Mindful Eating means getting serious about what you put in your mouth.

Mindful Eating is sensual -- in this case visual -- as well as cerebral.

You don’t have to think with your taste buds every minute of your life, like I do, but eating takes on a new importance in your life, and is no longer just an essential action required to fuel your body.

Mindful Eating starts by being mindful of every aspect of our food chain, from the very soil to the end product we put in our mouths. It is about taste and smell and nutrition, but also about respect for the land and soil that provide our nourishment.

It is about the seeds we plant, the fertilizer we spread.

It is about the human contact between a producer and a buyer and the bond that is formed when he puts the vegetables he has grown with tender loving care and the sweat of his brow into your hand. It is about leaving the land in a condition that will allow our children to live on in a healthy manner.

Mindful Eating is not only about how the steak tastes, but also about what the cow has eaten, where it comes from, how it has been treated.

It is about cooking real homemade food for our family in a spirit of love and awareness, and making sure they are getting the nutrients they need and about avoiding the toxic ingredients so many foods contain.

Photo courtesy of Odette de Crecy.

It is about reading labels in supermarkets, about trying to eat natural, if we can, or at least making the best effort we can to put quality products on the table.

Mindful Eating requires us to look at the food we eat, smell it, chew it slowly and appreciate its texture and flavor, and then pause and enjoy the aftertaste.

Mindful Eating is somewhat a way of life, although we mustn’t become obsessive about it. Almost by definition, it moves toward consumption of local products, and thus re-creation of local economies.

It is a way of communing with our environment – our family, our community, local business, producers, nature – and the satisfaction that is derived from this.

Mindful Eating gives concrete, practical results. It can improve our health and help us lose weight; it can help us lower cholesterol and consume more nutritious food.

It can give us a sense of well-being, because we have the feeling we’re doing what is right not only for ourselves and our family, but also for our community and the world.

Photo courtesy of Nikoman.

It can cut down our food budget, since seasonal products bought directly from local farmers will invariably be cheaper. They will also fresher and have more vitamins.

This is Part One of a series of articles exploring the endless possibilities incorporating this approach into our daily lives. Stay tuned for the following segments:

Alessandro Guerani is a food and still life photographer in Bologna, Italy. He also has a food photography blog with beautiful food photos, Food-o-Grafia. The pomegranate photo is from his Baroque Food photo album.

First local strawberries of 2010 in Lake Geneva region.

Breaking news: we have local strawberries and rhubarb!

Whoof, spring is here, even if the mercury can’t seem to rise quite to the heights we would like.

I was worried last week at this time. Be patient, the Mara des Bois will come in time.

First local rhubarb.

For local vegetables, green is the word. There are salads of every type, especially pourprier, rosette, arugula, baby spinach, chervil, and numerous other mixed wild greens.

Lots of sorrel to make your salmon sauce or soup. Jump on the dandelion greens while they’re plentiful. Nettles arrived on the scene this week.

Root vegetables are still in: celery root (celeriac), baby beets and carrots.

There are plenty of fat red radishes and spring onions. Jerusalem artichokes are still on the scene, as are parsnips and new potatoes, especially the raclette types. Oodles of varieties of potatoes.

There are plenty of baby leeks, broccoli and cabbages. Nice tender kohlrabi is available as well, along with Swiss chard and delicious fennel.

Wild mountain garlic leaves, to be used like an herb.

For other fruit, you’ll have to buy French or Italian products. Italian and Spanish oranges are excellent this year.

There are actually Florida grapefruit available, despite all the catastrophic predictions.

French strawberries are in abundance, as are, of course, the Spanish ones.

Sandrine Chapuis' lovely mix of wild greens and wild flowers.

Yellow kiwis from New Zealand are excellent this year, and Alphonso, well, I still have my love affair with Alphonso mangoes. I bought a dozen today for CHF2 a piece. They may be ugly, but they have a special place in my little heart. French rhubarb is available, although not in vast quantity.

Quite a variety of herbs, considering the fact that winter still hasn’t decided to really leave.

I’m not a flower specialist, so I don’t know the names. I’ll just show you the photos; they speak for themselves. There are however tulips and forsythia galore.

Root vegetables are still in: celery root (celeriac), baby beets and carrots. There are plenty of fat red radishes and spring onions. Jerusalem artichokes are still on the scene, as are parsnips and new potatoes, especially the raclette types.

There are plenty of baby leeks, broccoli and cabbages. Nice tender kohlrabi is available as well, along with Swiss chard and delicious fennel.

Otherwise, the wild strawberry plants haven’t even blossomed (they bloom before the planted ones), much less yielded those lovely Mara des Bois I lust after.

For fruit, you’ll have to buy French or Italian products. Italian and Spanish oranges are excellent this year. French strawberries are having a party, since we have none . . . but I’ll just wait for the Mara des Bois please thank you.

Yellow kiwis from New Zealand are excellent this year, and Alphonso, well, I still have my love affair with Alphonso mangoes. I just bought a dozen yesterday for 2CH50 a piece. They may be ugly, but they are heavenly. Some French rhubarb is available, although not in vast quantity.

