400 Hours

Yep, that's what I was told. It takes about 400 hours of practice before you start picking up a second language. I sure hope that's the case because we are on our way...I just hope fits and spurts of 30 to 45 seconds count toward the cumulative effect.

1/2 Kilo of greens - or approximately one shopping bag full

I recently went to our local farm market down in the main square of the Ville to pick up some fresh produce. It seems that our grocery store hasn't been able to secure baby spinach for a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd try my luck in finding it down at the farmer's market. Now, I'm pretty good at pointing and asking for, "three red peppers" or "200 grams of shiitake mushrooms". My accent must have totally befuddled the poor merchant when I asked if she had any, "épinards". When she motioned to a box of leafy greens on a back table behind her counter, I answered, "yes please" and wound up with half a kilo (that's a lot of leafy greens by the way) of Swiss Chard. 

The lovely little chard - don't even try to eat that stalk.

Undaunted, we were determined to use these casualties of pronunciation. For me - a long time vegetarian no less - Chard has always been a word that conjures visions of bitter leaves the size of a tennis raquets. In actuality it's quite tasty, and it turns out a great alternative to spinach! I'd rather have a fresh substitute from the Moselle valley than some spinach that may have been sitting in a warehouse for who knows how long. I don't intend on creating a cooking blog. If you'd like to follow a creative (if not quirky) chef, check out Halite and Pepper....very fun and full of great ideas!  We found our great recipe for Spinach with Raisins and Pinenuts at Epicurious.com. This allowed us to use quite a bit of our chard in a yummy side dish served with a Mujadara from the FoodNetwork. We've always enjoyed this combo at our favorite Lebanese restaurant back in Virginia...when in Alexandria, please visit :)  Mujadara is a wonderful dish of lentils and rice full of spices and caramelized onions.

Here's what ours looked like...not too bad for a couple rubes from VA.

Yumm-O! This is all part of the great adventure. We are learning to be flexible, creative and above all else patient. We are ever so grateful that our adoptive country is even more patient with us as we strive to straighten out this awkward learning curve!!

I did mention Luxembourg has some seriously hard water, non?