Day 4 of our "Clean"

We've been doing pretty good so far. The first day was EASY! I don't know if it was the adrenalie, or the pure coconut milk in our first morning smoothie, but we started off really well. So, basically what we're doing is have two liquid meals and one regular meal a day. You have to end with a liquid meal, and then fast for 12 hours, which means absolutely NO snacking after dinner...which is the hardest for both Joe and I. I'm so proud of him especially, because he's been a BIG snacker at night.
I went to the store and bought some of the most important ingredients for the first couple of days, which included kale, carrots, quinoa, wild rice, pineapple, mango, almonds to make my own almond milk (yes, you read correctly!) etc. Some of the foods, I had to look up, because I seriously had never heard of them, like:

Chia seeds ( apparently, a super food seed, which can be added to your smoothie)
Dulse flakes (a kind of sea weed, but very rubbery...I have not tasted it yet, I'm a a little scared of it, to tell you the truth!)
Nama shoyu ( a wheat free soy sauce)

I think the most difficult part is planning ahead. I have to make sure, Joe has his Shake in the morning and his lunch packed and ready, which means I have to cook a day ahead. So that's a big change, because I don't normally start thinking about what to cook for dinner that same morning. But so far so good.
Also, the portions are enormous! Most days I find myself with left overs, even with us sharing the food! The book says that the recipes are for two, well, you could easily feed a three if not four! So today, I had actually planned the Watercress and Shaved Fennel Salad with Seared Tuna, but we found ourselves finish the Lentil Salad and I added a grilled chicken breast, because I felt like I needed that extra protein.
Here are some pictures of what we've been eating:

Berry Smoothie with Coconut Milk and Cinnamon



Roast Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar. Garlic, and Rosemary Wild Rice Pilaf



Stir Fried Vegetables and Chicken with Buckwheat Noodles



Not bad, right?

They also aren't joking when they say in the book to make sure you pay close attention to your bowel movements! They suggested to buy a "natural diuretic" and so we bought something called Swiss Kriss. I know what you think, but no I didn't buy it because I am Swiss. I actually wanted to get Dr. Schulze's Intestinal Formula to "promote daily, generous bowel movements" but Whole Foods didn't have it. All I can say is, they do what they promise, maybe more than you hoped for!

The biggest cravings I'm fighting right now, are chocolate, eggs, my Earl Grey tea, and and the occasional Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha...

But we added something to keep me from thinking about those things too much; they're called Marshmallow and Rose. Welcome our newest addition to our family!




We adopted them over the weekend, completely spontaneous and unplanned, but they've already added a lot of fun and excitement to our daily lives! They are mother and son and were found half starved before they ended up with a foster family. Sofia had the important job of naming them, and I think she did a great job! Needless to say, she is over the moon!

So, with that I wish you a good night and happy fasting!

Cleansing

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post, but I'm back and I'm planning on giving you at least 21 days of posts this year! Why 21 you ask? Because as of tomorrow dear husband and I are starting a cleanse, which will hopefully last 21 days. We've never done anything the like and I'm not sure how I'm going to do, but I figured I have absolutely nothing to lose! Well I do, actually, about 30lbs. However, while I don't think I will lose that much weight, I'm really hoping I will "cleanse" as much as I can. What do I mean by that? Literally cleanse, of course. I feel like I've been lugging so much unwanted stuff along with me, emotional and physical stuff, that I've become super sluggish and sedentary...sniff...sniff... yes it's sad but true.

I do believe that I live a somewhat healthy lifestyle, but all that baking I've beed doing lately surely isn't helping, even though I give most of it away. Plus, of course, I'm going home in about 6 weeks and I just can't shake the fact that my dear mother will certainly have a comment or two about my figure. Don't get me wrong, I love her dearly, but sometimes she just doesn't know when to shut up (and no, she will never find out I just said that, unless you know her and will translate it for her >:( )

The cleanse we're doing is by Alejandro Junger, M.D. I first heard about him and his book Clean on the Martha Stewart Show this week. Actually, I believe it was a re-run, but I'm glad I caught it! His cleanse incorporates smoothies, juices, soups and one meal a day, which you eat for lunch. He gives you all the recipes you will need for a 21 day cleanse, which is great, because if I had to come up with that stuff myself I might as well give up right now. Also, I don't quite have the money to buy a kit. So this works well for me. At least I hope so.

