Food, Family and Festivities

Toni’s parents were in town for the week to visit family and to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday. On Friday evening seventeen people gathered to celebrate Toni’s mum’s 70th birthday! Some flew in from Newcastle, some from London and the rest live in Basel area.

Toni was “born and bread” in Newcastle in the North East of England. People from Newcastle are called Geordies. A name given way back in 1715 in the time of the first Jacobite rising, basically they were supporters of King George I. If you want to pick up the Geordie dialect, it is very easy, every fifth word is eeeeeeeeeeeeh!

The party started with an apéro which gave everyone a chance to chat and catch up, eeeeeeeeeeeeh! Around 8.30pm I left the restaurant as I had to bring my 8 year old son up to his school, for a “Reading Night”. Armed with sleeping bag, torch, pyjamas, tooth brush and of course a book, we made a quick dash up to the school. In true Harry Potter style it was in complete darkness as we arrived, creating an eerie feeling as any school appears in the dark. We courageously opened the door and immediately heard the din of 22 very excited children’s voices. I said good night to all and wished the teacher good luck with 22 kids!!

Back at the restaurant the party was in full swing! Everyone was relaxing, the wine was flowing and I was just in time for my veal saltimbocca served with risotto! The meal finished with a beautiful birthday cake made for the evening by my friend Louise.

The following link, shows you the various stages of the cake being made:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55816924@N00/4079542301/

A stream of grappa’s arrived on the table, the singing and yodeling started. I left at that point, aware that I had a busy day on Saturday…..!

On Saturday morning we collected our well read son outside the school. I asked him how the reading night was. He asked me “why is it that when one girl wants to go to the toilet, they all go together?” One of life’s unanswered questions, unless you’re a girl!

These are the two books he read in the twilight hours!

After leaving the school we made our way to the kindergarten!! Where son number 2 had a Herbst Messe (Autumn Fair). Every year in Basel in Autumn a Herbst Messe takes place. For those of us from Belfast, it’s a bit like Funderland, but in true Swiss style it has, well, style!

The kindergarten kids together with the teacher did a fantastic job of recreating it in and around the school building. Inside the kindergarten was the ghost train. I encouraged my son and his friend to try it out, but instead of calling it a “geister bahn” (ghost train) I called it a “geisli bahn” (in Swiss German means “goat” train), not quite so scary, no wonder the kids were laughing. I just hoped none of the parents heard me!

Basel Herbst Messe:

Back home to cook and prepare…. the same 17 who were at the restaurant last night were coming to our apartment at 5pm! Everyone was contributing by bringing something to share with the other 16! Arrangements had been discussed and re-discussed all week. It seemed that if we weren’t eating food together then we were talking about what we were going to eat next. With a mix of different nationalities within the family, the menu was an array of dishes taking food to a new taste bud tingling level!

- Caipirinha made in true Brazilian style and with a twist - containing pineapple!
- Coxinha – deep fried chicken covered in dough
- Tomato, pepper, onion salad with lemon juice and coriander
- Two different types of quiche made with English Cheddar Cheese
- Swiss Style Potato Salad
- Beef and Ale Pie (with English Real Ale)
- Wheaten Bread and Smoked Salmon from Ireland (brought over by my parents)
- Dried meats from Bettmeralp, Valais, bought during our recent holiday
- Variety of breads and pickles
- Pizza and mini Bratwurst for the kids and some adults enjoyed too!

Washed down with wines from the Alsace, bought by family members who managed to fit in a quick afternoon trip to France! See photo of the empties...!

Dessert consisted of tiramisu, left over birthday cake and fruit salad. Followed by, bread and cheese! A big hit with everyone was the “Blütenkäse", cheese containing dried flowers, recommended by my friend Claudia. It was an evening of food, food and more food!

All in all, I think my mother in law enjoyed her 70th birthday celebrations. Life is not bad being 70, when you can travel to Switzerland, be wined and dined all week and flattered with beautiful gifts including a Tiffany Necklace! Back to normality this week with a meagre regime of soup, bread and strict detox programme! Eeeeeeeeeeeeh!

Fall back

It’s autumn! Herbst in German and Fall in American! The colours of the trees are fantastic at this time of year. A mix of yellows, browns and rusty reds combined with blue skies, sunshine and warm temperatures in the afternoons, allowing us to sit outside and still enjoy the garden.

Saturday was Halloween as soon as it was “plitch back dark” my kids were outside trick or treating! Halloween has its roots in Samhain, an ancient Celtic harvest festival, marking the end of summer and the beginning of winter (how come the mosquitoes don’t know this? - another bite last night!). In the mid 1800’s Irish emigrants flooded to the US and brought Halloween with them.

