Apartment!

Hey y'all,

I want to tell you about our new apartment. Because it is so pretty, and so perfectly located, and so charming, and because we built so damn much Ikea furniture to put in it. Someone has to see all the furniture we built.

We are located here. It's a quiet little neighborhood just out of the center city and about a 10 minute walk from the train station.

Our apartment is a 4.5 room, counted Vaud-style. That means three bedrooms, a living room, and a hallway. Why the hallway counts as half a room? Dunno. But is actually useful, we have a nice little table in there to hold shoes, tools, laundry equipment, and extra cords. Here it is:


We also have a salon:


And a cute little bedroom:


We have another big bedroom that will be Jerome's office and a tiny bedroom that we turned into a walk in closet. Neither of those are really furnished, so I won't bore you with pictures.

But. But. The most important rooms are the sunroom and balcony. I don't have any pictures of the balcony because I am still working on building a little garden on the balcony ledge. I'll post pictures when it's done. In the meantime, pictures of the sunroom:




And this is how Ingegarde and I now spend our Sunday afternoons:


Yes, we need something on the walls to break up all the white expanses. And I need to make a little curtain to hide the front of the TV stand. And I need to finish my balcony project. But seriously, right now Ingegarde and I have some napping in the sun to take care of.

Recettes- Yogurt!!!!

Yogurt! I made yogurt and you can too! This is one of those facepalm moments, when I realized that I didn't need anything fancy to make yogurt, and that it's crazy easy, cheap, and healthy.

You need:

One little thing of yogurt. Any kind you like. The yogurt you make will taste like this, so pick your favorite, even yoplait or whatever.
Half gallon of milk. Whole milk is best. Trust me.
Glass pots. I just saved up some little glass pots from various sauces and things, and then washed them really well with soap and boiling water to get the sauce smell out. You can also buy the little mason jars people use for making jam.

That's all. Seriously!

Here's what you do:

Turn on your oven light, but leave the oven off.

Heat the milk just until it boils. This kills any unwelcome bacteria in the milk. Cover, and let sit until it cools down to somewhere around very warm. You should be able to put it on your wrist (like you would test a baby bottle) and feel the warmth, but it's not so hot that it hurts.

Stir in the little pot of yogurt. Mix well.

Ladle the milk/yogurt into your glass jars and put the lids on. Carefully put the jars into the oven, leaving the light on, and close the door. The light is enough to keep it warm. Leave in the oven for 4-6 hours, depending on how sour you like your yogurt. I did closer to 6 and the yogurt is good, but sour.

After 4-6 hours, take the pots out and refrigerate. They are ready to eat the next day! Now you have lots of little pots of plain yogurt! Put honey in it! Put jam in it! Put hot chocolate powder in it (yes, really)! Put sugar and a drop of vanilla extract in it! You can tell by my exclamation points that this is life changing, right?

And here's the best part: never buy yogurt again. When you get to the last pot of yogurt, use it to make the next batch. Just dump the last little pot into a new half gallon of warm milk and repeat the process. If you can't eat a half gallon of yogurt in the week or two that it will last in the fridge, just scale down. Use a quart of whole milk and a big spoonful of yogurt. Really like yogurt? Use two pots and a gallon of milk! The possibilities are endless.

In other news, we have the prettiest little apartment in Lausanne. I'll post pictures this weekend.

Gruyeres, the Town and the Cheese

Yesterday we took a quick day trip to Gruyeres. Gruyeres is, fittingly enough, where they make gruyere cheese. It is also the home of a castle, a chocolate factory, and a sci-fi museum. We decided to not try to tackle everything in one day, so our trip to Gruyeres yesterday consisted of (1) a fondue lunch, of course, (2) a hike, and (3) drinks in the sci-fi museum bar.

