Thursday, June 27, 2013

Cooking on Holiday : My Experience

As you might have gathered, myself and The Hubs swanned off to France for our annual holidays at the start of June.  Most people go on holiday with the purpose of doing absolutely nothing in the cooking department apart from opening a packet of peanuts or a bottle of wine.  Not me.  I'm one of those odd people who actually likes to cook when we are away.  There's two reasons for this : I'm a big fan of wandering around the supermarkets and markets, picking up things, planning lunches and dinners and generally enjoying the experience.  The Hubs is usually enjoying his third snooze of the morning at this point, he's not a fan of shopping, just of eating.

The second reason is that we bring the car.  That means absolutely no space restrictions so I can pack whatever I like without some hatchet faced witch scowling at me over my big fat obese luggage.  I have a kitchen crate which fits everything I want to bring with me.  Despite promising to streamline it every year, the crate gets fuller and fuller.  This year it contained my newly sharpened kitchen knife (a blunt knife is a dangerous knife and I don't trust the ones in rented accom!), chopping board, frying pan, tongs, teatowel, condiments, ice bags, my trusty corkscrew, cleaning wipes, kitchen roll, a measuring jug and whatever else is to hand while I'm packing.  I know this sounds a bit excessive but I've been doing self catering in France for 10 years now and I've worked with some pretty dodgy kitchen equipment and appliances in the past.  So, I come prepared!

Our lovely apartment in Residence l'Estran



This year, we stayed in a really lovely apartment in Chateau D'Olonne with Pierre et Vacances.  It was huge with a really decent sized kitchen and had a fantastic counter/storage area separating it from the dining table - perfect to stow the contents of the crate for the holiday.  Usually the accommodation has a gas hob, or even a BBQ if we're really lucky but this time I got a bit of a shock.  The hob, it was electric.  I've only ever cooked on a gas or an induction hob and I'm used to the immediacy of heat so cooking on an electric hob was a bit of a learning curve.  Some dinners may have been slightly over-caramelised...  Oh, and there was neither an oven or a cooker hood which really freaked me out.  I'm so used to having an oven for roasting lovely local produce like chickens from Challans or making pizza.  All we had was a microwave/grill in its absence.  It certainly clipped my cooking wings, I can tell you.  Luckily I had also thrown a lovely scented candle into the kitchen crate which helped to cover the absence of the cooker hood.  Can you guess the make - it's on the counter...

So tell me - do you cook on holiday too?  Are you mad enough to bring your own equipment like me or are you happy to just eat out all the time?


This is a sponsored post from Electrolux

7 comments:

  1. I live in Switzerland and our holidays are usually in different appartments in the mountains with our two kids where we go sking or walking depending on the season. At this stage I am an expert on getting a meal on the table in 30-40 minutes and I don't mean frozen pizza! But I keep it very simple and use local ingredients as much as possible so that it tastes a bit different to home. Risottos, roast chicken, pasta dishes. Our breakfasts are always fabulous: fresh rolls (weggli and mütschli) from the local bakery, local cheeses and charcuterie. I always enjoy the cooking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I could not do without an oven! Fair play to you! Holidays are at home back in france so i don't need any kitchen ustensils. But wished i would drive over instead of sweating profussely while checking my bags at the airport!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peggy, I nearly cried. I kept looking around the kitchen for the oven because I was sure it was staring at me!

      Delete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have to admit I cooked about two meals on our holidays this year. We flew to Barcelona and we were staying so close to the airport that we didn't bother renting a car. But there was no decent shop within walking distance and the restaurants were such good value that apartment from breakfast and packed lunch rudiments and beer we just didn't bother. So I didn't actually even turn on the oven in our lovely apartment. But I COMPLETELY get what you're saying about shopping in foreign climes: I absolutely love it and even when I've been camping in France (coincidentally close to Chateau d'Olonne!) I've gone crazy on the shopping. It's the fruit and veg and the little spritzy salad sections that get me in the hypermarché every time :) Happy happy holidays :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Rosanne, I'd love to be back there now with the little spritzy salad sections!

      Delete