No-Bake Cookies and Other American Food

Today, I decided to make some no-bake cookies. This is the second time I have tried to make these in Switzerland. Unfortunately, I have gotten the same result both times. While they look like no-bakes, smell like no-bakes, and even taste like no-bakes, the oatmeal will break your teeth. I have had the worst time finding "quick oats" in Switzerland. I have gone to all sorts of specialty shops and tried several different brands, none of them work for no-bakes.

So I decided to look online to see if anyone knew where to buy some good oatmeal and I found this website: http://www.afoodave.ch/. The prices will "knock your socks off". They have a lot of thing that I could buy that I don't normally get here - Pop-Tarts, Cheerios, Red Mill hot cereals, Ranch dressing, Frank's Red Hot, Marshmallow, and so much more. I could spend a fortune in this store.

For example: With exchange rate as of today. CHF is Swiss Franc for those of you wondering.

1 Box of Betty Crocker Brownie Mix is CHF 5.95 = $6.63

1 12oz. Can of A&W Root Beer is CHF 1.35 = $1.50

1 Bottle of Blue Cheese Dressing (I love Blue Cheese) is CHF 3.95 = $4.40

I know you have heard me complain about mayonnaise before and here it is for a steep price:
1 15oz. Jar of Hellmann's Mayonnaise is CHF 6.90 = $7.68

And finally the thing I was looking for:
1 42oz. box of Quaker Quick Oats CHF 10.95 = $12.20

Would I pay these prices? Probably, because I really like no-bake cookies and the oatmeal in Switzerland sucks!

On the bright side, I now know where I can get some American goodies!

Swiss Sugar

Yesterday, we went to celebrate 100 years of Swiss sugar at a sugar factory in Frauenfeld - Zuckerfabrik. I have been told that Switzerland turned to the production of its own sugar because of problems importing it during WWI. After that Switzerland vowed to be self-sufficient in certain products, one of which is sugar. Sugar in Switzerland comes from sugar beets.

All of the sugar produced by Zuckerfabrik is used in Switzerland; none of it is exported. Between 15% and 20% of the sugar is sold as sugar in packets or cubes. The rest is used in food production in Switzerland.



The process goes like this:
1. The farmers plant sugar beets. Around 7,500 farmers plant 16,000 hectares of sugar.

2. It is harvested and shipped to the sugar factory. The sugar beets are dumped on a large cement basin that has a ditch at one end.


3. Using water, the beets are slowly moved into a canal. The canal leads to a series of conveyers and mixers which all help to clean the dirt from the sugar beets.

 4. After washing the sugar beets are cut and sugar juice is extracted. The extracted sugar juice is processed in several cycles until it is refined. Both sugar juice and white sugar crystals are sold as product.

5. The product is then shipped out by truck and by train.



These things have been found at the factory in the sugar beets.
So basically your sugar is not just ordinary sugar.
It is also part shoes, soccer ball, sheep horn, metal and
some other unknown substances. Yummy!!

6. The dirt from washing and the pulp from cutting the beets are not wasted. These are turned into high quality potting soils, fertilizers, and animal feed. Above the machine is wrapping the pulp.

At the end of the tour, we each received a free beer, a free bratwurst, a free bag with a kilo of sugar, and free ice cream and cotton candy. Never in America would you receive this after going on a free factory tour. *Only in Switzerland*

Spazieren Appenzell

On Sunday, my husband and I went for a walk (spazieren). To get out of the fog, we drove to Appenzell. It was a crisp, but sunny day with an amazing view. Not much to say, but the pictures are lovely!

This is on the play ground. What a simple but interesting idea!

We walked path 992. The abundance of signs in Switzerland
makes it easy to find you way when walking or hiking.

I found it interesting that this bull has a nose ring with spikes.
I read that it is easy to control the bull this way.
However, I don't know what the spikes are for.

Some folks on a buggy ride for the afternoon.

What do you see that is interesting about this picture?
You can comment below.

Santis!

Meglisalp

Since today is a rainy, foggy, winter coat sort of day, I thought I would post something sunny. Last week I went hiking in Wasserauen so I could avoid the fog that envelops my little town by the lake. When I arrived in Wasserauen, the place was packed with cars. I had to pay 3CHF to park in some farmers field. It was a Thursday and I thought to myself, "don't these people work." As if I was the only one who had the right not to be working at the moment.