I should clarify that it isn't just any sci-fi museum. It is the museum of the artist who designed the aliens for Alien. His name is H.R. Giger and he took a liking to the little village of Gruyeres. He purchased an empty hotel particulier and turned it into his museum and bar. Even just the outside of the museum is worth a trip-- see the photos below. Some are from outside the museum and some are from inside the bar. I hereby formally invite everyone to come visit us, and I promise that a visit can include a trip to Gruyeres!

Jaunty Men in Hats

Swiss street signs are mostly like the American signs I'm used to. There is, however, one key difference. Pedestrian signage is generally of the "follow the man in the jaunty hat" variety. Attached are my favorite examples so far:

1) Follow the jaunty man in a hat downstairs.

2) Absolutely no jaunty men in hats allowed.

3) Jaunty men in hats skip with children!

My Morning Commute

Because Chexbres is a bit out in the country, I have to get up pretty early to make it all the way to Geneva in the morning. It's not always easy to drag myself out of bed for the 6:39 or 7:19 train, but sometimes catching the sunrise over the mountains makes it worth it. Here are some morning commute pictures, which you can enjoy without having to get up for the 7:19 train.

Recettes- Thai Curry Risotto

The Swiss grocery market is dominated by two co-op chains, Migros and Coop. They both seem pretty OK: good quality products at reasonable prices and a very good selection of local fresh products (vegetables, fruit, eggs, and milk all from the region). They are also enormous juggernauts, with associated banks, cell phone plans, department stores, and even legal services. You could have a whole Migros life if you wanted. That said, there isn't nearly the same variety of products that I am used to in an urban American grocery store.

So imagine my excitement when I found a little hole-in-the-wall in Vevey called, I kid you not, "Ethnic grocery." It was a crazy mishmash of any and all kinds of foodstuffs that were not Swiss, in a tiny 2.5 aisles store. I purchased the following: peanut butter (from Africa!), green plantains, ketchup, red curry paste, coconut milk, dried chickpeas, and tahini. The last couple of weeks have been a festival of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tostones, hummos, and curries!

Which finally brings me to the recipe I wanted to post. Red curry risotto, which is really just a lazy red curry. You need the following:

1 cup dry risotto rice

One bouillon cube dissolved in a little more than one liter boiling water

1/3 cup white wine

Red curry paste (generally in the ethnic aisle of any big US supermarket, in a little glass pot)

1 small can of coconut milk or half of a regular sized one

Vegetables, in small cubes, any that sound good to you

Vegetable oil

Salt

In a skillet or pot, saute your vegetables in a little oil and half a tablespoon of curry paste until they are mostly done. I just made this with a few small potatoes, a carrot, a zucchini, and a little onion. Also excellent with eggplant. Set the vegetables aside.

In another skillet, add tablespoon of vegetable oil and turn to medium heat. Add the risotto rice and stir until the rice is hot and coated in the oil. Add the wine and let it bubble mostly off. Add the bouillon 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup at a time, adding more when the last batch is mostly absorbed. Stir every once in a while, but you don't really have to hover over it constantly.

After about 15 minutes, or after most of the bouillon is gone, add in the coconut milk, and 1-2 tablespoons of curry paste depending on your tolerance for heat. The stuff can be pretty hot! Once that's incorporated, add the vegetables and stir. It should be pretty soup-y. Let this cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the liquid is more or less absorbed and the rice is cooked. Add more of the bouillon if necessary. When it is done, the rice should be chewy but not get stuck in your teeth and it should have the consistency of a proper risotto. Serves 3 people as is, or add some meat or tofu and it should easily serve 4.

This is already a pretty lazy dish, but if you're feeling even lazier use a small bag of frozen peas and carrots. Skip the part where you saute the vegetables, just throw the frozen ones in at the end and they'll defrost!

Notre Petit Village, and a Cold Snap

After having spent a week going non-stop (trains, buses, trains, buses, work, apartments, trains, buses) I have a few minutes to finally sit. So I want to tell you about our little village.

