Oriental Dining in Montreux

On Sunday evening we escaped to the mini paradise which is Montreux.  it had been a few years back since we had been there, so it was lovely to reminisce walking through the little streets, feeling the breeze of the lake and noticing the flocks of people admiring the Freddy Mercury statue. ♥ treated me to dinner. We chose a little oriental restaurant which was amazingly decorated inside.  

I am wearing

Top Zara

Capris Miss 60

He turns 25

Last weekend my ♥ turned 25! It's one of the big numbers in life, a milestone, where I guess you turn around and look back at all that you've become so far and look forward at everything you want to achieve (before 30).  The weekend was one of my favourite kinds, filled with food, spontaneity and just pure happiness.  As I made the 3 hour train journey back to my home town, I didn't have time to bake him his surprise cake as I do everyyear. But this weekend when he came to visit me in Geneva, I had a couple of red-velvet cup cakes waiting in the fridge ready to devour.

American icing & the cutest champagne candles

Patiently waiting to party !

Exploring the ultra cosy streets of Colmar with my ♥ 

Us two on a small boat on the Lauch river at "la petite Venise"

Back of the head 1 - Kids playing in the fountains

Back of the head 2 - The cool calm of the river in the shade

 Little gargoyles on Colmar cathedral

Candle daze

Dad made some birthday tapas for the night before

As ♥ comes from Louisiana, he incorporated crayfish into these brushettas

How to make the red velvet cupcakes (small batch)

150g Sugar

60g  White sugar

1 Egg

10-20 ml of red food colouring

1 Tsp Vanilla essence

10 g Rich high quality chocolate powder

120 ml butter milk

Pinch of salt

2Tsp baking powder

150g Flour

Pre-heat your oven to 170°C. In a mixer on slow speed or by hand, cream the butter and sugar for quite some time until it's fluffy and smooth. Add the egg and whisk until incorporated. In a separate bowl you can prepare the 'red' of the velvet, by mixing the vanilla, chocolate powder and food colouring together to form a rich dark paste. Add this to the creamed butter mixture and mix until the batter becomes one colour. Part by part, add the buttermilk, then flower, and salt with the baking powder and once it is fluid in texture, spoon into cupcake cases until they are about 2/3 full. I baked in the oven for 25 minutes as I used large cup cake cases. Please note that I only was able to make 5 maxi-cupcakes with this recipe, so if you would like a large batch, I would double the quantities. For the icing, most make a cream cheese icing, but as my ♥ is partly American, I cheated and bought a tub of  Funfetti American icing (for 9 Fr.-!) from a specialist American shop.

Gold

It's the little things in life, like bringing a batch of home-baked banana-chocolate muffins to work to share with colleagues which make people's days a little brighter. Didn't want to leave them at home anyway because I had three after each other last night and I wouldn't be able to stop myself if I had left them in temptation's reach. My dad got me a food processor ultra robot machine for my birthday and I finally used it (after spending a long time washing all the pieces and working out how to use the cake setting).  The mix was ready so quickly and I wonder if I will at all miss mixing the ingredients by hand like I have been until now.

Love these little gold casings which completely fit in with the Olympics going on at the moment

To get these nuggets of deliciousness:

125g Butter

20g Muscovado sugar (dark and molasses-y)
120g White sugar

1 Tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tsp dried ground vanilla pod (or a little splash of vanilla essence)

1/2 Tsp ground ginger

1/4 Ground cloves 

2 Ripe bananas

2 Eggs
1 Table spoon baking powder

180 Flour

20g High quality chocolate powder

1 Pack of chocolate chips

As fast as you can pre-heat your oven to 180°C these will be ready to bake.  In a large mixing bowl, or even better, a magi-mix processor, cream the butter and both sugars into smooth yellow oblivion. Add all the 'enhancing, yet barely noticeable when cooked flavours, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger & cloves. Throw in the two bananas and make sure they are pulped into the mixture without leaving any noticeable chunks. Once all blended, add the eggs, one at a time, making sure not to over-mix the mixture as you want these muffins to be light and fluffy. On a slow setting, or with a spatula, softly fold in the flour, baking powder and chocolate powder until everything is fully combined. For the finale add the chocolate chips, or chopped nuts if you wish before spooning the mixture into cupcake cases with an icecream scoop (makes nicely sized portions, and Max from '2 broke girls' does this).  I baked in the oven on fan setting for about 18 minutes, however best to check if a toothpick comes out clean as you may be using larger cup-cake cases and need a little longer. Makes about 20.