So tomorrow morning, instead of cereal or eggs or pancakes, I will make us a lovely Mango and Coconut milk smoothie! Sounds pretty darn good, no? I think the hardest part for me will be giving up caffeine and sugar, of course! Heck, I tried to not drink my morning Earl Grey today and I got all crabby and short tempered, not to mention suuuper tired right around 2pm, when I usually have another one, or worse, COFFEE!!!

So, cleansing it is. Tomorrow, first day. Come back and check out how I'm doing! I might even reveal some stats, who knows!

3 Days 'till Christmas...

...really? Wow. I just got the stuffers for Sofia's Advent Calendar (it gets more and more fun to find little things to put into the little boxes with each year she grows up) and now there are only 3 left! I am pleased to say, that I've completed my Christmas shopping today and am ready to wrap everything. All the overseas packages have been shipped and so have the ones for our closer relatives (I hope the Jam and Chutney made it to Connecticut in one piece, Betty?), the tree has been chopped down and decorated and the Christmas cards have been written and finally sent out. Phew!
I vividly remember Sofia decorating our tree last year. We were potty training her at that time, and have a picture of her sitting on her potty in front of the tree, decorating it! This year she was equally involved if not more. She didn't want me to see that she was starting to decorate, even though I told her to wait, because we hadn't put up the lights yet. This is what she did to me, so that I couldn't "see" what she was up to:



She actually taped the thing onto my forehead!
I literally had to fight to be able to put a couple of ornaments (or ordaments, as she calls it). She has become quite the decorator, she loves helping me and I let her to some extent. She's also become quite skilled in her cutting and wrapping and has helped me with all our presents going to Switzerland. It's so much fun getting her involved. Like for example, my mommy group had another cookie decorating extravaganza and all of the kids were super involved in decorating this year. What a difference from last year, where it was rather chaotic! Here are some pictures of that event:




Her "blinged-out" gingerbread man!


I love our baking tradition and our dear friend Karen, even though she was three days away from giving birth, hosted it again this year and provided us with a mountain of already baked cookies that were screaming for some frosting and sugar sprinkles! She even made us dinner that night! Seriously woman, you were on such a baby high that night! How else could you pull something like that off, hugely pregnant! You rock and we love, love, love you!!

Santa Claus also came to Sofia's Preschool and she was utterly surprised by that event. I hadn't told her in advance and so when he showed up, she was so excited! She was the first to go up and tell him what she wanted from him for Christmas and I bet you, the poor guy had no idea what she was talking about, haha. She told him she wanted a "moving cat". This is what she meant by that.
It's creepy. It moves, and purrs, and miaows, and blinks at you...I, er Santa, got it for her and now I pray she won't have nightmares because of that! Anyway, she mentioned it so much that I felt I had better got her one! We'll see how she'll do with it, I guess? Haha.

Aaanyway, so Christmas is coming and there is no denying it anymore. I'm going to miss my family back home, as always especially this time a year, but we'll probably do a web chat with my mom on Christmas day, which is always nice.

And of course, the year is coming to an end and I think both Joe and I are glad this time. We've had a rough year, financially and emotionally. He got laid off from Ebay in July and I shortly after miscarried at 6.5 weeks. Luckily, he found another job very quickly. As for me, I'm still emotionally suffering a little over that lost pregnancy, especially since we've been trying for about 1.5 years now. It's not something I've been talking about with everyone, and I thought that maybe writing it down would be some sort of therapy for me. Thank you for listening.

