Our first Geneva dinner party

July 10, 2011 by lauren

Post by Lauren

When packing for our big move, it was hard to know what to take and what not to take. Some things got packed we don’t need, and there are other things that we totally wished we had thrown in to our shipment since they are either hard to find in Switzerland or 4x the price. Anyhow, it is not an exact science, so we figure its okay.

I remember specifically standing in our Charlotte dining room figuring out what serving dishes and table we should take (Gabe and i were combining households at the same time). In the end, we under-packed in this area as Gabe and I assumed that we wouldn’t know enough people to have more than 6 over for dinner!

We feel so blessed that in Geneva, this has actually not been the case. We have met lots of great people and had our first dinner party as a married couple. However, I’d like to point out what happens when you don’t bring the leaf pieces to your dining room table…..yup, we are “bringing back” the concept of kids table by using our entry table as an extension.

I think many of our new friends are in the same boat with improvisation though, so luckily I don’t think anyone minded!

Fun fact : Most of us are Swiss newbies. The combined time in Geneva at this table = 23 total months counting Gabe behind the camera. A & A are the experts, being here 4 months. They are throwing off the “curve” with their tenure 🙂

Montreux Jazz Festival

July 7, 2011 by lauren

Post by Lauren

We had so many neat adventures this past weekend that I wanted to dive deeper into a few so that you could get the full experience. Luckily, guest Henry Birmingham is an amazing photographer so the next two days of posts are going to have more eye-candy than you are used to (all of the photos are his).

On Saturday, we traveled to Montreux Jazz Festival. According to wikipedia, Montreux Jazz Festival is the 2nd largest music festival in the world, after Montreal’s. If you recall, Gabe and I had been to Montreux on our first trip to Geneva – most of the sunset photos on our first post are of its beautiful Alp-view shoreline and the Chateau Chillon.

Throughout the week, artists such as B.B. King, Ziggy Marley, Carlos Santana, Natalie Cole, Jimmy Cliff, Seal, Quincy Jones, Paul Simon, House of Pain, Liza Minnelli, and everyone’s favorite Ricky Martin were playing in the different venues set up on the lakeshore. With us going the first Saturday, all the shows were sold out, but nonetheless, we decided to go check it out. Also, we heard there was a Jazz Train and Latin Music boat that could be cool options if we wanted a different pace from the land part of the festival.

We set out upon our day and had a little bit of a hiccup as it was the International Gay Pride Festival and they had started to close off the Geneva streets close to the train station. We finally decided to jump out and walk the last part. Here, Gabe is doing a victory cheer for beating the bus (bus in the distance)

After an hour train ride, we arrived and were immediately greeted by great music, beautiful art and our favorite find….reasonably priced AWESOME food. We are used to paying ridiculous prices for average food back home in Geneva. We prioritized and immediately split up to go get some eats and meet back at a table. This one kind of had a nice view.

The jazz train and salsa boat (above, bottom left) did look like fun, but we ended up just hanging out in the park watching the free jazz and wandering along the coastline to all the cool vendors.

We found the experience to be really cool, even without checking out one of the shows. We calculated that we can buy train tickets to Montreux, eat delicious festival fare and it will still cost less than an average low-budget meal in Geneva. Based on that, we may try to go back before it ends in 2 weeks. Maybe even to a real show this time!

A splendid Canadienne Buffet

June 27, 2011 by lauren

After a vicious weekend of assembling IKEA furniture and hanging pictures, we were very excited to have Sunday dinner plans at A & A’s place.

In my French lessons, my teacher (who doesn’t speak a word of English to me), has me talk about daily life in Geneva. I talk about the house, Gabe’s job, and things I do during the day.

Last week, I was attempting to tell her in French that “we met some nice people on the bus, and we went over to their house for potluck,” describing our delicious American BBQ at their place.

“Comment dites-vous ‘potluck’ en français?” I asked.

She replied, “ahhh….Canadienne buffet”.

Really? That’s awesome.

The funny part of a Canadienne buffet is taking your items on the public transit. Below, Gabe captured a shot of me toting the caprese salad while waiting for the bus. Apparently, it is not normal to carry a platter of food on the bus in Switzerland. Oh well, I am not a stranger to odd looks from the Swiss.

This Sunday, the theme was Mini Pizzas. A had whipped up an amazing selection of toppings. From everything to homemade sauce, to all the workings of a BBQ chicken pizza, it was incredible. Gabe and I think this is best pizza we have ever had!

In addition to the delicious Italian fare, it was just a very enjoyable evening spent with great people.

Gabe and I are excited that we are finally almost done settling so we can host next time at our new place. I am thinking ours will be a Mexican themed Canadienne Buffet….we’ll see…you’ll have to keep reading for all the updates! Also, share any of your best potluck ideas for us – we’d love to hear some suggestions!

Swiss Made

June 12, 2011 by lauren

A few of our readers have been concerned about us getting e-coli poisoning from the recent scare with the produce in Germany. Have no fear fair readers….it is actually very hard to find produce from anywhere but Switzerland, here in the local markets and groceries.

One of the things we noticed off the bat was that all goods are labeled with their country of origin. Whether it be meat, produce or even cereal, its clearly marked where all ingredients were sourced. In the later case of cereal, it lists where every single grain came from. Same with menus…all meats have their country listed.

The Swiss take a ton of pride into buying local goods. In reading, one of their reasons is that they are less dependent on others, stemmed from the wars of this past century. Whether or not that is actually true, I find three personal benefits from having Swiss made items:

1- I think it is pretty awesome that they support their local agriculture to such a degree…their pride and commitment is a neat thing to see amongst a nationality.
2- the goods have to travel from shorter distances which is better for the environment and usually means they are fresher.
3- in most cases, their meat and produce is already organic. It’s top notch and of upmost quality and you don’t have to pay more for this feature. In fact, the best strawberries I have ever had in my life are the Swiss berries at our neighborhood Migros grocery.

I have to admit that most times, I had no clue where my food came from in the US. But, here I take more notice. Take a look at a kaleidoscope of Swiss goods from this week’s shopping basket, all clearly labeled with “product Suisse” or a flag:

A collection of Swiss items from a trip to the store

Caves Ouvert!!!

May 28, 2011 by lauren

Caves Ouvert means – the cellars are open! And open for free tastings all day.

Since Gabe had traveled all week, it was a perfect Saturday activity that required no planning and we were ensured to not have to book a plane/boat/train and be able to sleep in our own beds that night (at least hopefully, if we didn’t have too much wine!).

Plus, it gave us an opportunity to try some local wines and learn a bit more about this region’s viniculture. So armed with a baguette and prosciutto in tow, we hopped on the bus full of anticipation.

We were lucky to meet a few Americans on our adventure – D and A & A (who had all been residents of Geneva less than 3 months), and thank goodness, they had actually done their homework with the route and best wines so we happily tagged along with them.