Gruyeres: Cheese, Castle, Chocolate

Sunday in Switzerland we went on a day excursion up to the town of Gruyères. Our aims were threefold (and delicious):

 

1) Visit the Gruyère cheese factory

2) Visit the Castle at Gruyères

3) Visit the Cailler chocolate factory

 

We all piled into David and Callie's car and got on our way.  Besides Friday (when they picked us up at the airport) I hadn't been in a car for a long time!  It was kind of nice.

 

I also experienced something else that I hadn't seen in awhile.

 

 

Snow.

 

 

I can't say I've really missed it.  All in one day, we experienced sun, rain, snow, sleet and hail.  Just like home!  Except I was in Switzerland.

 

No worries, though!  We still had a good time.

 

 

Stop 1: La Maison du Gruyère

 

 

First, I would like to point out that the name of the town/region, Gruyères, ends with an "s." The name of the cheese, Gruyère,  does not.  They are pronounced the same way, and the cheese is named after the town (or region), but I still am not sure about the reason behind the spelling discrepancy.

 

 

 

Link-tastic

I'm taking an online class this semester (maybe it is mostly so I can start getting student discounts).  This is the first class I've taken at the community college, and my adviser was kind of new to advising soooo...I got registered for the wrong class.  Not to worry!  Big Time Timmy Jim realized it before it was too late, and I was able to straighten things out.  I'm guessing its a combination of a lot of things (especially that I registered for the class at the last minute) but I had NO IDEA how to access the course until yesterday.  Aaaaand the class started a week ago.  And I missed an assignment.  It was only 10 points, but technically I have an F right now. All because I didn't have the right link. We're off to a great start!

I'm sure it will all work out in the end, but I would hate for this to happen to any of you.  So, I'm going to share some links with you that you don't need at all.  But, they're kind of fun.

Egg Curry with Blessy

A couple of months ago, Tim was in London for a week on a site visit.    Autumn was "babysitting" me, and Blessy's husband, Tony, was in Germany. Blessy has been wanting to learn how to make bread, and I have been wanting to learn how to make egg curry.  So the 3 of us teamed up with Yohan and made a ridiculously delicious meal.  

So now--two months later-- I am sharing egg curry with you.  At least the best that I can remember.  Let's get started, shall we?

Lacey Cookies

Part of making a marriage work is learning how to blend the cultures of your families of origin.  Around the holidays, this becomes especially apparent.  While it can be difficult, there are many positive aspects as well.

Like the acquisition of new recipes!

While the holiday treats repertoire in my family of origin was expansive and diverse, somehow we missed out on these cookies!  Good thing I married Tim!  This is one of his family's favorite Christmas cookies.

My friends, it is with much pleasure that introduce you to... Lacey Cookies.

Real Life with the Taylors: Making Breakfast Burritos (for dinner)

We're back with another episode of Real Life with the Taylors-- where I help you feel better about yourself and your kitchen skillz.  

Today we're cooking (breakfast for) dinner.  If we had some kind of regular meal rotation around here, these would definitely be a part of it.  

Here's how you make them.

Step 1: Cook some bacon. Baking it in the oven allows you to move on to other steps while its cooking, cleanup is easier, and every square inch of your house won't smell like bacon. 

Mindy's Chicken and Noodles

If you're trying to "eat clean"...just walk on by.

If you're wanting to cook from scratch, this is not the recipe you're looking for.

If you have high blood pressure, kidney problems, or are limited your sodium intake for any other reason, read no further, and come back another day when I am back to gardening.

If you're looking for a super-yummy, comforting, easy, short-cut meal...WELCOME!

My roommate office mate, Mindy, made my day a few weeks ago by bringing me a bit of her leftover chicken and noodles.  Total.  Bliss.  To make matters worse better, she told me how to make them.  So I did.  And now I am spreading the joy to your home.

Dad's Fried Rice

This has to be some kind of record.  Aside from this little post about a delightful combination of favorite things, I have not shared a recipe for over 3 months.

I am so sorry.

A few of my favorite things

Can you see what this is?  Probably not... let's zoom in a little closer.

Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Pancakes

And now, it's (finally) time for the (not-so) grand finale of pumpkin week.

