A while back our friends Daniela and Miguel invited us over for brunch. Daniela is Swiss and promised to make us Rosti! We have had it from the grocery store and restaurants but I have never been brave enough to attempt it at home. It was such a treat. Daniela had a yummy spread of bread, jams, cheese and rosti with over easy eggs.

Basically rosti is a big plate of hashbrowns, only instead of stirring them to get them all crispy you press them into the pan and they kind of make a hashbrown cake. Cake isn’t the right comparison but you will get the idea. The Swiss don’t only eat rosti for breakfast they eat it for lunch and dinner as well. They top it with vegetables, cheese, cream sauces. You name it they probably have it. Seth has been known to order his with bacon macaroni and cheese on top.    Not the healthiest meal for SURE but a yummy winter comfort food.

After our delicious brunch we decided we better take a long walk to burn it off! We headed out in the chilly fog and enjoyed some fresh air.

Jackson begged a ride in the stroller with Anna

every village has a hay bride and groom right?!

For those of you that may want to try to make this here is Daniela’s recipe!

Rosti

800g (1.75 lbs)  potatoes, not too firm ones, cooked (preferably the day before –> left over jacket potatoes!), peeled, grated

1 tsp salt

3 big spoons of oil or butter
———————————
heat oil or butter in the frying pan

put salt over the grated potatoes

give the potatoes in the melted butter or hot oil, lower heat, stir and fry for app. 15 min

push it down a bit to form like a cake

put a plate on as lid. the idea is that the plate presses down the whole potatoe cake. fry for 5-10 min.

when theres a brown crust, turn it over with help ot the plate and fry the other side for 5-10 min.

serve with fried eggs.

even better: fry 150g bacon cubes before frying the potatoes and mix them in.

6 years ago this afternoon Seth and I were married!! It was a rainy December afternoon, the cake was half-cooked, the church looked gorgeous with hanging lanterns and fresh greenery and I was the happiest girl to be getting married that day.  I can honestly remember smiling bigger than I have ever smiled in my life as I walked down the aisle. As I was driving the other day I was thinking about our Anniversary and got teary-eyed. No, I am not pregnant. Just so thankful.

My joy was so huge on the day I married Seth mostly because I was so keenly aware that I loved Seth so much and that he loved me with a love no one else had. This is by no means a slight to my family and friends who have shown me love for years and years. But still Seth’s love is different. Seth’s faithfulness, patience and keep calm and carry on have led us through some dark times and some wonderfully fun times.

Our 6th year has been a great one!! We made no international moves, had no new children and had a lot of normal weeks!! (I don’t mean by any means that having children is a bad thing but it is a HUGE thing and most of our married years have included pregnancy or a newborn!) We have had some date nights and celebratory times but mostly just life. And it has been so needed.

Looking forward to more of this adventure. I know we have many more joys and trials to walk through together. Rain or shine, he’ll still be mine!! Happy Anniversary, Seth!

Last week my friend Daniela invited us to come to her home to bake Grittibanz in honor of St. Nicholas day. These are breads that you shape into boys and girls. They are traditionally made around the time that people are celebrating St. Nicholas day on December 6th.  Daniela patiently showed Jackson (and the rest of us) how to form his bread and he was thrilled with how they turned out.  It was a fun afternoon together with friends….oh yea, and the bread and hot chocolate were divine!!

Another St. Nicholas tradition is for the kids to put their boots out and when St. Nicholas passes by he puts oranges and peanuts in their boots. this may be a tradition we start next year along with the Grittibanz! Here in Switzerland they have a tradition of going out looking for St. Nick. They often take lanterns into the woods and look for him there at night. I am convinced Jackson would not have slept until at least next Dec 6th had we taken part in the woods hunt, so we passed!  That sounded a wee bit scary for us!

For those of you that want to try to make some Grittibanz here is the recipe Daniela used. It is actually the same you could use for Zopf bread. It is so soft and delicious!! After we made our little people we used the extra dough for Daniela to show us how to braid the Zopf loaves.

Bread Recipe for Zopf (as well as Grittibanz)

500g flour (4 1/2 cups)
1 tsp. salt
1 big spoon sugar
1 package of dried yeast. 7g. how much is that? maybe 1 tsp.
75g butter (1/3 cup)
300ml milk (1 1/4 cups)

mix all the dry ingredients. melt the butter, add the milk and warm it (not too hot, or it kills the yeast bacteria). mix it with the rest, pouring it in the middle and stirring, then kneading (the longer the better) until it is nice and smooth and shows bubbles if you cut it with a knife.

let rest for 1 hour or so in room temperature or warmer  (should raise to double size).

form the people. Take ball of dough and elongate it. Cut a slit in the bottom to make legs. Cut a slit on each side to form arms, cut out triangles above the arm to make the remaining dough into head.
mix an egg with some milk and brush it over the dough people.
bake them 20 min with 200 degrees Celsius.
enjoy!

if you want them (or a braided bread) fresh for breakfast, make the dough in the evening and let it rise through the night in the fridge.

Thanks, Daniela for teaching us something new and “Swissy” to take back with us!

…whatever you call it in your part of the world, it’s yummy! If you have never tried it it’s the perfect season to brew some up!

I had my first vino caliente in Bogota a few years ago. It was so yummy and hit the spot on those cold rainy evenings. When we arrived in Switzerland we met our friends Bo and Leigh in Basel for Herbstmesse and Leigh introduced me to the European version, Gluwein. It’s basically hot, yummy, mulled red wine. I am not usually a red girl but with the doctoring it is super cozy. I think here in Switzerland it seems sweeter to me but maybe I just can’t remember well enough. In Bogota if you ordered it at a restaurant they often sugared the rim of the glass!

There are many different methods for making Gluwein and everyone has their own fav. You can buy it already mixed or you can make it easily at home.

This is how I make it…

grab a bottle of dry red wine

A cup of apple juice  or cider (to sweeten it up a bit)

A few cloves, cinnamon, etc!

A couple of slices of orange and apple!

If you like it nice and sweet dissolve 1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar in the mix

Last year I discovered that they now sell tea bag type things with mulling spices!! So no more floating stuff in the gluwein! Just the bag of goodness!

Pop it on the stove and simmer on low for 30-45 minutes, but don’t boil it!! Just get it good and steamy hot.

If you don’t have a group to help you with your pot-o-wine and just want a glass it’s super easy to just play around with the ingredients and get it how you like it!   This probably goes without saying but if you don’t drink alcohol and still want to try it you can obviously cook it longer and hotter and burn off the alcohol!

And for those of you that are like, “um, that isn’t really a recipe” and would feel more comfortable trying something more official here are a few links for “real recipes”! Enjoy!

Gluwein

Vino Caliente

Try this out for Thanksgiving or Christmas gatherings!!