We currently (sadly only temporarily) live in Chexbres. The first fun thing about Chexbres is figuring out how it is pronounced (hint: rhymes with "meb-ruh"). Once that's out of the way, it's hard not to notice that you're in a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yes, seriously. The village is ridiculously cute itself, with little Swiss-style houses, a lively main street, smoking chimneys, and the wonderful little caveau I told you about earlier. But you take all of that, put in in the middle of 1000 year old terraced vineyards and surround it with Alps, and you have the makings of one of the most stunning vistas in the world. The local boulangerie is even quite good-- they make a german style dark bread that is soft and sweet and delicious.

Unverifiable but probably true story from the guy who owns the caveau: Apparently the boulangerie has been owned by the same German family for some number of centuries (I admit not remembering exactly how many). They had a tumultuous start: the founding boulangere was run out of town several times because his scale was off, causing his "kilo" of bread to weigh something less than a kilo. This was a Big Deal at this unspecified point in the past, and some government heavyweight was brought in to calm the situation. The scale was fixed, and the family stayed. Luckily their brown bread stayed as well!

My pictures can't possibly do it justice, but I've attached a few just in case. Do a google image search for "chexbres" and you'll see much nicer photos. One of the reasons my photos aren't so good is that we have had pretty bad weather the past couple of weeks. All of Europe is in the grip of an insane cold snap. The temperatures have been vacillating here between -5F up to about 20F, but not higher for about a week. My fingers are cracked and raw and I almost lost my toes today! I have to admit that it was my own fault, though, since I wanted to wear my fashionable boots instead of my practical ones.

Bilan de la journee

Countless trains and buses

Four apartment applications submitted

Three apartments visited

Two suits ironed (OK, Jerome is doing the ironing)

Three coffees, two pieces of chocolate

One phone contract purchased (plus one apparently non-functional sim card)

Two dinners with potential new friends planned

One work permit acquired

One baguette, two pairs of hose, and one cheap hat purchased

Stress levels through the roof

Zero episodes of Downton Abbey

But I'm still pretty happy. Know why? Because I live in the ALPS!

Recettes- Potato Leek Soup

This one is filling, cheap, and very good. A winning combination, I think.

Potato leek soup is basic. Everyone makes potato leek soup. And there is a reason for it. The potatoes are comforting and filling, while the leeks add richness and sweetness. This is a standard for cold winter nights.

You need:

Oil or butter for sauteeing

1 large leek

1 large carrot

3 or 4 medium potatoes

2 cubes of veggie bouillon

1.5 to 2 liters of hot water

Pinch of fines herbes or other dried herb mixture. Just a small pinch!

Egg noodles or spaetzle or dumplings

Dice the carrot. Remove the dark green leaves from the leek and then cut the rest into quarters long ways (so you get 4 long spears). Dice the spears thinly and clean thoroughly. Sautee the carrot and leek in a large pot with a couple tablespoons of butter or vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. Don't let them brown.

In the meantime, cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Put the two bouillon cubes in a bowl or pitcher with the hot water and let them dissolve.

Once the carrot and leeks have softened, add the potatoes to the pot. Pour the bouillon over the potatoes and add the pinch of herbs. Turn the heat to medium-low, and cover partway. Let cook for about 20 or 30 minutes.

About 10 minutes before you are ready to eat, put in one or two handfuls of the noodles or spaetzle. Not too much, because they will soak up the water. They should cook in about 10 minutes, and the soup is done! Serve with good bread and good cheese.

Another option (and a fancier one, I guess) is to puree the soup and add a dollop of cream instead of adding the noodles.

Recettes- Vegetable Tart

Hey there everyone. I promised my mom I would post some vegetarian recipes for her, so here goes. Anyone else who wants to is welcome to try the recipes!

A savory tart is basically a quiche. You have a crust, filling or flavoring, and the eggs. You can put nearly anything in a tart. I make simple vegetable tarts for an easy dinner at home. The basics for any quick vegetable tart for 4-6 people are:

1 tart pan (or pie tin)

1 recipe pie crust, or storebought (make sure there's no sugar in the crust, though!)

