cinco de mayo en mi terraza

I can see you sitting there in front of your computer, a curious expression growing over your face as you contemplate the title of this post. Your thinking, 'I thought Talley didn't have a terrace...just yesterday she posted about wanting a terrace...what is going on?' You caught me. Eeek. I do, I have a terrace, an itty-bitty-teeny-tiny-could-maybe-hold-three-people type of terrace. It looks out on the interior courtyard, where thankfully there is a large tree that provides a bit of privacy. I guess what I really meant to say yesterday is that, yes please I would like a terrace that is as large as my apartment and has an incredible view of the city-lake-alps. Perhaps I will just print an enormous photo of the city-lake-alps view and tack it to the unfortunately mustard yellow wall of our terrace. Then again maybe I could hang the photo we used for the photobooth at the wedding...did you see it? (click link and scroll down) Although without all of our funny friends in front of it, I'm just not sure I'd like it as much.

I'm still out here on the terrace enjoying the late afternoon sun that eventually finds it's way here. It is hot. It might just be time to give in to this incredibly summery weather and stop convincing myself that at any minute the skies will turn grey and stay that way until mid June. It is certainly a perfect day to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the day of guacamole, margaritas and coronas. I've eaten my fair share of guacamole already, but I'm saving the margaritas and coronas for later.

The terrace was the last 'room' to get any attention. I shipped the chairs and ottoman from the states with the rest of our furniture, and although they are looking a little worse for wear after a winter in our garden in New Haven, what's left of the the white paint looks nice against the dingy colors of the terrace - grey, icky yellow, more grey and black. Thank goodness for the leafy green of the trees in the courtyard. I bought a couple cushions for the chair and a little table cloth for the mini table that we have out there, which helped make it feel a bit cozier. I'm going to keep my eye out for an outdoor rug and of course a grill. I think Zach and I are going to buy a gas grill - whoa - such a grownup purchase. Really it was just the thought of pouring lighter fluid all over the grill that will sit right outside our bedroom that was less than exciting. Now we just need to figure out where to buy the gas for the grill that we don't own yet.
I love guacamole as much as the chips used to scoop it out of the bowl. Once again Switzerland befuddles me with their lack of basic groceries, like tortilla chips. There is usually a lone bag or two hiding in the chip aisle, hidden behind the Nature Paprika chips (bizarre flavor that tastes like bbq), but there is only ever one brand to choose from, and none of the ones I have found are as good as the thin and salty American Tositos. If you are reading this in your home or office that happens to be close to a grocery store, please, for the love of me and guacamole, go buy some Tositos!
Speaking of Tostitos, I'm toasty! I just had to move into this chair, which is still in the shade for a little bit longer. How is the weather at home? Are you having an unusually warm spell as well? What is really interesting about Zurich, is that although it has a similar climate to NYC (we didn't get nearly as much snow as nyc though), it is much farther North, so it is already staying light until around 9pm. At this rate there will be nights in the middle of the summer where it will still be light out when we are trying to go to sleep.
If only I could relive this bite over and over again. Well in truth I did. I relived it for as long as the bowl was full, but now it's empty and I'm stuck snaking on the peppers that are left.
Water now, margaritas later. I'm hydrating. Putting a lemon in my water is a way I trick myself into drinking the entire glass, it just tastes better with lemon.
Who says salami isn't part of the traditional Cinco de Mayo spread? This is my little Swiss twist on the holiday. I mean after all, how can you really have Cinco de Mayo without cheddar cheese? No cheddar in the land of cheese! We've talked about this I know, but I'm just making sure that you buy a block of cheddar when you go to the grocery store for your Tostitos and that you shave it over those new chips and put it in the oven and ta-da nachos! Cheddar cheese and nachos are not something to be taken for granted, I've learned my lesson. Zach can barely talk about cheddar. The mere mention of it and he gets the shakes and then consumes an entire round of Boursin in an effort to somehow drown his cheesy sorrows.
On my way back from the market today I came across a little plant stand and bought a variety of herbs for our terrace. I bought two little basil plants, one mint, one asian mint and one large rosemary plant. The next step is finding something to plant them in. I need to find some window boxes or just simple planters, but after looking around briefly today and coming up empty handed I'm worried the search will be more extensive than I was expecting. Perhaps a trip to Ikea is in order. I dread going, but it might be the only spot with a variety of options in an agreeable price range.