Pourprier, a local spring salad.

For local vegetables, green is the word. There are salads of every type, especially pourprier, rosette, arugula, baby spinach, chervil, and numerous other mixed wild greens.

Rosette: sometimes it's green, sometimes it's red.

Quite a variety of herbs, considering the fact that winter still hasn’t decided to really leave.

I’m not a flower specialist, so I don’t know the names. I’ll just show you the photos; they speak for themselves.

I spend a lot of time reading, researching and tweeting about food and restaurants these days, so I thought I’d jot down my tweets from the last few days. These are from both The Rambling Epicure and Swiss Foodies and should give you an overview of what’s going on in the foodie world this week, in Switzerland and around the world.

These tweets are often focused on Switzerland, but also include a lot of links to Swiss, French, German, British, American, Canadian and other research on food.

Sometimes I couldn’t resist writing about the snow and skiing conditions, because that determines how a lot of us in Switzerland plan our weekends, and therefore what restaurants we go to or what recipes we cook up. And of course occasionally, watches and wine . . . and this week, the Vancouver Winter Olympics and those cute wooly pigs you see in the photo.

Remember, these are just tweets

Remember these are just tweets, so they are short and sweet. They are not particularly orderly; I just tweeted the information as I found it.

I suggest you skim over the headings, and if you’re interested, just click on any of the links that interest you in order to read the detailed article.

Who knows, this might even tempt you to start tweeting yourself!

The list is long, so I’ll list the main topics, which are marked by headings in bold: Restaurants, Recipes, Swiss news, International news, Food trends, Nutrition, health, healthy lifestyle, Chocolate, Wine, Miscellaneous food and related info, Skiing, snow, lifestyle, and Nice quotes.

This week’s tweet list

Restaurants

Taste the latest in the food world, the wooly pig, 23 & 24 Feb. at du Chalet-des-Enfants in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Tired of roestis and pasta in Verbier? Good classic French at La Grange, no surprises.

The Rambling Epicure: check out our restaurant listings.

The Bernerhof hotel in Gstaad has a restaurant for everyone’s taste: pasta, Chinese, traditional.

Tired of roestis in Zermatt? Check out authentic Japanese cuisine and sushi at Myoko, Seiler Hotel.

The food at King’s restaurant Verbier is a delightful mix of English, French, and world influences.

The Walserhof in Klosters is a perfect place to celebrate special occasions, and the food is top notch.

Everything you need to know about eating in Zermatt.

Check out the divine rolled truffle pizza at Quirinale in Geneva.

The Cottage Café in Jardins de Brunswick in Geneva is a great place to meet for afternoon meeting.

Site that lists restaurants in Switzerland that do home delivery.

Gildo’s and La Fromagerie restaurant in Gstaad offers fondues with or without truffles.

Try perfect foie gras poêlé at La Table d’Adrien in Verbier. Chic hip place to go as well. Reservations required.

Hostellerie du Pas-de-L’Ours. Great restaurant, old-fashioned winter veg, great variations on classics. Crans-Montana.

Chez Heini: the place to go for good lamb, great wine list.

Curiositas is as much a museum experience as a restaurant experience. Table by the skeleton or the shrunken head?

Restaurant: Vertig’O in Geneva: elegant business lunch with WiFi.

Brasserie Lipp in Geneva: the ultimate brasserie.

London: The VaBene Brewer Street – you have to try it for lunch, quality food great price and quick turnaround.

Recipes

Recipes and flavor combinations for fennel, when you get tired of eating all those root vegetables!

Recipe: Creamed parsnips with roasted winter vegetables and walnuts recipe.

Vinegar sauces both tasty & healthy. Vinegar helps lower blood sugar & lose weight says one study.

Photo courtesy of Five Prime.

Recipe: How about a new twist on roesti: apple roesti.

Recipes for dessert lovers, especially good chocolate recipes, by pastry chef Pierre Hermé.

Kids in the Kitchen: chocolate and orange mousse recipe, a good Wednesday afternoon family activity.

Recipe: Sautéed Whiting With Lemon Cream Sauce.

The Rambling Epicure: Recipe: lazy man’s breakfast: cappuccino oats.

Recipe: pulled pork and updated coleslaw. Great on a winter’s day.

Winter recipe: Pork Stew with Hard Cider, Pearl Onions, and Potatoes.

Seasonal recipe: Seville orange and almond cake, adapted to European kitchens.

Gordon Ramsay’s 10 easy Indian recipes.

The great cardoon, Geneva’s AOC vegetable.

Winter recipe: cream of parsnip soup with aged Mimolette cheese.

Recipe: cheese tart washed down with good beer is the Basel tradition.

MyKugelhopf hoi zürchers: best fondue in Zurich: http://bit.ly/canAIx & best cheese shops to make your own: http://bit.ly/9eMKGX (in German from züritipp)

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Recipe: Geneva specialty, white wine potatoes, to be eaten with sausage.

How to make your own citrus extracts at home! And it’s dead easy.

All about roesti and recipe!

