Back to Morges

We arrived home in Morges yesterday afternoon after a windy, but uneventful drive home. Sunday was for sure the day with the strongest infamous mistral wind, and it must have followed us all the way to Morges as it's been quite windy here as well.

We made a couple of stops on the way. One was a rest area for lunch, and a little bit of playing (too windy to stay out for very long). In the above photo Rowan is demonstrating his jumping skills. He was SO proud of himself for jumping off the third rung of the ladder. Perhaps it was less of a jump though, and more of a drop.

The other stop we made was just outside Montélimar at what appeared to be an aire (service station/rest area) centered completely around the sale of nougat. I wish I had thought to take a photo, it was tourism at it's finest. There were several restaurants, bathrooms, a play area (I think), and a gas station, all of which were obviously there to get people to stop in and shop at the nougat boutique.

Though I'm sure it wasn't Montélimar's best nougat (I'd imagine you have to go into town for the quality stuff), it was still fun to see all the different kinds, flavors, and brands. Most had nuts, which I do not at all like in sweet things, but I was able to find a small selection sans nuts. I got lavender honey, orange flower honey, licorice, raspberry, anise, mint, and lemon. And that's not even all the flavors that were available! Anyway, I found the last two paragraphs in this Wikipedia entry on Montélimar very interesting. The nougat aire makes more sense now.

Festival du Chocolat

On Saturday we rode the train to Versoix to attend the chocolate festival. There was a lot of chocolate crammed into a fairly small tent. For someone wanting to sample one of everything the festival was a little overwhelming. 100 CHF doesn't buy as much chocolate as one might think!



I love empty eggshells filled with chocolate (have seen these in the States at Cost Plus), so got a couple of these for the kids.

It seemed like every other person was buying these little chocolate cakes from Philippe Pascoet, so I naturally needed to try them too. They were quite good, but I wish I had not bought them because I'm certain they could be made easily enough at home. I also got a small box of his chocolates. So far I've only eaten one, the thé chocolate (jasmine tea). It was fabulous. I think tea is one of my favorite flavorings for chocolates. I'm glad he has a place in Geneva, because I will definitely be going once or twice before we leave in July!! If for nothing else than a box of filled with only the thé flavor!


Just a random little girl sampling some chocolates. We took the kids in for about five minutes before deciding it would be best if they waited outside with Pat while I took photos and acquired chocolate. There were way too many people-it was shoulder to shoulder inside the tent.

These macarons from Sebastien Brocard were for sure the best macarons I've ever had. Take that with a grain of salt though because haven't actually sampled very many macarons. Every time I've had them, even from nice patisseries, they don't taste very good. Or often, like anything. But they're so pretty, I keep trying them occasionally. Thank goodness for perseverance! These macarons were delicious. I'm not sure what flavor the black were, but I liked them a lot. There was also a tea flavor (early grey, I think) that was very nice. My favorite were the caramel with salted butter filling.

Rowan and Niamh each got a chocolate duck from C. Boillat (no website).

Niamh confirmed my suspicions that she is quite possibly the messiest eater ever.

Muriel even got her very own little chocolate bunny.

More photos are up on Flickr, as usual!

Baking: My Survival Tool

While Pat's been gone I've done a lot of baking to pass the time. Too much, probably, considering the extremely small size of our freezer and that Niamh can't eat eggs. I think my pants are feeling a little bit snug. No wonder:

-chocolate pudding from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: fabulous! though perhaps making a double recipe was a mistake, even though we did have four extra people for dinner that night. There was an obscene amount of pudding.

-St. Louis gooey butter cake from Smitten Kitchen: delicious! Loved the top, but am not sure about the bottom. Wondering how the top would taste on top of the blondie recipe from Baking Illustrated. That might be too rich. Will have to try on Pat's next business trip, which is all too soon.

-whole wheat apple muffins from Smitten Kitchen: wonderful! I did have a problem with the batter curdling when I added in the yogurt. This has never happened to me before, so I didn't pay much attention to her warning. I think next time I'll follow the muffin mixing method from one of my Cook's Illustrated cookbooks. In spite of the curdling, the muffins were very, very good.



