Surrendering to the little differences

The cupboards were starting to look bare, so off Micaela and I went to Real, similar to a SuperWalmart. We needed a little bit of everything and David requested Hungarian Goulash, so our list was long.

I was surprised to see more than half of the meat case empty. There was no chicken -- not a leg, a wing, a breast nor a thigh to be seen. Then, I managed to get some of the last cartons of milk available, milk of any kind. They were sold out of thyme which I needed for the goulash. (I wouldn't find thyme at the other 2 stores I checked today either.) Oh, yeah, and they were out of the pizza dough we like. They must have underestimated the holiday demand, though I have been to other stores before where they have run out of chicken or hamburger. Thank goodness for frozen pizza in those instances.

I have yet to be able to find diced canned tomatoes, which I needed for the goulash. They have only canned whole tomatoes, which don't end up being what I really need when I dice them myself. I don't know what I'll do when I try to make my spaghetti sauce as I haven't seen crushed tomatoes either.

I have been complaining for a while about the lack of snacks and cookies for the kids' lunches. You can find a few varieties of cookies and Lord knows there are loads and loads of chips and pretzels.

You're in luck there if you like paprika. Paprika-flavored snacks are very popular. But sometimes, you need something different. We have been fortunate to have people send us Pepperidge Farm Goldfish which has been a big help, but peanut butter crackers or Cheese Nips, or Soft Baked Chips Ahoy, ah, we can only dream of such choices. So I came to the realization that I needed to actually bake things myself to give the kids more variety. The first thing that came to mind was chocolate chip cookies. Everyone knows how to make those! How hard can chocolate chip cookies be to bake here?

I bought a bag of flour last week (the only type of flour in that store) and had a good supply of butter (unsalted only here) so I needed vanilla, chocolate chips and eggs today. I found the vanilla no problem, though it comes in such tiny bottles (not too different from the U.S.). The eggs, too, no problem. They are never refrigerated and I found them near the bakery. Then, the quest for the chocolate chips. I looked high, and I looked low. I finally found them. Chocolate chips are sold as little tiny chocolate balls in little tiny boxes. There are maybe 30 pieces in a box. Do you know how many boxes I would have to buy to match the recipe? Then I calculated the cost. Not worth it. Hmmmm.... what to do? Micaela came up with a brilliant idea. "Mom, why don't you use M&Ms? We saw some big bags back in the candy section." Perfect. That will work. In the future, I guess I will have to look for a big block of semi-sweet chocolate and cut it into little chunks. That is what I mean by surrendering to the little differences. I need to stop moaning and groaning about what they don't have here, and instead, find a way around it. That is, if I can find said big block of semi-sweet chocolate.

It was all for naught, though, as I forgot the brown sugar. Will I be able to find the right kind of brown sugar? Stay tuned.