Simple recipe for oven-baked “carrot fries”.

Soup and sausage on a cold winter’s day: RECIPE.

Recipe: cranberry and orange relish. Great with game dishes of all kinds.

Swiss and international food news: loads of links for restaurants, recipes, etc.

Recipe: kohlrabi and dill stew. Perfect for a winter’s day.

ChocolateCheese cake & Sablé au chocolat in one #cuisine, Eclair à la pomme, caramel au beurre salé in another…must I really taste all?

Recipe: make your own delicious chocolate macarons with bergamot buttercream filling.

The Minimalist: A Dinner Date With India and Spain.

Great site for interesting and unusual combinations to make easy healthy salads.

New Zealand’s quirky breakfasts, recipes included.

Great recipe for a cold winter’s day: Mulligatawny Soup.

Swiss news

The Swiss have a food pyramid too!

Find the farmers market closest to you in Geneva.

Latest food fad: the wooly pig. Try it 23 & 24 Feb. in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Statistics on tourist accommodation in December 2009 and year 2009 – 2009 marked by a decline in overnight stays.

Challenging but surprisingly stable Swiss Tourism.

Adapting to a thrifty new world of tourism.

Prodigy Melodie Zhan celebrates Chopin’s 200th birthday at Victoria Hall in Geneva.

Swiss businessman leaves Libya.

Migros supermarkets to offer sound with food labels, for sight-impaired.

GenevaLunch Nestlé pleased with its 2009 results.

Keep up with the Swiss Foodies Swiss and world foodie news by clicking here.

Beer makers face squeeze in demand.

Swiss Diamond frying pans: the safe non-stick frying pan.

Salt war in Switzerland has started as cantons go abroad.

The big Basel carnival bash! Lots of good food on the agenda!

Site that lists restaurants in Switzerland that do home delivery.

Whistler Olympic Park designer Paul Mathews started in Switzerland!

How fresh are your eggs? New website in Switzerland lets you use number on egg to check its freshness.

The Basel carnival, one of the biggest in Europe, started yesterday. Watch this cool video.

Tartare, the all-time Geneva favorite. L’Illustré tells you about tartare in all its forms.

Where to buy food straight from the farm in Switzerland. Just click on your canton.

Lecture/luncheon in Geneva: the state of Britain today.

Opera: Otello in Lausanne.

Combating the Food Crisis is the primary Objective: At the Annual Media Conference held in Bern.

The Rambling Epicure’s Mindful Eating Manifesto 2010, my New Year’s Resolution, foodie news.

The Ecole-Club Migros now gives some of its cooking classes in English.

Rachid Hamdani’s first statements.

International  news

UK science professor specializes in science of cooking: molecular and post-molecular cuisine.

How to Order a Beer in 50 Languages! http://su.pr/2y4LwM

(image credit:PHOTO: Ben Nilsson/Big Ben Productions. ARTIST: Sakai Hiroyoshi)

The first chain restaurant in the US was opened by a Briton in the 19th century. Fancy that!

France’s most feared restaurant critic François Simon likes to control what he eats and not let the chef decide.

Interesting: Melissa Clark says NYTimes does not pay for recipe testing for her articles. She has to bear the cost if she wants to. #rsfood

All about New Zealand’s quirky breakfasts, with recipes thrown in.

Top 10 list of food songs from Slash Food.

The real difference between restaurant food and food you make at home.

10 of the best English cheeses from the South – Times Online.

Bialetti Mikka Express cappuccino maker, morning’s best friend.

The new trend: nanobreweries, producing artisanal beers.

The UK’s Top 10 fish and chip shops 2010.

Post-molecular cuisine: 21st-century techno.

Martha Stewart is at it again, with an Everyday Food magazine and an iPhone application to boot.What’s a nanobrewery? A scaled-down microbrewery, often run by a solo entrepreneur.

French fast-food chain Quick causes uproar over its decision to serve only halal beefburgers.

Check out this mind-boggling ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi. Exquisitely beautiful!

In San Francisco, local food is sexy thanks to smart marketing and the fine of art of presentation.

Fascinating blindfold comparison between local & organic foods from Walmart and Whole Foods.

Enterprise Hotel Happy Hour “English Style” 4-03-2010 – Milano – Events.

Walmart’s Heritage Agriculture program encourages buying from farms within a day’s drive of one of its warehouses.

Ranting and raving about processed food.

The Omnivore Food Festival will be held in Deauville on Feb. 22 and 23. Read this interesting take.

Michelle Obama asks governors to help anti-obesity initiative.

An Iowa farmer explains the meaning of sustainable agriculture. Full of good info.

An Iowa Farmer explains the meaning of sustainability. Full of good info.

The Best Boutique Hotels & Luxury Hotels for jetset nomads.

A fascinating blindfold comparison between local and organic foods from Walmart and Whole Foods.

Food trends

All about the wooly pig, some of world’s most juicy and flavorful meat and fat, raised using special Austrian techniques.

Latest food fad: the wooly pig. Try tonight and tomorrow 23 & 24 Feb. in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Interesting combination: dark chocolate, hot peppers and mango.

