Weekend 5-a-day

This weekend has been very relaxed indeed (Apart from when I put the car in reverse instead of 1st gear at a junction while ♥ was teaching me).  The highlight was definitely visiting Hambabamba after we shared a kebab. It's a little bright smoothie-shop located in an ally between Unternehmen Mitte and Marktplatz.  This place deliciously blends raw fruit into vibrant smoothies with a zing.  You can even get an extra 'shot' to boost energy, your metabolism, make you calm, or infuse you with vitamins.

I opted for the Höhenflug (hi-flyer) and  ♥ went for the Ruhezone (quiet-zone with an extra shot of ginseng calm)

Raspberries, Apple & Lemon Sorbet- perfect for summer in the city

Stair-climbing to our parking space

Feeling full after the smoothie & kebab - not sure why I look so gloomy

 Delicious Cod ♥ brought back on Friday - made with the same marinade as here (♥'s Louisiana Momma's)

P.S - I just got finished making a baked cheesecake for the Swiss National Holiday tomorrow, I will snap a photo and post it soon.

J.o.B Search Break

Been taking some time to intensify the search for a job, so I'm sending out apologies for being absent in this little zone.  I do however have some photos of the past few days. I've been pottering about Basel-country finding unhealthy snacks, making some nice rainy-day meals & choosing the easiest form of 'exercise', ping pong to tackle those calories.

First covered ping-pong table we found - so we can play when it rains

Sunflower which went in the bouquet we picked for  ♥'s stepmum (including lucky ladybird)

Bruch Table with both Brothers at Dad's on Sunday

 Massive Malteaser Bag weariness

 Spinach & Prawn creamy pasta sauce

 Loved every bite !

Perfect Comfort Romance Food Recipe:


10 Raw Prawns
2 Cloves of Garlic thinly sliced
1 chilli
25 ml cream
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach
300g pasta or more if you're hungry

Fry the prawns until pink in some oil on medium heat and remove from the pan. Add the chilli & garlic and Sauté for about a minute before adding the cream and spinach. Cook down until the spinach has lost it's form and the flavours have begun to merge. Add the prawns, and cooked pasta and toss to create a marriage of yumminess. Serve straight away with some Parmigiano-Reggiano in a giant bowl for the greatest pleasure. Hope everyone's week is running smoothly.

Little smiles you can eat

One of the things that reminds me of my childhood in Switzerland is Linzertorte. The merging of jam, spices and crumbly nutty crust in this cake make me think of primary school in a foreign language, summers spent exploring the outdoors and my loving mum always having a surprise treat for us around 4*. Although very different to the Cake, I was inspired to try some Linzer-cookies.

*Z'vieri (meaning Four): time where the Swiss have a break and enjoy a little snack, ours was usually sweet.

I love eating pretty looking treats

 All my little cute faces lined up plus some love

With a powdered sugar sun-tan

To make these soft, pretty things:

50g Powdered sugar plus some for the end

150g Butter

1 pack Vanilla sugar/or dash of vanilla essence

1 Egg

150g flour

150g ground almonds

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of clove

pinch of cardamom

1/2 Jar of Jam of your choice

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the vanilla & spices along with the egg, lightly beaten in. It will curdle but that's OK.  Now add the flour and almonds and mix quickly as not to over work the egg.  Once combined, wrap in foil/cling-film and pop in the fridge for at least an hour. Once cool enough, roll out on a floured surface until about 3-4mm thick and cut out two shapes for each cookie, one with a face/heart cut out in the middle.

Bake in the oven at 150°C/302°F for about 6-8 minutes until just the edges are beginning to brown slightly. Cool on a wire rack and once ready spread un-cut sides with jam and place the cut out opposite (which you sprinkle with icing sugar) on top. voilà 

My brother, who is very honest and not too big on compliments said these tasted shop-bought !   

Chicken? Boring?

Here's a quick recipe of what I created with ♥'s 40% discounted pack of chicken breasts he scored. I have always found chicken to be a little boring unless it's spiced up Mexican style or beaten and breaded into a schnitzel, but this combination keeps the meat moist and full of flavour.