Happy Tostito eating and margarita drinking!

a summer snack

I seem to be in a cake place, I don't think it's a funk, yet, but it is definitely a place, a place that involves lots of butter and a good amount of flour and these days some chocolate too. I decided that the big, heavy, oh-so-dense-and-delicious-cakes of last week, needed a little, light and fluffy companion - say hello to Madeleine. Madeline and I met around 1pm this afternoon, when after pouring melted butter over a fragrant lemon zest batter, she sprang to life, a gooey and sticky life, but a life none the less - I know she was there because I tested the batter (a few times - I've convinced myself that Swiss eggs don't have Salmonella - which inevitably leaves me with less batter, but I'm okay with that) and I could sense the wonderful future ahead of us. We then met again around 2:30pm when she and her eleven other madeleine friends popped out of the oven, and I ate one of the dozen (even numbers upset me). We met once again after each of the three subsequent baking rounds (again the even numbers issue) and we finished our day of meets and greets (eats) around 5 pm at the park where I ate three (I brought three, ate one, which meant uh-oh I was left with 2, the worst of all even numbers, so I ate another, and then it was like the lone sushi roll which you can't just leave there, you have to eat it, so I did). So if you've been wondering where I've been all day, not posting until now, well, I've been with Madeleine.

When do you ever come back from the grocery store with only the things on your list? I'm convinced the gummy bear packaging is magnetized, because I can't figure out how else they would end up in my cart trip after trip. I always welcome them with open arms (and mouth) when I find them stowed away in my shopping bag.
Butter and flour, butter and flour, butter and flour and SUGAR - those are the ingredients that are keeping haustohouse afloat right now. Speaking of grocery shopping, I don't think I've made a trip since becoming a housetohaus-frau without buying one of those three ingredients. You do not want to know how much butter I've bought since arriving in Zurich. No really. You don't. You'd probably disown me, send me DVDs of scary Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser (I miss TV and I almost miss her, almost) and suggest that perhaps it would be worth my while to get a job with the nearest weight watchers clinic.
After making one dozen of the basic recipe I decided to try and get fancy and add some additional ingredients. I'd love to tell you that I am a culinary prodigy and that my new take on the madeline has forever changed the face of French baking, but alas I'm just another American making a mess of another cultures food. My two new Madeleine versions were both bad, not terrible, but not good either. The first was banana-chocolate and the second was raspberry chocolate. With a little tweaking the banana one could be good, but the raspberry one was not good, I messed too much with the liquid ratios of the batter.

It appears as if Zurich has skipped Spring. It has been in the 70s almost everyday since we got back from the honeymoon. I think it's too good to be true. I'm waiting for some serious New Haven inspired grey and rainy days. They are coming, I can feel it.
Here is the banana chocolate chip batch right out of the oven
Notice the beauty of odd numbers in the above photos, 7 and 3. Lovely.
Have you read this book? My friend Tala recommended it and it's both hysterical and interesting. And yes you read the name correctly, Foreskin's Lament! Also note how portable Madeleines are, just the perfect travel companion.

