grotto and pistachio cookies

If you've ever driven a Smart Car on an Italian highway then you can understand why we took the slow, albeit scenic route on our drive from Lecce to Otranto.

Really it was a combination of things that lead us to this place. It was raining. Lecce had been a disappointment. Our afternoon was free, except for an obligation to a bag of pistachio cookies. Overall we just had a feeling that something was missing, that there was more to be discovered, maybe ruins of an ancient civilization or a seaside town not scared by tourist shots or perhaps a view to behold.

It turned out to be the latter, and we almost didn't stop. There was a crumbling fortress that we both did a double take of, but we kept driving and only after we had rounded the bend did we look at each other and say "let's stop". There was nothing, no sign or billboard, to indicate that there might be something worth seeing, but we pulled over anyway and got out of the car.

First we saw the turquoise water, lapping underneath the rock face. It was beautiful. I took some pictures. Then we saw fractures, from the surface we were walking on down to the water beneath us, which were sensational. I took more pictures. Then, as we approached the edge, we saw this grotto.

I didn't even take any pictures right away. We simply stared for a while and then proceeded to walk around the pool. Stairs had been carved in the rock and we walked down and put our feet in the crisp and clear water. I was half expecting to see a sea turtle or two. From the carved graffiti it was clear that this is a popular summer swimming spot, but for us, there during the low season, it was hidden gem, something we discovered.

It is those moments away from your guidebooks and to-see lists that can really define a trip and make it yours.

I am guilty of over-planning trips, eager to make sure we see and do everything that is recommended. I run us around until we are hungry and defeated. Having nothing planned and just going with the flow is great in theory, but it often stresses me out, that feeling that we might miss something. We often say that when we visit a city for the second time, when we are free from seeing the sites, we will stay in one neighborhood for the whole visit, that way by the time we leave we will know which bakery has the best breakfast and which café is perfect for an afternoon with a book and which old lady sitting on the stoop we need to say hi to and which we need to avoid. You know, the little things that give definition to a place.

After we tore ourselves away from the pools and the cliffs we spent the rest of the day looking at the countryside through raindrops and windshield wipers. We got out briefly in Otranto, but again, we were disappointed and didn't stay long. At that point we turned around and headed North back to our hotel. Keeping us company on the long drive back were our excitement about stumbling upon the turquoise pools and that bag full of pistachio cookies. I guess you could say it was a little bit of luck and a little bit of guidance, because the cookies were from a bakery in Lecce that was mentioned in our guide book. Curious about the local treats I made sure we stopped in our way out of town. Zach picked out a cream filled cake and I chose the pistachio cookies. The cookies were nutty, dense, delicious, and surprisingly satisfying. The cookie was composed of a light crumb outer layer and a dense gooey inside, similar to a macaroon, but heartier.

/ / / pistachio cookie / / /

Almond trees are a fixture in the Apulian landscape, so almonds and almond flour are a common ingredient in regional confections. In Switzerland almond flour can be found at Coop or Migro and in the states I believe you can buy it at Whole Foods, if not other large grocery stores. I generally process the almond meal I buy, making sure it's fine and not coarse. I used roasted shelled pistachios that I shelled and processed in a coffee bean grinder (time to buy a food processor).

I fussed with this recipe until after three separate batches it finally felt right. The cookies aren't as sweet as the originals, but for me that is a good thing, because now you get little hints of their salty roasted nut beginnings.

makes about 18 cookies

ingredients

80 g / 2.8 oz finely ground pistachios nuts

100 g / 3.5 oz almond flour

110 g / 3.9 oz fine sugar

50 g / 1.75 oz sifted confectioner sugar

35 g / 1.25 oz egg white (about 1 egg)

chopped pistachio nuts for rolling (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC.

Mix the nut flours and sugar in a bowl. Pour about 1/3 of this nut mixture into the bowl of your standing mixer. Add the egg white and mix until incorporated. While keeping the mixer on continue to slowly add the rest of your nut mixture, allowing the egg mixture to absorb the dry mix before adding more. The dough should be reasonably smooth. If it is sticky add a bit more almond flour.

