Many Choices

One thing about having a foreign exchange student living with you is that you notice things that you could normally just take for granted. For instance, Americans like choice. If they are presented with one of something often the first question will be, “What else ya’ got?”

This was noticeable for the first time when we took KC to the mall to find a case for her phone. We went to the kiosk and the man saw what kind of phone she had and began pulling rows and rows of cases down for KC to look thru. By the time the man flew all around his kiosk there must have been 60 differently decorated cases for KC to choose from. She ended up not buying any, there were just too many options for her European mind.

Next we went to Target (this is Pepper’s favorite store… we go here a lot) to find shampoo and conditioner for KC. She could not believe that two rows of the store contained just shampoo and conditioner. For the sake of personal hygiene and some help from Pepper, KC did make a selection this time.

Tonight, KC is cooking dinner for the family. She told us that it is not a traditional Danish dish, but one she has made before and really likes. We went to Meijer’s for the ingredients… with the recipe her mother emailed her in Danish. There were a few challenges like going from metric grams to ounces and pounds, but the two of us figured that out like champs (and good guessers). There were also some linguistic challenges like finding spices… she translated one to “ther-ree-me” As a speech therapist I am a little embarrassed at how long it took me to figure out she meant thyme. She also had an ingredient listed called “sweet chili powder” which I could not find anywhere at Meijer’s. KC decided to just use regular chili powder and we’d get a little ‘kick’!

When we got to the noodle aisle, KC saw a package of “wide egg noodles” as we rounded the corner. It was in the gourmet section and they were called “Amish Kitchen” which is a brand I had never tried. (We go for the Meijer brand, what I have a coupon for or what is on sale) We put the over priced little devils into the cart and then KC looked down the aisle. Her jaw dropped. She could not believe that there were so many options. She read one box that said: egg noodles. She said, “Aren’t ALL noodles egg noodles?!” So we walked along and I showed her the spinach noodles and the tri-colored noodles and the gluten-free noodles….. not to mention all the space and size varieties. We ended up just sticking with the over-priced Amish ones and moved on.

I am looking forward to this new dish, it will be great to have the kids all critique something someone else cooks! I’ll let you know how it all turns out. ☺