Canned Soup

This subject is a bit banal, but it's something that's come up a lot lately.  It's winter, it's cold, it's gray outside (and the underfloor heating never seems to keep me toasty enough).  What do you want? A nice bowl of soup.  I don't want to cook a bowl of soup from scratch and spend 4 hours at the cooker.  No, I want to open a can of (specifically) Progresso soup, heat it up and sit down to gobble up it's warm heartiness.  In 5 minutes you're warm, happy and have a filled belly.
Powdered soup is disgusting, too salty and always just tastes like water with powder in it.  Why hasn't canned soup made it here?

I would say that Minestrone, Chicken Noodle or Chicken Rice with Vegetables would do me very well right now, thank you.

My dream house (today)

I finally watched last? week's Grand Designs episode...I almost erased it from the DVR, because the description was something about a daughter building a house in her mother's garden, sounded kinda weird and we were running out of space. 


Anyway, I am SO glad I watched it, the interior designer/owner/project manager/genius, Kathryn Tyler, is incredible - I want to be her, and I want her house.  If we ever get to build a house for ourselves, either here in Suisse, on our property Upstate or somewhere else tbd, this is it...

and this

and this is my kitchen/dining room

and this is my friend Kevin who comes over for dinner all the time and tells us amazing stories

oh, how I dream...

Copied or Not?

I've been sort of blown away at the amount of (what I see as) some pretty blatant product copy-catting here in Switzerland.  Again, before I arrived here, I thought Switzerland (at least architecturally speaking) was kind of at the forefront of cool design, however, over the course of my time here, I've noticed a lot of "new" products coming out that seem to be exact copies of products I've seen (and loved) in the US.  

Here are a few examples...let me know what you think

Above:  A favorite back home - Izze sparkling fruit drinks (founded c. 2002)

Above:  Mojo fizzy fruit drinks (idea c. 2005 in Switzerland / available 2008)

I've read about how the developer came up with his genius idea while he worked in a Zurich restaurant.  Hmmm. It's not so much the idea of the fizzy fruit drink but the exact replica packaging design (it initially came out in glass bottles too) that bothers me.

Next, here is my beloved VitaminWater in "focus" flavor from the States (now owned by Coca-Cola), next to Swiss FocusWater. 

Notice the bold/regular type, and obvious bottle similarities etc. Interesting.

The best Sunday ever...

My lovely thoughtful husband just brought this back from his trip this week to NYC...even though it's yesterday's paper I will pretend it's from today, and read it all day.  My ideal Sunday begins now.

Straight outta central casting

This guy is currently running for Governor of NY State...how brilliant.  I know Geneva is dubbed "an international city" but, c'mon, when have you ever seen anyone like this walking around the streets?! I LOVE NY!!!

The Rent is Too Damn High Party

via Gawker TV.

Here is SNLTV's parody (almost more genius)...

The Rent is Too Damn High (SNLTV Parody)

via Gawker TV.

Today I'm missing...

A friend reminded me yesterday how much I'm missing my PJ's iced coffee (cold weather or not)...

Then, last night I made fries with Old Bay Seasoning

and realized how much I missed overflowing lobster rolls from the Mermaid Inn on 2nd Ave in NYC.

Ponzu Sauce comes a close third.  Brought some back from the states last trip, but am slowly running out.  What will my steamed vegetables do without it?

Happy Friday!

Strikes!

Well, this is one thing I am really glad rarely exists here in Switzerland:  striking.


I bought into the hysteria coming from France and filled up the car yesterday just in case. Good thing I don't need to go anywhere soon.  


Vive la Suisse!