In Switzerland it is more common to use pumpkin, rather than turnip to make a lantern. I decided to go to a nearby farm to buy our pumpkin. At the farm you can find pumpkins in various sizes, colours, and shapes. There was the usual Butternut Squash but in addition they had, Turk Turban, Banana Blue, Long Neck, Crook Necked, Speckled Swan, Cinderella, American Tondo, Connecticut Field, New England…..

Have you ever seen a Pumpkin Tree?

Zürich in the summer

I was in Zürich three times this summer! The first time was in July when my brother along with thousands of others took part in an Iron Man. For those of you not familiar with an Iron Man race, it is basically an event comprising of a swim, bike and a run. A far cry from a hop, skip and a jump! The swim is 3.8 km, the bike is 180 km and after that you run a marathon, 42.2 km. Four words, “mad in the head.” But thousands of people, dedicate hours of their time training for events like these and spending thousands of pounds on the equipment. Amidst the many participants I spotted someone I recognized from Belfast who trained in the same swimming club as my brother and I way back in the 1980’s! Sometime afterwards I received an email from him, commenting that at least we recognised each other after 20 years! The swimming club now has a website. http://www.leander-asc.com/

The second time in Zürich was when I attended a Nia workshop in Kloten with my friend Anja and hundreds of other Nia followers. We have both been attending Nia classes for over one year. Nia is done in bare feet to music and comprises of three main areas: Martial Arts, Dance Arts and Healing Arts. It was created in the early 1980’s by Debbie and Carlos Rosas in California. One of highlights of the workshop was having a two hour Nia session with Carlos Rosas.

You can catch a few "quick" glimpses of me strutting my stuff…. I am dressed in black with pink hair band, sounds almost like an outfit from the 80’s!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnFSjZB5_0g

AND, the third time in Zürich was to visit my friend Vicky, yes the one that got me into the to this whole blogging thing! Vicky moved from Basel to Zürich in August this year. We met on a Saturday morning at Zürich main station and made our way along the Bahnhofstrasse, which connects the main train station with the Lake. It has lots of high street shops, designer boutiques, and cafes. We ambled our way towards Lake Zürich, and had lunch in Tibits, a vegetarian restaurant. www.tibits.ch/e/ After lunch we wondered round the Neiderdorf area, with its many bars, restaurants and fantastic alternative shops, where we came across a shop called Bead Box http://www.beadbox.ch/. There we bought, well, what else, beads! We had a lovely day in the sunshine, having lunch, shopping, drinking coffee and catching up!

I made the following key ring with the beads I bought in Zürich. I have sent it to Roisin in Liverpool as it is her birthday today! I hope she likes it!

Domino Mania

The latest craze in Switzerland at the moment is Domino Mania. With every 20 francs that you spend in Migros Supermarket you receive a Domino. Each Domino represents either a Kanton of Switzerland e.g. Geneva or a famous site, e.g. the Matterhorn. The benefit is that it is educational, not for my 8 year old son, as he already knows about the geography of Switzerland, but for me! Basically, it is a ploy by Migros to get people to shop with them rather than their rival, COOP.

We have collected “nearly” all the Dominos, including the Joker. This gives you an idea on how much we have eaten in the last few weeks!

Lots of kids in our area are busy swapping Dominos. We had quite a few doubles until yesterday – sorry Kim, when my 5 year old son, against my wishes took all our doubles into the local playground and mysteriously lost them. This doesn’t really surprise me about him as I have previously found him in the playground with a 50 franc note, “I was just showing my friends” he told me! And once on a sunny Saturday afternoon he decided to take 3 small stones from the same playground and put them up his nose! So, with the result that we are working on collecting some more doubles, i.e., another shopping trip planned to Migros this afternoon.

The last two Dominos that we need are: Castelgrande and St Gallen.

Castelgrande is a famous castle situated in Bellinzona in Kanton Ticino. In former times it provided control over the major passes between Switzerland and Italy.


St Gallen was founded by an Irish Monk named Gallus in the 7th Century. And here’s something you won’t find on the web: Mels, St Gallen is where Toni’s father is from!

Better and Better

We have recently returned from our Herbst Ferien/Autumn Holiday/ Half Term break…

What a fantastic week we had in Bettmeralp, http://www.bettmeralp.ch/. In the advertising literature it is known as “The Better Alp” and they are not wrong. Situated in Kanton Valais at 1900m, the only access to this village is by cable car, this takes around 10 minutes to climb.

On arrival, we were promptly collected by the hotel’s electric vehicle, this is how many of the residents, restaurants and hotels travel around the village, as there are no cars. Our family room with a south facing view, turned out to be much better than expected.

After unpacking we were all eager to have a wee dander around the village. We ended up at a lovely lake called, Bettmersee, where you can hire rowing boats and pedalos. With two kids in tow, we couldn’t get away with just sitting looking at the view, oh no, we had to hire one immediately. After half an hour going round and round in circles and repeatly telling my five year old son to sit down or he would fall in the lake.

