Since the beginning of the Jewish New Year last weekend, when I made light, chewy fig and pistachio nougat, I haven’t stopped dipping apples in honey and even made a second batch of nougat.  The tradition is, we wish each other a sweet new year.  I think I’ve got that covered.  I put that extra batch of nougat in the freezer, as it was a bit soft, and eating it straight from there, I was quickly reminded of frozen Charleston Chew bars we used to have as kids.  Remember that candy bar, yellow wrapper and all? Takes me right back to my summer camp canteen.  Just wait until I dip those nougat squares into chocolate and put them back in the freezer, now that will be good! Furthermore, the official opening date for Ladurée in Zürich has been released – October 14th, in less than 3 weeks!  This coming year is sure to be sweet!  I have my usual line-up of adventures ahead, each one with a whole new set of pastry shops, chocolate shops and markets to visit, always fascinating people to meet and local customs to learn about.

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After our celebration of Switzerland’s National Day here on August 1st, our travels led us to Appenzell. Many say this is a town where time has stood still. Coming up, I?ll report on the charm and very Swissness of the city (yes yes, and its cheese too!), so stay tuned. But first, a quick post about the opposite extreme – where time does anything but stand still. On some blogs, you may notice as many as 20 options to be notified about new posts (DIGG, Bloglines, Technorati, Newsgator, MyYahoo, etc). It’s pretty incredible, the speed at which information is being transmitted and shared, and to such vast amounts of people all across the world.

Well, MyKugelhopf is keeping up with (most of!) this technology. Worry no longer about missing a new post! Some of you may already be a fan on MyKugelhopf’s Facebook page – feel free to add comments and photos there. You may have also noticed the new, colorful trio of icons over there on the right. Don’t be shy… go ahead, click on them! Many readers have asked me about the RSS feed, so that’s there now. Or feel free to sign up for an email notice as well: each time I post something new, you’ll be (one of) the first to know! And last but not least… MyKugelhopf is now on Twitter!

Which brings me to the last order of business. For all of you on Twitter, what would YOU like to see in MyKugelhopf’s Tweets? Please share below, and that’s what you shall see!  For example…

What’s baking in the oven here?  What’s doing in Zurich?  Fun articles on the web I’m reading?   What chocolate I’m tasting?  Travel plans?

Thanks for letting me know!  And as always, thanks so very much for following MyKugelhopf!

What a fabulous surprise to see that MyKugelhopf is nominated for two categories in the 2009 Lonely Planet Travel Blogger Awards:  Best Themed Blog and Best Image Blog. 

Please click here to vote for MyKugelhopf

Voting has begun, and will continue until 12am on Wednesday, March 20th (Pacific Time, USA).  A big thank you to all who are voting for MyKugelhopf !  Thanks, merci beaucoup and danke schön !!  :)

Whether a “sweet tooth” refers to one particular moment when you crave something sweet, or a more broad liking of sweets in general… well I have one.  All the time.  In fact, I have a whole mouth full of them.  I am not promoting an excess amount of sugar in one’s diet; we all know this a no-no.  But I am promoting enjoying the sweeter side of life, and this definitely includes indulging one’s sweet tooth from time to time.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be by eating though.  With the explosion of food and travel blogs over the past few years, you can spend all day gazing at pages and pages of gorgeous photos of baked goods, chocolate, sweets – and not take in a calorie.   Too much reading though and you might get saturated just as easily.

I was not only honored, but real excited, to be invited as a guest author on Blogs.com this past week, to come up with a themed list of my 10 favorite blogs.  The site was put together to help people find the best in blogs, and it’s very well organized and easy to navigate.  A popular feature is the Guest Top 10 Lists, where bloggers, writers, celebrities and big thinkers pick their 10 favorite blogs on a topic of their choice.  I thought about my favorite blogs for French speakers, and my favorite bloggers in Switzerland, but ended up with a topic that should come as no surprise to you all.  My theme… Top 10 Blogs to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth.  But of course!

It’s a fun list of bloggers who all appreciate the sweet life, and I check their sites regularly to see what they’re baking up or the sweet spots they are visiting.  All of their photos are mouthwatering, their recipes approachable and inspiring, and their ideas new and creative.  Hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.  Click the image to the left to see my list of sweet sites on Blogs.com, and feel free to click around to see other lists as well. It’s a really great way to discover other blogs, and less intimidating to do so when you can pick and choose by your personal interests.

