Night Sledding in Stoos, Switzerland

We finally got an opportunity to play in the snow this weekend! A large group of our friends and more decided to go sledding on Saturday in Stoos. Once we took the gondola up to the town, we stopped in for a bite to eat. After dinner it was time to sled. Basically, you get your sled and then this tow rope is hooked onto the lift. You sit on the sled and the lift pulls you up the slope. At the top you have to yank on this release cord to un attach yourself from the tow. Unfortunately, sometimes it is frozen or stuck and you have to jump up and unhook it before it takes your sled right back down the mountain. About half the time it works...the other half you have to book it and un hook yourself before you have to walk down the mountain.

Now these sledding slopes aren't the usual hills back in Illinois, where you are done in 30 seconds. No, these are steep hills that can take you out. I should know. I have bruises developing everywhere on my body right now. In order to slow, stop, or turn your sled you have to put your feed down on the hill. Unfortunately for me I did it on a very steep incline and flipped myself and sled over. I flew up in the air then came crashing down on the runner of my sled. I have a bruise the size of a grapefruit on my back to prove my injury. However, that didn't stop the fun. I just learned from that incident that it's better to just keep your feet up and cruise down as fast as possible. Just make sure you stop yourself before hitting the restaurant at the bottom =)  Here are a few pictures to show how much fun it is to sled in Switzerland!!

Adam and I all bundled up...it was freezing!

The tow rope taking people up, you might be able to see it by the first lamp post

Me waiting in line to head up the mountain

Adam getting ready to head down the mountain

The whole group at the top of the mountain sans Adam.  As he was coming up the mountain he ran over his release cable and fell off the tow.

What to eat what to eat??

Well it's busy season. Which means Adam is working late nights and trying to get into the office early. Our only real meal together during the week is breakfast and I hate when he leaves the house in a hurry and doesn't have time to sit down and eat a proper breakfast. So i've been scouring the internet to find breakfast recipes that are good on the go, and that won't leak on his suit. I finally found one that is close to our heart. The everything bagel. I think you can get some prepackaged bagels here but they are very uncommon and probably not that great. Adam and I love love this place in New York called Ess a bagel, I think on 53rd and 3rd ave. It seriously has the best everything bagels you could ever imagine. They are so good I picked up half a dozen when I was there with Emileigh and her family and took them on the plane home with me.

I ran across an everything bagel recipe while I was skimming through a website and started to read how to do it. It never even crossed my mind that I could attempt to make bagels at home. The recipe didn't seem to terribly hard so I figured well might as well try it out. First I found a whole wheat bagel recipe and separately I found a recipe for the everything seasoning to put on top, FYI. Also, these are technically honey wheat, I left out the honey because Adam likes everything salty. So here is the recipe!!

Whole Wheat Bagels

1 1/4 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
4 cups whole wheat flour, more if needed


Instructions


Combine boiling water, honey, salt in large bowl. Cool to lukewarm. 

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, add to honey mixture when it has cooled. Stir in 2 cups flour and beat well to develop gluten. Add remaining flour, kneading well till smooth and elastic. Shape dough into balls. Poke a hole in the middle of each one. Cover with dry cloth, let sit 30 minutes. 

In a large kettle of salted water, boil water, boil bagels, 4 or 5 at a time, for 7 minutes, turning once with slotted spoon. Place on ungreased sheet, bake at 375 F for 30 to 35 minutes.


Recipe from: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/270/Whole-Wheat-Bagels94258.shtml


Seasoning
4 tsp Poppy Seeds
4 tsp Sesame Seeds
4 tsp Onion Flakes
4 tsp Garlic Flakes


Recipe from: http://haleysuzanne.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/bba-3-bagels-and-a-topping-recipe/

The bagels after they rose

Boiling the bagels then putting them on the baking tray to bake

The end result...

Easy granola breakfast!

Well now that busy season is upon us Adam has been getting home late and trying to get into the office early. This is normal, but our new obstacle is getting Adam to the tram stop on time to take the tram to HB and then catch the train to the client. So i'm trying to come up with breakfast ideas that are quick, heathy, and easy for him to eat. I ran across a great granola recipe but had to modify it because I can't get all the ingredients here in Zurich. So i'll give you my recipe and a link to the original to let you choose.

