Things have continued to be quiet, although we've both been busy at work, and M has been going to a handful of doctor's appointments (K comes to the more-fun ones with the ultrasounds). Everything seems to be going pretty well so far. We've tried to sign up for a birth class at the hospital and will wait to hear when it's being scheduled. K has almost figured out what kind of car seat we need to buy, and we found a consignment shop in the next town over that specializes in baby stuff.
With the time at home, M has been trying out some recipes for items that she misses from "back home." With few other adventures to regale, she thought it would be fun to sum up some of the recipes she's tried:
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| "Poptarts" |
2. Velveeta shells and cheese: Yes, yes, we know. They have such great cheese in Europe; why in the hell would anyone want the plastic-y cheese food? Well, lots of reasons; it is creamy (Velveeta and American cheese are awesome melters), and it is such a comfort food. And sometimes you want to just scarf down a big bowl of this stuff. Nobody wants to scarf down a bowl of mac and cheese, where the cheese was $30/lb+; that is a dish to be savored thoughtfully and slowly, appreciating every cheesy nuance. So, I have found the best approximation to American mac and cheese so far. Boil up whatever pasta you like, spoon a good helping of it into a bowl and then break up 2 or 3 wedges of Laughing Cow (La Vache qui Rit) cheese and mix them into the hot pasta. Add a splash of milk and microwave for a little bit. The Laughing Cow will not melt like Velveeta, but when it's hot you can kind of smear it around. Add a bit of salt, and enjoy.
3. Biscuits (au Ken): We broke into the can of Crisco M brought back at Thanksgiving. Ken made some of the fluffiest little biscuits thanks to the Betty Crocker cookbook. They were so delicious that we requested another can of Crisco from a visitor that was coming to town.
4. English muffins: M was hoping to be able to find English muffins, or at least crumpets, which are pretty close, but no luck. She had found bagels, but they were more like California bagels than NY bagels (more bready than bagely) - still they were pretty good toasted with cream cheese. She came across an Alton Brown recipe on Foodnetwork.com and decided to give it a go. Without good temperature control, most of the them came out "highly caramelized." Also, she didn't have a scoop so she had to estimate, and the first several were oversized. They came out pretty close to the "real thing,"
but she thinks tired yeast meant that they didn't have nearly enough nooks and crannies.
5. Coquito/Puerto Rican Egg Nog: Not normally a huge fan of egg nog, M had a bit of a craving for it during the holidays. They don't sell egg nog here, nor do they sell pasteurized eggs, so with the pregnancy, M needed to find a "safe" egg nog recipe. Having always loved the Coquito that Yvette would make for New Years, she searched the internet for a recipe. She used this one, omitting the rum, save for a tablespoon, for a portion for herself. (It does call for condensed milk, which we happened to have a can of that we brought back from the US.) It was pretty good and hit the spot, but wasn't quite as good as Yvette's.
Other recipes we've tried in the past:
Texas flour tortillas - Really liked these
Cranberry sauce - Made this for Thanksgiving 2010. Honey was a bit overwhelming, would want to make again with more neutral corn syrup, but I haven't seen corn syrup here.
Stove top stuffing - Not that complicated. Just need onions, celery, parsley, stale bread, and broth.
Recipes we'd like to try:
1) Asadero cheese - This is also known as quesadilla cheese. I am also waiting for an entrepreneurial cheese maker to make some American and/or Mexican style cheeses. Really, they don't know what they are missing here.
2) Reese's peanut butter cups - M brought some back from the states on her last trip, and she is trying to make the bag last, but these really don't seem too difficult to make. She'll probably try either this recipe or a close variation.
3) Graham crackers - We just don't know if we can find graham flour. Also, although they sell molasses, it is mostly corn syrup.
Last weekend, while M was making pop-tarts, K walked the Sentier du Temps, where every meter along the path takes you a million years through time, with wood-carvings to represent the epoch. K started at "today" and walked uphill to Chaumont traveling "back in time" [cue Huey Lewis & The News soundbite with Marty McFly]. Neuchatel experienced some strong wind-storms in early January, so there were a few fallen trees on the trail, but otherwise it was a nice walk on a brisk, sunny day. Upon reaching the top, K took the funicular and bus back home.
Lessons learned:
1. For how snide Europeans can be about American food, they make a lot of crap food themselves. It's not that there isn't a lot of great European food; there certainly is. But just as Americans make some rather low quality food products, cheese in a can, McDonald's hamburgers, Doritos, etc, so do the French and Swiss. Cases in point: gruyere melty singles (look and feel like American cheese, smell like Gruyere, and do not melt for crap) or Laughing Cow pasteurized cheese food or the famous Swiss mayonnaise salads (seriously it's half mayonnaise and cream and the other half some slaw cut vegetable and I've seen meals where they have two or three of these on one table) or the peanut flavored puffs (think cheesy puffs but with peanut flavor). And yet, we also know that France and most of Europe also make wonderful food: from wonderful cheese, chocolate and bread to porcini, truffles, and pancetta. And guess what, so does America. We just happen to mostly export the lower quality stuff. My opinion is that we need to do a better job in educating the rest of the world about America's wonderfully diverse food culture, in which we make exquisite chocolate chip cookies, handmade goat cheeses, flavorful Tex-Mex burritos, Southern barbeque, New England clam chowder, San Francisco sourdough, etc.
2. There is an international analog to a notary seal known as an apostille. It can be used between parties that have signed the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, which include the US and most of Europe. At least some Swiss cantons require that US official documents (e.g. birth certificates, marriage certificates) contain an apostille to be recognized by the local government. This is quite important to know as the marriage certificate and birth certificates of parents who are foreign nationals are required to register the birth of child in Switzerland. The birth must first be registered officially in Switzerland before the consular report of birth abroad and the paperwork to declare US citizenship can be submitted to the US Consulate/Embassy. (By the way, no, birth in Switzerland guarantees no rights at all to Swiss citizenship.) According to the Swiss US Embassy, a child born abroad to two US citizen parents at least one of whom has resided in the US prior to the birth is considered a US citizen at birth (i.e. natural born).