And while we’re on the topic of sweets (not that this is out of the ordinary), I thought I’d revisit some favorite MyKugelhopf posts of 2008 that will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth as well!  Click the photos below and follow your sweet tooth on a little adventure… enjoy a Kouign Amann on France’s Brittany coast; sweet fruit candy or salty licorice from Sweden; creamy gelato at the border of Italy and Switzerland; Roanne’s legendary and bright pink, sugary Praluline brioche; and an extra crispy and buttery palmier in Paris, or colorful macarons if you prefer.  Don’t forget some good Swiss chocolate and a stop in the Alsatian town of Colmar for a kugelhopf!

Now, for those of you with a sweet tooth that’s drawing you into the kitchen, here’s another adventure for you.  Stay cozy in your own home and turn the oven on.  Take your pick below, and bake up a fig tarte Tatin, a pumpkin chocolate cake, a batch of banana macadamia chocolate chip cookies or some crumbly polenta shortbread.  Bon appétit!

The official winners of the 2008 Weblog Awards were finally announced last night, and I could not be any more excited to say that MyKugelhopf is the winner for Best Travel Blog!

What a week it was…. a whole lot of fun, plenty of excitement (not to mention stress!) watching the polls, so many new blogs discovered and an overall close race up until the very end.  A huge thank you to all of my readers – mille merci à tous mes lecteurs.  What an honor this is.

And now it’s time to look ahead at what’s to come in 2009.  I have a few very busy and exciting months planned, with lots of traveling and gastronomic adventures to look forward to, not to mention several towering piles of recipe cutouts that I am itching to try. 

First stop will be the 31st annual International Hot Air Balloon Festival in Switzerland ‘s Bernese Oberland.  Talk about a photographic scene – the sky filled with a rainbow of hot air balloons!  A stroll through nearby Gruyère to taste a meringue (or two) topped with the region’s famous double cream will be obligatory.  I can already picture the car trunk – big coolers bursting with Gruyère cheese and cream, must buys in what is Switzerland’s richest dairy district.  Then it will be a list of must buys in Münich, Germany.  The car ride back to Zürich, on the other hand, will be too long for the cooler, so I’ll simply fill up on dried sausages and other appetizing treats from the colorful Viktualienmarkt.  Mmm, I can smell the gingerbread and already taste the zing of the mustard on my weisswurst!  And oh those enormous bretzels!  Gosh, will those German market vendors be confused with my (attempt at) Swiss German. 

No linguistic worries at least when I head back to New York City, as well as Paris, my two other “homes.”  My lists of new places to try are getting frighteningly long!  Ice cream, waffle and dessert trucks in NYC, up and coming pastry chefs, chocolatiers and boulangers I have been reading about in Paris – I’ve got my work cut out for me for sure. Before the ski season flies by, you’ll be sure to see a few snowy photographs and hear about my adventures in the Alps of France, Switzerland and Austria.  I’ll make sure I’m back in either Lucerne and Basel for Fasnacht, the long-awaited annual Carnival celebration.  I can only wonder if it will be a 3-day equivalent of Zürich’s Techno Parade.  Either way, I’ll be off again to a friend’s Serbian Wedding (Svadba) in Belgrade – he’s Austrian and she’s Serbian.  What a fascinating mix of cultures – and cuisines – that will be.  I still have yet to report on a friends’ wedding I attended a couple of months ago - a Portuguese and Kyrgyzstani couple.  I’m just waiting on the bride’s very own recipe for Samsa (of course that means you Nazgulia!).  I’ll also be spending a week discovering the beauty of Istria, Corsica.  I’m ready for the authentic konobas, traditional tavernas with open-hearth fireplaces.  And finally, if you have the courage, you can follow me on a European bike tour, as I train for the ZüriTriathlon this summer (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run).  Nope, never did this before.  It’s probably not the best idea to wear arm floats on race day, so I better start learning how to swim too.  Talk about a challenge.

And this is only through June.  It’s going to be one adventure after another, and I can hardly wait.  So grab your passports, your cameras, your market caddies and your aprons… and be sure to check back here on the blog often! 

But first tell me, what are YOUR plans for 2009?  Travel plans near and far?  Recipes you’re set to try in 2009?  Culinary resolutions?  I’d love for you to share here as well…

Click here to vote for MyKugelhopf

I was absolutely thrilled to learn that MyKugelhopf is a finalist for “Best Travel Blog” in the 2008 Weblog Awards.  Voting is underway, and continues through this weekend. The polls close on Tuesday, January 13th at 10pm GMT / 5pm EST / 2pm PST, and you can vote once every 24 hours until then.

Clicking on the above link will bring you directly to the poll.  A big thank you to all who have already been voting for MyKugelhopf, and to all who will continue to do so!!

And for those of you who haven’t yet, please click here and vote for MyKugelhopf! Thanks very much, and merci beaucoup à tous!