-thick chewy granola bars from Smitten Kitchen: (yes, I'm on a Smitten Kitchen kick at the moment. I don't see it ending in the foreseeable future either, because while writing this post coconut milk fudge has caught my eye.) really, really good! Next time I think I'll try adding a bit more almond butter to see if I can make the granola bars stick together just a little more.


-corn muffins with cheddar and bacon from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book: so-so. Could not taste the cheddar or the bacon. What was the point?

Several of the recipes called for corn syrup which can't be found in Switzerland, so I've been using wheat syrup as a substitute. Seems to work fine!

I wonder if Europe uses wheat the same way that America uses corn. I couldn't really find any info about it with a quick google search.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jimmy's Pink Cookies from A Homemade Life (basically shortbread cookies generously spread with cherry flavored frosting), heart flower bouquets from maya*made, and lots of paper heart collages.

Hope everyone has or had a wonderful day filled with treats, love, and piles of glitter!

Bringing a Small Taste of Rome to Morges

We made it back to Morges yesterday afternoon relatively unscathed. While we were in Rome it felt chilly, but the weather here makes Rome seem positively balmy! The three main things we ate in Rome were gelato, pizza, and hot chocolate. Once in a while we did throw in some apples or oranges. But I'm afraid that unless there were vegetables on the pizza (broccoli on pizza--delicious!), none were consumed. Anyway, I do not really have the equipment needed to adequately replicate gelato and pizza, but I figured I could certainly manage a cup or two of thick and creamy Italian hot chocolate. And the cold, windy weather in Morges seemed the perfect excuse for some hot chocolate experimentation. A quick Google search produced several promising recipes; this is the one I used as a base.

Unsurprisingly I had a bar or two of chocolate on hand. I buy the above chocolate in packs of ten or so when they go on sale at the supermarket and use them for baking, though I think they are intended for eating. For some reason chocolate specifically for baking is difficult to come by in Switzerland.

The main difference in Italian hot chocolate vs. good quality regular hot chocolate seems to be the thickness. I saw several methods used for thickening the drink--flour, arrowroot starch, and cornstarch all came up. I imagine potato starch would work pretty well too, but I used cornstarch.

My recipe ended up like this (only two changes from the recipe on bell' alimento):
-100 grams of 70% or higher chocolate, finely chopped
-1.5ish cups whole milk (I think I added a bit more).
-2 tablespoons sugar
-3 teaspoons cornstarch

I mixed the chocolate, sugar and cornstarch together in a small saucepan placed over medium-low heat. Once the chocolate was melted I slowly added the milk.

Or at least, that is ideally what would have happened. First of all, I only had 2.5% milk in the fridge, so used that instead of whole milk. Secondly, I mixed 2 teaspoons of cornstarch, the sugar, and chocolate together. Then whisked in the milk. Then decided that the hot chocolate wasn't thick enough (did I not cook the hot chocolate long enough? It was hot! Or maybe it was the lack of whole milk?) and added another teaspoon of cornstarch. The hot chocolate ended up with quite a few "bits" (as Rowan said) in it, which I think was cornstarch that I couldn't get blended. I'm assuming if I follow the aforementioned ideal method next time, I can avoid the bits. At any rate, the bits were easily strained out, and the hot chocolate ended up being delicious! Better, in fact, than most of the stuff we had in Rome, as we didn't often have the luxury of being picky about the establishments we stopped at for refreshments.

More on Rome to come!

NOTE: I made the hot chocolate again with with whole milk, and 3 teaspoons of cornstarch was too much. So if you're using whole milk try with just 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.

Cheese Buffet!

I can't get the video to show in the blog, so take a look at this. It looks like it would have been fun.

How many cheeses do you have in your refrigerator?

