Sparkly Eiffel Tower

On every hour for 10 mins. the Eiffel Tower sparkles. We got to see it from the top of the Arch de Triumph.

A Thursday

A boy almost ran into me on the street today and I shouted, "Oi!" and totally cracked myself up. It just fell out of my mouth.

I saw an old man tip his hat to greet his two lady friends and then tip his hat again before he departed.

The other day while I sat down on the tram a little old nun gave me the biggest smile...I passed it along:)

Lights

Jared surprised me with Christmas lights after work yesterday. They are very temperamental. I have to slap them a few times to get them to work. But they're up and giving out home a Christmas spirit!

Flat Cookies

Every time I make cookies they turn out flat. (I even had the special oven fan on to make them fluff up.) I actually really don't like making cookies. I hate doing the batches. The cookies are more concave than flat. They giant craters in them. Jared loves cookies and I love Jared so I'm trying to master them to show my appreciation. He says he likes them flat...but I still wonder if that's really the truth.


See that stack of 6 concave cookies? Well, it's ~2 in. high. (I might be exaggerating.)

Map of our adventure in Paris

You can click on the balloons and it will show you fun photos! You can zoom in to separate the balloons to make it easier to click. Jared put together this map for us:) It's fun having an engineer for a husband!



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Paris in November

Twelve years ago my family took a trek to France in November to pick up my older brother Jeremy from his mission. We spent Thanksgiving in Paris. Jared and I decided to meet up with my friend Meredith who I knew from the Tonga study abroad program at BYU and her husband Baptiste who is French and saved us several times with the language since my French isn't so great. Meredith and Baptiste were the perfect guides because they had previously lived in Paris and were fluent in the History of every building we came upon. It was amazing.

A well thought out agenda:
Eat pastries dripping with butter and delicious hocho
Notre Dame
Saint Chapelle
Crepes for lunch
Louvre
Monet
Arch De Triumph
Dinner w/ Frois Grois
Candy
bed
Delicious breakfast
Versailles
baguette for lunch
Pompidou
Montmarte
Merry-Go-Round
hocho in big mall w/ Christmas tree
Eiffel Tower
yummy Galletes for dinner
exhaustion

We climbed the towers of Notre Dame to see the bell. Jared got a little shaken up.
















We mimicked Rodin's "The Kiss" one of my favorite sculptures.

Instead of battling the Disneyland like crowds at the Mona Lisa we took photos of people taking photos at the Louvre. Thank goodness for Meredith and her knowledge of the Louvre like the back of her hand.













We climbed many more stairs to the top of the Arch de Triumph and rewarded ourselves with good food and yummy candy.

At Versailles we walked the Hall of Mirrors with my Han Solo boots.

We wasted no time and zipped by metro (thank goodness the French stopped striking) and headed back to a beautiful day in Paris:)

We had baguette sandwiches by the fountain in front of the Pompidou.

I was happy to see some scissor art at the Pompidou

We headed to Montmarte.

We caught a beautiful view of Paris and a sunset.

And rode on the Merry-Go-Round featured in the movie "Amelie."

All four of us squeezed into the packed metro with our vending machine candy and headed to the Eiffel tower

Where we wandered around in awe of the architecture and size




What a wonderful, exhausting, tasty weekend with super fun(ny) people.









To see more photos double click below:

Meet me in St. Louis

Last night Jared indulged me and watched Meet me in St. Louis. I used to watch this with my father when I was little kid every year around Christmas time.

During the film I made a comment at how beautiful Judy Garland was. Jared said, "She's not that beautiful, she actually kind of looks like a cartoon." Which I replied with, "That's because back then their skin was so nice because there weren't hormones and chemicals in their food and meat products."

I love the dancing and singing.

Margaret O'Brien is hilarious as Tootie in this film. She's morbid and horrible.

I'm getting lots of beta-carotene

Pumpkin: You can eat that scrumptious pumpkin pie without all the guilt! Pumpkin is an excellent source of beta-carotene (269 percent RDA per half-cup serving), which is converted to resistance-building vitamin A. Pumpkin is also a wonderful source of iron (17 percent RDA per half-cup serving), a mineral essential for transporting oxygen to our working cells. And surprisingly, canned pumpkin contains 15 times more beta-carotene than fresh pumpkin.

What are we doing?

We're practicing our ice skating moves for winter!

More pumpkin

I made another pumpkin cake. It was a bundt cake that was too big for the pan so I had to make some cupcakes. It was good, even though I mixed the ingredients wrong. Jared wanted to pull another "Sunday" (when we ate the entire Pear tart in one night.)