 The little wrapped chicken breasts cooking away

 Plating up - with a little pinch of chilli powder

The final result - simple but oh so tasty

For this flavourful juicy chicken:

4 medium chicken breasts

4 large slices of soft cheese of your choice (I used Tomme de Neuchâtel)

3 Rosemary leaves for each breast

4 slices of bacon or serrano ham for wrapping

Salt & Pepper to season

Firstly, I sliced a cavity in each breast for the cheese to be placed into. It's important to make sure that you can place it securely in there so most of it will remain in the breast and not melt out into the pan. Then place the cheese slices into the cavity, you can cut them so they fit nicely, on top of the cheese place the rosemary leaves. To act as a safety-pin, the bacon/ham is then wrapped around the chicken breasts to keep them closed and secure while they are cooking.  Fry each breast at a medium temperature for about 6 minutes on each side or until meat is no longer clear.  As the chicken is so juicy, I simply served it with runner (green) beans and baby new potatoes with a little butter.

♥ said it was the best & juiciest chicken anyone had ever made him

Dine like Kings

I can truly say we couldn't have eaten better this weekend. First, that taste-bud-tingling-extravaganza at Besenstiel, then the most romantic and secluded picnic up a mini-mountain followed by my dad's Masterchef-skills at BBQing. I think I may need to turn up the motivation to work-out.


I've left you with some pics from our saturday picnic

Setting up our picnic spread

 A whopping 60Fr.- worth -->  it even included a single bought piece of sashimi sushi

 Preparing my tummy for the feast

 Being silly with the shopping bag

 ♥ joining in

 Packing up  (before a farmer finds us on his land)

Review: Restaurant Besenstiel

♥ wakes up and is off to work 30 min before me, and when I woke up and entered the bathroom yesterday, there against the mirror, I was met with a little note which had a surprise for me in red ink. It was in invitation to dine at Besenstiel that evening (he had also included a scibbled image of a broom & and stick)

You don't know how excited I was because I had heard amazing things about their desserts

Besenstiel's interior

Our Fish Mains 

 Nice wine from close-by Alsace: 2006 Gewürztraminer

So happy to be trying both of these

 Whatever was in that pot made everything taste amazing

Panna Cotta & Forest Berry Tiramisu

cute little pralines to go with the coffee

This is a restaurant in the centre of town that we had always walked past but never tried it.  The manager is a Portuguese man but the menu seemed to show a fusion of Swiss, Mediterranean and Asian dishes. The service was really friendly and our waiter even offered to speak to me in English. I was thrilled to be offered a little lamb-meatball with cold tomato & watermelon soup as an amuse bouche,  I love it when restaurants give you little surprise treats like that.

As I had heard so much about their desserts, I opted out of a starter, but ♥ let me share his which was an asian inspired appetizer plate with a little chicken satay, shrimp wonton, spring roll and chicken-coconut-lemongrassy soup.  I think we could have had some more as each little portion was really tasty.

Out mains were beautiful.  ♥ had the Monkfish filets with lemon butter and vegetable stew with a side of rosemary potatoes and I chose the Organic (Happy) sea bass fillet with fresh herbs and artichokes with a potato gratin (amazing) as my side. We are in land-locked Switzerland and don't get frequent access to fish, so I think when we both see it on a menu, described so well,  we just have to try it. Usually I can't finish everything on my plate but I ate everything as it was so tasty and served hot.

Now, what we had been waiting for, the desserts.  They blew our minds...and tastebuds ! We shared a tiramisu with forest berries and blackberry coulis and the „Ladies-First“ panna cotta with fresh strawberries. Those berries in the little pot were to die for and seemed to be marinaded in vanilla goodness which would have had us paying Fr.-100 just for that. ♥'s espresso came with gorgeous mini chocolates and were presented in a lovely way just like the rest of our meal.

Verdict? We are certainly going again even if it's just to have dessert.  When we left,  we had realised we had been there for three hours just talking and eating the night away...I would call that a good sign.

