywhere else! The last few nights, I have been doing the cooking at home for dinner because poor Bledi’s mom hasn’t been feeling well. I enjoy taking care of my husband, and when I cook for him, it makes him happy (although I can’t cook for beans – if you remember my post about boiling eggs, you know this!). Anyway, the fun thing about the supermarket is that it’s more similar to shopping how I shop at home. It’s not really the same, because even though they carry tartar sauce or fish sticks, you have only one or two brands to chose from – a store brand, and a more expensive brand. And yes, I bought fish sticks and tartar sauce today- every time I go there, I have been eyeing them in the freezer so I finally caved and decided to try them! The other fun (and I think this is a sarcastic “fun”) thing is that the supermarket I prefer to shop at is an Italian one called Conad. I trust the Italian food more than things made here because I know that it’s pasteurized and such. This is not always the case with food made here, and being pregnant, I just cannot take any chances with that. The fun part is me staring at packages written in Italian and trying to decipher what they say! Sometimes, the pictures only take you so far…. Especially later, when I get home and try to cook the thing. So tonight, I’m conquering hot dogs (Bledi’s absolute favorite, which we haven’t had since the States!), canned corn, and mashed potatoes (from a box. Sorry, Mom). The hot dogs and corn are basically no-brainers. The interesting part with the hot dogs was buying them… I hope I bought beef and not chicken ones. I hope 20 minutes of staring at them and trying to read Italian with no prior experience in the supermarket pays off! As for the potatoes, there are some helpful step by step pictures on the box but unfortunately it looks like yahoo! Is going to have to translate the rest for me. Of course, my husband speaks fluent Italian but he’s not home to cook dinner, and since he forgot his lunch here today (which I so lovingly made) he’s gonna be hungry when he gets home!
Here’s to cooking in another language. Let’s hope it’s edible.