Another morning - another fight with the Grand Crema cappuccino machine! argh!! This time it was my fault though - oopsie! just when I think I am making advances, we have another little spat! all cleaned up now though!
So happy post Halloween everyone!! thanks so much to everyone that sent photos! We had to kind of improvise our Halloween since they don't really do it in Switzerland - or at least in Basel. The only Halloween event I heard of was a children's costume party sponsored by the American Women's Club Basel! haa
Anyway- wanted to share some of what we've been up to. We stayed in Basel over the weekend (we are headed to Paris on Friday!!). Did our Saturday morning ritual of going down to the market. We got lots of goodies again! mushrooms, sundried tomatten and olives. some kind of soft cheese from the Italian guy, more chevre with chive and one with pepper and a big slice of squash! (more on that later!). Later on Saturday, we went to the normal grocery store and also took a stroll through the big fall festival in Basel. It is actually held in many locations - we went to the one closest to us. We had a delicious bratwurst (I think that is what it was called) but it was just like "white sausage" to me! yummy! they just give you the sausage on a plate with some mustard and you can add bread as you like. We also saw little kids eating what looked to me like a variety of hot dogs in pastry. It was basically some kind of skinny sausage put into a small loaf of bread with the inside dug out. seemed like a lot for a child to eat to me but it must be like a hot dog at a baseball game - all the kids had them! We did get our own treat at the carnival. Fondue is very popular here - I believe it originated in Switzerland? Well they had fruit dipped in chocolate on a stick with nestle-crunch style crunchies on the outside. We got a stick of strawberry & banana. mmmm!!!
Saturday night we went to the movies to see "The World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins. Again with the no-popcorn thing but thanks to another carnival spot closeby, we smuggled some in! haa! The movie experience here is totally different from that in the US. (as in NO POPCORN!). It is very expensive also. The cost for each of us was 16 chf (about 14 dollars) but they added another dollar to the fare for each of us b/c the movie was more than 2 hours long! So the total was 34 chf! would have been 36 chf if the movie was over 3 hours! crazy, huh? AND no popcorn! but the flick was good! Sir Anthony gave a great performance as usual.
Sunday morning was raining but Rob was able to motivate me to go out for a run. plus I snagged his water resistant jacket! heh :) so we had a nice run & came back and had our little smoked salmon brunch and hung out for a bit. That
afternoon, we went to the Basel Weinmesse which is basically this big old wine convention/tasting. It kind of reminded me of the fancy food shows we used to go to in Chicago only with vino instead of food! This event was the best value we have found in Basel to date! 10 chf to get in - that's it! (so about $8). We met so many new wines that day! Mostly Italian (why mess when it is so good!). We tried several kinds of Barberesco (Piemonte area) and met Nebbiolo d'Alba (also Piemonte), Primitivo (Puglia) and my new fave - Nero d'Avola (Sicilian area) mmmm! (Actually I think some of those can be grown in a number of regions so don't quote me on my wine knowledge!). And we saw some old faves - Chianti, Montepulciano, etc... We had a lot of fun trying the wines and talking to the characters manning the booths. Then home for football! (yeay ravens! sorry jets & philly birds).
Monday was pretty low key but I figured I would share my Halloween adventures from yesterday! in the morning, I set out on my hunt for the great pumpkin (or the medium pumpkin) for our little crib to carve up and cook! I found the perfect sized guy but he was 18 chf at the outdoor market. no dice! they really only had 2 to choose from. I'm telling you - the do not do Halloween here hardly at all! So I continued on my way and found a good little guy for us in a grocery store (at the florist section?!). I came home and found a wonderful trick or treat in our mailbox - CDs of our wedding photos!! (so I am hoping the will be up on Pictage soon!!). I took a peek at them and then settled in to listen to the radio program (Tuesday nights at 6:30). Robs came home and went to work on the pumpkin! He scooped out the guts and roasted the seeds - with o.o. and salt and pepper mmm so good! I put some cinnamon on mine - don't worry - it was good! and we had a fun pre-dinner app of pumpkin seeds! Rob also went to work on the big squash from Saturday. It was cut like a big slice of cantaloupe. he cut it off the rind and threw it in the oven with some sugar (no brown sugar to be found in Basel), cinnamon & nutmeg. We had dinner and then pulled out the squash. It was okay - I didn't loooove it - but Rob grabbed some Movenpick "Vanilla Dream" ice cream from the little store on the block. Boy was it good then! So we settled on the couch and watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" (yeah youtube.com) and then went through our wedding photos.
Definitely not a traditional Halloween but a very special one to me.
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