The past few weeks have been really busy. I even had to skip the October Daring Cook's challenge. That bothered me. It would have been Vietnamese Chicken Pho. So now I'm looking forward to the next challenge!

Last weekend we took the train to Wels, Austria, where my husband's younger brother was getting married. We were the wedding photographers, so we had an important job! After a 8 hour train ride we went for dinner before heading off to bed. Sitting in the train all day made us tired. Dinner was at a fabulous restaurant called "Löwenkeller". My husband started with a Cream of Pumpkin Soup with Red Thai Curry, Coconut Milk and Black Sesame Seeds. I had a salad, which was good, but I should have had the soup. It was spectacular! I bought a butternut squash yesterday so I can recreate it. Our main was Risotto with Chanterelles and a dollop of tomato pesto. Extremely good.

The church service on Saturday was beautiful and the sun came out at just as we were getting ready to take pictures. Perfect.

Back at home, I still had the bag of quince a colleague at work had given me. They were perfuming the house, but I needed to get started on using them. I didn't want them to go bad. Since I have 2 recipes for quince I searched the net for more ideas and finally settled on a recipe. I made a Pear and Quince Frangipane Tart with a puff pastry crust. The house was filled with a cinnamon, star anise and clove aroma as I poached the fruit. The finished product was quite good, but I want to experiment some more. Maybe something savory? Pictures and a recipe to follow next week.

This weekend was a big birthday for my mom, so we invited her to dinner in Basel. My sister and I searched for a good restaurant and finally settled on the "Teufelhof". The food was also very good, although I think my mom ordered the best. She started with a cream of pumpkin soup with tiny sun-dried tomato raviolis and then had pear and walnut ravioli with a gorgonzola sauce. Amazingly good. I started with a frisee lettuce salad with orange vinegrette and then had mushroom risotto. Unfortunately the risotto was very salty. Otherwise my choice was good. I didn't have any dessert as I had eaten too much and was nursing a chamomile tea to try and calm my stomach... Today I was able to get back into the kitchen and do some quality cooking. I made a potato and eggplant coconut curry. It turned out well.

Now the weekend is just about over, and I again feel like I could use just one more day. The only thing I have planned for next weekend is to spend time in the kitchen and cook and bake to my heart's content.