Food trends in Switzerland and the world.

Nutrition, health, healthy lifestyle

Find Out Your Carbon Footprint and How to Reduce It.

4-yr-olds who regularly eat dinner with family, get enough sleep & watch TV < 2 hrs a day 40% less likely to be obese.

The weight gain diet.

Vinegar sauces, both tasty & healthy & vinegar helps lower blood sugar & lose weight.

Something as simple as sitting down to dinner together as a family can go a long way in helping a child fend off obesity.

The Rambling Epicure: Eating healthy monosaturated fats. How to distinguish good fats from bad ones.

Are US supermarket sales dropping because people are flocking to farmers markets? 8:01 AM Feb 17th

Mindful eating: what The Rambling Epicure has on the agenda for 2010.

A new look at the surprising resilience and growth potential of the human brain – AARP Magazine.

Kids in the Kitchen Let’s Move Healthier choices, exercise = HEALTHIER KIDS. Michelle Obama’s campaign.

New seasonal vaccine to contain pandemic H1N1 strain.

The aquaponic garden, spotless and clean. The new rage.

Green leafy foods can be dangerous if not washed properly. Get the scoop here!

Latest news: the importance of getting back around the table.

Chocolate

The perfect marriage of chocolate and beer.

Recipes for dessert lovers, especially good chocolate recipes, by pastry chef Pierre Hermé.

Wine

Learning to love sweet wine.

Soil is not just soil. The Féchy winemakers in canton Vaud get serious!

AMONG THE VINES Swiss women helping build int’l wine group.

Miscellaneous food and related info

Migros supermarkets to offer sound with food labels, for sight-impaired.

Some of my favorite food blogs.

Get the full scoop on how to choose the right kitchen knives for you from a professional chef.

Chocolate show in Nice 5 to 7 March. Both Baboo and easyJet fly there, so it’s an easy leap!

Twitter war between New York chefs! Is Twitter gaining power in the world?

Did you know that the Paris Brest turned 100 in January?

Loads of links to follow food trends in Switzerland and abroad, plus restaurant listings.

What can you do with vanilla bean paste (and why use it instead of beans or extract)?

Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web

Swiss Diamond frying pans: the safe non-stick frying pan.

Skiing, snow, lifestyle

Villars-sur-Ollon’s Fanny Smith will be skiing in the Skier X Women’s Final at 13:35 today. Don’t miss it!

Overview of snow conditions in Swiss ski resorts.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics are first sustainable games; the Olympic Museum in Lausanne has a special exhibit about it.

Beautiful video showing the history of the Winter Olympics.

Best snow sliding in Switzerland!

Achy muscles from all the skiing? Try out exquisite spa packages at Lecrans hotel spa in Crans.

Budget ski deals in European hostels.

Switzerland gets its 5th gold medal!

At least 10 ski stations near Zurich expect 10 cm of new snow overnight!

Klosters ski report: 130 cm snow of very good quality.

Great powdery snow conditions around Sion, 240 cm in Anzère and 210 in Saas-Fee.

Villars-Gryon snow conditions.

Europe’s top ski festivals. Go for it!

Check out this mind-boggling ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi. Exquisitely beautiful!

GenevaLunch overview of Swiss skiing conditions this weekend.

Plan your driving carefully on Saturday. Lots of ski vacationers will be heading home.

Swiss women go for the gold in Vancouver.

Swiss curling team beats US in a close match.

Skiing conditions around Bern.

* * * Olympic sports, curling: Swiss men beat USA * *

Ski chalets and apartments for rent in Gstaad.

Engelberg got the biggest dump in Switzerland (again)- 25 cm this time. See you up there today! #freshpow

The Mégève snow forecast for this weekend.

Gstaad snow report and skiing conditions.

Skiing conditions in Verbier this weekend. 1 cm more snow expected.

RT @as3780: Tonight, jungle fever at the Chopard Party at the Palace Gstaad ! By invitation only. 7:51 PM Feb 20th

Ski conditions in 72 stations near Geneva.

Switzerland’s Martina Kocher No. 1 in luge final for the moment! 7:44 AM Feb 17th

Nice quotes

Life puts some things on our plate, and you have to slowly eat them, slowly digest them, even when they’re not to your gourmet liking.

cyitaiga Quotes – especially positive suggestions – are very strong medicine.

cyitaiga A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.–Bob Hope

cyitaiga The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life.–Charles Schwab

cyitaiga “Great and big things can happen when simple and small things come together.”–Author (Fahad)

cyitaiga A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.–Richard Branson

Rediscovering the beauty of what it means to eat together as a family. A beautiful video.

Get serious about what you put in your mouth.

Have you checked out The Rambling Epicure blog on genevalunch.com?

I spend a lot of time reading, researching and tweeting about food and restaurants these days, so I thought I’d jot down my tweets from the last few days. These are from both The Rambling Epicure and Swiss Foodies and should give you an overview of what’s going on in the foodie world this week.

These tweets are often focused on Switzerland, but also include a lot of links to Swiss, French, German, British, American, Canadian and other research on food.

