enjoying Parco Valgrande

Cicogna-Verbania-Laveno 14.7.2013, a set on Flickr.

Today we went to Cicogna in the Parco Valgrande just above Verbania on the westside of Lago Maggiore. We enjoyed the beautiful environments (mountains, rivers and woods), a good mountain meal and afterwards we relaxed along and in the fresh water of the creek San Bernardino which flows into the Lago Maggiore a few kilometers ahead.

Back to Lombardy with the ferry from Verbania to Laveno where we enjoyed a stylish aperitivo before heading home.

a day on the Lago Maggiore and in Stresa

Stresa 30.6.2013, a set on Flickr.

enjoying a beautiful summer day to have lunch on Isola dei Pescatori in the Lago Maggiore and walk through the streets of Stresa

Pasta al Ragù (bolognese)

Ik kreeg al vaker de vraag om het recept van mijn ragù te delen. voor de non-Italianen volgt hier het recept van de ragù (ook bekend als Bolognese saus)

Opmerking vooraf: ragù is een vleessaus en GEEN tomatensaus, het vlees moer overheersen en niet drijven in een pan tomatensaus

4 jaar na dato

Ik heb wel eens ergens gelezen (zal wel in "Ik mis alleen de HEMA" zijn geweest) dat je als emigrant vier jaren nodig hebt om helemaal die omslag te maken en te verwerken. Nou, vandaag is die dag! Vandaag is het vier jaar geleden dat we Nederland vaarwel zeiden en vol goede moed naar Italië vertrokken (hier de link naar de blog van 14 aug 2008). En wat is er in vier jaar veel gebeurd en wat zijn we veel wijzer geworden! Nou... wat zijn we in vier jaar eigenlijk wijzer geworden?

het roer om

Allemaal kennen we wel de mislukkingen en hopeloze pogingen van emigranten op TV in programma's als "het roer om". In de eerste minuten weet je al dat het plan gedoemd is te mislukken: geen duidelijke (economische) plannen of veel te rooskleurige plannen, ze spreken de taal nog niet of nauwelijks en het steenkolen engels zal ze ook niet ver brengen... maar toch... ZE DOEN HET WEL! Ik kreeg in de aanloop naar de emigratie vaak te horen "ja daar hebben wij ook over gedacht" en "dat zouden wij ook wel willen"... en telkens waren het mensen die veel beter dan de hoofdrolspelers uit "het roer om" zich zouden hebben kunnen redden. Waren zij die veilig thuis bleven zo realistisch en zij die de deur achter zich dicht trokken zo optimistisch?

Zonder een goede dosis optimisme lukt het in ieder geval niet. Het optimisme heb je vooral ook nodig om je voort te trekken, om te voorkomen dat je bij de tegenslagen (die je geheid gaat tegenkomen) bij de pakken gaat neerzitten.

homemade Lasagna with Zucchini

Here's the recipe for the Lasagna I made earlier this evening.

As usual my lasagna was based on homemade ragù and bechamel, this time in combination with zucchini.


I never care so much about quantities and portions, if there's something left I usually find use for it in tomorrow's lunch so forgive me for being a bit vague.

click Read more below to go to the recipe!

an e-commerce story with an Italian flavour

this story is from a recent personal experience!

I wanted to try the Lavazza coffee pads at home (and home-office) and therefore last week Sunday evening (June 3rd) I went onto the Lavazza Modo Mio website, registered, picked a nice coffee machine and selected some pads. Then the "problems" began:

1. despite ordering a €100,- coffee machine you still need to order at least 8 boxes of their coffee pads. Being a good boy I choose all eight various tastes and went on with the ordering; 
2. the payment step: my credit card was rejected for the payment (strangely enough I used it 15 minutes later to order Nespresso cups without any problems). So I choose Payment at Delivery which is a common payment method in Italy. One I personally do not like (now even less) but I was left no other option; 
3. For a week I did not hear anything, a mail I send them via the Facebook page was NEVER answered -so far for Social Care- and also no one delivered this nice new shiny Apple-white with Galaxy-silver touched Italian coffee machine to my doorstep, not even an email, nothing. On their website my order status said is was "in progress"; 
4. On Friday (so 5 days after ordering) I called Lavazza Customer Service in Turin where someone told me they should have contacted me to ask if I really ordered the machine, etc. I asked them why and she explained it was standard procedure to call every client after an order. To me it seems a waste of time and money... Why I did not receive that call, nor email, nor sms she could not really explain me. I told the operator I still would like to have the machine and that she could proceed with delivery; 
5. Today, 9 days after ordering (that's a lot of cups of coffee later), the TNT delivery guy phoned to know if he would find me at home (bonus points) and he promised me he would be here within a couple of minutes. As he did; 
6. BUT... he could only accept CASH or cheque *LMAO*, and since I rarely have more then €100,- in my wallet I had to send him off... 

#TasteandMatch

Last Friday I was browsing my Facebook event calendar and saw an  invitation for an interesting event that caught my eye: Taste & Match Milano, something about 8 wines and 8 foodbloggers that "invented" a matching dish for one of the wines. Interesting concept, interesting price (€30,- each), not too far away from home (a 40min drive into Milano) and above all... interesting people! Interesting people I already "knew" virtually via Twitter and/or Facebook, foodbloggers whose blogs I read regularly that I could finally meet & greet in real life (IRL so to say). And since I prefer meeting IRL and food & wine seem to be more then a hobby (Klout even thinks I am highly influential about these items, especially in combination with Italy) I decided (together with my lovely wife Maddy) to go and discover this for ourselves.

So despite me feeling destructed after travelling all week, Maddy who just recovered from a muscular inflammation and the snow falling down over Morazzone we hit the road and drove (carefully) to Milan(o). It turned out to be a great evening! Where do you get the chance to have an 8 course dinner with 8 matching excellent wines for € 30,-? Even better: the 8 'enogastronimic' addicts (aka foodbloggers) had given it weeks of thoughts to combine the wine they had been given with a meal . They were serving the dishes and wines themselves so you could ask for explanation, recipes and reasoning!

Here in a short overview the 8 foodbloggers, the 8 wines with the 8 matching recipes!

unfortunately all recipes are only available in Italian but with a little help from Google Translate and by asking the foodblogger you might be able to get there as well