I like Over-jean

Up until a couple of years ago, I would always pronounce the word Aubergine as 'Overjean', much to the delight of my family who still tease me about it to this day.

For a reasonably lazy dinner this week I decided to make this special creation that my parents discovered when they first visited Browns in Edinburgh and were so impressed they just had to try it at home. It's so simple but tastes and looks pretty posh. The combination of aubergine, goat's cheese and rucola are like a match made in food-heaven.

calm before the storm (i.e me eating it)

Preparation shot

Green, purple & white make a nice combination

To make these posh sandwiches:

1 Aubergine, sliced

1 small goat's cheese round, sliced

Two handfuls of Rucola (Arugula)

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Sliced bread of your choice

Salt & Pepper to season

Heat some of the oil in a pan and put in 4 Aubergine slices. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side until soft. Whilst this is happening you can toast the bread, wash the salad & slice the cheese. Once ready, slice in half and place on toast, add the goat's cheese slices which will begin to melt & top with Rucola leaves and a light dizzle of olive oil & balsamic vinegar to complete the sandwich.

When you work, weekends are cool

As an unemployed graduate, I lost all thrill for the weekend, but now that I've been working a week, I couldn't wait for all the fun to begin. It was filled with  ♥ teaching me how to drive manual in a car park, getting McDonalds (BAD) and eating it on a playing field in the sun, relaxing by the rhine, some ping pong,dinner at Vapianos & a date at the cinema.

 I have to pass my test by the 20th of November or I'll have to start all over again.

We bought a kilo of apricots from a lady at the side of the road

Feelin' Swiss

Lazy Sunday started with 'Züri Geschnetzeltes, Rösti & Rahmspinat'

Having a drink at Veronica's

Our Date-movie:  was funny but maybe not worth the cinema money

Recipe for 'cut meat Zurich style':

1 onion diced

3 thin pork minute-steaks (supposed to be veal)

1/2 pot of sour cream

2 large handfuls of champignons

1 clove of garlic

salt & pepper

1 onion diced

dash of milk 

some parsley to sprinkle

Now that I'm in Switzerland,  I think it was about time that I try to add something Swiss to the recipe list.  My ♥ claims not to be a fan as his Swiss parents have made it far too often, he liked it thought which made me happy.  

This recipe is quite irrational in terms of measurements but I was improvising. The real recipe also asks for some lemon juice, paprika and white wine, so throw that in if you want to be authentic. Finely chop the onion and heat with medium temperature until glassy. Add sliced mushrooms and sauté. Stir in the chopped/or crushed garlic. Now is the time to add the cream & milk (or wine if you have) to make it more 'saucy'. Once all is mixed and looking brown and creamy in colour/texture it's time to add the thinly sliced strips of meat. Simmer these in the sauce until they are cooked and I chose to serve it with Rösti (fried roughly grated potato) and some creamed spinach (none of which I made myself).

Friday Night

I ended up going out on Friday for a friends good-bye party. ♥ so kindly cooked me dinner, drove me to town in out new (old) car, and off I went to sing and dance with my girlfriends.

a glass of wine & some good tunes

Quiet Week

Hellooo from the Sofa.  I have been relatively out of action after work due to my muscles not being used to the action of cleaning/moving radiators, tables & more. To help me get through the rest of the week, my chocolate cravings and to keep up with these happy America-vibes from earlier, I magically produced these scrumptious brownies. 

After work I went on a nut-shop.  I bought peanut butter & walnuts. The latter were used to bring a lovely slight crunch to the brownies.

Perfect while watching night-time telly

 Close up shot so you see the walnuts

Just like somebody's momma made them

To make your stomach satisfied and feel over-the moon, you'll need:

180g (1 cup) of dark chocolate

180g (~3/4 cup) butter

28g (1oz) cocoa powder

100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

100g (1/2 cup) castor sugar

dash of vanilla essence

3 free-range eggs

95g (3/4 cup) plain flour

pinch of salt

50g (~2oz) chocolate chips

100 g (~4oz) chopped walnuts (optional)

This was surprisingly easy because I made the mixture all in one pan so there was next to no mess (the last think you wanna do after you've been cleaning all day).  Firstly, pre-heat your oven to 356°F/180 °C then get to work by melting the butter & chocolate in a large bowl over a pan with simmering water.  Once all rich, smooth and delicious-looking, add the vanilla, cocoa powder & both types of sugar. Beat in each egg and whisk for about a minute, then finally add the flour.  If you want to give your brownies an extra kick, stir in the chocolate chips & chopped walnuts at the end.

