This Global Kitchen | Day 1: France
My name is Lynn, and I live in a small suburb of Paris, France with my husband and two children. My husband is pastor of an English-speaking International church in Paris. We lived with a family in Paris proper for five months after moving to France from England, where we were also working with a new church plant. After five months of city life we received an offer from a church member to come live in a guest cottage in her back garden. This church member is a lady in her 90s, recently widowed, who worked for England's Special Operations Executive (Churchill's secret army) during WWII. We were so honored that she would offer us a place to live rent-free and welcome us into her life. Her home was built in 1667, and the cottage was so charming. But it wasn't move-in ready — and there was no kitchen!
As any expat knows, it takes a long time to figure out how to do things in your new country — especially home improvement projects. We needed a lot of help! First, our hostess's son arranged for a plumber to put in a small sink in one corner of the room. Next, a very talented lady in our church helped us come up with a plan for how we could put the magic of IKEA to work in the room. Most importantly, she figured out how to arrange things so we had room for an oven, something we were at first told wouldn't work.
A fellow expat painstakingly pulled out one million staples holding the green fabric on the walls. On top of that, a mission team from the U.S. had a service trip planned to help our church the very week we were told we could move in to our new home. A small group of hardworking college students scraped layers of old wallpaper from the walls (found under the fabric!), repaired plaster in the ceiling, painted freshly-plastered walls white, and put together all of the drawers we purchased from IKEA. One of the team leaders even had me pick out an accent color to paint the cabinet doors. It was such a special act of love and service to me and an amazing transformation.
We closed off one door so we could have room for a bigger refrigerator. As you can see, I have way too many appliances lined up on my counter. There is only one electrical circuit in this room and the bathroom next door where my washer and dryer reside. This means I can't run the dryer and the oven at the same time without blowing a fuse or cutting off the power completely in this house AND the house next door where our hostess's son has an office. This has something to do with a French system of paying to use a certain amount of electricity at one time and it cutting off if you go over. Other things that push it over include using the oven and TWO eyes of the stove; running the dryer and trying to boil water in the kettle simultaneously; or running the dryer and trying to iron.
It's a quirky electrical situation, but I've mostly learned to work my way around it. I only do laundry at specific times of day and make sure I use the microwave before turning on the oven. Last Thanksgiving, I made my family turn off every light in the house while I used a pressure cooker to cook a turkey breast while the oven cooked the ham by candlelight. I didn't want to risk the power going out before our dinner guests arrived!
I love the little built-in cabinets, and it's been a great kitchen. We did have a few months of adventures with mice this past winter (rats and mice in Paris are real!), but here's hoping all of our mouse holes are all filled up now.
My Must Haves for my EXpat Kitchen:
My kitchen necessities are sea salt and olive oil. I use them when sautéing or roasting vegetables and to flavor meat no matter how I'm preparing it. No matter what other seasonings I use, using big flakes of salt always insures good flavor every time.
I am very old school, and I couldn't do without my slow cooker! Making dinner earlier in the day as a gift to my future self is the best feeling. I bought my current one while living in England, and I can't find the brand on it, but I love that this one had a light-weight, non-stick pot inside. The heavy ones are so hard and cumbersome to wash, and I've cracked two in the past by putting water in to soak before they were completely cooled. I also love the programmable ones that go straight to warm when cooking time is up.
My Favorite Expat friendly Recipe:
Meatloaf
by Lynn | TakingRoute.net
- prep time: 15 min
- cook time: 1 hr*
This comes from my home church's cookbook and is a kid-friendly crowd-pleaser.
- 2 lbs. ground lean beef
- 1/2 c. chopped onion
- 1/3 c. chopped green bell pepper
- 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 egg, beaten
- 12 saltine crackers, crushed
- salt and pepper to taste
Mix ground beef in a bowl with onion, green pepper, sauce, egg, crackers, and seasoning. Place in a loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour. Drain off grease and top with sauce.
Sauce:
- 1 c. ketchup
- 3/4 c. brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp mustard
Blend above ingredients in a small bowl and pour over meat loaf. Cook about 15 minutes more.
Expat Notes: When using a fan or convection oven, my meat loaf never has to cook for an hour, but I also cook the meat loaf in a 9x13 pan, so it's more spread out. This recipe is pretty adaptable to different taste buds and available ingredients. I don't have access to saltines, but any cracker or hard bread stick crumbled up will do.