This week was the countdown to Valentine’s Day, so I listed oodles of Valentine’s dinners, weekend packages at hotels and chocolate shops. You can find the Valentine’s venues I tweeted last week in the 20 Valentine venues, posted earlier this week.

Sometimes I couldn’t resist writing about the snow and skiing conditions, because that determines how a lot of us in Switzerland plan our weekends, and therefore what restaurants we go to or what recipes we cook up. And of course occasionally, watches and Alinghi . . .

Remember, these are just tweets

Remember these are just tweets, so they are short and sweet. They are not particularly orderly; I just tweeted the information as I found it.

I suggest you skim over the headings, and if you’re interested, just click on any of the links that interest you in order to read the detailed article.

Who knows, this might even tempt you to start tweeting yourself!

This week’s tweet list

Valentine’s

20 Valentine venues: restaurants, chocolate and hotel packages for the “big day”!

Valentine’s events in La Gruyère.

Valentine’s package at Bernard Ravet, CHF500, hotel, champagne, 9-course dinner, breakfast for two, Relais & Châteaux.

Restaurants in French-speaking Switzerland w/ Valentine’s specials; just click on your canton! NOT TESTED BY THE RAMBLING EPICURE.

GenevaLunch: Lake Geneva Valentine’s cruise.

Ramada Geneva offering Valentine’s Day brunch as well as candelit dinner.

Hôtel des Armures in Geneva: special Valentine’s package, rooms, champagne, breakfast and chocolate.

Valentine’s package at Hotel Royal Geneva. Le Duo, chic delish restaurant & brasserie, chef trained by Bernard Loiseau.

Jamie Oliver’s Valentine’s Day menu, along with recipes and tips for a romantic feast.

GenevaLunch: Valentine’s for the “older” crowd.

Chocolate

Salt on chocolate, chocolate on salt, chocolate fondue & fruit. A great post about mixing chocolate with other flavors.

Swiss ate less and cheaper chocolate as part of 2009 belt-tightening.

Sweet chocolate dreams package at Lausanne Palace, room, spa, chocolate class.

Photo courtesy of Southern Living.

Restaurants

Bombay-born masterchef Vineet Bhatia of the Geneva restaurant Rasoi By Vineet, which has a Michelin star, is off to culinary festival in Abu Dhabi.

Have you checked out the Metropolitan Truffles Burger at the Café Métropole in downtown Geneva?

What is probably Zermatt’s best restaurant is Mediterranean, not Swiss, buy boy is it good!

Café Berra in Monthey: one of my favorite restaurants. It’s simple, elegant and refined all at the same time.

Michelin star chef Philippe Rochat’s chocolate dessert recipes. Perfect for Valentine’s and use Swiss chocolate!

In case you didn’t catch this: all the best addresses for Valentine’s in Switzerland.

Restaurant: Les Pérolles in Fribourg: bit of paradise right in heart of city. Delicious refined “daily” menu for CHF72.

Have you checked out the Myò Sushi Bar in Lausanne? They also have authentic Japanese cooking.

Restaurant suggestions for every budget and occasion.

Guide names 30 ‘most important’ restaurants in US: Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and Per Se restaurants topped this year.

Chef Ferran Adria to close El Bulli ‘world’s best’ eatery in search for inspiration.

Restaurant Genève Les Armures lists its CHF 19 daily special on site every day.

Untested commercial listing of Geneva restaurants serving special Valentine’s dinner.

Mégève’s Les Enfants Terribles has opened in Paris, taking over Johnny Hallyday’s restaurant!

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Restaurant notes – 4 December 2009.

Check out the exquisite brunches at L’Esquisse near L’Hermitage in Lausanne.

Recipes

This coconut shrimp recipe may not be healthy, but it sure does sound good, and easy to boot!

Chocolate recipes in all forms and fashions. Just convert the American chocolate bars and use chocolate from your local chocolaterie.

Recipe: Caribbean recipe, red snapper with tamarind glaze and banana salsa. In Switzerland, use large rougets.

A Mexican mole recipe adapted to European kitchens. But replace Mexican chocolate with Swiss chocolate, of course!

Alain Passard of L’Arpège in Paris made his restaurant entirely vegetarian (he’s now added a few non-veg items). Here’s his winter vegetable recipe.

Recipes: old-fashioned, American-style cakes, revised to modern tastes (a lot healthier!).

Recipe: lake perch from La Pérolles resto in Fribourg. Good for now, using seasonal Peruvian asparagus and oranges.

Pear rissole: a winter delight, and a specialty of Geneva since time immemorial. History and recipe.

@RebekahDenn With all the untested recipes online, I firmly believe we’ll return to the tradition of cookbooks one day. Be optimistic!

In loverly pink for you…the wonderful valentines day recipes http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes so u dont have an excuse now boys (in his own words).

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Recipe and history: Bern-style rösti.

Cheese

Cheese is still Switzerland’s top export, despite some fluctuations last year.

Wine

List of Geneva wineries that offer wine tasting on Saturdays.

GenevaLunch editor and wine specialist Ellen Wallace competing for the Glorious Vines photo competition.