Here's the recipe: Pumpkin Pancakes

This recipe was straightforward  simple, the perfect batch size, and delicious.  Of course you could be traditional and serve them with maple syrup, but I preferred to go the pumpkin dip route.  Which was a great call.  And since you're making pumpkin dip, you may as well make molasses cookies.  This recipe is perfection, of course, because it's Laura's.  So good, guys.  So good.


The real reason I brought you here today was because I wanted to share some quotes from the past few days, but I realized I hadn't finished pumpkin week (do you realize I started it 3 weeks ago?!) and I have this weird things where I don't let myself do something else until I have finished one thing.  I know that this might make me sound disciplined or something, but really I just never get around to finishing what I was doing... and I don't do anything else either.  Also, it has led to a lot of leg crossing, when I use a bathroom break as my reward for finishing a project.  Really, I could focus a lot more and finish the project if I would just go to the bathroom when I first  need to, but for some reason I voluntarily torture myself.

Too much information?  Sorry.  Rest assured this was not my incentive to finish Pumpkin Week....that would be painful.

onward...

Saturday I was hanging out with my friends Kaden (6) and Jordyn (2), and Jordyn looked over at me and said 

"My Daddy...is my  Daddy."  
(You know, because sometimes I get confused and think her Daddy is my Daddy.) 
 "Yep, Jordyn!  That's right.  My Daddy is my Daddy, too." 
(Confused look from Jordyn)
"Where is your Daddy?"
"My Daddy is far away...he's in Ohio."
---
Yesterday we were practicing our skit for our mission trip to Honduras.  Sam has a role where he is supposed to be chasing someone, and he's supposed to be dark and menacing.  The trouble is, he's anything but and he runs in a hopping/leaping fashion (at least when he's acting).  We were telling him he needed to look much scarier, and that he looked like the Easter Bunny.

Sam:  Well, I've never seen the Easter Bunny, so I didn't know I looked like him.
Me: Well I have, and trust me... you're twins.
Sam: (with a smirk) "Well then, he must be a pretty good-looking bunny."

I wanted  to say "Yeah, but his ears are smaller than yours."  But I thought that would be taking things too far.

Pray for us...

---

Today at work, our HR director (who works across the hall) had her door shut because she was trying to get benefit enrollments finished up.  She came out for air and told me and Mindy..."That's it!  We're no longer offering benefits!  I can't take it."  She went downstairs and came back up a little later.  "Ok, there was chocolate downstairs... we can have benefits for at least another year."  Maybe if I bring her cookies I can get a raise?

Well, that's it for pumpkin week.  Sorry it dragged our for so long, but you really should try the recipes.  I hope your holiday season is merry and bright so far!.

Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Gingerbread

Hi Kids!  I'm back, and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving like I did.  I was talking to my coworker today and said it was the best turkey dinner I had ever had.  She said it was the same case with her.  I wonder why that is... did they feed the turkeys something different this year?  I don't know, but everything was AMAZING.

Friday and Saturday me and my family (but mostly my family) worked our tails off to throw a 30th anniversary party for my parents.  Everything turned out well, and it was a great party.

Now...back to Pumpkin Week.  You know... that thing I started two weeks ago?  SOMEDAY I will finish this bugger up.  Here's the latest (and maybe my favorite) installment.

Pumpkin Gingerbread is wonderful, and amazing, and cozy, and delicious, and really pretty easy to make.  But it seems impressive.  But its easy.

Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Bread Pudding

So this one time two years ago, Mandy came to visit and run a race with me and Sapphire and Leah and Lalaiana.  After the race we cooked up a storm to celebrate Sapphire's birthday, including donut cheeseburgers (cheeseburgers with donuts as the buns).  Then we did the Holiday Stroll really quickly because we had to get back and watch PW's Thanksgiving Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

It was quite a day.   I was very tired.  And full.

Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Soup

There are some things that make me feel like super-productive, efficient person.  Not that these things have any relation to productivity or efficiency, I just like being on top of these things, or having them happen.  For example:

• Laying out my clothes the night before.
• Having pickles in the refrigerator.  Not that this means I have been productive and industrious by making pickles... just buying them at the store makes me feel good!  And its not like we eat a lot of pickles!  I just like having them there.  It gives me peace of mind.
• Running a pen out of ink.  Like when it actually runs out of ink.  Not dries up so the ballpoint won't roll anymore... I mean run it out of ink.  So productive.  Productive people write so much with thier pen that it runs out of ink.
• Getting up when its still dark out.  Even if that's just because the sun doesn't rise until 9 am, and I get up at 8:45.  At least I can still say to myself, "Yeah, I'm That Person that gets up before sunrise."  Never mind that everyone else is That Person too.
• Scheduling blogs posts to post, because I am so on top of things that I wrote them all ahead of time...