Granola
2 C whole oats
1/3 C chopped almonds
1/4 C dried cranberries
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 C honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 325F
2. Chop up almonds, if whole, Mix Oats, almonds, and cranberries in glass bowl.
3. In sauce pan heat butter, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, cloves, ginger, and salt. Do not bring to boil, heat enough that the ingredients mix together.
4. Pour sauce over the oat mixture and stir together until all of oat mixture is coated.
5. Pour oat mixture into pan that has sides on it so the honey doesn't run off into your oven. Spread mixture evenly for baking
6. Put in oven and bake for 25-30 min or until it is starting to brown and harden.
7. Pull out of oven and let stand for 5 min to cool a little and harden slightly.
8. Put parchment or wax paper on the counter and flip pan on top so the mixture starts to fall out. Once mixture is on the paper break it apart into little clumps so it can cool thoroughly. The oat mixture should still be sticky and easy to move around. If you let it cool in the pan you will have a tough time getting it out.

Adam really liked the granola on top of his strawberry yogurt this morning. It takes 5 min to put together and is a quick eat for someone who usually has to run out of the door. Below is a link to the original granola recipe for anyone who wants to try the unmodified recipe.

http://www.emilybites.com/2012/01/granola-cups-with-yogurt.html

Enjoy!!!

New Pizza Recipe

After getting back from Christmas Vacation Adam and I have been on a veggie detox. We stuffed ourselves on every kind of unhealthy food imaginable while we were home. The picture in the previous post will elude you to the gist hahaha. Now that we've been eating mostly veggies the last week we were ready for something different. We actually made the recipe twice and the tweeks the second night made the pizza much better. It is a Caramelized onion, mushroom, Brie, and Gorgonzola pizza.

To start it off I made the wheat pizza dough recipe I used in my other pizza blog. Just in case you don't have it here is a link to it on allrecipe.com

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amazing-whole-wheat-pizza-crust/detail.aspx

I have a recipe I followed for the pizza except I used my wheat pizza dough instead of the puff pastry. I looked at the ingredients for the puff pastry and decided I didn't want to eat a tub of butter. To make this quicker you can get a ready made pizza dough or puff pastry dough.

Caramelized onion, mushroom, Brie, and Gorgonzola Pizza


4 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tsp Thyme
3 Bay leaves
1 Tsp Garlic Powder or 1 pressed garlic clove
2-3 White Onions sliced longways
2 c sliced Portabella Mushrooms
Brie Cheese
Gorgonzola Cheese

1. Slice the onions into strips, like half moons.

2. Heat  2 Tbsp olive oil in a pot between medium low and medium. You don't want them to burn you want them to turn a nice caramel color so it takes a little longer at a lower temp.

3. Add in onions, thyme, bay leaves, and garlic. Give it a stir and mix it all together so all the onions are nicely coated with the olive oil. Then cover the pot for a few minutes so the steam can help the onions cook quicker. After about 3-5 min remove the lid and swirl the onions around to see if they are sticking, which they most likely are. Loosen them up and now you may have to keep your eye on them and continue to stir for the next 15 min. Then they should be finished. Total time for caramelizing is about 20-25.

4. Remove onions from pot and set aside to cool. Take out Bay leaves and discard.

5. Add the other 2 Tbsp to the same pot and then add the mushrooms to saute, about 7 min.

6. Roll out dough for the pizza, in the above recipe I only use half of the dough for a pizza for Adam and I so you can gauge yours on how many your feeding.

7. Put brie and gorgonzola cheese on the pizza first, then add onions, then mushrooms.

8. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 min if it's a convection oven and 18-20 min if a regular oven. Keep an eye on it.

Enjoy!

Extra info: Adam did this to the crust last night and it was awesome!!
Mix, 1Tbsp olive oil, 1/4tsp salt, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, and a shake of red pepper flakes, together. When crust has risen and is at the spot right before it will brown, pull it out. Brush olive oil mixture on crust and put back in the oven for a couple of minutes. Then the crust will be a little more golden brown and the added flavors are really great.

Here are some pictures:

The Caramelized Onions at the end

Cooking the mushrooms

The End Result Yum!!

Our last day in STL!

Wednesday was our last day at home. We had to return to Zurich on Thursday. So we had breakfast with Adam's family in the morning, then while Adam had a dentist appointment, I spent the afternoon at my mom's house. That night we did a smorgasbord of American food. We seriously looked like pigs if you had seen it...Oh wait you can I took a picture!