We have 14 as of this morning...we finished one off yesterday. Here is the list:

• Baby Bell
• Léger Rustique
• P'tit Louis
• Vacherin Mont d'Or (an excellent cheese!)
• Pecorino Romano
• Pecorino Brigante
• Pecorino Canestrato Siciliano
• Cathedral City Cheddar (the only cheddar that is available on the shelf in Morges)
• Raclette (not sure what brand)
• Gouda (young - don't know brand)
• Gouda (mature - don't know brand)
• A German cheese that was purchased from the deli (brand unknown - tastes like Gruyère)
• Le Brigand Du Jorat
• British Cheddar (brand unknown - very good)

Moving to Germany?

We discovered a large grocery store with relatively inexpensive prices. Emily was excited by the halloween candy, but it wasn't until she she saw the organic, unsweetened applesause in a glass jar that she was ready to move to Germany.

Uncle Patrick!

Uncle Patrick arrived yesterday afternoon. The kids are loving having him here. Ro and Muriel were friendly right away, though Niamh took a little bit of time to warm up.

Yesterday was also a milestone day for Rowan. He sat down at the table to eat raclette for dinner instead of hiding in his room because he couldn't stand the sound of the bacon and sausages sizzling and popping. And how was miraculous feat accomplished? Earmuffs.

Uncle Patrick was kind enough to bring over a small duffle bag of various American items for us, and among those was a pair of earmuffs for Rowan to wear when noises are too much for him. The earmuffs worked even better than I anticipated. By the end of dinner Ro was not bothered at all by the sizzling and popping, and had ditched the earmuffs.

On another note, the above picture demonstrates Ro's own take on the best way to eat raclette which I'm sure elicited a collective gasp of horror from cheese lovers across Switzerland: scrape the melted cheese on top of raw carrot sticks and allow the cheese to harden before picking up with your fingers and eating.

Sunday at Signal de Bougy

We spent a lovely Sunday morning at Signal de Bougy. We got there first thing in the morning when it was still a bit wet from rain the night before, but that didn't stop the kids from having fun.




In fact, they all came home a bit wet--the degree of wetness depending on the age. Muriel was extremely soggy, Niamh a little less so, and Rowan the least. But even Rowan needed new pants when we got home. Though Muriel is standing in the picture above, she spent most of her time on that particular piece of playground equipment sliding about on her tummy, gleefully mopping it all dry with her whole body.

We stopped by the park's artisanal bakery where the bread is cooked in a wood fired oven, and got a loaf of bread, some sugar rolls, and ham croissants for snack. All fabulous!! Poor Niamh was stuck with an ice cream cone (she didn't mind too much).

And in other news, Muriel took her first official steps last Thursday. It was just four or five, but every day she's been walking a bit more. She's our earliest walker yet at 11 months! She's been on the verge for so long, I've been waiting not-so-patiently for her to walk for the past month.

Muriel walking naturally made me think about the other children's first steps, and I'm a little appalled that I can't remember Niamh's at all. I know she was not walking on her first birthday. I know she was walking by the time we took our first trip to Paris later that year when she was fifteen months old. But can't remember at what point in that three month time period in the middle she actually took her first steps. Poor Niamh!

If It's Not Honey Maid, Use Caution

Months and months ago I bookmarked a recipe for homemade graham crackers that I found while browsing around on 101 Cookbooks. I pretty much forgot about it immediately and didn't think about them again until August when my Seattle friends started talking about National S'mores Day at Theo Chocolates (I'm still sad to have missed it!). The final catalyst for my foray into homemade graham crackers happened a few weeks ago when there was a small ripple of excitement among a few Morges Expats. Graham crackers had been discovered at an Asian store in town. Of all places! That really should have been our first clue.

The very next day Pat took the kids out in search of these graham crackers. He came back with two packages and we eagerly opened one up while thinking fond Honey Maid thoughts. Unfortunately they tasted terrible. In the interest of full disclosure I should tell you that Rowan thinks they are delicious. Rowan won't eat chips, hot dogs, chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, pretzels that aren't turtle shaped, etc. But cardboard masquerading as graham crackers? Bring it on! He's a mystery.

Anyway, after that huge let down it was definitely time to give the homemade graham crackers a go.

They turned out pretty good. I think the main thing I need to work on (other than aesthetics--these are definitely not as pretty as the ones from Theo) is their thickness.


