It was a cloudy and rainy day today. I did head out this morning and went to the market to get food for dinner. I decided on sardines, asparagus with fried potatoes. I was trying to recreate a memory meal from Portugal. The asparagus was not part of the meal in Portugal but it is asparagus season in France so thought I should add it to the meal. I did add salad to make it more like Portugal. Grilled sardines are one of my favorite foods and you really cannot get them in the U.S.

When I say sardines, I do not mean the kind you get in the tin with either oil or another sauces. I mean whole sardines that are larger and full of flavor. They are best grilled but I do not have a grill here so had to be a little more creative in cooking them.

For my purposes, the sardine filets were the best option from the market. It would make them easier to cook and eat. I do not have fish forks and knives at the apartment to dealing with whole fish is harder here.

I covered the filets with olive oil, salt and pepper and let them sit for about an hour. I did the same with the asparagus. The idea was basically to fry both at high temperature to get the crisp, grilled texture and taste from the sardines and asparagus. I thinly sliced the potatoes so that I could basically make some potato chips by frying them in olive oil as well. Even with the limited selection of knives for cooking, I was able to get the potatoes fairly thin. It would have been nice to have my mandolin but it was not really an issue.

I got the two frying pans out, added some olive oil to each and then heated them up. I am still getting used the induction stove where you have to put the pan on the burner to get them to heat up. I think I did a good job of getting the temperature right in both pans. I added the asparagus first as it was fairly thick so would take longer to cook. In the other pan, I cooked the potatoes. After about five minutes, I added the sardines. I was amused at one recipe I had looked at that basically said you really could not over cook the sardines so that made it less stressful as I was timing everything else.

In the end, the dinner was very good. The sardines skins were crisp and the meat just right. The asparagus had a nice grilled texture and the potatoes were crisp and not oily. The simple salad was a good addition. I had a nice white wine to go with it. It was not great as I had mainly bought it for cooking the clam sauce so did not spend a great deal on it but it was a nice accompaniment to the sardines.

Even thought it was cloudy, I went out to watch the sunset on the river. It was a usual fairly spectacular.

The chocolatiers and pastry shops are all in full Easter mode and it is fun to look at all the confections they have created. I will probably splurge on Saturday for something to enjoy on Easter.

One of the things I love in Toulouse is the Garonne. The river runs through the city and seems to be the heart of the city. You can walk on both sides. Every day you see people sitting on the banks enjoying the river. In the evenings, the banks are crowded with people waiting for the beautiful sunsets. I walk along it every day. The sound of the river going over the groin in a small waterfall enthralls me.

I should have more to blog about in the coming week. I will do various Easter activities and then next week two acquaintances from Alexandria will be visiting so I will be a tour guide for them. It will be fun to show them the things I love about the city.