3 extra large eggs or 4 medium eggs

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

Handful of shredded cheese (Gruyere or swiss is best, any other white cheese would probably do)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Roll the pie crust out and place in the tin, pressing up the sides of the tin. Trim off any excess.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl, set aside.

Now the fun: the vegetables. Take any one of the choices below and spread over the unbaked crust.

-- Two leeks, sauteed gently in butter and salt until they are soft.

-- One fennel bulb and one small zucchini, sauteed gently in oil or butter and salt until soft. Dot cherry or grape tomatoes around the fennel and zucchini in the pie tin.

-- Chop endives and shred potatoes. Cook both gently in butter or oil and salt until soft.

They key to each is to not brown the vegetables. Use low heat and cook gently! And don't be afraid to overcook them. For the vegetables mentioned above, you really do want them fully cooked and soft.

Pour the egg and milk mixture over the vegetables and spread the handful of cheese on top. Put in the oven and bake 40 minutes in a flatter tart pan, or more like 50 in a pie tin. If the crust starts to burn, put aluminium foil over it. The tart is done with the egg mixture has puffed up and browned and the crust is done.

Enjoy!

Note: the photo above is not my tart. It is someone else's photo and someone else's tart. I could never take a picture that pretty. But my tarts do look about the same.

Stories, Part 2

The Caveau at Chexbres.

This week we went to a local bar. Well, the local bar. There might be another one in the restaurant on the main street, but I'm not too sure. Anyway. The local bar is the "Caveau du Coeur d'Or," and old wine cave that has been turned into a bar/concert space. You can see it to the left there. It still has the rough stone walls and vaulted ceiling of the wine cave. Most (if not all) of the furniture and bar equipment is made from old wine barrels or presses, and you get the sense that they really had been used. The barman and owner, Remy, serves local wine that is, and I guess I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was, very good. He also makes tapenades, charcuterie, cheeseplates, and cherries preserved in kirsch that are more than worth the detour. Ok, I have to admit here that I have only tried the cherries, but I have been told that the rest is worth the detour! I will be heading back for the tapenade very soon.

What struck me the most-- and I still can't really wrap my head around it-- was the diversity in ages in the bar that night. The clientele varied from probably 17 to 70, with what I would say was an almost even representation of ages. The adolescents and college students were happily interacting with the patrons their parents age or older; I even got the impression that a few were there with their parents or grandparents. Imagine!

We had good wine, ambiance out the wazoo, lively company, and superlative cherries in kirsch. It was one of those moments where I felt privileged to be just where I was.

Stories, Part 1.

Back to the positive. I have two stories I wanted to share with you. Nothing earth-shattering, maybe not even that interesting. But I think they express nicely why I have been enjoying myself so much.

First, the Golden Pass. The Golden Pass is the train that crosses the alps going east, starting at the eastern edge of Lake Geneva and ending up on the other side of the alps, in Zurich. There are other trains that skirt the alps, following the plains arcing to the north of the alps, and these are considerably faster. The Golden Pass, though, takes you through the heart of the alps, past many of the hippest resorts, and deposits you-- considerably later but much happier-- on the other side.

I took a round-trip on the Golden Pass last weekend, a quick hop to Zweissimmen to have a fondue lunch and take pictures, and then back by 5. I took the Saturday 9:45 AM train from Montreux, which, it turns out, is the grandma Golden Pass. I was accompanied on my journey by two sets of senior ladies. The set on my right spent the first 45 minutes poring carefully over the local obituaries and the rest of the ride engaged in a delightful running commentary of the sights and towns we passed. I got the impression that they were taking a little touristic trip just like me even though they clearly had lived in the area for most of their lives, if not all of it.

