We are, most likely, the only family in Waedenswil to use the outdoor fireplace almost exclusively for marshmallow roasting. My Swiss neighbor has laughed - "this is a very American thing you do" - about this and it reminds me that we need to invite them over for this simple treat.
Most Swiss would be roasting some kind of Wurst over the fire or simply having a fire as ambiance to accompany a glass of Prosecco or Wine after dinner.
Of course, ingredients are not easy to come by. We buy imported American marshmallows from a candy shop in Zurich - ONLY 5 chf per bag. While chocolate bars abound in Switzerland, graham crackers do not. So we use these Petit Buerre cookies - a solid piece of milk chocolate attached to a plain cookie. I pop the chocolate wafers off half the cookies and Voila! - add the toasted marshmallow and you have a very tasty S'more. The chocolate tastes better than Hershey's.
I particularly love roasting marshmallows and go to great lengths to get them very soft, gooey and lightly toasted on the outside. And occasional scorched ones aren't bad either.
You see Kendra drooling over this one. Nope - It's mine baby! And I enjoyed every bit!
Onto the Veggies! I get teased a little about my gardening. This year we added a garden box upstairs when the landscapers came to clean things up. So I added corn, cucumbers and green beans to my usual tomatoes and zucchini - plus we have cilantro, oregano, basil and sage.
The corn below - 3 ears ? - worth about $7! Yep - just saw today's price at the store and it cost's more than $2 per ear - and it's in season. They don't eat a lot of corn on the cob here. Again, it's a very American thing to do. I didn't have to buy any corn this summer though - I grew it - and it was good. Granted, we probably only got 5 meals with corn on the cob, but considering the seeds cost me all of $2 - I saved a lot of money.
The tomatoes - looked good but since we had a cool summer, all but the cherry tomatoes turned out a little mushy tasting. The zucchini and green beans and cucumbers were awesome. Haven't bought any veggies since June (exc. carrots, garlic, onions, lettuce). Granted, the girls are wondering if they can eat anything besides zucchini. Think how good broccoli will taste when they get it again. Hey, cool weather crop! Naw, I'm done for the year. 
Birthday Girl above with corn and zucchini.. Can't believe she's 10 years old - as of yesterday. Can't believe I'm old enough to have a 10 yr old. The years have flown by.
Spent Saturday in Ravensburg, Germany. Pretty town - several old historic towers - and home to the Ravensburger Game/Puzzle founder. We were sad to see the Game/Puzzle Museum was closed for renovation - part of why we wanted to go. But, that happens when you travel around Europe. A good picture day is a day without scaffolding covering every historic building you traveled hundreds/thousands of miles to see.
Fun day was had by all. Including the girls who did their part in the Search and Rescue Dog Demonstration by laying on the benches and letting the dogs walk over them. Always a good start to a day when Mom & Dad drag them to yet "another little foreign town claiming it'll be fun and we can climb the towers." Current response "We don't want to climb anymore towers. We've climbed too many towers." Hmmm.
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