Check out this food and wine social network.

Swiss wines get a marketing boost with naming of top oenologist as president.

GenevaLunch: AMONG THE VINES: Silver linings: Taramarcaz’s Domaine des Muses.

AMONG THE VINES Don’t forget Changins wine school now gives courses in English.

Wine bars in Geneva!

The 2010-2011 Swiss Wine Guide will be coming out soon in English! Can’t wait.

Anglo-Swiss club in Fribourg, International Beer Festival at 19H30 Thursday Feb. 11th.

Berthaudin in Carouge has a great selection of both local and global wines, and they deliver!

Miscellaneous food and related info

Overview of scientific studies explaining all the reasons green tea is good for you.

Alimentarium food museum in Vevey, founded by Nestlé, permanent exhibition on cooking, buying, eating and digesting.

Hey you American Southerners, remember Spoonbread?

Teach your kids how to shop for food, Let’s Move!

Geneva protected itself from the Savoyards by pouring a cauldron of vegetable soup on their heads, or so they say . . .

Check out these authentic weight loss blogs.

Some great food blogs!

Foodimentary Did you know that many US Civil War battles were fought to capture salt mines? Without salt food couldn’t be preserved.

Fabulous video by Michelle Obama about Let’s Move, her campaign to raise a healthier generation of kids.

Sex, no I mean, Cupcakes in the City, the city being Geneva.

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Swiss have some of best quality cookware available. Check out the Durotherms.

THE RAMBLING EPICURE How to keep up with what food is in season in the Lake Geneva region.

The 7 foods experts won’t eat in the U.S.

What to do with all those pumpkins you’ve stored away for the winter.

USDA report says estimated 49.1M Americans including 16.7M children experienced hunger multiple times throughout year.

McDonald’s is outperforming the sector, despite the general move toward better eating habits.

Photo courtesy of Free Digital Images.

Michelle Obama launched “Let’s Move” campaign today in DC in efforts to fight childhood obesity.

Sugar supply may not meet demand for third year: is this a message we should just quit eating so much?

Have you bought a copy of the Betty Bossi Swiss Cookbook, with both traditional and contemporary recipes?

Better start making your Valentine’s dinner reservations now. Restaurants and hotels fill up quickly.

Have you joined The Rambling Epicure on Facebook? World and Swiss news for foodies.

British Online Supermarket, order online, they ship abroad!Have you joined Swiss Foodies on Facebook? We follow the food scene in Switzerland!

The up-front costs of feeding our kids better food are wiped out on back end by high cost of treating Type 2 diabetes.

GenevaLunch: Cake and pastries buffet.

Swiss in good health, but still smoking, gaining weight.

New vaccines for cattle could cut risk from deadly bacteria – but who will pay for it.

Swedish Bitters, the most popular herb remedy in Europe were actually first produced by *Swiss* physician Phillipus Paracelsus in 1541.

Estèbe’s Top Slurp gives recipe for hottest new food ingredient: the citron.

Find a farmers market in your neighborhood in Geneva.

USDA Announces New Framework For Animal Disease Traceability.

US Food & Drug Administration wants food makers to post nutritional & calorie info ON FRONT of packages.

In America they have to teach kids what real food looks like before it’s processed and put into plastic packages!

Food magazines turn to “leftover” and recycled recipes and articles due to shortage in professional journalist staff.

Skiing, snow, lifestyle

How to ski cheaply and have money left over for beer in Verbier; one Briton’s good advice.

Lots of fresh snow on the way in ski stations near Zurich.

This is SO cool! Horse racing on a snow-covered lake in St. Moritz!

Businesses can’t compete in the global economy without a workforce that can afford to live near them.

Farming is a lifestyle under strain everywhere in Switzerland, but perhaps nowhere more so than in the mountains.

The price of eggs in Switzerland can vary from one to four times more expensive, according to how they are raised.

SO much snow near Zurich, 240 cm in Andermatt!

The Swiss are now sugaring their roads instead of salting them!

Ice skating in Lausanne this week!

SO much snow in the resorts near Geneva!

Walking: A simple focus for the Smart Growth movement.

Swatch sales going up, even during the recession! WOW.

Did you know that the city of Lausanne subsidizes WiFi so that it is accessible all over the city?

At least 58 ski resorts near Basel expect fresh snow within 48 hours.

At least 39 ski resorts near Bern expect fresh snow within 48 hours.

Come to “Outpost Cup” Sunday, February 14 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Join us for a great race…skiers & snowboarders…

John Murtha dies at 77; Pennsylvania Democrat forcefully opposed Iraq war in US Congress.

Shackleton‘s 100 year old whisky has finally been broken out of the Antarctic ice. That’s the spirit!

GenevaLunch: Oracle vs Alinghi (Chappatte cartoon).

Swiss Airlines adds Geneva add non-stop Zurich-San Francisco flight.

NEW TO GENEVA? ME TOO Weekend family and solo activities in Geneva: St Cergue in the snow.

Great site for finding Ayurvedic treatment and yoga retreats with Indian-trained staff.

