Yesterday's shopping

Yesterday was one of the darkest days of the season so far. We didn't get any snow, not even flurries, but it was cold, damp, and gray outside. Today is supposed to be the same. Yesterday morning I went grocery shopping to enjoy the colors and warmth of the supermarket. The Saint-Aignan Super U has been enlarged significantly this year, and the rebuild is nearly done now. The aisles are wider, the selection of foods and other products is better. It's become a more pleasant place to shop.

Clockwise from the top left, I bought:

• a pound of cocos plats (Italian flat green beans)
• a rolled and tied veal roast for braising (un rôti de veau à mijoter)
• a pack of four "gourmet" knacki (Alsatian sausages, similar to frankfurters)
• two saucisses de Montbéliard (smoked pork sausages from eastern France)
• a block of Cantal Jeune cheese (from the Auvergne region)
• a beechwood smoked chicken (un poulet fumé au bois de hêtre)

To go with the smoked chicken and sausages, I plan to cook some sauerkraut (choucroute) this week. I got a kilogram of raw choucroute at Intermarché a few days ago. The green beans and cheese might become the makings for a gratin, or I might cook the beans with tomato sauce, Italian-style, and add the Cantal to a cheese platter. The veal roast will be for a blanquette de veau or some other veal stew. Or maybe I'll grind it to make veal burgers or meatballs (boulettes).

P.S. Today we'll be finishing the cassoulet-in-a-can that we ate half of on Saturday. And yesterday we finished our Thanksgiving gigot d'agneau. We had one lamb steak left. It was about an inch thick and maybe 7 or 8 inches across — plenty for the two of us — and in the freezer. I made a French sauce au poivre noir to have with it and some pommes frites.