Madeleine recipe

ingredients

- 3/4 cup all purpose flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- pinch of salt

- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

- 2 large eggs

- 1 tbsp honey

- 2 tbsp light brown sugar

- zest of 1 lemon

- 6 tbsp butter, melted and kept warm

- confectioner sugar for dusting

In a small bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and then set it aside. In a larger bowl mix together the eggs, sugar, honey, brown sugar and lemon zest. Once incorporated add the flour mixture and whisk until combined. Remove the butter from the stove top and add to the mixture, once again stirring until combined. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drop a dollop of dough into each depression in your madeleine pan, filling it roughly 2/3 of the way. Place in the oven and bake until the edges are brown and the centers have risen, rotating the pan half way through the baking. Baking takes about 5 -6 minutes. Eat madeleine's immediately, especially #12

These few pictures are from yesterday. I'm feeling guilty about not posting anything (blog taking over? perhaps) and I wanted to fill everyone in on what I was up to. Once upon a time in the land of English speaking, cheeseburger eating, Jeep driving Americans, I had friends right in my backyard, literally (Hi Anne and Ed). Now in Zurich, in the land of Swiss-German and Ricola (which they need to sooth their throats after all the crazy guttural sounds their language requires) I don't have friends at my finger tips. But yesterday I spent six hours with three fabulous new friends! To be fair one of those friends has been living with Zach and I for the past two months so it was really two brand new friends and one semi-new friend. One of the brand new friends found me on this blog!!!! That is the whole reason I started the blog in the first place, to find like minded people, but I haven't made any contacts....until this week when I got a lovely email from a woman who moved from Kansas city and is trying to adjust to life in Zurich and would I want to meet for coffee to chat about life in the land of chocolate and expensive appliances?! Um. DUH! Of course I wanted to meet. And so we met with my semi-new, roommate friend, and one of her new friends, who is originally from Texas, but in Zurich by way of LA and NYC and is here with her boyfriend. They have the most amazing apartment with an incredible terrace, with the view in the photo above. swoooon. Talley. Want. Terrace.
And because I am trying to make up for a lost day and now a late post I thought I'd let you in on a little secret - you can make Indian food at home!! I did it and you can do it too. In the days of Talley-and-a-TV I use to watch The Next Foodnetwork Star. Last season Arti, an Indian girl from England won with her indian-food-for-the-home-chef theme, and I'll admit that even when I was watching the show I thought her meals looked complicated, but alas I've tried it and they are easy! I made chicken tikka masala and it was delish, rave reviews all around! There aren't many photos because I was a bit busy trying to calm my tongue after taking a bite from one of those peppers. I know you're thinking, what idiot just takes a bite?- well, me. I didn't know if I had bought spicy peppers or not, so I had to test. Thank goodness I had also bought an entire loaf of butter bread, which I quickly consumed along with a pitcher of water (I know water isn't good, but I hate milk and I had to have something!)

Phew okay, post complete and time for me to go eat a few more madeleines before bed. Where do these days go?

a wedding cake...and present

Sometimes I buy myself presents. Zach often jokes that my birthday begins in August and ends in October, because with a birthday in September, I buy myself gifts throughout all three months. I also buy myself presents as a reward for things, some big and some not so big. Finish Architecture school - buy myself a present; finish a work design deadline - off to Target to buy myself a treat (oh what I would do for a Target right now); Restrain myself for an entire week from going to FroYo World - time for a grande Frappuccino (I know, a funny exchange); Another happy day gone by in Zurich - present time! My most recent gift-to-moi was a big gift, but it was on sale and with all the baking I've been doing recently I neeeeded it! Well I might not need it, but I certainly wanted it! I mean after all is a kitchen really complete without a Kitchen Aid mixer?! In my first three months here in the land o' exorbitantly over priced appliances (and food, and cars, and taxis, and nail salon...etc) I didn't pass a Kitchen Aid mixer that was under $800. I had resigned to live mixer free and work on my arm muscles, until I spotted a mixer at Globus that was 60% off. I mean tell me you wouldn't have bought it too!
This new mixer came in wonderfully handy for my most recent baking project. Zach's office is like my grade school where we had to bring in cupcakes for the entire class when it was our birthday. Zach's colleagues bring in cakes/croissants/cookies for birthdays, but also for births and weddings, and I often joke for simply getting up in the morning. Rarely a day goes by that Zach isn't enjoying a his morning cappuccino with the accompaniment of some delicious baked treat. Here's the thing, before this blog I wasn't really a cook or a baker or anything in between. I love to cook, but I always cook for loved ones, who will love me even if the rice is overcooked and the meat a bit dry. When Zach asked me to bake a couple of cakes for his office, I accepted with excitement, but also a bit of nervousness. I mean let's remember that the Swiss are surrounded by delicious patisseries - there are the tarte tatins and croissants to the West, the cannolis and sfogliatelles to the South and the apfel strudels to the East.

