Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Eve dinner was also kind of fun. Since I was cooking the capon on Christmas day, Andrea and Tim did the cheese fondue recipe (compliments of Laurence), and then Jill and Chris did a chocolate fondue for dessert.

We decided not to tell any of our Swiss friends that we actually melt your chocolate, so that we can dip chunks of pound cake in it - but what they won't know . . .

I've also found this cool new way to serve salad. Too bad I don't have a picture of the one Joe made for Christmas Eve dinner - but basically it was a huge platter of salad with various vegetables. I think the important trick it to par boil some of the rawer vegetables (e.g. green beans and carrots) and to also dress each individual vegetable with a little dressing. That way peoplecould choose exactly what they wanted - even Patrick 'I don't eat salad' Cobb actually had some of it. Shocking.

Last Minute Shopping

Given the fact that Patrick's big present has not arrived by Xmas Eve, I was in a bit of a panic on what to do for him. Since it was really the only present that I was planning on giving him, it would have been pretty bad if he didn't have any presents to open on Xmas day.

So I got up and after running to the market, I did a bit of power shopping - mostly clothes. So it turns out the boy will end up making out like a bandit this Xmas.

The Prefecture

It's really too painful to relive french bureaucratic nightmares, but this one is kind of funny.

Turns out that in order to work in France (and live here longer than 3 months), you need to get a carte de sejour. We ended up having to go to Chicago to get a visa, but that was just a 3 month visa (we basically needed to reapply once we arrived in France). So it turns out that we need to walk over to the Prefecture for Alsace (fortunately, it's a 5 minute walk from our apartment), take a ticket, stand in line, and get this huge stamp in our passports.

My experience at the prefecture was not the best. Seeing that the hours were from 8:30AM to 4:00PM, I decided that I would go at 3:30PM so that the little bureaucrats would be motivated to efficiently finish their work and go home. Unfortunately, when I arrived, they said that they were all out of tickets (in fact, they ran out at 11:00AM that day). Trying to clarifying whether this meant that they just ran out of paper, or that they only give a certain number of tickets out each day - I learned that it was the latter. Lesson #1: Just because they say they're open until 4:00PM, doesn't really mean that they're open until 4:00PM.

Returning a few days later, I arrived early at 8:00AM to make sure I was at the front of the line and I could get in and out quickly. When I arrived outside the Prefecture, there were actually five lines (still never figured out why), they had already started to let people in, and when I eventually got my number I was 32. Lesson #2: Just because they say they're open at 8:30AM, doesn't really mean that they're open at 8:30AM.

While waiting in line (the average customer took 15 minutes), I finally got to the window almost three hours later. It ended up taking only 60 seconds (I don't think she even made eye contact with me). Considering this window is the only window for this stamp, and you have to have received a letter saying that you're paperwork is done, I never quite got the reason for the 15 minute sessions - since I'm sure my french was the worst of all of them.

When Patrick and Joe went to the Prefecture, they had some other challenges - namely after waiting an hour, Joe realized that he had lost his ticket. By the time he got another one there were an additional 50 people in front of him. In the end I think they ended up acting like a couple and just went up together at the same time.

In the final chapter, we end with Jim and Theresa. They were the last ones to go to the Prefecture, and they also wait in line for hours. When they reach the window, the bureaucrat says, "Oh, you're with Lilly, we've been expecting you, so you didn't need to wait in line."

These are the days that I appreciate the Germans.

Nespresso

OK, big Xmas present from Patrick . . . the new Nespresso.

Turns out the french make a good cup of coffee for one major reason - they have this freaking machine. I know it probably doesn't look like much, but it uses capsules that remind you of non-dairy creamer that has the coffee sealed fresh inside. They are relatively inexpensive (29 cents a capsule) - but they end up making the best coffee out there. The other nice thing is that there are only 5 shops in France that sell the capsules (most people need to buy them on the Internet), and my neighbor (literally) is the one shop in Strasbourg.

Basically we were running around to ski chalets, bars in France, Scotland, and Germany - and nothing seems to compare as well as this little baby.

This particular machine is a 'manual' one - but I really can't figure out what the automatic one actually does differently - all you have to do is lift the flap, insert the capsule, close flap, and then press 'GO'. Of course, the capsules come in different strengths, and I'll probably need to buy another one in the States due to electrical issues, but right now this is a pretty cool toy.