So, as this year comes to an end, we will hug and kiss our daughter just a little bit more, because we're reminded once again that she truly IS a gift to us!

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Samichlaus 101

We went to this year's Samichlaus again and it was a blast, mostly because Sofia is so much more into it this year, she even sat on Santa's lap with no fear whatsoever! They brought in "snow" so that the kids could play, mostly snowball fights.




This essay that was published in our Peninsula Swiss Club Newsletter by a man named Roger Bonner and it captures our "Saint Nicholas" tradition so well, I just had to put it in here to share. Enjoy:

Fröhliche Buon Bellas Noël!
By Roger Bonner

Christmas in Switzerland must be a paradise for children because there are so many different ways of celebrating this festival. In Catholic areas the season begins on 6th December, St. Nicholas Day. Now Samichlaus, San Nicolao or Père Noël, as he is variously known throughout the country, is not the obese, materialistic hohohooooing Santa Claus of North America who can barely make it down the chimney, but a lean, bearded bishop-like figure who comes round with a donkey and a fearful companion dressed in a dark cloak and hood called Schmutzli, also known as Knecht Ruprecht in Germany.“Have you been good boys and girls?” is the grim question and, if not, Schmutzli could in the past haul them off in a huge sack or even dispense corporeal punishment with his bundle of twigs. Usually the kiddies have tried hard to behave in the past few days and will receive cookies, tangerines, nuts, and, perhaps, even a chocolate cell phone.

Very important is the Adventkranz, a decorated evergreen wreath with four candles that families place on the dining room table. The first candle is lit on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The ceremony is sometimes accompanied with the singing of carols, and more eating of sweets - to be repeated on three more Sundays! Little children love Advent calendars, glittery posters traditionally depicting the Nativity, with angels and shepherds in the background. There are 24 tiny doors concealing Christmas pictures that they can open each December day, the last and largest being on Christmas Eve. And again each time they are rewarded with sweets.


During the season the land is overcome with a veritable baking mania. Housewives (and increasingly househusbands) break into a cookie fever to produce tons and tons of Weihnachtsguetzli with such lilting names as Brunsli, Mailänderli, Zimtsternli and Anisbrötli. They give them to friends and relatives who in turn present them with their own confections. The left-over glut of sweets may last well into February and be secretly fed to pigeons, a reason why so many of them have difficulty becoming airborne in the New Year. All of these elaborate preparations culminate in Christmas Eve.

The tree, not yet the giant, overloaded variety of North America, is decorated and lit with real candles and even sparklers, which keeps the firefighters in the country very tense. Children are not allowed to see what’s going on behind closed doors until their parents reveal the splendour and gifts to them. In many parts of Switzerland it is Christkindli, the Christ Child, and not Santa Claus, who brings the gifts, which are opened on Christmas Eve. The meal on Christmas Eve is usually kept simple: salmon on toast, cold cuts and pâtés are favourites. On Christmas day you hardly ever see a turkey or goose with all the trimmings. A Schüfeli is the fare, a rolled ham. In many households eating a cheese fondue or fondue bourguignonne, in which pieces of meat are dipped in hot oil or broth, have become increasingly popular, and then guess what’s for desert? Cookies!

French-speaking Switzerland, except for Fribourg, is predominantly Protestant and therefore Christmas is lower key. December 6 is hardly noticed. Père Noël climbs through the window on Christmas Eve to leave presents for good little boys and girls (if this were a condition for grown-ups no one would ever get anything!). In some families, he makes a personal appearance to hand out the gifts, but first the kids have to sing and dance and recite poems. As a reminder to be good throughout the following year, Father Christmas might conspicuously leave a bundle of twigs within easy reach.

