Cooking Challenges...What to do?!?

This past week I hit a moment of complete crisis in the cooking category. Why? Well, a number of things converged at one time:

(1) the temperature suddenly turned very hot in the last few days. Yesterday was 93 degrees (it was 82 degrees at 10 a.m.).

(2) we live in an apartment, and to the best of our knowledge, we are not allowed to grill on our balcony. We'd like to try, but we're thinking it's a bad idea if we NEVER see grills on the balconies of other apartments.

(3) its entirely normal for the buildings to NOT have air conditioning here. Our apartment does not have air conditioning and as far as we can tell, most homes are air-less.

So, what was the moment of crisis? A very hot apartment, a determination to do everything possible to make certain I do not turn on that beastly hot oven, and a realization of how much I relied on our grill in the backyard for cooking in the summer when we were living in the USA. (Even WITH air conditioning.) ARG!!! What to do? What to do?

In total desperation, I cried out to my friends on Facebook. And, my dear friends answered back and rescued me from my moment of crisis! (I LOVE technology!!!!!) Within 12 hours, I had 20 plus ideas of meals I could prepare without an oven or a grill. YEAH!!!!! I said it on Facebook, and I'll say it here again, "Thank you so very much to all who answered my cry of help."

While I am on the subject of cooking, though, I thought that I would expound on the subject and further explain the challenges of cooking in France - regardless of whether the temperature is hot.

Imagine with me, that you must go through your recipe box and remove or figure out how to alter any recipe that has the following items because these things do NOT exist here:

-Chili Powder
-Cottage Cheese
-Salad Dressings of ANY kind from a bottle
-Dry Onion Soup Mix
-Dry Mustard
-Cream Cheese (although there's a pretty good substitute, but it's still not quite the same)
-Lawry's Seasoning Salt
-Pre-flavored cheeses (like those wonderful packages of pre-grated taco flavored cheese)
-BBQ sauce - sometimes this shows up in our Lidl, but it's nothing like Famous Dave's!
-Taco Seasoning - can be found, very expensive, but it tastes TOTALLY different
-Enchilada Sauce (Picante sauce too...most products for fixing Mexican foods don't exist)
-Chopped Green Chilis
-Evaporated Milk
-Corn Meal
-Pillsbury dough products
-Most Cream soups (we can find the occasional one here and there)
-Specialized noodles, like Manicotti Noodles or Large Shell Noodles
-And, if you have a recipe that depends heavily on cheddar cheese or mozzarella cheese (the shreddable cheese-not the fresh kind in water), then you can count on it not working the way you expect it to, because those cheese don't exist here and the substitutes are just not the same.
-Now I'm complaining...but I am tempted to add sour cream to the list. We use crème fraîche as a substitute, and often times it works well, but sometimes I just wish I could buy regular old sour cream again.

I know that I cannot complain at all, though, because the foods that ARE in France are amazing. They are fresh, they are unaltered, and they are, for the most part, delicious. It just takes research, determination to learn, and time to figure out how to adjust your recipe box to a new country.

Now for some fun. I've been wanting to put photos of foods from our local market on the blog for a while now. So, here we go...

First, we have the glorious vegetables, which I do know what to do with for the most part. :-) Yum!


This photo doesn't even begin to do justice, but the fruits are incredible as well!!!!!


But, then, you have things that are just, well...uh...hmm...what shall I say...GROSS!!!!!

Like this...would you like rabbit for dinner tonight?


Here, let me give you a closer look:

I am curious about the big red blob on each rabbit, but then again, I am not.

Then you have your oysters...


Your foods that come in shells...are they snails? I'm guessing so after having eaten escargo.


But then, what is this? The sign simply says "shells". But, what does one do with these shells? I have NO idea!


Then, you have your more typical seafood items. I should have taken a video of this, because the lobsters were moving around.


And, how about some shrimp?


I confess, I am not a seafood gal. What's the difference between the pink/redish shrimps (with eyes!) and the black/brownish ones? Are they shrimp too?


And, what in the world are these fish? Are they really supposed to be eaten? They look like a mini sting-ray with the tail removed. What on earth do they taste like? What kind of pan would you cook this in?


Sadly, I tried to get a photo of the huge eel-looking fish that are usually at the market and that our kids just squeal about every time we pass them, but they were not in the markets yesterday.

And, I failed to find the usual blood sausage selection. Sorry. (I know you are really sad to have missed seeing that.)

And, finally, you have this...


We have not even begun to explore the world of cheeses, but we will. They say there is a different cheese for every day of the year in France. We have our work cut out for us!

This market is in the square (just 3 blocks from our home) every Wednesday and Friday. They bring their goods in trucks twice a week and sell their products all day long. It's really pretty wonderful.

I'll end by adding some photos from the park where we are spending a lot of time these days. We love this park because it has a huge runway and it's only 1.5 blocks from our home! Here, I'll show you...


The shade is fabulous! And, the kids can ride their bikes, skateboards, scooters, or rollerblades down the road without worrying about cars coming by. They just FLY through the park! (The photo doesn't even begin to show how LONG this park is. It takes a good 7-8 minutes to walk end to end.)




It's great fun. But, it wouldn't be right if I said good-bye without showing the newest flowers...


The Hydrangea's are in bloom! :-) Yeah!