Christmas Dinner

For Christmas dinner, we decided to all go over to Gaby's (even though she was in Mexico at the time) and hang out.

The main course was a capon (otherwise known as a less than intact male chicken) - sounds boring, but it is considered the traditional meat dish for Xmas in Strasbourg. I suppose if you have more people, you need to go with a turkey, but we had already done that a couple of weeks before. I got the bird from the same market guy that we used for the turkey - so it was a very nice one.

Originally we wanted to do a duck, but there was no way to do that with 9 people. It also turned out to be a good thing too, since in order to cook the duck (which I eventually did a couple of days later) would have been a major pain in the butt.

We also had a big salad, corn souffle (from the Hagan's), foie gras (from Joe), green beans (from the market), cheeses, and various desserts - including Jill's Kougelhopf, the Weber's Xmas logs.

Very nice.

Ski Weekend: Getting There

Yes, this is the calm picture of Patrick and I putting snow chains on our car. What is really missing from this picture is the fact that we are halfway up a mountain on a two lane road with no burm to pull off to. You're also not seeing the fact that Joe 'I still haven't mastered a manual' Moeddel is in the driver's seat and being asked to slow pull the car forward six inches on an incline, while Patrick stands 7 inches in front of the car.

Granted no divorces were filled, Chris figured out how to put the snow tires on (our instructions were written in some viile translation of french/croatian/eubonics), and we made it to the chatel.

Portes du Soleil

I don't know if this will due justice to the area we were in, but here's a link to all the slopes in Portes du Soleil. You can click on the image and go directly the the website (http://www.chatel.com/ftpclient/pdf/planpistes.pdf).

We are told that it is the largest skiing area in the World, and we were about five minutes walking from Chatel. Basically, you could take a lift up one side of the mountain and then ski down into a totally different resort area on the other side. Pretty cool.

Hot Tub

What would be a ski weekend without a hot tub? Although the picture doesn't do justice to the view (think big mountains right behind us), you can probably see that the hot tub was a daily apres ski event.

And it did remind me that the one thing that I miss about our apartment in Strasbourg is that we don't have a full-sized tub.

Our Hosts

Here are our hosts for the week - Tracy, Lewis, and Darren. They were awesome !

The chalet has basically four large bedrooms on the second and third floor, while Tracy, Lewis, and Darren live on the first floor which is shut off from the rest of the house. They were a lot of fun to hang around with, and they were a great resource on places to go. On Tuesday, Darren even took some of us out on a ski circuit that took us all around the Portes du Soleil area (basically was one huge circle that lasted eight hours).

Thanks guys, we had a blast.

Kissing the snow

OK, I know this one is a little bizarre. Rosario and Tim tried to explain it to me, but at the time I was just trying to not kill myself on the slopes.

Basically during the normal skiing season it can be a bit crowded, so there's nothing better to be the first ones on the slopes before everyone has had a chance to grind down the slopes. (Personally, I just like being able to sleep later.)So enter a picture of Tim kissing the snow, since they were able to get to the piste first before everyone else. I'm sure there will be other pictures of Tim doing improper things with the ground, but that will have to wait.

Here's Everybody

OK, I think I can make everyone out - Jill, Chris, Patrick, Rosario (friend of Tim and Andrea's who stayed with us for the first weekend) Joe, Tim, Andrea, and me. I think this picture was taken the first day.

Recovery in a Swiss Spa

OK, there were a couple of bumps and brusies - I mean snow can be soft and powdery (especially with loads of padding), but if you fall hard, you're still going to feel it. With the exception of my last spill, I would have to say my biggest aches and pains came from just skiing down a mountain and using parts of my body that really aren't used while sitting at a computer. By the third day I was a bit sore, so we ended up going to a Swiss spa close to town. I actually forget the name of it, but I think it was one of the spas recommended in the NYTimes that Mom sent me the article on. Although the massage was nice (and relatively cheap by Swiss standards), I would have to give it a B+ on relaxing, but a D on therapeutic - the woman just couldn't get mean enough to make it hurt. I'm wondering if I just chose the wrong massage and needed something else.

I think if we end up going back to Chatal, then we would most likely take a day off and go to the baths there, which are very similar to the ones that we go to in Baden-Baden.

Dinner Out

Although our chalet was catered (breakfast, tea, and dinner), there was one night where we had to go out and fend for ourselves. This was actually in the middle of the week, and not the same day as all the other chalets have - so it was easy to get a table at an uncrowded restaurant.