Across the St. Gotthard and San Bernardino Passes lies the beautiful canton of Ticino. Here the spirit of Italy prevails. Although most families put up a Christmas tree, the Nativity, or presepio, is greatly cherished. Little stables made of twigs or wood are put under the tree. Family members go out to gather moss for lining the
manger. Then they place figurines of the Madonna, Giuseppe and angels, along with sheep, mules and oxen, in the presepio. The Gesú Bambino, the Baby Jesus, is lovingly added at midnight of Christmas Eve. The children in Ticino receive their presents on Christmas Day, and many believe it is the Gesú Bambino who has left them.
Some may even put out a bowl of milk for him before going to bed on Christmas Eve as an incentive to bring plenty, something which the cats love. The Ticinese enjoy their traditional meal of polenta with brazatto, a braised beef dish, or risotto on the afternoon of Christmas Day.

For sheer beauty and variety of landscape nothing beats the canton of Graubünden, where Romansch, an ancient Latin tongue, is mainly spoken. The mountains above the small town of Maienfeld are the home of Heidi, the classic tale which has delighted children the world over for more than a hundred years. As in the Ticino, most of the families of Graubünden decorate their homes with both a Christmas tree and a nativity scene called a purseppen. However, Christmas traditions can vary from place to place. In Catholic towns, St. Nicholas comes dressed as a bishop. In Protestant towns he is called Sontgaclau and he assumes the terrifying role of Schmutzli elsewhere. Children often receive their presents from Christkindli on Christmas Day. For the Christmas meal, each family prepares its own traditional menu, featuring ham or Bündnerfleish – air-dried beef cut in paper-thin slices.

However the customs may vary in Switzerland, a good Christmas spirit and joy of life is common to them all. And where else in the world can I you wish a Merry Christmas in four different languages?

Fröhliche Weihnachten, Joyeux Noël, Buon Natale, Bellas Festas!

A pretty stinky mess (...and I'm not even talking about Sofia)

About three weeks ago I decided it was time I tried a compost. We had just carved the pumpkins for Halloween the night after the garbage came, which was really bad timing on our part. But the garbage comes Tuesday morning, and I didn't think our Jack O'Lanterns would make it until Saturday.

So, where was I? Ah yes, my glorious idea to start a compost. All those pumpkin "guts" had to go somewhere and I wasn't going to throw it into the trash or leave it out and let it rot. I decided I couldn't spend much money on something I 1)didn't know how to do, and 2) didn't know whether I would be religious about it. So I decided on a simple green plastic garbage bin with a lid. I had researched it a little and at the time, it seemed a great idea. I even got out the drill and drilled some holes in it myself! That alone was worth the project! So empowering! Then I needed to fill it with stuff. Well, I had the pumpkin guts for starters and some leaves and other "brown" material, like junk mail, news paper, and an egg carton. When I dumped the pumpkin onto my "brown" material, I had a flight feeling that since it had already started to decompose in the bucket I had it stored in, that it somehow was going to be a bad idea. Bravely, I continued my quest and day by day I diligently collected my kitchen scraps, avoiding the meat, because I heard that the fat would attract all kinds of bad things.

Well, I don't know what happened, but the next time I opened the lid, I was greeted by Maggots! *Shudder* I know! I tried to ignore my gag reflex, which immediately started to act up. I am by no means a squirmy person, and thought that once you've changed a poopy diaper, you'd be pretty much immune to such things. But that's where I draw the line. Maggots? Come ON!! There weren't a lot, well, I don't really know because who in god's name would count them? But immediately I went online to see what I could find on this subject. Nobody had ever warned me about them. It's like when you're pregnant and everybody just always tells you the fun and exciting things but somehow decides to ignore to tell you, that the body you once knew, has gone bye-bye, and I'm not just talking about the visible parts, if you catch my drift.
Apparently, I was not the only one with this problem. I found more on "it" than I ever wanted to know about, but my problem seemed simple. My compost was too wet. This attracts the flies and I will not go into detail what exactly happens, but if you google it, you will find out, trust me on that!
I decided I wasn't going to give up so easily. After all, what was I going to do with it now? Throw it onto the streets? I was going to buy wood shavings, the kind I used for the Guinea Pig cage, but again didn't want to spend any more money on it than I absolutely had to. So I chose dirt. That should dry things up quickly, right? Besides, our backyard has plenty of that. Still. But that's a whole 'nother story.