Using a teaspoon scoop out the dough and roll into balls between the palms of your hands, aiming for about 18-19 cookies. At this point you can chop pistachio nuts to roll the cookies in, or you can leave them plain. Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake on the middle rack of your oven for about 15-17 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely on a wire wrack before eating. When cool the inside should still be fairy dense and pasty. mmmmm, yum

awe and wonder

A lot of posts have been about adventures or discoveries, and others strictly about recipes or the atmosphere, but this post, this teeny tiny magical post, is about a feeling. I haven't pinned down what that feeling is exactly, perhaps it's more of an aura than a feeling anyway, but I'd have to say it's along the lines of awe and wonder (and those might be the same thing, but they bring up different emotions so for now let's just say they are different).

I think it's important that we start from the beginning, the beginning of our journey as expats. Being an expat is a truly unique experience, out of the realm of moving to a different city in your home country or traveling abroad for a semester. When you begin life as an expat you are starting from scratch, from just you and your husband and a city that you've never visited before and an apartment that you can't quite envision. This is your life, this is where you begin, without friends, without a clue, but with a whole lot of unknowns.

My biggest concern was that we wouldn't have friends. In my whole life I've never just up and moved somewhere where I didn't know a soul. 'Home' is the place I have lived sine I was two years old. I went to grade school then to high school and then to college and finally to graduate school and along that journey there were always familiar faces. And then we moved to Switzerland, just us, just me and Zach, no friends and no familiar faces. Just us. It took a little while and a bunch of first friend dates, but now we have a truly wonderful group of friends.

They are our friends, but they are also our family - our Zürich family.

If you've been/are an expat then you can understand this type of family. In some ways it was automatic, we were all reaching for the same thing, a friendship we could hold on to, a friendship that would calm the uncertainties and highlight the excitements of life as an expat.

And to think we've only known them for six months! These are the friends we spent Thanksgiving with and the friends that delivered take-out (no such thing as delivery in Zürich) when I was sick. These are also the friends that we were lucky enough to visit in the hospital just one day after they welcomed their little baby boy, Sam.

And that is where all that awe and wonder come in!

She has a baby. I mean I knew it was coming. As long as I've known her, Laura was pregnant. He was in there the whole time. But now he's out here. He is here. He was in and now he is out (this is where I begin to state the obvious, but I can't help it - awe and wonder people, awe and wonder). Isn't it amazing?

Perhaps all of this awe and wonder hit me like a freight train moving at warp speed because Laura was (he is out, he is here, incredible) the first pregnant woman I had spent a good amount of time with. I knew she was growing, I knew he was coming (obviously, he had to arrive at some point), but now he is here, and I have held him in my arms, because he is here to be held.

There simply aren't words, just an aura composed of awe and wonder and a whole lot of other magical feelings. Magical feelings that make a nonbeliever believe, believe in big lofty intangible things.

But with all of this happiness I can't help but think that this time and this Zürich family of ours is fleeting. One of the key components of expat life is the reality that this is just temporary, whether it be two, five or ten years, we will all eventually go back home. Of course as some go, others will arrive, but someday, probably shortly after he turns one and a half, Sam will leave. That little boy I held in my arms at just one day old will be able to walk onto the plane with his favorite stuffed animal in hand and fly away. Magical.

The hours between when Sam arrived and when we were able to visit him were long. I was so excited I could barely see straight. So I baked Laura and Paul some cookies. It's a recipe I learned from Laura around Christmas time (Sam was there) and it's "bangin" as Laura would say. These cookies thrive on the marriage of peanut butter and chocolate. And considering I don't think there is a better combo out there, not even mint and chocolate, I adore these cookies and their soft chewy texture with the chocolate plopped on top.

Sam's Peanut Butter Blossoms

makes about 4 dozen.

ingredients

- 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter at room temperature

- 3/4 cup (185g) peanut butter, smooth or chunky (if you are in switzerland Migros makes a much better peanut butter than Coop)

- 1/3 cup (70g) light brown sugar

- 1/3 cup (70g) granulated white sugar

- 1 large egg

- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

- 2 tablespoons milk

- 1 1/2 cups (195g) all purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- granulated sugar for coating

- chocolate pieces for topping - I used hearts but hersey's kisses are the standard.

