Kitchen/grocery adventures Part 1

Disclaimer: I have no Part 2 planned for this post, but I am more than certain there will be more stories to tell the longer we stay here. Ha! Our word for 2019 is “adventure” and we are finding it in so many places…

Yesterday, the kids and I went to a different grocery store (this was my third shopping trip in my third different shop since Sunday). This time we went to Delhaize. Fun fact: Delhaize is the parent company of Food Lion (for those of you in the southeast who are familiar with that grocery store). I was honestly delighted to recognize the stylized lion on the sign the first time I saw it here. There are fun little glimpses of the familiar mixed with the unknown that surrounds us. The other good news here is that I “get” the logic of how things are organized there. It’s the first store I’ve found that works the way I think it does. I’ve become quite accustomed to HEB-logic over the last 18+ years in Austin, so that’s going to be a hard habit to break.

Anyway, shopping with 2 kids who are old enough to walk through the store on their own is sometimes challenging. They don’t exactly follow me quietly without asking questions or picking things up. Or requesting doughnuts. Or asking for ice cream. Or begging for all of the Belgian chocolate on display. Or generally asking for far more sugary foods than could possibly be considered reasonable. That would certainly make my life easier…

Once we got through the doughnut section, we walked into the meat department as I was deciding what I should make for dinner. As you stand facing the meat, the children with you will undoubtedly face the ice cream freezer directly behind you and ask for all of the things while you try to think. Anyway, I saw a package of something I thought was chicken. I didn’t read the package closely because, hey, we all know what chicken looks like, right? I bought some potatoes, onions, and some seasonings to pull it all together because oddly there were no tortillas. We brought everything home. Including a few doughnuts covered in marshmallows and some Haagen-Dazs popsicle things… You win some, you lose some. We didn’t bring the entire chocolate display home…

When I started preparing the dinner, it quickly became apparent that the light-colored meat I had purchased was definitely NOT chicken. Todd and I were fairly hysterical (still sleep deprived!) while we debated what I could possibly be cooking. Todd suspects it was pork. I am almost sure he’s right, but I’m not completely convinced. The outside of it definitely took on the color/texture of pork as I sauteed it. But it never dried out and I’ve literally never made pork that it didn’t turn out dry and stringy. Maybe I’m becoming a better chef! Okay, probably not. But let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised. I could have taken a photo of my disaster-turned-delicious meal, but we completely polished it off! And it wasn’t really photo-worthy given all those beautiful food blogs out there…

In general I am finding grocery shopping tricky. I’m not used to taking my kids to the store with me, which in and of itself makes it a more… rambling… excursion. Then many of the labels are in French. But others are in Flemish. And I’m not adept (yet) at knowing which is which. Google Translate has a camera app to it, but for the most part, if it’s not on a completely flat surface, I have to type the words in. And guess which language I’m trying to read so it can translate properly. Google Translate will offer to translate from Dutch, but there is no Flemish available. The languages are related, but they aren’t identical. For example, last night, I was trying to figure out how to translate something and I ended up with this:

Needless to say, I am not entirely sure what “cuddly wood” is or how one could recycle it… But the trash/recycling issue is a post for another day.

For now, I hope you have the chance to laugh along with me. No one was poisoned by my dinner and I’m learning how to read labels. Maybe next time I purchase that mystery meat it will turn out to be as tasty as last night’s dinner was. I certainly hope so.