It helped. I got rid of "them" for a while, but they came back as soon as I added more kitchen scraps. Then I read that you should wash out the egg shells, especially the fresh ones with the egg white still in it, because "they" like that, too. Good grief! So I wash the damn egg shells, crush them and THEN put them in, right? Right. Sounds like a lot of work, but OK. Believe it or not, I haven't seen "one" since! Again, I do not necessarily go look for 'em but at least they're not visible. I do understand that "they" help break down the stuff and make it what everybody loves so much, organic, nice earthy smelling compost. But if I have a choice, I'd rather not see "them" or know about it. Hello!

Two weekends ago, Joe mowed our puffs of green grass in the front of our house. To call it "lawn" would be an overstatement. I got really excited, because that's good stuff for a compost! I told him to just go ahead and dump it right into the bin. The next day, when I opened the lid, I was greeted by a delicious smell of cut grass! I was in compost heaven! I felt like I could DO THIS! So I continued what I was doing, all the while desperately trying to avoid for it to get too wet. I turned it every once in a while, because I read that you should do that.

Then came today. Sadly, I am now almost at a point to kick the stupid bin into the street and let the raccoons, skunks and whatever else wants a piece of it have a go at it! I opened the lid, always being cautious since the "m" disaster, and was greeted by a foul smell, which almost made me throw up! What the HELL happened?? Even Sofia, who was standing about 30 feet away said, "Phewie, mommy, what's that smell??" That, my dear, would be mommy's friggin' compost, that she just HAD to HAVE! Did I give up right then and there you wonder? No. I grabbed a bucket, stormed out to the front and got as much of the leaves on our street, as I could, marched back there, dumped some of my mess out (thank GOD we haven't done our backyard yet!), put the leaves in, and filled it back up. Repeated the whole thing twice!

The bin with all its smelly contents is still in the backyard as of now. I seriously doubt that it will ever turn into compost at this point, but I'm not sure as to what to do with it now? Do I handle it too much? Should I put much, much more "brown's" in it? Should I add worms? WHAT? I so want a compost. But if that's what I have to go through EVERY. SINGLE. TIME then I don't want it! Maybe I am delusional to think that this can ever work. I don't know! I don't know. I've almost lost faith. I really do want to help the environment, do the right thing.

So, if any of you out there reading this, have any idea, PLEASE let me know, before my neighbors call the Department of Health, or worse the Police on me because they think I've buried a dead body or something. Anyone? Please?

Happy Birthday Sofia!

We celebrated Sofia's birthday with a big Princess party last Saturday. Her actual birthday was on the 20th, but with the weather being a bit unpredictable these days (so unusual for California for this time of the year) I chose not to wait and celebrate it the weekend before. It was really adorable to see all these little princesses running around the park in their costumes!
Joe had bought her a Cinderella dress for the occasion, complete with staff and tiara. I went and got her her "glass slippers" aka. silver sparkle shoes, to complete the look. Oh, you should have seen her face when we presented her with the dress the morning of the party! The look on her face was priceless as you can see in this little clip we took of her.

I love surprising her like that, it makes my day. And Joe admitted having had a lot of fun buying the dress and accessories for her!

Preparations for her party had started about a month before, or maybe even more, because I started researching online, what type of cake I should make for her. Some of you know, that I really like baking, but for her birthday I chose to do something I had never done before. I was debating between a Princess cake or a Castle cake, in 3D, meaning standing up, not lying flat. At this point, I had no idea of how many people would be at the party, but as my preparations got more specific, I realized I needed a bigger cake, the Princess cake wouldn't cut it. The worst would be to run out of cake at the party, right? So I decided on the Castle cake. I asked Sofia what color it should be in, and naturally, she said, "Pink!"