We headed back towards the village and stumbled across a mini golf course, well, what can you do, with two kids pleading at your side, please, please can we play…… Two hours later after pleading with the kids, please please we don’t want to play a third round - the 19th hole beckoned, and so we returned to our hotel. The kids watched TV before dinner and my husband and I sat on the balcony enjoying the views, blue skies, warm autumn sun, pre dinner drink AND a little visitor.

My husband, insisted it was a humming bird. It looked more like a giant bee/wasp thing to me, but what do I know. Back home, with the help of the internet, of course, I was able to search for humming birds. As it turned out it was a “humming bird moth”. Damm, he was right again. Not only he is an expert in mushroom picking, he can add ornithology to his list of talents! This was the closest clip I could find to what we saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i21A5gNl3N4

Bettmeralp hosts a kids club, open to all who live or are staying in the village, so, on Monday morning we registered the kids. Different activities were organized e.g., a tour of all playgrounds in village, mini golf tournament, going on pedalos on Bettmersee, treasure hunts and of course the old Swiss favourite, a trip to the forest and a “grill”.

You provide a cervela “sausage” for your child. A fire is made in designated area “grill platz” which are usually around knee height. Everyone attending has to find wood from the forest for the fire, including a “long stick.” My son and a few other boys aged 7+ had their own Swiss Army Knives, with this you sharpen the end of your long stick and basically press your sausage on it, ready to grill on the open fire. Can you imagine this back home…… open fire, around knee height, and a large number of kids leaning over it, with their own knives, cooking their own lunch…

A holiday in the Swiss Alps in Autumn means one thing – hiking. And you see people of all ages, shapes and sizes hiking up and down the Alps. So, while in Rome… Toni and I copied the locals and therefore discovered a vast area of Bettmeralp in one week. To be honest, hiking has never really been my thing, but this holiday revealed otherwise. I really enjoyed the challenge of hiking uphill, faster than Toni! The peace and quiet, the sites, the fresh air and above all the time to think and day dream about everything and nothing. Onwards and upwards.

Your ma!! Oh Mother!!

I had a phone call from my mother today, to inform me that she had read my “blob“ and even found it quite interesting! She also had some news from Belfast. The spiders are getting bigger. Since the ceasefire in 1994 life if just bliss in Belfast. Main headlines on the radio are reporting on the size of these brutes. It is the talking point round Belfast, my mum told me. Whilst watching a new episode of Inspector Morse on TV out from nowhere came a huge spider from under the TV. It doesn’t take a detective to follow the trail of these big lads, with muscles the size of peas and legs that don’t fit under a pint class. My mother is past catching them and placing them kindly outside with their friends, on no! These lads like central heating, carpets and double glazing! She grabs an old copy of the Belfast Telegraph and with one foul swoop, it’s the end of the road for Charlotte’s web in number 13.

You're never far from home

Last Friday I joined my Scottish friend Kim, and her walking group. The walking group first started with a couple of friends going walking together on a Friday morning and then a couple more joined and a couple more and so the group expanded. At most the group is around 20 women including 2 dogs, the idea is to walk, and of course and talk.

Each Friday, a different person hosts the walk. On this occasion we all met at Anne-Marie’s house, who, is from none other than Belshaft (Belfast)! Anne-Marie lives in Allschwil, a very picturesque village, located just outside of Basel which borders on France. We set of, trudging through the Swiss countryside, it’s difficult to know if we walked quicker than we talked or vice versa. The conversation is always very varied and interesting as the group is made up of very sophisticated ladies from all over the world and spanning a wide variety of professions.

After one and half hours, we were deep in the forest in what we hoped was still Switzerland and not France. It was difficult to determine the quickest path back to Allschwil, but luckily we came across 2 kindergarten teachers who were with about 40 children in the forest. They were picking “nut shells”, Sarah reminded me of the technical name that I struggled to find - Hazelnuts (thank goodness my kids are going to school for their education). In kindergarten and in the school, the classes are often taken once or twice a month into the forest, rain, hail or snow, as part of their education. The kindergarden teacher very kindly, directed us back towards Allschwil.

En route I came across a road sign. This was no Swiss or French road sign, it was an Irish one. Can you believe it?

I too wondered where the feck is Feakle? As soon as I got home, I looked the Irish name Fiacail and the English name Feakle and came up with the following web sites. Feakle is a small town in County Clare.

http://www.irelandmidwest.com/clare/towns/Feakle.htm

We arrived back at Anne-Marie’s house for coffee and what I thought might be a wee biscuit, oh no, excuse me! Whilst Anne-Marie reminded everyone about how hospitable Norn Iron folk are, she disappeared into the kitchen. In addition to the chocolate biscuits we had heated focaccia with mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. As CK (Culinary Kim) informed us she often puts a little bit of fresh basil with hers or even a spreading of pesto. A cheese and tomato sandwich will never be the same again.