July 31st - Day 5

Rheusti and Fried Eggs for Brunch

Today, we spent at home relaxing with family. We had brunch around 11, which consisted of birchemuesli, bread, cheese, rheusti and fried eggs. Rosmarie showed me how she made the rheusti. She cooks the potatoes, whole, in a pressure cooker for about 10 minutes. Then she grates the potatoes - it works best with hard potatoes. She fries some onion in oil and adds the grated potatoes, adds salt and leaves to brown in the pan. She flips the potatoes once or twice. Basically, hash browns!

This afternoon Sara, Thomas and Lucas took a swim in the Rhine. The water was 67 degrees...a lot colder than our pool back at home (it was reading 84 degrees, when I left home). I hope to go in tomorrow - how can I have a chance to swim in the Rhine and not partake? I wonder if the water will warm up tonight at all.....

Tonight we ate a nice dinner consisting of risotto (cooked with apple wine and chicken boullion. Marscarpone and grated cheese added to the mix at the end), beef medallions topped off with proscuitto and salvia, and steamed carrots.

I ended the day with a walk through the quaint town of Rheinfelden. I said "gretzi mitinan" (greetings)  to all that I passed. Not one person looked at me strangely - getting the courage to speak a different language can be daunting. But I'm getting there!

July 30, 2011 - Day 4 in Switzerland

Coffee (notice the ashtray....smoking is very common here)

Today I took a long walk with my cousin, Christoph, along the Rhine River. He showed me their new power plant (powered by the Rhine - a natural resource for both the Swiss town of Rheinfelden and the German town of Rheinfelden). We had a cup of coffee at a local cafe (interesting to see many people bring their dogs with them for breakfast). For lunch we had Teigwarengratin which is a casserole made of pasta, potatoes, small pieces of bacon and eggs, cheese, milk and butter. The favorite part is the crust that is formed on the top from baking.  I find we don't eat much meat here - not anywhere as much as we do in America.

Teigwarengratin and Salad (salad is eaten after the main dish)

Sara and I went grocery shopping - so much fun! We are going to prepare my Pesto Chicken dish for the family on Monday. The grocery store is closed on Sunday and Monday is a holiday. So we are purchasing now. Many of the stores here close on Sundays and most everything closes down around 4:00. p.m. Very different than back at home! We found some strange things at the store - specifically horse meat - UGH. We started our visit with Sara riding a horse. We certainly aren't going to eat one.

Sara and I then went for a bike ride and got ice cream (cost of ice cream was 30.00 Franks - which is roughly $35.00 U.S.) We are going to bring a picnic for now on....



For dinner we had Raclette. We are used to this dinner as we make it at home for a family treat, but those of you who have never had it - think of it like a Taco dinner. Boiled potatoes are placed on your plate and you add melted cheese and whatever else you like to your plate. Typical sides are bacon, thin slices of meat, cut up fruit. There's a raclette seasoning that you sprinkle on top. The raclette maker stays in the middle of the table and you heat the cheese as you need it.



Raclette sides

July 29, 2011 - Day 3

Berchemeusli

Today we visited my aunts who live in nearby Basel. We then met with Angela (cousin's daughter) and toured the city of Basel. First thing we did was find some lunch (of course!). We purchased some sandwiches from a roadside vendor and headed down to the rhine river to eat. Honestly, these sandwiches were amazing! I think it's the European bread that makes them so incredibly good. My sandwich had tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and mayo - very similar to what we make at the store. But the bread, OMG - incredible. If we could make/get this bread in Mendon, wow ~ we would have a line....really.

We then went to a church which was built in 1400 - Munster Church. All was great until Thomas had us go up to the bell tower. Since I am afraid of heights, it became a problem. I was "plastered" to the side of the church while the rest of the group went even higher. I am not kidding, I was out of mind with fright - being scared of heights is dreadful and uncontrollable. However, I guess if I was smart and stayed on the ground, it wouldn't have been such an issue. From Sara's pictures, the view was breathtaking. For me the height definitely took my breath away - I really didn't appreciate the view.  We stopped at a chocolate store and bought some fantastic Swiss chocolate. We came home for dinner and made berchemuesli - which we are already very familiar with. This meal consists of oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, milk and some sugar. It doesn't look very good - but is really quite good. Our whole family enjoys it and we already eat this back home. Of course, dinner was served with some more Swiss bread. I've decided to buy bread mix to bring home, so that I can put it in my breadmaker when I am craving something European.

July 28, 2011 - Day 2 in Switzerland

Today Rosmarie took Sara to her riding stable and Sara was a given a horseback lesson. Riding a horse is a lot harder than it looks! There were many kittens around the barns, so that was an added bonus to Sara's adventure. We went to the salt water spa after lunch. All of the pools there have salt water, which of course makes you very bouyant. There are many jets throughout the pool area - so you can relax and get "massaged". There is an area called the dead sea pool. There is so much salt in there (just like the dead sea), you easily float on the water on your back. And when you put your ears in the water you can hear music. It was very lovely - however, at first it did remind me of the cave in the Harry Potter book where a bunch of dead people were floating (if you are a Harry Potter fan, you would know what I am referring to). Kind of spooky!

For lunch we had pasta, roasted vegetables with some cheese and cream, and meatballs (ground beef, onion, seasonings, ketchup and mustard). The "meatballs" were very tasty. Dinner was light - tuna (actually made with real fish bought at the store today), eggsalad, home made bread and cheese. We went to a cousins house for dessert which was fabulous - fruit salad, soft icecream, home made whipped cream and an italian cake. I didn't take a picture of dessert, as I didn't want to embarrass our hostess. It was delicious and now I wish I took a picture as they way she displayed the food was really good as well.

July 27, 2011 - Day 1 in Switzerland

We arrived here early this a.m. - 8:00 a.m. Swiss time (2:00 a.m. East Coast). Very tired but happy to be here. We are staying at my cousins home in Rheinfelden, Switzerland known as "the town that has everything". This town was founded in 1130, there are roughly 12,000 people living here. The center of town is very picturesque with a pretty clock tower and midieval archway.There is a very well known spa, in walking distance (Sara and I can't wait to go there).

We had roeschti (prounced rooshtey) - potatoes and onions, along with brotwurst - sausage for lunch which is the big meal of the day. Sara had a side of ketchup to eat the meat with! For dessert, my aunt made Waehe (pronounced Via) which is an open faced pie made with apricots and plums with a pie crust on the bottom and a light egg/bread crumb/cream, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt mixture on top. They served the dessert with more sugar and whipped topping (Sara ate that as well).

Preparing to go

Getting ready to travel to Switzerland for 10 days with my youngest daughter, Sara - age 13. My mother's family all resides in Switzerland (Basel area) and I have been fortunate to go a few times throughout my childhood. The last time we went was when Sara was just an infant. 16 of us flew over together and spent 2 weeks vacationing in and throughout Switzerland. Of course, Sara does not remember any of it and the timing is just right....It's summer, the family is fairly self sufficient (they can operate without mom for 2 weeks!), the busines is running systematically (daily procedures are all in place) and now bags are getting packed. 

While I am nervous about leaving my store for 2 weeks and actually being pretty much nonaccessible, I am really looking forward to seeing my Swiss family, being part of the Swiss culture, eating their food and hopefully bringing home some great European recipes!