Puzzle vs. Squash

I know this is going to sound really exciting, but my family used to have a puzzle going during the holidays so Jared and I bought one yesterday to start. (We have to eat our dinner standing up since the puzzle has overtaken the kitchen table.)

This is a good season for Squash so I've been cooking several recipes with it. This turned out yummy. I added an onion and some leftover zucchini from the stuffed peppers and a yellow pepper from my fridge that was about to die to the recipe and I recommend it. It was juicy and very flavorful.

Pears are also in season so I whipped up a pear tart (puffed pastry came from the store.) I whipped together a bit of butter and some cream cheese along with some fresh apple juice from the market on Tuesday which I think is starting to ferment. I threw in some cinnamon and grated some nutmeg into the mix. Then I spread it evenly on the pastry and swirled honey over the pears and grated a bit more nutmeg. I cooked it on 175 C for who knows how long. I kept adding minutes to the timer when I saw that it was golden yet.

Pre-Baked.

Fresh out of the oven. Not sure if it's good yet though. Haven't tried it yet.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND RED PEPPER CASSEROLE
3 1/2 pounds butternut squash
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan (about 2 ounces)
Preheat oven to 400°F.

With a sharp knife cut squash crosswise into 2-inch-thick slices. Working with 1 slice at a time, cut side down, cut away peel and seeds and cut squash into 1-inch cubes (about 9 cups).

In a large bowl stir together squash, bell pepper, oil, garlic, herbs, black pepper, and salt to taste. Transfer mixture to a 2- to 2 1/2-quart gratin dish or other shallow baking dish and sprinkle evenly with Parmesan.

Bake casserole in middle of oven until squash is tender and top is golden, about 1 hour.

A look from the outside

This is the building we live in. Our window is the one of the roof. See all of the cables in the photo, well those are from the trams and buses. They are always sparking. It's like lightening here at night without the thunder.

The circle window at the very top is ours.

Nothing lavish, here's our entrance.

A Friday in November

This is the morning sun in our front room. It's overlapping the painting that our landlady put up and was so proud because it matches the love seat below, which is a major art faux pas.

It continued on that evening to be a beautiful sunset across the lake.

There is still snow on our roof.

Instead of making dinner I make pumpkin spice cupcakes (since I can't find a proper cake pan here.)

It had honey cream cheese frosting. I've eaten about 5 so far today. We ended up having the leftover stuffed peppers for dinner and I steamed them a bit in the microwave so they were juicier. My mother always said leftovers are often better the 2nd time around. She's right.

First Snow

It snowed last night and we woke up to white windows and a powdered street and rooftop. It was beautiful:)

Stuffed Peppers

I made stuffed peppers last night. They turned out a little dryer than I thought they'd be. I expected succulent juicy peppers. They were still good.

How in the world will I fit all of that filling into the peppers?

I smashed it in.

Here's the recipe. I subtracted the chick peas and fennel because I don't like either of those. I substituted butternut squash because yellow squash isn't in season.

COUSCOUS AND FETA STUFFED PEPPERS
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
1 1/4 cups fat-free chicken or vegetable broth
2/3 cup couscous
4 large bell peppers, mixed colors
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
6 oz zucchini, quartered lengthwise then sliced across thinly
6 oz yellow squash, quartered lengthwise then sliced across thinly
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
15 oz canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 oz crumbled feta cheese (about 1 cup)
Preheat oven to 350°F F. Coat a small baking dish with cooking spray. Bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan, add the couscous, cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut the stems and top half inch off the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Boil trimmed peppers for 5 minutes, then drain them upside down. Heat oil in a nonstick skillet. Add onion, zucchini, yellow squash, fennel seeds, oregano, and salt. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes and chickpeas. Using a fork, scrape the couscous into the skillet and toss with the vegetables. Stir in the crumbled feta. Place peppers upright in the baking dish and fill them with couscous. Bake 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

7 Things Most People Don't Know About Me

1. When I was little, up until I got married like Jenny I slept with something. A pink (even though I was never too fond of the color) raggedy blanket I got when I was born. I called it my "nigh-nigh" because that's what we said when we were going to bed. It's boxed up somewhere. Jared replaced it.

2. When I was ~ 8 I used to think that government spies were trying to poison me so I was really weary of anything that I ate. I always took a close look at my food and would sample it and wait a bit before eating the rest to see if I passed out. Then it dawned on my one day, "Why would spies want to kill a little 8 yr old girl." After that, the paranoia subsided.

3. I always cheated at "Heads up 7-Up." I looked at the persons shoes and then I could guess who it was who tapped my thumb. The other kids were always so awed that I was amazing at the game. I was very innocent seeming as a child.