With an electric mixer or hand mixer cream the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the peanut butter and sugars and continue beating until light and fluffy. Follow with the egg and vanilla. Beat in the milk.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Place the cookie dough in the fridge for an hour or until hard enough to roll into balls.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC)

Roll the batter into 1inch (2.5cm) round balls. Place the granulated sugar in a small bowl and roll each ball lightly in the sugar, coating the outside. Place on a baking sheet, spacing about 2inches (5cm) apart.

Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned. Right after you take them out of the oven put the chocolate piece on top of each cookie, pressing down gently until the cookie just starts to crack. Let the cookies cool completely on a wire wrack (you want the chocolate to re-solidify)

tartine cookies

I spent $54 at Tartine when we were in San Francisco over New Years. We didn't even sit down, that was just takeout. And Tartine is not expensive, it's just that I bought one of everything. Or at least that is what it felt like. If it was in the case or on the counter I wanted to try it. I basically walked down the line and continued pointing to things and then finished off by adding two cellophane bags full of cookies after the cashier had already rung me up. So let's start with the cookies and work backwards. Wrapped in those cellophane bags were coconut macaroons (coconut is just one way into Zach's heart) and crispy orange-currant-oatmeal cookies. Already packed up in the bag when I grabbed the cookies was a lemon tart, a coconut cream tart, five biscotti, two currant scones and a half a loaf of their famous country sourdough bread. And that's not including what was in my brother's bag - gingerbread, brioche bread pudding and some more cookies. Heaven! It was all absolutely heavenly, especially the chocolate coated crust on the coconut cream pie, oh dear me it was good. The bread, hot out of the oven, was also perfect crusty and wonderfully sour, just as I imagined it would be. If you live in SanFran, I hope you are reading this on your ipad while waiting in line at Tartine. No excuses.

Besides the coconut cream pie crust and the crusty sourdough bread one of the tastiest purchases were the orange currant oatmeal cookies. Before tackling the bread at home (which I've been meaning to do for about a year now) I decided to give the cookies a go. I'm usually a chocolate chip cookie girl, as evidenced by the three or four recipes on this blog, but there was just something about these tangy and crispy oatmeal cookies that I loved.

Tartine Orange + Currant Oatmeal Cookies

adapted from Tartine (adapted only because I didn't have nutmet, corn syrup or molasses)

* a note - this dough needs to sit overnight in the fridge, so a little planning ahead is required.

ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups currants

- 1 1/2 cups oatmeal

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (recipe calls for nutmeg)

- 1 cup/ 8oz/ 226g unsalted butter at room temperature

- 1 1/4 cup sugar

- 1 large whole egg

- 1 large egg yolk

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup (recipe calls for 2T corn syrup, 1T molasses)

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 4 teaspoons orange zest

Place the currants in a bowl and cover them with warm water. Let them sit for about 10 minutes or until they have plumped up a bit. Strain and try them.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon (or nutmeg if using) into a mixing bowl and set aside.

Cream the butter and the sugar. Once light in color and consistency, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the whole egg and then the egg yolk, beating each until incorporated. Follow with the vanilla, maple syrup (or corn syrup and molasses if using), salt and orange zest.

Once the wet ingredient are well mixed add in the flour mixture, the oats and the currants.

Lay out 3 sheets of parchment paper and divide the dough into thirds. Roll the dough into logs about 2 inches in diameter and then wrap them in the parchment paper. Once wrapped press slightly to create an oval shape. Place in the refrigerator over night (or do what I do and place 1 log in the fridge for tomorrow and 2 in the freezer for later).

When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Unwrap the logs. With a sharp knife slice the logs into ovals about 1/4" thick. Bake the cookies for about 7-10 minutes or until the edges have lightly browned and the centers remain pale. Transfer the cookies to a wire wrack and let them cool.

These cookies are dangerously bite size. It's kinda like eating Pringles, that crunch and crisp gets addictive and you can't stop. Speaking of Pringles, I have an issue where whenever I eat something sweet I then want something salty. I've been eating this cookies and then digging my hand into the potato chip bag. And before we went to Tartine I had just eaten a massive burrito and wanted something sweet. The same is true when I eat ice cream, I then want french fries - McFlurry and a small fry anyone?
Just a couple final snapshots from our trip. The weather was wonderful, typically San Francisco where one minute we were putting on layers and then the next minute we were taking them off.