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Geneva cybercafés.

Check out this site for what’s going on in neighboring Haute-Savoie.

Wow, Geneva Tourism site is also in Spanish now!

Scary. Is Switzerland’s luxury watch industry in trouble?

It’s carnival time in the Catholic cantons of Switzerland!

Cardoon gratin is one of Geneva’s favorite Christmas dishes, so now’s the time to learn!

Geneva cardoons.

Viviane Bauquet Farre gives a wonderful explanation on how to prepare and blanch those tasty but thistly dears.

The Chapuis family, who does the Boulevard Hélvétique market on Wednesday and Saturday, started preparing them and sealing them in vacuum packs a couple of years ago, and it has been so successful that everyone is following suit.

So if you’re brave enough, prepare them yourself. Otherwise, know you have an alternative.

Very Easy Kitchen's beautiful photo of pear rissoles.

The nearly extinct Marlioz pear saved by Geneva woman

You don’t just use any old pear to make rissoles. You use a variety specific to the region: the Marlioz pear, which was saved by none other than Eliane Pottu, says La Tribune de Genéve. Jérôme Estèbe wrote a delightful feature, in French, on the fortunate revival of this dish. Traditionally, every family in canton Geneva and the Savoy had a couple of Marlioz pear trees in the garden, but this tradition has slowly dwindled away.

A few years ago, says Estèbe, Pottu and other growers in the Geneva region took some grafts from the Lullier horticultural center, which was trying to keep the variety alive. Today, they are giving plentiful fruit, and she and her husband have just planted two more.

Another reason the dish was going out of fashion is because one has to cook the pears for at least 3 hours, until they turn red and are caramelized, before they are ready to be put into the pastry and baked. You need the better part of a day to make them, from start to finish.

Pottu uses her grandmother’s recipe, according to the Tribune article. She starts by cooking the pears in a pressure cooker. She then beats them with a wire whip, and flavors them to taste with sugar, cinnamon, orange, candied lemons, and raisins. After that, she lets them braise slowly on top of the stove, stirring them often so they don’t stick.

Recipes vary, but long slow cooking needed

Recipes differ from one family to another, but you can also add cloves, vanilla, ginger, and various other spices. Some people even add wine or kirsch.

The Chronique des Jardins Familiaux de Bernex, an association which is trying to protect the tradition of family gardens in canton Geneva, gives an interesting recipe using brown cane sugar (cassonnade or sucre de canne roux), quince marmelade and red wine. They recommend cooking it from 4 to 6 hours. I would definitely use brown cane sugar and cook it for as long as possible to get as caramel-like a consistency as possible. Adding the alcohol of your choice will also help it caramelize.

Once cooked, you use the pear mixture to make small turnovers using the pastry of your choice. You can also store the pear mixture for later use, just like jam. The pastries are best eaten hot.

Marie Flo gives a wonderful, illustrated, step-by-step recipe in French. Very Easy Kitchen uses short pastry, and Tonka vanilla beans and ginger to spice up the filling (recipe in French), and extra-ripe Abate pears, probably for lack of Marlioz. Abate pears are another local variety, absolutely delicious when eaten raw; I think they’re too fine to cook.

Pears: local fruit from in the midst of winter!

Growers and vendors often make their own pear filling at this time of year, so be on the lookout in farmers markets. Patrimoine Culinaire says for lack of Marlioz, the Loup and Livre varieties are also suitable, as are the Blesson, Martin Sec and Sans Grappe Rouge varieties. Farmers will often simply mark pears that are appropriate for this use as “poires à rissoler,” meaning pears for sautéeing or cooking pears.

According to Office de Promotion des Produits Agricoles de Genève, the office for promoting Geneva agricultural products, Marlioz pears and the other cooking pears mentioned above are too hard to eat raw, and should always be cooked.

The rissoles you find in local bakeries often use a filling they buy pre-made from the German part of Switzerland, simply because of the scarcity of the real thing.

Marlioz pears and filling can be purchased at:

• Madame Pottu’s farm, route de Malval 36, +41 022 754 12 64
• the Ferme Courtois in Versoix, route de la Bravaude 11, +41 033 Branvaude 11, tel. +41 022 755 43 16
• Claude Métrez’s farm and Corinne Ménétrez’s grocery, Le Pommier Garni, route de Gy 31 bis, Meinier, tel. +41 022 772 09 03

Now is the season, from November to January. You can actually eat local fruit in the midst of winter!

Related link: Tribune de Genève

Photo courtesy of Steve Lupton/Corbis.

I’ve gathered some ideas that allow you to plan your own personalized Thanksgiving, right here in the Lake Geneva region, without having to have someone send you the ingredients from back home.

Thanksgiving planner

Epicurious has devised quite a clever Thanksgiving menu planner that should help everyone have a successful, stress-free Thanksgiving. You fill in a form, answering questions about what why type of dinner you want, and they propose a customized menu.

A gourmet Thanksgiving

I filled it in, with no holes barred, and this was what they suggested:

An easy Thanksgiving for four

Simpler menus are available, depending on how you answer the questions. This one is for four people who want to make a quick, traditional dinner.

