March 07, 2011: Grenoble - Reading, Shopping, Good Food

Today was a laid back day. In the morning some reading, catching up on blog entries, editing photos.

For lunch I was channeling the croque monsieur of the day before - I fried an egg, some slices of our farmer's market sausage, and had those along with the mi-frais goat's cheese on toast. Not quite as decadent as the croque monsieur, but close.

In the afternoon I went over to the park at Caserne de Bonne (which we passed through on Sat - I now know that it's a new eco-development of shopping, parks and residences that was formerly a large barracks). I sat by the water and read a book - the sun was out, the kids were playing, it was lovely.

I stopped in at a different grocery store, Intermarché, in search of decent cereal (most cereals here seem to be heavily chocolate-centric, and our attempts at making oatmeal have been a bit dismal - neither Mark nor I have the magic touch). I found some four-fruit muesli that looked acceptable. There wasn't any decent bread for sale in this store, so after dropping off my groceries at home I made another trip to the bakery - walking home with my paper-wrapped loaf felt pretty French.

Dinner was couscous cooked in chicken stock, with onion, garlic, carrots, spinach and leftover chicken. I'm still getting the hang of cooking with our mini-sized appliances, and I still sometimes get stumped on how best to heat things up without drying them out without a microwave (i.e. the chicken). But I'd rather have our mini-oven than a microwave.

And, I know it will be a while before you read this, but Happy Birthday Mom!