One quick note about San Francisco. Whenever I'm there I cannot stop thinking about earthquakes. We're driving over a bridge and I'm just thinking, 'not now, not now, just not now'. Anyone else?

sleigh bells riiiiiing...

"Sleigh bells riiiiiiiiing...." - that is the subject line of the email chain that is buzzing around amongst my girl friends. I jump on the new emails as they come in, loving the good tidings they bring - mostly about life, love, Christmas plans and pictures of new nieces and nephews - and sending my own right back out on the gmail sleigh. It really is almost Christmas. I'm heading home on Wednesday to deck the halls with my family and then Zach arrives just in time for Christmas Eve dinner and then we head to Providence on Christmas Day to celebrate with his family.

Before we jet off for the States we are actually heading to Paris, in about 2 hours, for the weekend! I wanted to post these festive photos before I head to the airport. My fingers are crossed that 1) Zach will make it, he's cutting it close with work stuff and 2) that our flight isn't cancelled with all of this wind and rain. Maybe you could cross your fingers too, the more the better. Danke!

The Swiss really now how to make a city feel festive. In the center of town, on the Bahnhofstrasse, there are lights hanging from every possible spot imaginable. The ones hanging above the streets are called 'Lucy', I believe in reference to Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. They really are quite spectacular. Then there are also Samichlaus and his sidekick Schmutzli. Schmutzli, who paint his face back and dresses in a dark brown cloak, is pretty much the idea of coal personified.

Since so many people commented on our tree I thought I would post some close-ups. The ornaments are from the Christmas market in Germany and they remind me of the ornaments we use to trim our tree at home. My mom has always loved little wooden ornaments, so I guess I inherited that from her. Although I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't like a nutcracker rocking horse ornament. Oh, and I made the bird on top. Zach's family uses a bird on top of their tree and we've always used an angel, but I thought a bird was really a good combo of both...in it's own way. And then there is this amazing almond cookie recipe that I want to share with you that can double as Viennese Crescent cookies or Linzer cookies, depending on how you roll the dough. I have to rush to the airport in about 5 minutes so I will share the recipe with you when I get back from Paris....

Okay back from a wonderful trip to Paris. We almost didn't get there because our flight was canceled on Friday night, but thankfully we zipped off on an early Saturday morning flight, which gave us plenty of time to shop for breakfast croissants.

Viennese Crescent Cookies/ or Raspberry Linzer cookies

adapted from Irma Rombauer

- 8oz / 1 cup unsalted butter

- 3 oz / 3/4 cup powdered sugar

- 3 teaspoons vanilla bean powder, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

- 4 oz / 1 cup ground almonds

- 10 oz / 2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 oz / 2/3 cup powdered sugar for sprinkling

- raspberry jam if using

Preheat the oven to 350ºF / 180ºC and line baking sheets with baking paper

In a medium bowl beat the butter until it is creamy and light in color, then sift in the 3oz of powdered sugar over the butter and beat until incorporated

Add the vanilla and mix until smooth. Stir in the ground almonds. Follow with the flour, adding slowly, until mixed. Knead the dough until it is well blended. If the dough is very soft place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. You want the dough to be workable in your hands so make sure it is malleable when you take it out of the fridge.

For crescent cookies, take about 1 tablepsoon of dough and shape it into a crescent and place on the cookie sheet.

For the jam filled cookies, roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper until about 1/4" thick. Using a cookie cutter cut an even number of shapes out of the dough. Using a smaller cookie cutter, such as a star, circle or heart, cut the center out of half of the cookies. Move to the lined baking sheet.

Bake the crescent cookies for about 13-16 and the linzer cookies for about 10 minutes, or just until the edges have lightly browned for both. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. When completely cool dust the crescents with powdered sugar. For the jam filled cookies, take the cookie without the hole and spread raspberry jam on it and then top with the hole-cookie.