4. In 1st grade kick-ball I didn't know where to go after 3rd base. My reasoning was that you started at home plate so you can't go there again. All the boys who always picked me for their team (because I was fast and such a great kicker) would get so mad. I finally asked my older brother where you go after 3rd base, he said you go to home plate to complete the circle. That made sense.

5. When I was 5 or 6 I engraved my younger brother Sam's name in our VW Vanagon. I hope he didn't get into too much trouble.

6. When I was 7 I stole a lollipop and lipstick from Hello Kitty. I had no remorse.

7. In 7th grade I had the worst potty mouth ever. I swore up a storm. Then I realized it got me into trouble with the bad kids and then I stopped. That was the year I dyed my hair with red Kool-aid. Yup, BRIGHT RED!!! Those were the 10 hole Doc Martin rocker chic, head banger, flannel wearing days which turned into skater style then later to my late 50's early 60's style which Mr. Dwyer my 10th grade US History teacher tagged me as looking like. The Vans still stuck. (That was when my mother was probably happy that I was wearing girls clothes, my Vans were always guys because the girls were dumb looking.)

Now I tag...Pam...oh that would be a joy to find our her secrets. DO IT PAM DO IT!

Milano, Italia

This past weekend Jared and I hopped on a train and headed to Milan, Italy. It was going to snow in Zürich and we wanted to see SUN!!! Which we did. We ate pizza, paninis, gelato, lasagna, ravioli and I had a donut. I didn't find any panna cotta but we're heading to Venice in February for my birthday so I'll try to find some then.

Jared was the navigator for the trip. We walked all over.

Before we got started on Saturday we had to stop so Jared could climb a tree:)

It was a beautiful park.

"Jared, what should we do next?" I asked. "I don't know, why don't you ask this guy."

He said that we should find some hot chocolate.

That was a great suggestion and I was very pleased with my Italian hocho. It was MarieBelle style (thick and chocolaty) and I thought of EmCox because she introduced me to that hot chocolate brand. Will I miss MarieBell? Nope, it's in the sea shipment which should arrive any day.

Next we headed to Doumo a famous and sacred cathedral in the center of Milan. But on the way Jared wanted to step on American soil for a moment. We passed by the United States Consulate.

I love the silhouettes of this street. Jared mentioned that the silhouettes had names.


Here's the roof to a shopping are we walked to.

Look what we walked by, Prada, which happened to be next to a store named Alice. Since we moved here I was intent on finding my name on something in Europe. HOORAY!

Doumo!

They also have an angel Moroni on the top! Hee hee.


We wandered around inside before...



climbing to the top!



Here's the roof.



I couldn't get over the layers and patterns everywhere.



After we ate pizza.



And gelato.



I found a vendor who sold donuts...sugar donuts...my favorite kind. It was good.


Then we headed to the Castello Sforzesco. It's big and has a mote. We actually went there twice because Jared liked it so much.


Saturday evening we got dressed up and went to the ballet at the Teatro alla Scala and saw Le Parc. It wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped a ballet to be. It was good though. Most of the time I was noticing the spacing and lack of form in their lines while they were dancing. That's just a bit of my obsessive compulsive side.


We were literally in the nose bleed section. We were on the very back row.

As we wandered around on Sunday and went to a few art museums we noticed a few funny things. Like this torso and head within a torso.

Some thread and a needle sewing up the sidewalk.

I'll translate the sign, it's ok to bungee jump, wear gloves and a hat while in the work station, you can also wear boots and it's ok if your chain or rope breaks. It's NOT ok to walk under anything falling or dump your lunchbox out after eating lunch while on the scaffolding. Also, beware of the white man with a large black hand.


Here's a rose that Jared bought for me in the park with the last of the Euros that we had.


When we arrived home (to pouring rain) Jared and I noted to each other that it really felt like home and that we love our beautiful city that we live in.

Click here to see more shots!

Human Tetris

Have you ever played Tetris so much that when you close your eyes you can see the little blocks and you even maneuver them in your mind? Well, this is a different kind of Tetris. This Tetris is hilarious. My favorite is when they have teams an actually try to create the pose of the hole rather than just jumping through...hee hee.

Circle Challenge

Last night Jared was trying the circle challenge that I posted earlier on my blog. It was pretty funny to watch him try it. Later he started pouting because it was so hard.

Homemade cookies...kind of

I made cookies last night with a star cookie cutter that one of Jared's co-workers gave us for a house-warming gift. OK, so I cheated. I bought the already made dough from the store. I wanted to test out the oven and if I messed up I didn't want to go through all the effort of making them (without an electric mixer, or Jared's strong arms) so I bought the pre-made dough and just rolled them out. They are actually really good.