Bake in the oven for 23-30 minutes until they reach the texture you desire, I baked them for 24 minutes because I could see the brownie-trademark crisp on the top and when I tested with a toothpick, it came out relatively clean. Let them cool before you cut them into squares.

Red, Blue & Cream

A few flashes of how my weekend went taken with my ♥ 's new phone which I'm liking more & more:

Relaxed Saturday in front of the telly

Afternoon of Ping-Pong & Badminton near his parent's house

Pretty Berries in the Sunshine as I wondered while he re-matched his brother

One of the great things about having a boyfriend who is half American is getting to celebrate all of his holidays such as Thanksgiving and of course the 4th of July. As it is America-Day on Monday, we thought it would be a nice idea to bring a celebratory cake with us when we visited his parents this weekend. 

 The Cake & I

 Took a long time to position all those berries

The final result: Chocolate cake with vanilla butter-cream & star-berries

Too sleepy to post the recipe, but I'm sure I'll make it again and I'll post it then, that icing is too delicious to keep a secret.  Gotta get up in 5.5 hours to be a cleaning lady, ahh the wonders of manual labour! - at least I feel like I've been working out at the end of the day.

Fastest cake in the World

My blue Panasonic Lumix TS1 which I was raving about earlier, and graced me with those groovy underwater shots may not be as tough as I thought.  It has either has needed to take a 'personal day/week', or has retired. For now, I think I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope it comes back to life.

I miss you

Onto a brighter topic, it was my mum's last day of work yesterday and she is off on a 6 week holiday to Australia this Monday.  She organised a little get-together and I thought it would be a good idea to bring dessert...a cake in the form of a Koala !

Cycling the around 7KM to work on my first day of a quick-money-making job as a cleaning lady took a lot out of me (both in energy & time). So once I got back, I was in the biggest rush to make this cake, and it actually turned out really moist and yummy, almost everyone had seconds and there were no left-overs.

Blueberry Koala Cake

You will need these ingredients to make this (purple) blueberry cake which tastes like a muffin: 

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups of blueberries frozen or fresh blueberries

200g (1 cup) Sugar

115g (1/2 cup) soft Butter

Nice dash of vanilla

Pinch of Salt

188g (1 1/2 cups) Flour & some to coat berries

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

80ml (1/3 cup) Milk

Zest of 1/2 lemon

For the Icing/Decoration:

200g or 1 pack of cream cheese

55g 1/2 cup icing sugar

dash of vanilla

2 Tbsp melted milk chocolate to darken slightly

squeezed juice of 1/2 a lemon

To make this cake, I quickly creamed the sugar and butter together and added the vanilla, lemon zest salt and then mixed in the two eggs which I had whisked in separate bowl. Then I added the flour and baking powder bit by bit to make quite a doughy texture. To make it more liquid, the milk is slowly added. The blueberries can be coated in flour (This stops them from sinking to the bottom of the cake) and folded into the cake mixture. If they are frozen, the cake will most likely turn a deep wonderful purple. I baked this in my mum's oven (yes, I transported the uncooked cake mixture in the car to cook in her oven) in a round tin with a removable base for 40-45 minutes at 180 °C/ 356°F.

By the time we had eaten and the cake had cooled, I may not have been in the best mind-set to ice/decorate it.  As I had few glasses of champagne and red wine, I just mixed all the ingredients together and hoped for the best. I made some eyes with cut off tops of Swiss "Kisss" foam-chocolates from Migros and crafted a dodgy mouth with melted chocolate.  If I had more time, it would have looked less like an alien.  

My mum loved it though so all the rushing was worth it in the end.