This photos is terrible and blurry, but I had to share it with you because this my friends is The Santa Tram, or Märchentram (fairytale tram). Santa drives the tram while his angles read fairytales to the children in the back. Only children are allowed on the tram, no parents allowed. I absolutely love this little Zürich Christmas tradition. I guess the theory is that parents put their kids on the tram for thirty minutes and then they can run off and buy that last minute toy while the kids listen to The Night Before Christmas while zipping around Zürich.

okay time to run! remember, fingers crossed...

christmas cookie

For as long as I can remember my mom has made Aunt Julie's sugar cookies. The key to Aunt Julie's cookies is to roll the dough really thin, as thin as you can, and then bake until just golden around the edges and sprinkle with sugar while they are still hot. They are superb cookies. At least we like to think so. We trade them amongst the family--my aunt Sarah will make some, pile them in a tin, wrap it with ribbon and gift it to my dad and my mom will make some and pile them in a tin, wrap it with ribbon and give it to my grandmother--they are family heirlooms that we make and eat every year at Christmas.

So as you can see these aren't Aunt Julie's cookies. It's just that it's not quite time for crisp sugar cookies. They are timed for the arrival of reindeer on rooftops. In the meantime I decided to make a different type of twinkling cookie, a molasses ginger cookie. This recipe is from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday. I was struck by the dark cookie with the chunky demerara sugar shell. These cookies are a wonderful mix of sweet outer crunch and chewy flavorful cookie. The molasses flavor runs deep, through the chocolate, the apricot and the ginger, which all act as punctuations to the long meandering molasses sentence.

So about the molasses. Expats will often do crazy things to find some semblance of home , like spending $12 dollars on a small jar of molasses. It's just the way things go here. You want it, you need it, and you finally found it hidden on the bottom shelf so you buy it. But as so often is true, the product just doesn't live up to your expectations: the molasses I bought was too strong, which I learned sampling a cookie from the first batch. I adjusted for the second batch, substituting dark muscovado sugar for a good chunk of the molasses, hoping that the molasses in the muscovado would shine through, and it did, wonderfully.

These pictures are from a recent trip to Freiburg, Germany, for the Christmas markets. Christmas markets are ever present this time of year. Little wooden huts are set up in rows, evergreen garlands are hung from the roofs, and lights are strung from hut to hut. It's wonderfully festive, seemingly homegrown and super duper charming. These little elf villages, as I like to think of them, spring up all over Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Eastern France, and while the wares might be a bit repetitive and sometimes hokey it's always a treat to walk through them. On this trip I spent more money on food - bratwurst, cookies, glühwein - than I did on Christmas goodies, but the food still put me in the Christmas spirit!

Ginger Cookies

adapted from Heidi Swanson, Super Natural Everyday

*note: I had to adapt the original recipe because the molasses I found here was very strong. I substituted some of the molasses with dark muscovado sugar. If you live in the states, you can go with the original (1/4 cup molasses) but be sure the molasses tastes good, not harsh, before using.

- 1/2 cup / 70g demerara sugar

- 6oz / 170g bittersweet chocolate (64%) chopped into chip size pieces

- 2 cups / 230g spelt flour (dinkelvolkohrmehl) or whole wheat pastry flour and I think all purpose flour would be fine as well

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 cup / 115 g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

- 3 tsp unsulphured molasses

- 3 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

- 2/3 cup / 100 g fine grain natural cane sugar

- 1 large egg, well beaten

- 1 cup plump dried apricots, minced (after measuring)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger and salt.

Heat the butter in a small saucepan until just barely melted. Stir in the molasses, dark muscovado sugar. The mixture should be warm, but not hot. If it is hot to the touch, let it cool until just warm. Once cool whisk in the egg. Pour this mixture over the flour mixture and add the chopped apricots and chocolate and then stir until just combined. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes, until the dough has firmed up a bit.

Pour some of the demerara sugar into a bowl. Use a tablespoon to scoop the dough, split that tablespoon into two smaller pieces, and roll each into a ball. Roll each ball in the bowl of demeara sugar, using pressure if needed to make the sugar stick to the dough.

Place the cookies on the baking sheets a few inches a part. Bake for about 7 – 10 minutes until the cookies puff up, darken a bit and crack. Cool on a wire wrack.

And a little something funny for your Friday...look closely at this photo, at the center buttress (no pun intended, but perhaps it will give you a hit of what to look for)....at the gargoyles. Do you see what I see? The gargoyle on the left on the center buttress is facing the wrong way! Its butt is sticking out, towards us, and between the cheeks is a rain spout, so when it rains, water pours out of this gargoyles butt. seriously?! medieval humor?