It took me a fair amount of time to figure out what type of cake to bake. I wanted it to be in between a coffee cake and a sweet cake because it is generally eaten in the morning, before lunch. I settled on a light pound-cake with a raspberry and chocolate filling that I found in Sarabeth's Bakery (another present I bought myself recently!). Since I can be a bit neurotic and somewhat of a perfectionist I made a tester cake so that Zach and I could be sure the cake was worthy of being served at his office. All in all I made four cakes - 1 tester, 1 mistake cake - whoopsy daisy forgot an entire cup of sugar, and 2 office cakes! Four cakes means four batches of batter, four batches of batter that I didn't have to mix by hand!
This is the picture of the dough right before the raspberry and chocolate filling gets put in. I was in a bit of a rush after I messed up the first cake and pretty much forgot to take pictures of the process.

ingredients: Sarabeth's Bakery Ruby Cake

- 3 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 sticks unsalted butter (I used 200g, which is a bit shy of 2 sticks I think)

- 2 1/4 cups superfine sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 3 large eggs at room temperature

- 1 1/2 cups full-fat sour cream (I used the same amount of creme fraiche because it's what I could find in the store - I might even recommend this substitution)

- 1/3 cup raspberry jam

- 1/4 cup chocolate chips (I still can't find chips in Switzerland so I cut up bars of dark chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour the inside of your kugelhof pan. In a large bowl, separate from your mixers bowl, sift the flour, baking soda and salt together, place to the side. Place the butter in the mixer bowl and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute or until smooth. Slowly begin adding the sugar 1/4 cup at a time until fully integrated. Add the vanilla and beat until very light in color and texture, roughly 5 minutes. Mix the eggs in a separate bowl and then gradually mix into the sugar-butter mixture. Reduce mixer speed and alternate between adding a 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/2 the creme fraiche, beating after each addition until smooth.

Transfer half of the batter to a large pastry bag (I used a ziploc bag and cut one of the corners). Pipe a thick layer of batter into the bottom of the pan. Then pipe one circle on the outside of the pan and then another on the inside of the pan (like above picture). Use the back of a spoon to create a smooth trough in the wet dough, really just a spot for the raspberry jam and chocolate to sit. Place the raspberry jam in a pastry or ziploc bag and pipe into the trough, being sure not to touch the edges of the pan, otherwise the jam will burn on the outside of the cake. Once the jam is in, follow with the chocolate. Place the remaining dough in the bag and pipe in on top of the filling, being sure that the filling does not touch the edges of the pan. Smooth the surface with a spatula and then to create some undulation in the filling, insert a chopstick into the dough and move it in spirals, being sure once again not to touch the bottom or sides of the pan with the chopstick.

Bake the cake for about an hour, or until your cake tester comes out clean and the top of the cake springs gently back when pressed with your finger. Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the pan and then invert the pan and release the cake to continue cooling.

You might remember this cake from my royal wedding post where it is sitting to the left of the computer. By the time that photo was taken I had moved from the cake onto soup.
And this picture...well just a reminder that I am writing from Zurich and these are the types of scenes that frequently cross my path.

may flowers

a field of flowers somewhere on the wanderweg (walking trail) between Uetliberg and Felsenegg.