We ended up going to a local french restaurant which was very nice (fondue, raclette, etc.) - they also had some pretty cool atmosphere that I'm not sure comes through the picture.

Darren and Tracy asked us if they thought we'd be interested in a catered option that actually have you two days out on your own to find dinner - which we said we would probably like better. As in any french village, Chatal had some really nice restaurants and picking just one is kind of hard.

Skiing in Chatel

Cool pics of Andrea, Tim, Joe, and Patty (in that order). Kind of gives you a better idea of some of the views we had basically all around us. You can actually see Mont Blanc in the background between the heads of Joe and Patrick.

Jill and Chris Skiing

Although the picture doesn't really do justice to all the views, this is a cute picture of Chris and Jill on top of one of the mountains. Again, a little picturesque, I know, but worth probably a blow up picture to hand on the wall.

This is not Bowdoin

I really need to do a montage of all the dogs that we've seen over here. They are really extremely well behaved, and most of them are not drop kick dogs that I was used to seeing in Luxembourg. While at a Xmas market, I couldn't help but take this picture of a little lab (he so didn't remind me of Bowdoin, I couldn't believe it). I even asked if the owner had placed the dog on some sort of tranquilizer, since Bowdoin would have exploded from all the excitement by then - but I didn't know the french word for tranquilizer.

Tree trimming at Gaby's

When we got back from Switzerland for Thanksgiving we ended up having a tree trimming party over at Gaby's house (she has the biggest apartment and that's where we would spend Xmas day). We didn't have tons of ornaments, but that was OK, since I don't think I would want to store them the rest of the year. From left to right, here's everyone in the picture . . . Andrea Whittaker, Chris and Jill Hagan, Joe Moeddel, Irma Vega, Patrick, Me, Jim and Theresa Weber.

Xmas Market Part II

We ended up going to quite a few Christmas markets and all seemed to have their strengths and weaknesses. This is a shot of Patrick getting a little handmade Santa for Steph at Geygenbach (sp?) - about 45 minutes southwest of Strasbourg.

This market was similar to a food market in France in that only handmade items made by the stand owners could be sold there. It was relatively small and very quite since we arrived within the last hour of the market that day, but it was a lot of fun. Andrea, Tim, and Patrick had some sort of bratwurst that they still don't know exactly what it was - but in typical German fashion it was good.

Joe and Stockings

Emboldened by his successful purchase of an advent calendar for alcoholics, Joe braved the Strasbourg Xmas market dring the week, and ended up getting everyone little stockings for the tree trimming party at Gaby's.

Although it was a big enough size to fit a new Lexus car key, Patrick again missed the opportunity :(

Warm orange juice (who would have thought)

This is another one of those things that you never would have thought of, and you needed the french to come up with it . . . warm orange juice.

Take one quart of orange juice, and about 3 tablespoons of honey to take out the acidity of the orange juice, heat to just short of a boil, and you've got one killer drink. First time I had it was at a Xmas market where it was cold and sleeting, so it tasted even better - but we later tried it at home, and it still rocked.

Escargot

This is kind of a weird food over here - escargot - otherwise known as snails.

Most people say they wouldn't like them (before tasting them for the first time), but the old joke is that an old leather shoe with that much garlic and butter would taste good. They do seem to be as common as frozen french fries in the States - and really the only thing you need to cook them well is a really hot oven, and the right cooking pan (shown here). The only other thing that would help is the proper fork that can reach inside the snail and actually extract it.

New addiction: Chesnuts

I've never been the most photogenic, but here's a shot of me eating one of the better foods in Strasbourg this time of year - roasted chesnuts. Think a sweet potato with a burnt shell that you have to remove.

Patrick doesn't really care for them, which means there's more for me. Only word of advice is to not get them too late at the end of the day (when the guy is about to close up), because the quality absolutely stinks by then.

Soufflenheim

Had a Saturday day free, so Patrick and I went with Chris and Jill Hagn up to Soufflenheim, which is famous for its Alsatian pottery.

We ended up getting some Xmas presents and sending them (for a pretty penny) home to the US. This is a picture of the one shop where we bought most of our pottery. The traditional Alsatian pottery has just a few designs (the most common one is a blue background with four white dots in a diamond evenly placed throughout the piece).

Antiques Roadshow material

This is . . .