That's what was going to happen for pumpkin week.  I had several of the recipes typed in here way back in the first part of October.  I had the pictures taken by halfway through October.  The plan was to post every day about my new things in October (ha!)  meanwhile, behind the scenes, I would be working ahead and getting the Pumpkin Week posts lined up and scheduled to post.

I live in a dreamworld.

Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Bars

It's no secret that I'm a disorganized mess that can't get things done on time.  So is anyone surprised that the pumpkin week that I promised last Friday is just starting now... on Tuesday night?

You know how it's the easiest recipes that you make that people love the most and ask for the recipe most often?  Like Macaroni & Cheese and Santa Fe Cheese Soup. That's what these pumpkin bars are.  This is definitely my most-requested dessert recipe.  But maybe that's because I make it frequently, because they're so easy.  And delicious!

Trying New Things: Days 23-28

Tuesday, October 23rd

Honestly, guys... I can't remember what my new thing was today.  I really have no idea at all.  I worked late, so I came home late, and we had leftover pizza for dinner...I pinned minky to a quilt top, but did no sewing.  

Wow... I can't remember at all.  It seems so long ago...

Update:  I remembered what it was!  I tried that tip that says you should only check your email 3 times a day, and close out of it so the notifications don't pop up.  Totally successful!  I love it.  I am going to work on trying that on days when I can (sometimes I am waiting on emails to finish what I need to do).  I HIGHLY  recommend this one.

Trying New Things: Yesterday & Today

Yesterday was sunny and the house was clean, so my "new thing" was going to be a house tour blog post.  I went all over my semi-clean house snapping pictures... or at least I thought I did.  When I went to upload them, they were not on the memory card.  Still not sure what happened.  Bummer.

Trying New Things Day 1: Making Bagels

I've been wanting to make bagels for quite awhile, so I thought Try New Things Month was a great time to give it a whirl.

Egg bagels have always been my favorite, so I asked The Google for a recipe.  This one sounded the simplest, so that's the one I went with.

a week of meatless meals

I've been trying to incorporate more meatless meals into our repertoire here at the Taylor home for a couple of reasons:

1.)  Having a "plant slant" to your diet is supposed to be a step toward healthier eating.  That is, eating a more plant-based diet is better than one heavy on animal products.  You get more fiber and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals.  Or something.

2.)  I thought it could help us save money.  We cut our monthly grocery budget this year--partly to save money, partly because I wanted a challenge.  Shortly after that, beef prices skyrocketed.  Since I'm not so good at cooking chicken, I needed to come up with some other options.  (Also: we at a LOT of pork).

Joyce's Sweet Rolls: A Tribute

 A couple of weeks ago, my dad's Aunt Joyce passed away.  She is missed immensely, we we know she is in a better place now-- at home with her Savior.

To get an idea of the kind of person she was, I highly recommend reading these thoughts from her grandchildren.

At the funeral, by all of the pictures and photo albums, they had her apron which said "World's Best Cook."

I know those are strong words, but... it's true.  She was an AMAZING cook.  I remember her saying one time "Julie {her daughter-in-law} is always bugging me to give her my recipe for baked steak, but I refuse, because when she finds out how many calories are in it, she will never eat it again."

One of my life-long regrets is that I never got that recipe from her.

recent recipes

I've been trying some new recipes lately, and it's lots of fun.  Here's what I've been up to.

(None of these pictures are mine... I think that will be obvious...be sure to check out the recipe links!)

Parmesean Baked Potato Halves from Favorite Family Recipes.

I was pleased that (for once!) they turned out pretty much like they look in the picture.  That never happens for me!

Mom! Mom! Mom!

Last weekend my Mom came to visit, and we had a great time.

First stop (after picking her up from the airport) was Sam's Club.  Tim and I don't have a membership to Sam's or Costco, so I was wanting to check out the prices on a few things and see if it was worth it.  While they have lower prices on some things, I think it we would just end up buying a lot more stuff that we don't need.