Proof of Yum: Someone who isn't even keen on bananas even complimented their loveliness

April Greys

April so far has been an eventful month for me.  I celebrated easter with my family, was able to catch up with old high-school friends in Basel who were over for the holidays. I popped to Germany and spotted the perfect sofa for my new apartment and I even squeezed in a trip to Zurich to visit my Brother even if it was a grey and chilly day.

 The gorgeous  colourful easterbunny I was given by my ♥ boyfriends family

  I gave this cute porcelain rhino a new home, he was found while furniture scouting in Germany

View of Zurich from the Lindenhof plateau...we later climbed up the right tower in this photo

Funny poster near the largest clock-face of Europe

Man fishing in the middle of the city

My Dad looking out over Zurich from one of the tower windows

Taking funny photographs at the top in the wind

My big brother and I with the self timer

Pretty Roofs

 In the warmth of Cafe Henrici, I quenched my thirst with a Glass of Moroccan Mint Lemonade

And I stuffed myself with this amazing Flammenkuchen, I was so satisfied by this, that I fell asleep in the car all the way home

Basel, Zurich, Geneva at one table in Germany

Welcome 2012

It's a bit late but what can you do without a functioning camera and no knowledge whatsoever on how to use a newly purchased Imac.  The Christmas holidays were far too short as usual but we did manage to find time to do some exciting activities like 1) Eating and 2) Ice Skating.  I have also passed my 3 month trial period in my new job and am over the moon to be in the midst of things.  I found out that later this year I will be travelling to Thailand on business -it's like my own little Christmas gift from work as i have never been somewhere that exotic and hear it is breathtaking. Anyways, before I chat too long, i'll leave you with some photos of what me and my ♥ have been up to the last few weeks:

 Our Starter for our New Years Eve at home: Sushi, Garlic-Chilli Sepia which we made & ♥'s Mango Shrimp 

  Indulging in seconds of the little baby sepia-squid, they were the highlight of the whole meal

Main: Roasted Duck Break with a Blackberry Jus, Spring Onion Mash and Buttered Baby Carrots

On the 1st of January, I treated  ♥ to some home-made pancakes with expensive maple syrup

 Ice Skating in my home town, Basel

 ♥ showing me his moves

Pork Chops with Dijon, apple and maple syrup sauce (and some spätzle yuuuum)

Back in work mode: trying to bring a little bit of my style into the conservative dress code

Thankful for Love

I have only been celebrating Thanksgiving for 2 years.  Being British and all, it's never really been present in my calendar.  But now that I have a half American boy in my life, whose American side of the family live far away in food-loving-Louisiana I make an effort to bring the holiday to Europe.  In the past is has been hard as we have been living in varying countries across Europe, but now that I am back in Switzerland, we are together on this special day for the second time.

The first thanksgiving in Scotland, us and 2 of my girlfriends, he went out and bought us Champagne

this year, it was cosy just us two

Our fake Turkey (Chicken)

We made a chicken because it was just the two of us, but we had a very romantic night in together with chorizo, apple and sage stuffing, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, buttery carrots, roasted sweet potatoes, and expensive imported cranberry sauce.  One day we will hopefully have guests and go all out with a huge turkey and spend the day cooking,  but I think for a work night, we did a pretty spectacular job.

Bubbly Fondue

On Emma's last day after we ambled around the Geneva old town wishing we were living the French dream of drinking wine everyday and living in a beautiful (and unpayable) town house, I introduced her to the Swiss speciality that is Fondue! She really really liked it, as well as other treats I introduced her to such as spätzle and an abundance of chocolate. She was however surprised at the fact that you rarely see people eating crisps in Switzerland...and that houses and apartments here have blinds 'like high street shops'.

 Our very Swiss Fondue experience

 Dipping her first piece of bread

 Crunchy Cheese at the bottom of the pan

Perfect for a cold day:  Hot cheese and bread eaten outside with a special friend....we were so full for so long that we had chocolate for dinner.

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)