January 31, 2013 - Baby Ward's ETA

Daddy, Baby Ward, and Mommy

Well it's official ( because it's on facebook? haha) I am pregnant. We found out in late May right after our  anniversary trip to Italy and Greece. We were so excited that we just stared at one another for awhile. The joy came a few minutes later after the shock wore off. We found a doctor shortly after and got in to make certain there was a baby in there. There was, and still is!! Of course soon after we found out Adam was flying out to Iceland for a week of work and then to Norway for 3 weeks. I thought being alone for so long was going to be horrible. Yeah not so much in the first trimester. While I had no morning sickness, the nausea was relentless. I spent so much time cooped up in our apartment laying on the couch eating crackers with a fan blowing on my face. It really is such a special time  =) So needless to say while I missed Adam terribly when he was gone I was definitely occupied with trying to not throw up!

My sister Sarah was my saving grace out of this. A long time ago when I stayed with her she made me this smoothy named, the nutty monkey. Through her pregnancy she had a lot of these because it was the only thing she could keep down. I thought well i'll try it and see what happens. Finally a food that wasn't a cracker or bread that I could keep down. As always, I had to improvise because of the ingredients here. I must say to whomever created peanut butter...I love you!!

The Nutty Monkey (Swiss Style)

Ice Cubes ( how ever big you want this)
1/2-3/4 C Milk (whether you like it thick or not)
1Tbsp Peanut butter
1 tsp Honey
1 Banana
1 Tbsp Cocoa powder

Basically you put it all in a blender and let her rip. I have gotten into a system of putting half the ice on bottom then the banana in chunks, then all the other toppings. That way the honey and peanut butter don't get into the bottom and don't get mixed in. Regardless i'm sure it will turn out great.


Now I am in my 12th week and looking forward to the energy and more diverse food that awaits me in the second trimester.

Baby Ward's first shoes in the middle of the crosswalk of Aemtlerstrasse. The first street he or she will live on.

The cobblestone streets of Zurich

New Food!!!

Since Adam's been out of town for the last few weeks, I've had no motivation to cook something new. Well he's finally back full time and I was inspired to put together something new for him. I came across a great buffalo chicken burger recipe. It went over great, Adam and I both really liked them. I had to do a slight variation because I can't get all the ingredients here.

Buffalo Chicken Burger


2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion minced
1 clove garlic pressed
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp hot sauce
1 lb ground chicken or turkey

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Then throw in the onion and pressed garlic and sauté for 5-7 min until the onion is translucent.

2. When the onion mixture is done mix in the tomato paste. When it's all mixed together take it off the heat and set aside to cool.

3. Once the mixture is cool mix in worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Thoroughly combine the meat and onion mixture together. Then form your burger patties and cook in the skillet or grill.  Of course make sure your burger is thoroughly cooked, since it is chicken. No medium rare burgers for this recipe haha.

From this point you can dress the burger anyway you like. I put white cheddar and avocado on our burgers. Very California style.

Good luck with the burgers! They were really good, definitely a recipe I will keep around for future use.

Here is the website for the original recipe. You can follow the directions more precisely with the ingredients you can find in the states.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/bbq-chicken-burgers-with-slaw-recipe/index.html

Le Tour de France - Porrentruy, Switzerland

Well as you may or may not know Adam has been holed up in Haugesund, Norway for the last 2 weeks. Therefore, there has not been a whole lot happening around here. Since he was home for the weekend, he was itching to go do something fun. It just so happened that the Tour de France was coming through Switzerland about 2 hours from us. So naturally Adam was all over that. We took off around lunch time and headed to Porrentruy. It took 3 different train rides but we finally  made it. It's a very very small town with not a whole lot to do. It's not very big which is also kind of a bonus. The streets were packed with people, food and drink stands, and large TV's so you could keep an eye on the race.

The Eiffel Tower along the route of the tour

One of the posters for the tour

Block Party for the tour

We were walking around trying to figure out the best place to park ourselves to see the main event. While in one area a group of people came through with cars and everyone started cheering so we thought everyone was about to start coming through...WRONG!!! We arrived in town around 2:30ish and I don't think the bikers came through until around 4:30-5:00pm. So of course we had no idea what was going on, we just stood around for awhile hanging out. Adam had heard there was  a hospitality caravan but we also had no idea what that meant. Well you know it when it happens. A hospitality caravan is like a fast moving parade of sponsors for the tour. A ton of the sponsors have vans and floats that come through and they toss out their product. When I say toss I use the term loosely. The girls throwing the key chains, hats, food, etc...can really fling that stuff hard. I was hit upside the head with a bag of hard candy and Adam was nailed in the chest with a couple pouches of liquid flavoring for water. So be prepared and cover your children if you go =)

Watching the route

The biggest sponsor, Vittel Water, was passing out water bottles...not throwing

Some kind of weird horse guys on stilts

The parade coming through

The main sponsor for le tour 

After the caravan was through there were a few more cars and motorcycles going through and then finally the main event. First came the motorcycle and then following was Pinot the winner for Stage 8.

Bikers coming through

The second group of bikers coming through. The guy in the yellow jersey is the winner from the day before.

The next group coming through

Another group of bikers coming through

Following him was a car with extra bikes on top. A few minutes later there was another motorcycle cop and following him was a large group of bikers. I'm assuming in that bunch was the 2nd and 3rd place winners. We were at the 2km mark so they still had some time to get around and win it at the end. We watched as the motorcycle cops led the different packs through town followed by cars carrying the back up bikes just in case. After waiting about 3 hours for this and the bikers coming through in about 5 seconds, we were exhausted and ready to go sit on the train.

 A video of the winner Pinot coming through town

This experience was very cool. Watching the bikers come through town and witnessing the race was so much fun. Totally worth the trip to head over and catch a leg of one of the races. Maybe in France next time who knows =)