Mme. Pépin: Trip 1 to Jewel

Weather.com = sunny, upper 50's. Outside = raining. Hair = adorable. Scratch that, ruined. Thankfully Jewel is only a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I was pleased that the first recipe only had a few ingredients, some of which I already owned. Phew, I didn't feel like spending a small fortune to cook my first dish. As I gather the necessary ingredients I breathe a sigh or relief, not too expensive. Onions, check. Garlic, check. French bread, I'll pick it up tomorrow in time for dinner. Chicken Stock, oh geeze, 16 cups! 8 cans later... Cheese.

According to M. Pépin, I have the choice of using emmenthaler, gruyère or jarlsberg. Considering I've only ever heard of gruyère, I figure that's my safest option. I arrive at the cheese counter. No gruyère. No emmenthaler. But there is jarlsberg... for almost $10/lb! I asked the lady behind the counter if they carried gruyère, she'd never heard of it before. Hmmm. I wasn't even going to try to ask about the emmenthaler, since I'm pretty sure I could barely say it correctly. So jarlsberg it is. The lady asked if I was sure that I wanted 1.5 pounds of it at almost $10/lb. Unfortunately for me, I was sure. $14 and some change worth of cheese later, I was on my way to the checkout.

The rest of the ingredients totaled up to barely $20, then the cheese was rang up and my grocery bill jumped. Ah well, I'm sure $14 and some change for cheese will seem like nothing by the end of this endeavor. When I got home, I tasted a small slice of the cheese that broke the bank, one thing's for sure, it's going to make for some good soup. I hope.