you guys you guys you guys

I bought a kumquat tree this weekend. I now own one plant. The fruit is amazing. I am going to try very hard not to kill it.

This just in, hell has frozen.

End broadcast.

A Smattering of Little Things (predominantly food)

Outliers is one of those books that I picked up, expecting to get a third of the way through and lose all interest, but I was so fascinated that I tore through it and then my brain began spinning and doing back flips. A totally worthwhile read. At this moment I am impulsively downloading all three of Gladwell's other books to my kindle.

Tangent: I am having one of those weeks, nay, months it seems, where time is just getting away from me. On one hand it's frustrating because I just wish I could slow everything down and savor it more. On the other hand, reminding myself that we have only been here 2.75 months eases my inner perfectionist when I am wondering why I am not yet fluent in French. (Sitting with a group of Italians at work is not helping this matter as learning to swear in Italian is WAY more fun than say, learning French verbs and their conjugations).

This past weekend we just hung out. Anthony was on a business trip until Saturday mid-morning and he was exhausted when he got home so we decided to lay low and make lots of great food. I don't know if there is something in the water here or what, but lately I have been wanting (I can't even believe I am typing this) to cook. Like full on simmer and saute crap and chop and blend and whatnot. This is probably a harbinger of the apocalypse, so when it happens, just remember that you read it here first (because there obviously won't be other things on your mind).

Pizza dough - the easiest thing that I never everever thought to make from scratch. Five ingredients and a few hours later put that blinker on because you are merging onto Gluttony Highway. Plus you get to punch the dough...does it get more fun than beating up your food? I think that it does not. Also, it's a law in Europeland that pizza must be eaten in its entirety on the day it is made. And we are nothing if not compliant.

Pinterest recipes finally got the better of me so I decided to make this incredible soup. Roasting a tray full of mushrooms, onions and herbs smelled so incredible that I kept cracking open the oven door to take a whiff. I can now say with conviction that a mushroom and onion steam is forever onward my preferred method of facial (especially because it does not come with a Ukrainian lady looking at my face with a giant magnifier and clucking disapprovingly). Even though the recipe only called for one pound of mushrooms, I decided that two pounds would be more appropriate and was thrilled with the result...until I learned that cooked mushrooms give Anthony the heebie-jeebies. He may have actually tried to tell me that while my face was in the oven and I was huffing the steam. Whoops. Listening ears, Kim. We pureed a batch and the smoother consistency made all parties happy.

During our Saturday round of errands, we accidentally stumbled into Globus, the single greatest grocery store on planet earth. While it's pricey, we decided to indulge ourselves a leeetle bit and bought these incredible cherry tomatoes. (And some incredible Parmesan and some incredible cheese straws and some incredible bread...and there may have been an incident where Anthony had to pry a tiny 20 franc sausage from my hands as I cried and mumbled something insane about Fresno peppers and cured meats being the only thing in the world that would ever make me happy...hilarious times you guys.)

While we brought a lot of storage containers with us, we have been fighting an ongoing battle between our American sized tupperware and our tiny Swiss fridge. Luckily Anthony found this company that makes all sizes and manners of canning jars so he ordered us a variety. They fit perfectly and are incredibly fun to fill with food...and squeal about how cute they look whenever I we open the fridge. Above, a caprese salad in progress.

Aaaand finally,

The sunsets from our bedroom are unreal. I only opened up the exposure on this a bit - the rest is all nature. Every night it's different with the color gamut ranging from Malibu Barbie to Early Sixties Living Room. It's awesome. Beyond awesome. I'll try and not bog down too many posts with sunset photos, but I cannot make any guarantees. Because...I mean...look at it!

Happy Friday!

Vevey Pt 3: Enough About the Swans Already

I know, I know, please stop it with the swans, but just humor me a little longer, okay? Living in Chicago, the only birds I really ever saw were the inbred, disease infested pigeon community. The amount of times I had encountered swans in my life until moving here resides somewhere slightly above zero. And now? They are all OVER the damn place. So I have been going overboard a bit, but I'll calm down eventually.

Swans are such bizarre creatures. Part beauty, part battleship and 1000%* narcissistic, they just command attention. And also? They appear to be kind of...well...assholes. Take a look at the action going on in the lower left hand corner of the above photo. Belligerence!

At some point during my photographing, they became aware that they were In the Public Eye and began some synchronized floating. Not unlike when the girls on America's Next Top Model holding hands on elimination day even though they are kind of hating each other.

Aaaand, then the short-lived civility wore off and we were back to swan-on-swan abuse. There are at least 2.5 example of nastiness going on in the above photograph.

So that is pretty much my current mindset towards swans at the moment. I think I've gotten it out of my system (for now) so I'll try and aim my camera lens at something else for awhile (maybe).

Happy Monday!

*Principles of mathematics disregarded for dramatic effect.

Gluttony

Is delicious.

That is all.

Serenity rightNOW

Internet, this week has whacked me over the head and carted me off to I don't know where. The last thing I remember was Monday morning...trying to figure out where the other four days went. I still have a couple photos to share from Vevey, but do not currently have the brain capacity available to format a post. Let's consider this an intermission shall we?

In the interim, I leave you with some serene photos from our walk last week.

Above: the requisite weekly swan photo.

Happy Friday!

Vevey Pt. 2: The Town

While the market in Vevey is spectacular, the rest of the town is pretty lovely as well. We spent a few hours wandering the cobblestone streets and uncovered all manner of surprising things. (The giant fork in the lake for starters.)

I approached this fountain from too close a range to see the towering mural of a woman's face painted on the wall behind it. But then I stepped back and found myself at a loss for words.

This accordian player was fantastic.

The mountains were pulling a Lion King what with all the streaming sunlight and epic mist. Showing off really.

Tomorrow we'll go up close and personal with some of the political candidates whose posters you can see in the lower left hand corner of this photo.

Cheers!

Vevey Pt. 1: The Market

After a busy week at work, we decided that the focus of the weekend needed to be on relaxing (and eating...but we'll get to that in a moment).

Vevey is about a fifteen minute train journey from Lausanne and with a similar oldness-to-quaintness ratio as that of Montreaux.

After departing the train, we followed the crowds to an incredible open air market. 

Even though I had just eaten breakfast, I began immediately counting down the minutes until lunch. I mean, cheese, bread, meat, chocolate, vegetables, cheese...the stalls were endless.

Cured meats: my New Favorite Thing in the Entire Universe. I never thought I would get excited about tubes o' meat but well, apparently people can change.

The man we bought this cheese from had eyebrows that were reminiscent of wild, hairy butterflies trying to free themselves from his forehead. 

What he lacked in facial hair restraint he made up for in spades with his wheels of magnificent dairy goodness. I have a chunk of that yellow beast above sitting in the fridge right now and had to stuff my face with chocolate to stop thinking about it.

As we hunted and gathered our way through the stalls, I decided that we needed to pay a silly amount of money for the two morsels pictured above. It was worth it though. SO worth it. I should probably learn to make them though so I don't go broke from an addiction to pretentious (and oh-so-tasty) desserts.

When we had achieved success in the four most important European food groups, we found a bench near the lake and delved into our spoils. Anthony got us some wine from a nearby restaurant and we enjoyed one of the best lunches I have ever had in my life. 

Tomorrow: photos from the town.