2011 Buergbrennen in Luxembourg City, Sunday, March 13

This year, the Buergbrennen in Luxembourg City will take place on Sunday, March 13, 2011 in the vallee de la Petrusse (the valley beneath the Adolphe bridge going all the way to the Grund).

As usual, the stands of food and drinks will be open as from midday on Sunday, with the big celebration starting at dusk.

Trip to Freudenstadt, Germany

An old town in the middle of the Balck Forest, which prides itself with the largest market place in Germany.

Play online and win a Fiat

Fiat is promoting its fuel efficient and ecological small cars and engines through an online game until February 15, 2010.

The idea is that they will test the fuel efficiency of a Fiat 500 by seeing how much it will run on the athletics track of the Roi Baudoin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, with just 0.95 liters of petrol.

All you have to do is to go at http://jegagneunefiat.lu/ and guess in what section of the track the car will stop when it will run out of fuel.

Good luck!

Fruit salad - recipe (including photos)

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas
• 2 kiwi
• 1 apple
• 9 clementines
• 1 pomegranate
• liquor

Cut the fruits in small pieces.

Mix them well together with the liquor.

Cover them and put them in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bon Appetit!

2011 Oscars predictions

We continue the "tradition" of Oscar predictions started last year, when we were on target for only 2 out of 7 predictions :)) Hopefully, we'll be better this year.


The 2011 Oscar nominees have just been announced yesterday.

Below are our predictions for the 2011 Oscars:

• Actor in a leading role:

                   Javier Bardem, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Colin Firth, James Franco

• Actor in a supporting role:

         Christian Bale, John Hawkes, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Geoffrey Rush

• Actress in a leading role:

              Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman, Michelle Williams

• Actress in a supporting role:

         Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter, Melissa Leo, Hailee Steinfeld, Jacki Weaver

• Animated feature film:

            How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, Toy Story 3

• Directing:

          Black Swan, The Fighter, The King's Speech, The Social Network, True Grit

• Best picture:

             Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter's Bone

Vote for the chance to win a city car - 2011 competition

During the Auto Festival which is taking place now in Luxembourg, you have the chance to win a city car if you take part in the competition from www.autovumjoer.lu

The competition is organised by Saint-Paul Luxembourg s.a., the group which publishes the newspapers La Voix and Point24.

Basically all you have to do is to vote for your favourite car in 6 categories and you are automatically entered into the free prize draw.

Competition open until February 9, 2010.

Good luck !

Why buy a 3-door car instead of the 5-door version?

We have always asked ourselves what are the reasons people buy a 3-door car instead of the regular 5-door car? Basically, it is the same car, only that the back doors are missing.

This issue is especially valid for small cars, which are already short of space in the 5-door version, let alone in the 3-door version.

Could it be the price? We compared the Luxembourg price difference for some of the best sold small cars: less than EUR 500 difference for Renault Clio, Peugeot 207 and Ford Fiesta.

For all those cars mentioned above, the consumption and the CO2 emissions are the same, so the argument that a 3-door car saves fuel and is more ecological does not stand. The weight difference between the 2 versions is insignificant (10 kg for the Clio and the Fiesta, no difference for the 207).

On the other hand, we think that the constant discomfort of impaired access to the backseat should be a deterrent to the acquisition of a 3-door car. Considering only the practical habit of throwing a shopping bag or your coat on the backseat just by opening the backdoor.

Most of all, we consider the necessity of giving a lift to some friends and the discomfort of getting into the backseat of a 3-door car.

Nutella croissants - recipe (including photos)

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of wheat flour
• 20 grams of melted butter
• 200-300 milliliters of milk 
• 1 egg
• Nutella spread
• 3 tea-spoons of honey
• 1/2 tea-spoon of salt
• yeast

Mix the flour with the honey, the yeast, the milk, the melted butter and the salt.

Put the resulting dough to rest for 1 hour.

Divide the dough in two and stretch it on the table. Divide the sheet in eight pieces.

Put 1 tea-spoon of Nutella and roll it from exterior to interior of the sheet.

This croissants are also very good if you put jam, instead of Nutella.

Smear egg on top of the croissants and bake them for 15-20 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius.

Bon Appetit!

