the gift of opportunity

Are you excited for the holidays?  Since Stefan and I are headed off on our honeymoon TONIGHT (hooray!), we opened a bunch of our presents last night, and - boy oh boy - were they good.  Mama and Papa Krieg know how to spoil us well.  (But more on that another time.)

Are you all set with your holiday shopping?  Still looking for the perfect gift for that person who has everything?  

Why not skip the expensive trinket they'll never use or the lackluster sweater they'll never wear and give them: 
the gift of opportunity?

By making a donation to Reclaim Childhood in honor of that person you love, you'll be helping to bring the benefits of sport and play to at-risk refugee girls and women living in the Middle East.  (Full disclosure: as co-founder and Director, I come with a bit of bias.)

In recognition of your generosity, RC will mail your special someone a beautiful holiday card with photos of RC's budding athletes-in-training. 

On the back of the card, your loved one will find information about Reclaim Childhood and its mission as well as a note telling him or her where exactly your donation is going:

$20: Buys four soccer balls 
$50: Buys uniforms for one basketball team 
$100: Allows one refugee girl to play soccer in the RC soccer league 
$250: Trains and pays for one refugee woman to serve as a RC coach for a season

Ready to give?  Click here to make your donation.

Still not convinced? 
Check out this video one of our volunteers put together during our soccer league this past fall: 

 

Find it on vimeo here 

password: reclaim

In addition to our fall soccer league, RC runs a series of athletic programs throughout the year: summer sports camps, a spring basketball league, Saturday sports clinics, and Mother-Daughter Days. In addition, we host coaching clinics to train refugee women to serve as our coaches - giving them a much needed source of income as well as an outlet to empowerment.

Ready to give?  Click here to make your donation.   Even small dollars make a HUGE difference.

xoxo

KK

christmas cookies

If you think Americans take their Christmas baking seriously, just wait until you encounter the Swiss around this time of year.  Baking (and then having a fully stocked supply of) Christmas cookies in the house is not an option, it is an absolute must.

Stefan introduced me to the joys of Swiss cookies last year around this time.  While we tried our best to craft traditional versions of his favorites, what resulted was almost identifiable. 

   

But to my credit, it wasn't all my fault.  Swiss cookie making requires a plethora of tools - not only your traditional food processor (to chop nuts and puree vanilla beans) and stand mixer (to knead doughs and beat egg whites), but also a whole host of other Swiss-made gadgets to propel your cookies to perfection: special cookie cutters and dough thickness measuring sticks.

Luckily this year - thanks to last year's Christmas presents from my mother-in-law and this year's wedding presents from some awesome guests, we were fully prepared for the feat.

It all started with those two wonderful kitchen appliances:

 

Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer showing its stuff

Cuisinart Food Processor resting on the dish 

drying rack after a tough day's work

I'll be totally honest: the only reason I registered for a stand mixer was because I thought it looked pretty sitting on the counter.  I had absolutely no idea what I would use it for, nor if I ever would - all I wanted was for it to stand proudly, always conveying a sense of purpose.  Problem was: our shoebox-size kitchen wasn't exactly conducive to putting the beauty out on display, so it had been stored away in our cabinet since its arrival.

This cookie making extravaganza was its first debut and boy, oh, boy was I in for a treat.  Do you all have one of these things?  It is like 40 expert bakers packed into one.  It kneaded all four of my doughs into a perfect consistency, whipped my egg whites into the fluffiest, most decadent meringue, and then did all the dishes.  Kidding on that last one, but you get the drift.  I am officially in love. 

(For more profession of love for the stand mixer, check out Design Mom.)

Once my doughs were prepped (in next to no time, mind you) and rested (in quite a bit of time, unfortunately), it was onto the cutting.

Thanks to my trusty dough thickness measuring sticks, I rolled to perfection - optimizing for equality on all cookie dimensions.        

 

Basler Brunsli in process 

a delicious gluten-free, almond, chocolate, spice cookie

(check out saveur for the recipe)

Spitz buben

recipe here

Zimtsterne

another delicious gluten-free option, 

these cinnamon-almond stars are topped 

with a crunchy meringue 

recipe here

Basler Brunsli in boxes

Packing them all up 

Mailanderli included - recipe here

(as Stefan informed me: a must-make given 

they're the only recipe that calls for yolks; 

all the others require whites only - 

gotta love that Swiss optimization!)

All set to go to friends!

Although the process was a lot easier (and cleaner) than last year's, it still took quite a lot of time.  Even though the doughs were done in no time, cutting and baking required some serious manpower.  

Three nights' worth, in fact. 

 

The perfect excuse to catch up on the latest season of Nashville.  (Do you watch?  You should y'all.)

All in all - a successful year in this Swiss tradition.  And since it was our first as an "official" Swiss household, perhaps last years' disaster doesn't count?

 

Do you have any Christmas treats you make every year?

xoxo

KK 

around here lately

Apologies for the quietness this past week - things have been busy around these parts.  

 

Baking some serious Swiss cookies

(but more on that tomorrow)

Getting all dressed up for the office holiday party

 

Opening a little early Christmas present from Switzerland

THE BEST CHOCOLATE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD

This one little box (with just 24 divine pieces) 

comes at the bargain price of 80 swiss francs 

Worth. every. penny. 

Doing some holiday shopping of our own:

My fav gift guides of the season if you're still on the hunt:

Head Over Heels with Melanie Gift Guide

(responsible for the gorgeous graphic above) 

A Cup of Jo 2012 Gift Guide 

A Piece of Toast Gift Guide

Cupcakes and Cashmere Gift Guide - For Men,  Under $100, and Under $25

And finally:

 Doing some serious research for our Argentinean honeymoon!