There are endless possibilities, depending on how you answer the questions.

A vegan Thanksgiving

Veg Kitchen has a long list of clever ideas for a vegan Thanksgiving. What’s makes the recipes interesting is that they incorporate the traditional ingredients we associate with Thanksgiving, such as cranberries, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin, into mouthwatering recipes such as cranberry slaw, walnut-apple stuffing, and maple and tarragon sweet potatoes.

A vegetarian Thanksgiving

Photo courtesy of the site Chow.

Chow gives an interesting list of recipes quite in the spirit of Thanksgiving, such as roasted acorn squash with wild rice stuffing, mushroom and fennel bread pudding, and celery root and squash gratin with walnut-thyme streusel, and using seasonal ingredients.

What the Pilgrims really ate

Hanna Raskin thinks that today’s classic Thanksgiving meal is quite different from the Pilgrims’ and Wampanoags’ feast. She says they  probably “supped on seal, swan and extravagantly large crustaceans,” considering their proximity to the sea, along with staple harvest dishes such as corn porridges, turnips and grapes.

Finding the ingredients for Thanksgiving in Switzerland

Of course, in Europe, the difficulty is finding the right ingredients. Thanks to the large international population in the Lake Geneva region, we have more options than in most parts of Europe.

Any large Coop, Migros and in particular Manor, supermarket stocks fresh cranberries, sweet potatoes, maple syrup, and molasses. Pumpkin is staple winter food in Switzerland. The farmers markets are always well stocked with pumpkin as well.

The American Market sells vacuum-packed, peeled sweet potatoes, as well as corn meal, canned whole and jellied cranberry sauce, canned puréed pumpkin, pumpkin pie mix, turkey stuffing mix, gingerbread mix, eggnog, pumpkin bread mix, canned sweet potatoes, and canned turkey gravy. They have addresses in both Geneva and Nyon, and you can also order online.

Complete, freshly made Thanksgiving dinners, ready to heat up, can be ordered from the Grande Boucherie du Moulard in Geneva. They also sell fresh free-range turkeys.

Otherwise, it is possible to order turkeys ahead of time from large supermarkets that have butchers and from local butchers. The price may be steep, because they will usually be free-range turkeys from Bresse, but the quality is invariably good. Some of the large Migros have frozen turkeys. In any case, it is a good idea to make arrangements for your turkey well ahead of the Big Day.

Summer fruit and vegetables in the Lake Geneva region are all but gone, and autumn and root vegetables are now on the agenda.

Fall fruit and vegetables

Baby carrots, baby turnips, baby beets, radishes of all types. New potatoes of all varieties.

Swiss chard (blettes), Jerusalem artichokes (topinambur), parsnips (panais), celeriac (celery root of knob celery, called céleri rave in French).

Cepe mushrooms (bolets) (delicious this year), field chanterelles (dark brown and gold in color, only available for a very short period in the autumn), black truffles, and a wide variety of other wild mushrooms.

Field chanterelles are only available in the fall.

Wild greens of all types, mesclun (mixed wild salad greens), wild arugula rocket salad, cabbage of all types, kohlrabi (colrave), beets, leeks, pumpkin, squash of all types, cauliflower, broccoli. Herbs of all types.

Most producers make their own mixture of seasonal soup greens and vegetables, which you can just add to a chicken broth.

Grapes (try the hard-to-find framboisé variety, absolutely delicious), apples, pears.

Flowers

In a couple of weeks, chrysanthemums will be the only local flowers available, so take advantage of what’s still available.

Amazingly, we are still blessed with a few summer vegetables in the Lake Geneva region, so we still have an interesting mix of spring, summer, and fall fruit and vegetables. As I keep saying, it is surprising what a variety of local fruit and vegetables are still available this late in the growing season.

Spring and summer fruit and vegetables

Aubergine/eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgette/zucchini, green beans, radishes, bell peppers of all colors.

Extra-sweet strawberries, last of the corn, raspberries, blackberries (rarer than the other berries).

Rosemary, many varieties of basil, some mint (end of season), dill, coriander, parsley, laurel, scallions.

Fall fruit and vegetables

Local parsnips from just over the border in France.

Baby carrots, baby turnips, radishes of all types.

New potatoes of all varieties, Swiss chard (blettes), Jerusalem artichokes (topinambur), parsnips (panais).

Local Comice pears.

Grapes (try the hard-to-find framboisé variety, absolutely delicious):

Apples, pears, plums, red peaches (pêches de vigne).

Wild greens of all types, mesclun (mixed wild salad greens).

Cabbage, beets, wild arugula rocket salad.

Herbs of all types, but seeing the last of the mint.

In Switzerland, each producer makes her own mixture of seasonal vegetables for soup.

Most producers make their own mixture of seasonal soup greens and vegetables, which you can just add to a chicken broth.

Cepe mushrooms (bolets).

Black truffles, and a wide variety of other wild mushrooms.

Leeks, pumpkin, squash of all types, cauliflower, broccoli.

Flowers