Hams

Hams at the Boqueria, a food market.

Barcelona week: churros y chocolate

What better place to start in Barcelona than at Granja La Pallaresa? Our late afternoon meal of hot chocolate, 

which was essentially a bowl of hot thick pudding, and fresh, greasy churros.

Turnips

We passed a farmer pulling turnips by hand on our first outing.

Summer 2012

This summer, we ate lots of salads and pies. I did a lot of genealogical research, and a few sewing projects.
And we stayed close to home.

May 2012

In May, we went for a hike near Solothurn with friends from Minnesota who are now working at Cambridge University, but were in Switzerland doing research that week. Zak ran four of the six Tour de Canton races, and I nearly photographed him once. We celebrated our second wedding anniversary. And we took a long weekend trip up to southern Germany to visit a friend from our Portland days. Paul took us punting on the Neckar River in Tübingen, to Bebenhausen Abbey, and to Hohenzollern Castle, and shared his encyclopedic knowledge of European church history with us.

January 2012

January was a crafty month for us: I worked on several sewing projects, and Zak carved a set of salad spoons for his mom and a butter knife for us. We also visited the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, and celebrated Zak's birthday.

Falafel at Chez Hanna

Our falafel wraps at Chez Hanna in the Marais were superb.

Lunch at Chez Janou

We had a great meal at Chez Janou on my birthday.

Tête de Moine

Tête de Moine (monk's head) is a local cheese made in the nearby Jura mountains. 

We visited a cheese factory that makes it in St. Imier.

Christmas chocolates

Both grocery chains stocked their Christmas chocolate aisles a few weeks ago. 

Here's the holiday classic: milk chocolate cat tongues.

Onions

Thanks to a small misunderstanding over the price, we purchased a decorative strand of onions last weekend. These strands commemorate an event in 1405 when the city of Bern was on fire, and the farmers from the neighboring area of Fribourg helped put out the fire.

Burritos à la suisse

This sign caught my eye as I was walking to school yesterday.

Mexican burritos -- Swiss beef and red beans

Indian burritos -- Cold chicken with curried mayonnaise

Chinese burritos -- Swiss honeyed pork and bean sprouts

Oriental burritos -- Lamb

Pasta and bread

Additional preparations for our meal.

Italian dinner party

Yesterday we had a small dinner party for the guys who took care of Fred while we were in Italy. On the menu: creamy tomato soup, fettucini (from our cooking class) with mushrooms, garlic bread, stuffed eggplants, caprese salad, parmesan with special balsamic vinegar, and Zak's homemade truffles. 

Peppers

We harvested our pepper crop last weekend for a spicy meal. The two thinner ones came from a plant given to us
by a friend. The jalapeño came from seeds I planted in May.

Cooking school

We took a half-day pasta-making class in Bologna at La Vecchia Scuola along with six other tourist-students. We each made our own pasta dough (out of flour and eggs only), rolled it out, and then collectively cut, filled, and folded tortellini, tortelloni, and tagliatelle, which were later cooked for us by the staff for our lunch.