On that note I hope you have a wonderful, glittering, weekend. And not to worry, I will post Aunt Julie's cookies soon!

lemon-ginger-raspberry shortbread cookies

We have visitors! Visitors with a sweet tooth. A sweet tooth needs cookies, it's as simple as that, so I made lemon-ginger shortbread cookies with a raspberry dollop. Mmm.

I hurried back to Zürich just in time for Swiss-family-Mayer, an epic travel adventure through Switzerland and Northern Italy with Zach's entire immediate family. Our little Mayer family outpost here in Zürich quickly expanded last week from two to five and will grow to seven on Thursday when Zach's older brother Al and his girlfriend Leah arrive (they are currently eating their way through Paris - save a croissant for me). When the days of school vacations come to an end it can be really hard to plan a family vacation, but the stars aligned somehow, and everyone is here, and we are so glad they are!

The journey started last Thursday in Zürich when I met Zach's parents at the airport. We spent two days in Zürich and then headed South to Luzern and then onto Ascona. Zach and I zipped back to Zurich last night, but his parents continued on towards Bolzano, Italy for a couple days and will be there until we reunite is Lugano, with Al and Leah in tow.

Since at-home dinners are such an integral, and joyous, part of our daily routine here in Zürich we decided it would be nice to break up the eat-out vacation mode with a little at home dinner. We put our new grill to use and grilled salmon and bratwursts, which were accompanied by a simple green salad and pasta with pesto. Dave, Zach's dad, loves ginger, so I made this little cookies as an after dinner treat.

I couldn't find a recipe for lemon-ginger shortbread cookies so I just adapted the Joy of Cooking basic shortbread recipe to fit my cookie mission.

Lemon-Ginger-Raspberry Shortbread cookies

- 1/2 lb of unsalted butter (2 sticks or 223g)

- 1 cup superfine sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- lemon zest from 2 thin-skinned lemons (about 2tbsp), similar to Meyer lemon. If you have Meyer lemons then use them.

- 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

- 1 large egg yolk

- 1 large egg

- 2 tsp vanilla extract or 3/4 tsp vanilla bean

- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

In a standing mixer cream the sugar, salt, butter. When light and fluffy add in the lemon zest and grated ginger and mix for a few seconds until integrated. Add the egg yolk, mixing until blended and then add the whole egg and the vanilla, once again mixing until blended. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add in the flour. Divide the dough in half, flatten into discs, place in a plastic bag and refrigerate for a couple of hours, or overnight. This dough also freezes really well, so feel free to freeze and then unthaw when ready to bake.

Preheat the oven to 375º/190º. Take out one of your discs and cut it in half, placing the other half back in the bag and the bag back in the refrigerator (I found that 1/4 of the dough was plenty for a small batch of dessert cookies). On a well floured surface roll out the dough until roughly 1/8" thick. Cut out desired shapes, re-rolling as few times as possible. If you want to add raspberry then use your thumb to make an indent in the cookie. Place a dollop of raspberry jam in the indent and top with 1/2 of a raspberry. Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake until edges are lightly toasted, about 6-8 minutes.

We spent most of our day in Luzern on the lake. One of Zach's friends had recommended a little restaurant in Vitznau, a teeny little town about an hour by ferry from Luzern, so we planned our afternoon around a lunch by the lake. My photos are a little misleading because the photo above is not actually where we had lunch, although perhaps next time we go to Vitznau we will eat there. Instead we ate at the Vitznauerhof hotel, where we sat under a vine covered pergola and ate fish fresh from the lake.

So far I've made two batches of these cookies, one without raspberry and one with. They are both good. The dough freezes really well and thaws fairly quickly, making it an easy dessert for entertaining.

It's going to be tough to settle into Zürich this trip since we are only here for a few days between excursions. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this amazing weather stays through the weekend. Right now I'm sitting at our dinning table with the windows wide open and there is a pleasantly cool breeze blowing through. Seems like it might be time for a walk before Zach gets home.

Oh and it seems like things are looking up on the visa front, that I might even have it by early September. Excuse me while I do a little visa dance...