2011 Esch-sur-Alzette carnaval (cavalcade) on March 27

The 2011 edition of the Esch-sur-Alzette carnaval (cavalcade) will take place on Sunday, March 27, 2011.

The cortege will start at 14:30 from Place Victor Hugo.

Trip to Bad Peterstal, Germany

A very small mountain spa resort with natural sparkling mineral water springs.

It's only 50km away from Strasbourg and 10km away from the nearest ski slope.

Pork with mushroom and cream sauce - recipe (including photos)

Ingredients

• 400 grams of meat
• 3 big onions
• 500 grams of mushrooms
• 250 grams of cream
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Chop the onions and add them over the olive oil. Let them fry till yellow.

Add the meat and 200 - 300 grams of water and let them boil for half an hour at slow fire.

Add the mushrooms and let them boil until the meat is ready.

Add the cream and let it cook for another 10 minutes.
Bon Appetit!

2011 Diekirch carnaval (cavalcade) on March 06

Now that the Christmas is over, we are already thinking about the traditional carnavals that are taking place towards the end of winter / beginning of spring.

The 2011 edition of the Diekirch carnaval (cavalcade) will take place on Sunday, March 06, 2011.

The cortege is planned to start at 14:30 from route de Gilsdorf.


The entrance to the carnival will cost EUR 6 per adult person (similar to last year).

Further details and pictures from last year can be found at www.cavalcade.lu

Restaurant Amarine Luxembourg (Auchan shopping centre)

Today we had lunch at the Amarine restaurant in the Auchan shopping centre in Kirchberg.

It is a fish/seafood restaurant, part of a French chain. Its website can be found here.

We had the offer of the day: cod fillet with vegetables and rice, for EUR 12 per person. We are not specialists, but it did not impress us. It was plain, with no spice. The vegetables were tasteless, same as the rice.

The dessert was a Tiramisu, for EUR 6 per portion. It was a huge portion, but an average taste.

It was pretty crowded at lunch time, so there are people who enjoy going there. We didn´t.

Trip to Dornstetten, Germany

They advertise it as a historical village, but there not much left to see, as you will discover from our photos:

Autofestival 2011 Luxembourg

The Autofestival 2011 officially takes place between January 29, 2011 and February 7, 2011.

However, most of the dealers have already started to apply the special conditions (discounts on the catalogue prices and special option packages). Also banks offer loans with reduced interest rates for a car purchase during this period.

We have asked already two weeks ago several dealers and they already made us some offers with Autofestival conditions:
-5.5% discount for a Volkswagen Tiguan
- 8% discount for a Volvo XC60
- 7% discount for a LandRover Freelander
- 7% discount for a Mercedes GLK
- 5.7% discount for an Audi Q5 (Audi also has some packages at reduced prices, so the total advantage might be higher).


Here is the list with the main dealers of cars in Luxembourg:

www.autopolis.lu - for Opel, Volvo, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Suzuki, Chrysler, Cadillac, Corvette, Dodge, Jeep

www.autodis.lu - for Hyundai and Isuzu

www.mercedes-benz.lu - for Mercedes and Smart

www.volkswagen.lu , www.audi.lu, www.skoda-auto.lu , www.seat.lu

www.bmw.lu,

Trip to Rottenburg am Neckar, Germany

Another small town in South-West Germany.

Marinated chicken with sweet sauce - recipe (including photos)

The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken
• 150 milliliters of dry white wine
• 50 milliliters of olive oil
• 3 tea spoons of mustard
• garlic
• laurel
• red pepper
• salt
• thyme
• the juice of a lemon
• curry
• pepper
• coriander

Mix the olive oil with the wine and add the mustard , the juice of the lemon, the chopped garlic, the coriander, the laurel, the red pepper, the salt, the thyme, and the curry.

Cut the chicken in medium pieces.

Pour over the mixture and let rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 1 spoon of mustard
• 300 milliliters of tomatoes juice
• 150 milliliters of apple juice
• 2 onions
• 2 spoons of lemon juice
• garlic
• pepper
• sunflower oil
• and sugar if you prefer it

 

Chop in small pieces the onions and the garlic and let it fry until yellow.

Add the lemon juice, the tomatoes juice, the apple juice, the mustard, the pepper and let them boil until becomes creamy.

In a separate pan put the chicken to fry at rapid fire until is ready.

 

Bon Appetit!