The ladies in front of me took a different tack. They spent the ride gossiping and complaining. But they were so darn Swiss about! Every complaint was softened at the end, like they just couldn't bring themselves to speak harshly of anyone. A good example:

Mamie 1: "It's awful how they keep closing the post offices. I have to be driven to the other side of town now!"

Mamie 2: "So awful. The postal service just isn't what it used to be, and they're only doing it to save money at our expense."

Mamie 1: "But you can't really blame them, can you? They were losing so much money."

Mamie 2: "Of course. And it is our tax money they are saving."

No joke. For 2 hours! I wanted to give them a hug.

One Thing

I know I've been pretty positive so far-- and I have to admit that I have been having a great time. But for those of you that need a little sour with your sweet: one thing I do not like. Our bathtub is pictured to the left. Pretty? Yes. However, utterly impractical for actually bathing oneself.

Cheese and Chocolate

There are three things in Switzerland (so far) that are noticeably better than what we had in Chicago: the mountain, the chocolate, and the dairy products. I've already shown you pictures of the mountains, so we'll move on to chocolate and cheese.

Everyone says that Swiss chocolate is good, but it's hard to know what that means until you try it. It is spectacularly good. Even the cheap grocery store bar is better than much of the high-end stuff you find in the States. And when you get the really good stuff here, lordy. We bought some very expensive stuff at Blondel, a fancy place in Lausanne, for about 10.00chf / 100 grams. That's about $10 for a candy bar. But seriously, no seriously, it is totally worth it. The grilled almond bark is a revelation.

They sell chocolate here as either dark, milk, or white. They don't sell by the percent of cocoa, like in France, so the dark chocolate of varying intensities is all called "crémant." I like this better than having to choose between 65%, 75%, and 80% dark chocolate, knowing that I will almost certainly choose wrong. You just trust that the chocolate chef (chocolatier?) did it right.

And that brings us to cheese. Glorious cheese. And milk, and yogurt, and cream. The Swiss revere their cows and treat them well, pasturing them low in the winter and high in the summer, with clang-y bells around their necks so the cowherds can find them again. In return the cows give rich and flavorful milk. I've heard that the yogurt and cheeses from the summer are even better because the cows are eating high mountain grass and flowers-- I'll make sure to test that and let you know.

The difference in pungency hits you right away (and this from someone used to French cheese!). We made a gratin topped with gruyère (one of the most famous Swiss cheeses, made close to where we are living now) the other night, as we have done many times in the past. I have had Swiss gruyère before. But I suspect they make milder cheese for exportation, because our gratin au gruyère unexpectedly stunk up our apartment, forcing me to open the windows to aerate. I was nervous about trying the final product -- but it was a revelation. Stinky cheese = tasty cheese. For reals.

Views

One of the first things you can't help but notice here is that there are some mountains. Our cats have taken to spending much of their days sitting in a chair we set up next to the window and watching these mountains. Here are a few of their views, different days and different times.

It may also have to do with the neighbor's big brown bunny playing in the yard below, and the fat calico who spends his time trying (and failing) to catch the bunny. They seem to have an understanding.

You may also see the train tracks running along next to our house. This is for the "Train des Vignes," a lovely little train that runs once an hour between Puixdoux-Chexbres and Vevey, serving the little towns in this little wine country. It arrives in Chexbres every hour at precisely 19 minutes past the hour. And I mean precisely. You don't need Mussolini to make the trains run on time, you apparently need the crazy half-socialist direct democracy that is Switzerland. Metra this ain't. More on the trains later.

Ramblings and musing

Hi all!

Welcome to my blog. This blog is intended for my family and friends, to allow me to avoid writing duplicative long emails to everyone. I'll include some news, some observations, some recipes, and some photos (as soon as I can find the cable that connects the camera to the computer . . . ). There may or may not be cat pictures.

The title is a very bad word play on the name of the lake on which we live (Leman) and the crazy one lens glasses thing that foppish men wore 150 years ago (the monocle). Photo included. Make of that what you will.

Next up: cheese, chocolate, and two cats with a very different view.