Cooking for 1 in Tours

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I'm having many culinary adventures here! Need I say it? THE FOOD AND WINE ARE EXCELLENT! Cooking for one is not easy, but I'm managing quite well. I'm staying in a university residence which has some communal kitchens. The good news is that they are kept clean and clear. The bad news is that nothing can be left in them--no food, no utensils, no equipment, no garbage. The rules are so strick that if anyone leaves a mess, the administration closes that kitchen for a couple of days. So far, so good.

Today, I went to the big market: about 3 city blocks in size: both inside and outside. The produce, meat, cheese were amazing. I bought some local strawberries--they rival our coastal BC ones.
I stopped at a portable meat market and bought a veal escalope and a piece of pork sliced from a roast. While waiting in line in the rain, the butcher passed to each of us a piece of cold cut: lune rosette which had whole pepper in it. Then when it was my turn he added in a rillette (specialty cooked pork from the area). My bill was only about 3 euros too!
I am feasting on an organic tub of fromage blanc I bought several days ago. Each day, more of the whey comes out, so I just drain it off and drink it.

BIG REGRET: no ovens. Just microwave and 4 electric elements. Since we have to bring everything from our room each time, I bought a rectangular plastic bin to cart stuff up and down.
There are a few items we can borrow (by leaving our student card): an electric kettle, stick mixer (goody! I'm going to make mayonnaise), and a weird electric stone that you cook on like on a grill--no oil to add. I tried it out last night--just cooked a few vegetables on it.
The other night, I proposed that our group of 16 students make stone soup (do you remember the fairy tale from the Grimm Brothers?). It was quite a success. I just asked each student to bring 1 item, and I put them together into a prettty interesting soup. There was no meat or fish--just vegetables, but it was delicious. I did my trick of pulling out some of the potatoes and squash and pureeing them , then pouring them back in to thicken the broth. We ate the whole thing! The predominant flavour was from the celeriac which is even more delicious here than at home. We had invited our teacher to join us. She brought the celeriac and a Nougat de Tours/i] for dessert--delicious cake with dried fruits through it, not like nougat I have tasted.

I don't know what the French do to their produce, but it is just scrumptious. I am buying vegetables more than anything. The other day I saw i]Icarottes en sable, so I tried them. They tasted as if they had just been pulled out of the ground, and of course there was sand all over them.

While some things seem extremely expensive here (2 euros to do a load of washing--soap not included) other things are very cheap (decent wine for under 2 Euros a bottle).

So far, I have not used any tinned or packaged food. Everything fresh is to be savoured here! (I confess that I bought a litre of UHT milk, just in case I run out of fresh whole milk, and a tin of cassoulet, because it would make a very substantial dinner for 2, if needed in a pinch.)

One of the splurges I am really enjoying here is the full-fat dairy products. No fat free or low fat for me. All the cheeses and dairy products are divine. I find that I can get away with very little--it is so rich and satisfying. I find I don't snack much and my meals are small, but action packed!
And, of course, we're doing lots of exercise, so I can justify eating richly. I brought a podometer which is registering 10,000 steps most days. We were given bus passes, which is great, but there is still a lot of walking to do.

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