As you can see we have everything you could want that is unhealthy for you. Three Roma's pizza's, 2 imo's ravioli's, an assortment of potato chips (including 3 or 4 bags of cheeto's), ton's of cookies, velveeta and salsa dip, and sushi. Yeah I guess Adam wanted sushi. I think he ate half of it hahahaha! So you see very low calorie dishes =) It was a great meal. We talked and spent time with the Adam's family and my mom for most of the night. Till Adam and I needed to try packing and weighing our luggage of course. So many rules when flying!!!

So much awesome food!!!

We had the best trip home! We loved seeing our amazing families and friends and are sad to think we won't be home for another year. We are looking forward to our year ahead and all the travel we will do. Time will fly and before we know it, we will be on our long flight home again. Then home permanently after that. Thank you to our incredible families who let us stay with them, fed us an enormous amount of food, took us shopping, and spent hours talking and reconnecting with us. You all made our holiday unforgettable!

The last days of our Stop at home!

We have now, somehow, created a new tradition for christmas I think. Well, more the day after christmas. We had our christmas morning present opening with Adam's parents and Amanda and Scott the day after christmas. Then our new tradition started. We took off for Crown Candy Kitchen to get milkshakes. It may be in a terrible neighborhood but it's totally worth it. The milkshakes were so good! There was a line out the door which we weren't excited about, but we soon realized it was to sit and eat. So we ended up bypassing everyone and ordering them to go. Then Amanda and Scott took off for his family festivities and we took off with Debbie and Dave.

Tuesday morning was bitter sweet. Sarah and Michael had to drive back to OK, so we thought anyways. So I had to say goodbye to Cash and then to Sarah. Normally i'm pretty good by now of saying goodbye, she's lived in OK for I think close to 10 years.  Living abroad now with less communication and Cash just kind of put me over the edge. I cried like a baby when she hugged me goodbye. They soon left and I spent the afternoon with my mom.

Adam picked me up and we had to get ready for dinner with my Dad. While getting ready I get an unexpected call. Sarah and Michael had in fact not been able to get out of town in time. So they were coming to dinner that night with us. Dad took us to Andria's in Edwardsville that night and it was so nice. The food was as usual remarkable, and Cash was loads of fun.

The Christmas Finale!

Christmas Eve and Christmas were such awesome days! Christmas Eve morning started off with Wood River donuts at Mom's house with Sarah, Michael, Cash, and my sister Dana was able to make it over too!!  Mom and Adam were there too if you didn't assume that. We played and entertained Cash for a lot of that morning. We weren't sure if Cash was scared of Adam's deep voice, but he would start crying when Uncle Adam would start talking the first couple of meetings they had. It was pretty funny! But the little girls they love Adam. His little cousin Sophie in Georgia after a couple of days of us being there reached out to him wanting him to hold her. This would be not be so weird usually, except that her mom was holding her at the time and she never let go of her mom. Second example. That night at his Uncle Mike's Church,Lifehouse, a little girl around 2 ran up to him and hugged him. Asked his name everything!! Yeah never met the little girl in his life!! Someone wants all boys when we start having kids but I'm thinking he's a little girls daddy through and through hahahaha!!

But I digress back to our Christmas fun filled weekend. Christmas Eve night started with Adam and I's tradition. We always have takeout Chinese, watch a Christmas Story, and open our stockings to each other. We altered it a little this year. Adam's parents joined us for some greasy chinese food (that was awesome) and then Adam and I went to Metro's Christmas Eve service. Afterwards, we went to Uncle Mike's Christmas Eve service and got to see the family as well. Then off to bed...more festivities the next day.

Christmas Day...so fun and so full! We started off at my Mom's house for christmas with my family. We opened presents and then Adam and I got to work making breakfast for everyone. I made Blueberry scones and Adam made potatoes, eggs, and bacon.  Then we had to get everyone ready for Aunt Lydia's house.

Someone was still asleep when we arrived Christmas morning...but that didn't last long!

Someone's a very happy baby!

Our large Caravan headed to my Aunt Lydia's for my mom's side for christmas. We got to see almost everyone. It was our first Christmas without my Grandma Mary, she passed away this fall and we all miss her terribly. We were also missing my Uncle Mike, who was unfortunately in the hospital recovering from surgery. He is one of my biggest supporters for living over here and always encourages me to have a blast and see as much as possible, and I dearly love him for that.

Well a lot of food and a little spit up from Cash later and Adam and I had to take off for more food and the Ward's side for Christmas. We had so much fun talking with everyone in Adam's family. We ate waaayy to much food and played some Christmas trivia games that Debbie Created. It was a very long and fun filled day!

