Half and half, sour cream and heavy cream

As promised, another shopping adventure.  I brought some of my favorite recipes with me when I moved. Many of you have probably eaten most of them.  One in particular, Baked Potato Soup, is one of my favorites.

Some of the ingredients (chicken stock, half and half, mashed potato flakes) were difficult to find in the French grocery.  The first trip to Simply netted me total frustration.  I had translated the appropriate words and felt prepared.  The french word for half is "demi".  A direct translation for half and half would be demi et demi.  I knew that would be too easy, but still....

Here were my options:

Now, that picture might be too small, but you get the idea. Fraîche, chantilly, fleurette, fouettée, légère, anglaise, épaisse, entière and on and on.  Nothing with a "demi".  FORGET IT!!  No soup for you, I muttered to myself.  (Hope that there are some Seinfeld fans who caught that reference!)

Now, let me just add that sometimes all of these milk products aren't even refrigerated...that blew my mind too.  When David came home from work he asked about my day.  I explained the whole "cream" aisle to him and he said that he would ask his French tutor the next day.  Well, I now know which is closest to sour cream (there isn't an exact product, but it's creme  légère èpaissè) and heavy cream (fleurette), but there is NOT an half and half.  So, you have to improvise by using the heavy cream and milk.

I never thought that I would find the mashed potato flakes, but I did!  Wowzer, I thought I was going to have to "import" that myself.  No chicken stock, but chicken bouillon cubes (that are 2x the strength, fortunately I found that out BEFORE I used them).  The produce aisle did not have green onions (go figure), so a trip to the local market would be necessary and of course, I would need some cheddar cheese.  (Thank goodness I had already found that hiding in the cheese section) So, ready to make soup. 

The recipe calls for 8 cups of chicken broth and makes enough to feed at least 12 people. David asked me to cut it in half.  Not something I like to do, but hey, I have a small refrigerator now.  For those of you who are family, it's like using Pug's mashed potato recipe.  Anyway, I cut the recipe and began.

While the onions and butter were sautéing, I made the 4 cups of chicken stock and then added the 1 1/2 cups of mashed potato flakes to it.  Well, have you ever seen a scene where the soap suds are pouring out of a washing machine?  That's what I felt like I was seeing.  I added the "half" amount of potato flakes and instead of  the mixture having a "soup" consistency, it was like straight up stiff mashed potatoes. My wooden spoon could stand straight up in the pot!

YIKES!  I made another cup of chicken stock and added it.  No improvement. Another 2 cups, slight improvement.  Now I was up to 7 cups!  It was still WAY to thick and I hadn't even added the diced potatoes yet. Well, to cut to the chase here, I wound up with 8 cups of chicken stock and 3 cups of my homemade half and half.  MORE than the full recipe's liquid ingredients.

The flavor was still delicious.  I served it as our dinner with some "market" bacon (saltiest I have ever eaten), green onions and cheddar cheese toppings.  David said it was the best batch I'd ever made.  Lesson:  don't think that all mashed potato flakes are equal!

My "market" is held in a large plaza called Place Broglie on Wednesday and Friday mornings.  They have clothes, flowers, seafood vendors, butchers, cheese vendors, bakery vendors, olives, art and produce vendors.  Very few speak English, so it's an adventure.  During my first visit I was scolded because I "picked up" an avocado to "test it" for ripeness.  You don't touch the produce!!  You tell them what you want and when you plan to serve it and then the owner will select the produce for you.

Well, when I was getting the green onions for the soup, I also asked for tomatoes, nectarines, onions, and mushrooms.  This was my 3rd or 4th time at this particular vendor.  I must've been struggling in French so he used his English....who knew?  He had been holding back on me.  I was thrilled to know that he spoke so fluently.  That made my last request much easier....I was dreading the thought of asking a Frenchman for "Fruit de passion"(passion fruit)....who knew what might happen??

Pulling on my rain boots and coat to head to Simply....hope that it's NOT an adventure.  May you be blessed in all that you encounter as you go throughout YOUR day.  Smile at a stranger and bless THEIR day. (My mother-in-law is cringing right now, she always tells me "don't look a crazy person in the eyes".)