While we've had the belated trip (our wedding was back in August) planned for months, we only recently decided where and when exactly to go.  And it was only about a week ago that we started really booking it.  AND we leave on Friday.  So as you might imagine, we've been just a tad bit busy making arrangements.  But let me tell you - it is going to be good.  But more on that soon.

xoxo

KK

 

wacky wednesday

My absolute favorite book growing up was Dr. Seuss' Wacky Wednesday.  Have you read it?  You need to.

The premise is simple: a baffled youngster awakens to find that everything is not quite right, but no one else seems to notice.  It's a wonderful read at all ages, but especially when you're little and find great satisfaction in spotting each of the wacky things that fill Seuss' colorful pages.

But lately, it seems as though I'm living in my own Wacky Wednesday -spotting all sorts of things that seem "not quite right" in my real life.

For example, watching the morning news this morning, I stumbled upon Jos A. Bank's latest promotion:

Buy One Sport Coat, and get:

• 2 pairs of pants;
• 2 sweaters;
• 2 sportshirts +
• Android Smartphone (w/2 year contract).

At first, I was thinking: they can't be serious, this has got to be an ad for SNL's latest skit.  But as the promo ended and moved on without a nod to the joke, I thought it might actually be for real.  I quickly looked it up online, confirming its ridiculous existence.  Apparently next week, if you buy a pair of socks, you get the rest of the store for free.   

Then as I was driving into work and listening to the radio, I heard Roku's latest ad campaign:

click here to listen!

The entire ad focuses on how Roku's TV lovers just sit around and do nothing (other than watch TV, that is).  They're not the people who discover new medical procedures or develop new innovative technologies - no, no: Roku's TV lovers are - well - lazy.  As the ad says,
"Let's face it TV lovers - you weren't the leading candidate to patch the ozone anyway!"
Meaning you should just throw in the towel and watch Roku all. day. long.

I'm sorry, but does this ad make anyone else never want to watch TV again?

And then finally, as I sipped my morning coffee and perused my favorite daily deal site aggregator (www.yipit.com), I stumbled upon the following deal:

All the way over there to the left - see it?  

Saline breast implants!  40% off!  

Oh goodie!  I would LOVE to get breast implants at a place that needs to offer a 40% off coupon on a daily deal site! 

And it's only 9am.

Anything wacky in your life these days?

xoxo

KK

a cheese party

Did you know Stefan and I have a little obsession with cheese?  We like it more than we do dessert.
(And we like dessert a whole, whole lot.)

So much so that for our nuptials, we ditched the wedding cake and went straight for the cheese:

 

In beautiful cake form, of course

Last year, to help share (and promote) our love of dairy, we hosted a four-course cheese dinner party.  
We had all guests bring their fav cheese for our first course (a KILLER cheese plate), 
then did four pots of gooey Swiss fondue for our second course,
then served a decadent raclette as a third, (if you're not well-versed in the intricacies of this Swiss staple, read more here)
and then finished the evening off with some fluffy ricotta cheese cake.
Amazing.

Only problem was that our guests seemed to run out of steam a bit after course number - well - one.  Despite having warned them that the meal would include a total of FOUR cheesy courses, the sheer onslaught of cheese in the first course seemed to make them forget, causing them to fill their tummies well before our signature courses arrived.

This year, we decided to do things a bit differently.  

We still had all guests bring their favorite cheese.  When guests arrived, they labeled their cheese (name, origin, sheep/cow/goat) and found a spot for it on one of our boards. 

With a glass of wine in hand, they were instructed to get busy tasting: sampling each variety to determine which cheese would reign supreme.  
 

Unlike last year, however, we ditched the fondue and brought the raclette out much sooner. 
 

\

And this year, we had the right equipment for the job: a top-of-the-line, family-size raclette oven - a sensational wedding gift from my middle namesake and my mom's best friend.  

With eight individual trays, guests were able to each prepare their own personalized raclette: 
they started with a piece of delicious cheese, 
then topped it with our plethora of raclette accoutrements: corn, onions, ham, pickles, spices, and bananas (apparently not a traditional Swiss choice, but a must-have in Stefan's home growing up),
then popped the little tray into the oven, 
waited for it to melt to perfection, 
and then scraped it (or in Stefan's words - "scrapped it") on top of warm potatoes.    
 

 

Stefan showing them how it's done

Given people's lack of interest in raclette last year (keep in mind it came after the biggest cheese plate you've ever seen AND four pots of fondue), I was skeptical we'd be able to put a dent in the monstrous chunk of the stuff Stefan picked up at the shop:

But by 11pm, that chunk was almost all gone.

The night, however, wasn't complete without a cheesecake (people were full, but this recipe hit it out of the park, leaving poor Stefan with only two teeny pieces of leftovers) as well as a proper voting on best cheese.

First place went to Stefan (who cheated a bit by keeping his secret weapon hidden in the fridge revealing it only after all the other cheeses were picked over) for Scharfe Max 365: a Swiss intense, stinky mountain cheese that's aged for 365 days.

Because we obviously couldn't take home the prize (a bottle of champagne and box of chocolates), we re-voted to crown the Klugers victorious for their submission of Ewephoria - a sheep-made, "butterscotch sweet" gouda from Holland.  It was killer.  

Further evidence of a successful night:

xoxo
KK