Our Zürich Apartment

I know most of you have been waiting in anticipation for photos of our apartment here in Zürich. We had to unpack and make it look decent before I could take photos. Here are the 6 flights of stairs that I climb several times a day. The key is to don't look up and just do it. (Click on the photo to make it larger.)

This is our entry way.

Here is the kitchen. Equipped with a microwave/crisper/steamer. I think we'll just be using the microwave portion.

Here is our dining room/parlor/computer room/clothes drying area. (Funny story. Yesterday we had some of Jared's co-workers over for lunch and as one of them was climbing the stairs I realized at the last moment that our underwear was hanging out to dry from the previous day. I grabbed it all and threw them under the covers of our bed in the nick of time before the first guest finished ascending the stairs. So, I guess those many flights of stairs do come in handy;)

Bedroom with a slanted ceiling which Jared whacks is arm on occasionally.

Our extra room which I will be painting in and where our guests will be staying. I often stare out the windows in the afternoon and enjoy the views.



Our bathroom. Notice the jet tub. Yes, I am loving it. Jared not so much, he has to squat to take a shower with the hand held thingie.



I like our blue bubble toilet seat cover.



I am also intrigued by the see through sink:)

Apartment views

Bang & Olufsen is just across the street. They make really cool telephones which my parents own.

The tram stop is right outside our door. Very convenient. We are the Hagibachplatz stop on the 11.

There's downtown Zürich. We can walk there in ~25 minutes.

The fall colors are so beautiful here.

Something to do at work!

I can do this just fine. The key is write the # 6 with your hand at a slower rate than you are doing circles with your foot.

Sunday Afternoon Bells

We are surrounded by churches and those churches like to ring their bells. Sometimes all at the same time.

Ikea part 2 or 3

Today Jared and I trekked to IKEA (a 3rd time for me.) We needed a desk for our computer and I needed his muscles. We decided to stop for lunch and battle the masses for meatballs, gravy and french fries. While I was eating my french fries Jared pointed out that they matched the color of my hair.
Jared hasn't really gotten a chance to enjoy our view since it's dark when he returns from work. Of course when he found our the windows opened up wide enough for him to crawl through, he was on the roof. Thank goodness he couldn't go far since the roof was severely slanted.

Dinner with Googlers

Last night Jared and I went to dinner with some of his co-workers. The theme of the restaurant it seemed was truffles...with lots of foam. Almost everyone's dish had truffle foam.


Jared had ravioli with truffle foam. Can you see all that white stuff around the pasta, that's foam. It was delicious. After I had, of course the panna cotta and they didn't let me down. It was tasty.

IKEA via train

I remember my cousin Jake talking once about taking a trip to Ikea on the train in NYC and then lugging everything home. Well, now I sympathize. This is all the things I bought at Ikea to facilitate our apartment with utensils to cook and eat with. Also, a few organizing aids.


My new friend Jenna who will be moving out here in January is an Ikea expert and helped me find the best deals to stock my kitchen in the simplest and cheapest way.



I love how there's an escalator for you cart. These Swiss are genius, or should I say the Swedes (because Ikea is a Swedish company.)


We managed to compact everything (along with the help of Jenna's husband Jarrod) and got it home on 2 trains and up 6 flights of stairs. My back was sore from that and a later trip to the grocery store to stock the fridge. Thank goodness for a darling husband and his wonderful back rubs!

Halloween Swiss Style

For Halloween Jared and I went to a Google party. Well, we didn't dress up because I prefer to put together a homemade costume and they don't really have those resources here, that I know of. Plus, we couldn't think of anything clever to be and the Halloween shops around here were something like this, a little plain mask that covered your eyes...12 CHF. Nope not buying that. The prices got worse from there.

Anyhow, we swung by the party for a bit and chatted with some Googlers and danced a bit and got a few "non-alcoholic" beverages. The bartender called my drink, fizzy with some yummy. I told him to make me something yummy with some sparkle ohne (without) alcohol.

OK, getting to the picture, there weren't any sweets or candy at the party. So Jared and I left and went on the hunt. We stopped at the Haupt Bahnhof (Main Train Station) where the stores are open late and picked up some sweets. To my amazement, the king size Twix here comes in one long stick. I was excited about that. I do miss all of the "mini" candy that they sell in the states around Halloween. Mini Twix, mini Snickers, and best of all the mini boxes of Nerds. I used to get the 1/2 price bags of candy the day after Halloween and hop up my students on sugar for the rest of the week. Halloween just isn't the same here. As my Mother always said, "You can't go trick-or-treating unless you're dressed up." I guess that is why we didn't have luck finding the best of sweets, we weren't dressed up.