The kids loved them in spite of being too thick. And I hear that even the kids of our fellow American neighbors thought they were great! They were super easy to make, just a bit time intensive with all the chilling. I think next time I'll try cutting out the initial chilling of the dough. Seemed like by the time I rolled out the crackers they'd returned to room temperature, so what was the point of that first round of chilling?

Wine In a Juice Box

I spotted these at Coop the other day and thought they were hilarious. However, wine in a juice box is apparently not just a European thing: 2006 USA Today article Really? Okay, okay, Pat and I have a very limited knowledge of wine. I suppose it's something I could have missed. And it's been 16 months since my last visit to the States (not that anyone is counting or anything). A lot can change in 16 months. It does appear though that these mini wine boxes do not come with a straw in the States. Can anyone confirm that?

Signs of Fall

Chestnuts on the ground

These are actually, I think, châtaigne (horse chestnuts), which are not edible. Rowan and Niamh love collecting them, though we'll have to be careful this year because of Little Miss Eat-Everything-Including-Cigarette-Butts. The chestnuts that are sold roasted at stands are marron. I have not seen any of the edible variety around yet (roasted or chocolate), but it shouldn't be too long. Hooray! It also won't be too long until the chestnut festival in Fully. We've never been, I hope we can go this year.

More cake photos

Here are a few more photos from Emily's birthday. Somehow we didn't get a picture of Niamh licking the frosting off the cake while decorating it.

Blowing out the candles (above)

Showing off the final product (below)

Checking out the candles (above)

Decorating the cake (below)

Making a birthday cake

The kids and I made a birthday cake for Emily today. Here are a few photos.

A cheese to add to the list.

This seems like something worth eating.

Spoils from Spain

While Grammie and Bumpa were in Spain they picked us up some of our favorite food from our December visit: Idiazabal cheese, Torta de Queso Cañarejal, and Jamón ibérico. It was, perhaps, a bit more of the ham that we had anticipated--a happy mistake!

When telling them how much we wanted we forgot that there are different grades of Jamón ibérico. We gave the requested amount in euros rather than grams. Whoops! Apparently the man behind the ham counter doesn't have americans coming in every day buying half a leg of sliced ibérico ham. Okay, I exaggerate, it was only 700 grams. But the ham did take so long to slice (a meticulous process that is probably something of an art form in Spain), it might has well have been a half a leg--Grammie Annie got tired and went back to the hotel, leaving Bumpa Mike to wait alone.

Random Bits From Tuesday's Dinner

When we were in Chamonix I picked up some Reblochon de Savoie cheese, which is supposed to be one of the great cheeses of the world. One of our favorite cheeses is a reblochon sold by this really sweet man (I need a picture of him someday) at the Morges outdoor market on Wenesdays and Saturdays. So I thought the authentic one from France would be out of this world. And...well, I guess it is in a way. It must be the smelliest cheese I've ever eaten. I can't seem to distinguish (like I can with most cheeses) between smell and taste. Pat will definitely not eat any more of it, and after tonight I'm pretty sure I'm done as well. I've eaten this cheese for three days straight thinking it would grow on me, but it hasn't. Not even a smidge. The last straw was changing Muriel's diaper after dinner tonight, and realizing it smelled exactly like the cheese I'd just eaten.


But fear not (MOM!), the reblochon will not go to waste. Rowan and Niamh both love it. Here is Niamh eating it tonight:


My three year old, who just recently gobbled down a tuna and jam sandwich for lunch, has a more refined palate than I do. But I guess that's not surprising.

On another note, Muriel got her first taste of cream of tomato soup tonight.

She did this after each bite...and still ate quite a bit of it.

Cathedral City

This is the only prepackaged cheddar that I have been able to find in Morges. We can buy cheddar from the deli at some stores, but that can be a fairly slow process if there is a line.

Buying in increments of 200 grams is a bit frustrating. In the US I would buy it in increments of 907 grams (2 pounds).

It has a good taste, but I think I prefer other types of cheese to cheddar.