I have been hiking in Wasserauen before. Once I hiked the easy path to Seealpsee and once I came with my mom there to take the cable car up to Ebenalp. Today I was hiking to Meglisalp. Soon after I started, I passed a group of men in their 50's and they wanted to chat. Of course the first words were is some dialect of German that I didn't understand. I had to explain that they needed to speak High German to me. They laughed and obliged me. They were from Stutgarten, Germany. I hiked with them for about 30 minutes until our paths diverged. Here their are at the "Käse Hut" (cheese mountain house).

I continued up the mountain. In some places may fear of heights kicked in a little. I'm not found of 200 foot drop-offs. Even so, the view is amazing on the way to Meglisalp. Meglisalp is the small town seen in the pictures below. One little footpath runs through the middle of town. They have a church like most little Swiss towns and a restaurant which I had a been and some ice cream at. Having a beer on top of the mountain is the Swiss thing to do.

In the picture below, you will see this cement spring with some orange cases in it. This is the don't-be-lazy, get-your-own-beer refrigerator. The spring water keeps the drinks cool and I guess saves energy. Interesting concept. Of course I had a Quöllfrisch because I was in the Appenzel region and this is their beer.

The way down from Meglisalp to Seealpsee is a bit steep as you can see below. It was rocky, slippery and in many places had a wire rope to hang onto. I wasn't fond of this way, but I wasn't turning around to backtrack. That would just be boring and unadventurous. The two guys you see in this picture are also from Germany. There were so many Germans hiking that day. I thought it was strange so I asked these guys what was going on. They said that today was a holiday - Die Wende. The day the wall fell in Germany. That explains all the people here.

The views of Seealpsee are as always AMAZING. This is one of my favorite places to go hiking. At the end of the lake, the Germans snagged us some free appetizers at the restaurant. Then I started down the easy path to the parking lot. Shorty I ran into the first set of Germans at their Mountain Hut. They were on a 5 day hiking trip and staying in this small house. Not much to it. Mattresses on the floor and a keg of beer.

A total of 6 hours hiking in the glorious Alps. Good memories of that chase away the blues of the cold rainy day we have now.

Grocery Shopping

Today my husband and I decided that we should go grocery shopping in Germany because it is supposed to be cheaper than in Switzerland. For the most part, things are cheaper. However, I was once again hit by culture shock since arriving permanently in Switzerland.

First let me back up a little. I first moved to Switzerland for 1.5 years in 2011. This was a "temporary move" for work. Moving somewhere on a temporary basis is like being on vacation. Everything is new, exciting, and you tend to have a lot more patience because it's just temporary. After this "temporary" time frame I was back in the US for 5 month and then in Switzerland for 3 moths and then back to the US for 4 months. Finally in the middle of August this year, I moved back to Switzerland permanently. This brings about an entirely new perspective because it's not temporary anymore. I will be living this way for the long term.

Back to shopping in Germany. The grocery store was tiny. And when I say tiny, I mean that is was the size of a small Dollar General. However, this is the average size of a grocery store here. There are no gigantic grocery stores with 22 aisles of groceries that have 103 different kinds of salad dressing and an entire aisle reserved for potato chips. I can only wish for this one day in Switzerland. The stores are generally small with only two or three options for an item and many times only one option. While I know this to be true, I still dreamed that when we went grocery shopping in Germany they would have Hellmann's or Best Mayonnaise. I was wrong. I love Hellmann's and never liked Miracle Whip. Here the mayonnaise taste like Miracle Whip and it's called Thomy. It's just terrible. (On a positive note: My sister-in-law just brought me a small jar from England. Although, it's almost empty.)

We were in a total of three stores. Some stores carry more cleaning and personal hygiene items and others have more groceries. The aisles are so small that you cannot pass another shopping cart in them. The workers are also stocking the shelves and have boxes and carts sitting in the aisles. And alas the shoppers have no sense of personal space. As I am trying to find what I need, I have a lady putting her armpit in my face to get something she needs. "Why thank you, yes! I did want to smell your BO!"

These small grocery stores with small aisles and people who invade my personal space makes me miss America. I would love to have some Blue Cheese dressing, DelGrosso's Pizza Sauce, Cinnamon Pop-Tarts, some Middleswarth BBQ chips, and a Yuengling or wonderful American Craft Beer.

Disclaimer: I love living in Switzerland. Don't get me wrong! But there are things that I miss from America.