Christmas with the Ward's and Woods's 2011

Abby needs some Cash!!!

Not Cash in the usual sense...but Thomas Cash, my adorable nephew. I was lucky enough to get a ridiculously cheap flight to OKC to spend a couple days with Sarah, Michael, and Cash and then drive back with them before Christmas. Sarah and Cash picked me up at the airport and we headed straight to the outlet mall they just built in Oklahoma City. I love shopping with my sister! Cash was pretty awesome while we were shopping. We did some damage and then sat down to eat and chill out. Sarah let Cash play with the straw on her cup and he got the water about half an inch from his mouth. So that game was over and he was pissed. He's only 4 months so we didn't think he could figure that out...whoops! Now of course everytime we were drinking water out of cups with straws he would look at us and try to get ahold of it. Michael and Bryan were teasing him at one point and he stuck out his bottom lip and looked like he would cry. The cuteness of that kid broke my heart. Glad he's Sarah's and not mine. I think I would give in to anything he wanted.

Wednesday night was awesome! We all went out for American BBQ and it was AAAAAmazing! I forgot how much I missed a pulled pork sandwich. The next day was more shopping and running errands and packing them up for our drive home. Plus some quality time with Cash while Sarah was getting stuff done. Dinner that night was also sooo good. A big fat burger!!

Friday we took off for STL. We had an 8hr car ride ahead of us with a 4 month old. I wasn't sure how that would go but he did so great up until the last 45 min. By that time he was sick of his car seat. Adam, Debbie, and Michael's brother Bryan came over to mom's house and brought Roma's for dinner.

It was such a fun trip to OKC. I wish it had been longer! But we've got more Cash later on for Christmas!

Uncle Adam with his Nephew..boy looks good with a baby hahaha!

Cash up close and cute as a button

Auntie Abby with Cash on Christmas morning!

Home for CHRISTMAS!!!

Well Adam and I took off for the great USA to go home for Christmas on Dec 15th...we had two weeks and were going to make the most of it. By my comment making the most of it means I had an excel spreadsheet of our itinerary and we had something going on for every meal and coffee in between meals. I have never been so busy in my entire life for two weeks at a time. Also, a note for anyone we didn't get to see we sincerely apologize. If we could have we definitely wanted to see you. We miss EVERYONE from home!

After landing at 9:15pm on thursday night 4am our time we were pretty spent. Our parents picked us up at the airport and took us straight home to bed. The reason we came in so early was because Adam wanted to go to meetings at his KPMG St. Louis office on friday morning. So yeah he got up and left the house by 7:30am the next day. Can we say crazy!! We eventually got to sleep more through out our trip home but that first weekend we were messed up!! Friday was shopping and quality with my Momma. We have a tradition of going shoe shopping for my birthday so we did a belated shopping trip for that. Plus christmas shopping as well. Surprisingly we had almost all our shopping done in the form of 50% of our luggage being chocolate =)

Saturday through Tuesday was a whirl wind of friends and food. Starting off with Andy and Katie and ROMA's. We introduced our friends to Roma's pizza. I'm kind of pleased with being able to get there so quickly in our trip. Had we come in around 5 or 6pm from Zurich we would have stopped there on the way home from the airport hahaha! We also were able to attend our Church, Metro, Sunday morning. It was so awesome to see everyone there. Before getting in the door to church we were greeted and hugged by friends. Of course, there is always a little sadness in every story. Adam and I both always love the music...but it makes Adam sad to not be up there playing the drums. It's  a love of his to make music with one of the greatest groups he's ever played with. I just kept telling him only a year and a half and you'll be back in rotation. Sounds long but it'll fly by. Dinner that night with the Johnson's and some amazing chinese food!!

On Monday we had the joy of having a huge party with our small group and everyone was able to make it. It was amazing to see everyone! So many things had changed including new pregnancy's, engagements,  and all the kids getting so much bigger. Also, a great group of people we miss and love so much! We will be so happy when they become our weekly routine again.

Tuesday was a freshen up day. Starting off with my dentist appointment and then haircuts for both Adam and I. I hadn't had one since before we left for Zurich! I also had the pleasure of visiting my office and co-workers. Finally to conclude the day dinner with some of our favorite friends, the Sonderegger's and mexican food!! We never get mexican over here. There is one restaurant here and it's not that good.

So far our trip home has been awesome....but it's about to get even better for me starting on Wednesday...