A. A piece of ceramic that will show up on Antiques Roadshow sometime in the next 5 years and appraise for much more than it's worth.

B. The most hideous piece of ceramic that will ever be posted on this blog.

C. A quintessential example of the Jill and Chris' landlord's taste and the general decor that they faced on the first day they saw their apartment.

D. All of the above

If you answered 'D', you win - and this tureen is in a UPS box and on the way to your house.

Congratulations!

Christmas Markets, Part I

It seems like a major part of Xmas in Europe are the Christmas Markets. I thought Strasbourg was the only one in the area, but I was sadly mistaken. Any self-respecting french or german town, hamlet, or microscopic village has one - it's just that Strasbourg is the one with by far the largest number of vendors and visitors.

This picture of Patty was taken at Gengenbach, which is a small German town about an hour southeast of Strasbourg. This was recommended by some friends of ours, and it was much smaller and manageable than some of the other ones we ended up going to.

I think in all we ended up going to about 7 Xmas markets, so I'll try to post some of the other pictures from those later.

Advent from Joe

Ah, the joys of Wal-mart.

Joe took a trip to Germany and stopped by the only Wal-Mart within a 5 hours radius of where we live. In addition to picking up some more Budvar, he also found this advent calendar - and picked one up for everyone. Basically you open a little cardboard window each day of December, and inside is a little surprise. In the true tradition of Germany, half the time you end up with a small bottle of alcohol.

Not sure what we're going to do with the small statues of Baby Jesus and Joseph, but the alcohol is going to be part of our 'Talking about work during vacation' penalty drink (more on that later).

Patrick's Happy

It took all of five seconds for him to drive by the local karting racetrack in Fegersheim and recognize it (I knew I was doomed, since it was right across the street from the Lilly plant), but now Patrick has his Thursday night racing thing.

This is a picture of Patrick with Tim Whittaker (I work with his wife, Andrea) right after they raced the first day (he kind of likes it, if you couldn't tell). The other picture is with Tim and Patrick Emanuel (I work with him).

Two great things about the racetrack. One, you can buy severely discounted tickets at Lilly, so it's not quite as hard on the pocketbook. Two, there's a bar on the second floor, so we can all drink after work. Yeah !!!

Ayres Pancake Recipe

OK, for everyone asking about the Ayres pancake recipe, here it is (converted to the metric system and lack of french ingredients)

80 g de beurre
50 cl de lait
100 g de sucre
l'équivalent de 480 ml de farine avec levure incorporée ( il paraît que ça se trouve tout prêt au supermarché, sinon farine classique + levure chimique)

Here's the original US version

AYRES PANCAKES

Mix these dry ingredients in a large bowl
2 cups of flour (I used the gateau flour that already has the leavener, so I don't need to add baking powder)
5 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt

Melt 5 1/2 tablespoons of butter, and then add 2 cups of milk and 2 egg yolks

Pour (Add) butter, milk, and egg yolks to dry ingredients

Whip 2 egg whites until they are white and fluffy (need a clean bowl)

Add egg whites to big bowl and fold in gently (do not mix)

Cook on griddle with a little butter as soon as possible.

The beginning of the Xmas Markets

It's about to begin - here comes the Christmas markets.

Strasbourg is perhaps most famous for its annual Xmas market that begins this week. The locals tell us that there are a couple of good places to go to, but it's overshadowed by the sheer number of people who converge on Strasbourg. This particular picture is a shot of the base of the city's Xmas tree at night.

The plan is to go visit some of the smaller markets this weekend in both Germany and France, and keep the Strasbourg market for a late evening during the week.

Owies

OK, here's a picture of my head, which was taken a few days after the chalet incident. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time in Switzerland for Tanksgiving weekend, but the low ceilings started to take their toll after 24 hours. By the end I was wearing a protective hat for my head.

Happy Thursday for November

A monthly tradition at work is to take some time off and have a little breakfast (first Thursday of every month). Since our team won last month, we were up for supplying breakfast for 50+ people. We decided to do a Thanksgiving theme, so we made a whole bunch of muffins and pancakes.



Mom sent some corn muffin mix over with Patrick when he was home last, and we also got the Ayres Pancake recipe - think a fluffy crepe. I think we ended up making 150 muffins and about a 5X batch of pancakes - all was gone by lunch. The french, not being used to a large breakfast, I think ended up skipping lunch altogether that day.