I decided that I needed to do a cake trial first. I was going to work with fondant, and for that I needed to practice. This turned out to be a good idea, because on my first attempt, I failed miserably. I had rolled it out too thin and it started tearing everywhere. I also needed a really delicious cake, that wasn't too dry but dense enough for me to cut and shape. I decided on a Victoria cake, which basically consists of flour, butter, 6(!)eggs and sugar. That's it. This cake is really easy to flavor, which I did, because even though Sofia said she wanted a Vanilla cake, I felt it necessary to also make a chocolate one.
Working with fondant turned out to be such a fun thing! It's basically a sugar mass (you can buy it already made by Wilton) that is very soft and malleable. Some day I'd like to try making my own, which will probably taste much better. It's also super easy to color it any shade you want, by kneading in some food color gel. I decided I needed some little flowers and leaves to decorate the cake later on, so this gave me good practice in coloring and shaping. The best part of it all, it's edible!
Thursday came around and I needed to start baking my cakes. I was really happy, that for part of this, Sofia was in preschool, because she ended up being a little neglected by me for all the cake preparation.
Friday morning the electronic Babysitter (aka TV) had to come on, because it was time to shape and fill the cakes and also coat it with a delicious vanilla butter cream. I chose a simple whipped cream filling, in which I added frozen mixed berries for the chocolate cake and fresh strawberries for the vanilla cake. I also used a red currant jelly to coat the bottom layer of the cakes. I really wanted raspberry jelly, but couldn't find one (I didn't want the seeds) but the red currant turned out really nice. It gave a little bit of a tangy, fresh kick to the whole cake, very yummy! Coating the cakes with the butter cream turned out a bit of a challenge for me as well. Again, I had never done this before, and actually doing it versus just reading about it was a whole different story! I did a fairly decent job, but it could have been smoother. I didn't bother with it, because it was going to get covered with my fabulous pink fondant.








Setting up the fondant for the side.





That same night it was time to decorate my cakes. I had a 9x13 sheet cake, two 3 layer towers, two turrets, made with cake filled ice cream cones, and a 5 inch topper to cover and decorate. With the help of Joe and Carmen (our Swiss exchange student, who is staying with us until the end of the month) we rolled, cut, squeezed, colored, shaped, and "glued", until about 1am in the morning! The end result was quite a sight to see, in fact, I was REEEAAALLLY happy with the whole cake! It turned out so beautiful! My biggest concern though, was would it also taste good? It did! The cake was really flavorful and moist, but dense enough to hold shape, mmm, so delicious!

Mommy and Papa at work.



One of the towers up close. I piped on some vines with chocolate frosting. Pretty!



Here is the whole cake put together the day of the party. I have to say, I'm proud of myself. It turned out really beautiful, and most of all, Sofia LOVED it!

Happy Birthday Switzerland!

August 1st is our National Day, our Independence Day, the day the first three Cantons (Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden) swore "a bond of brotherhood, and agree to act jointly if their freedoms were threatened by outside aggressors". Believe it or not that was in the year 1291. Yes, my country is over 700 years old, 718, to be exact! It's a time to feel proud of my country, even though I have not lived there for over 12 years. America is where I live, but Switzerland will always be Home.

We did quite a bit of celebrating today. First we went to Sofia's friend Sadie's 2nd Birthday, and after her nap we went to Los Altos, where the Peninsula Swiss Club hosted its August 1st celebration. We were greeted by little Swiss flags all over the place, including one for each of the 26 Cantons. They offered a traditional Swiss dinner of "Fleischkaese", delicious bread, and different salads, followed by an extensive array of desserts, of which most of them were home made, of course! It was simply delicious. They also had a band playing traditional "Laendler" music. I have never really been a fan of it, but I have to say, today it warmed my heart! Of course, Sofia took to the stage as soon as she was able to, and amused many of the guests with some of her dance moves! Unfortunately, I ran out of batteries on my camera, but not before I could at least capture some of it:



We had a good time, and as always it reminded me of home and how proud I am to be a citizen of such a beautiful country!