the culinary aspects of the ticino apple pie

just put my 'chocolate dream' cheesecake in the oven. i rarely bake because my kids hardly ever eat cakes, cookies or pies. and if you look at my butt, you can imagine where the leftovers went. but i love baking. when i started living with hubbydear, i would bake every friday afternoon. every week something new. when we were last time in florida, we gotten into 'the cheesecake factory', food and pies. daniël loved the different sorts of cheesecake, so i thought today 'what the heck, i'll bake a pie'. a couple of weeks ago we had a bake sale for the footballteam. i made chocolate chip muffins and a pumpkin pie. when i went to drop of my baking goods, the only thing i saw, were apple pies and maybe a chocolate cake or two. it is incredible, the culinary capabilities of baking are reduced to apple pie here in the south of switzerland. if you ask people over for diner, they will offer to bring dessert. great! until you see what it is. you can be darn sure it's another apple pie. and it is not like the pies i know from holland, an outer crust filled to the rim with cut up pieces of apple spiced with cinnamon and some brown sugar and a top layer of dough again. i am licking my lips by the thought. the procedure here down south is very easy. slices of apple on top of a bought pastry dough, over it will be poured a mixture of egg, milk and sugar. i even talked to an old lady whoes husband was a baker here. until somewhere in the eighties, he baked pies for campsite stores. they only did fruit pies. a bottom of dough, a layer of vanilla pudding, a layer of fruit and then a topping of gelatine. what a pity, there are so many great recipies out there. back to the bake sale. when i came to pick up the remnants, the muffins where sold, but the pumpkin pie was still there. only a small piece sold. what we say in holland "what the farmer does not know, he will not stuff down his throat".

have a great weekend, and take care!

MIERENNEUKERIJ - fucking ants

MIERENNEUKERIJ is a word which is only know in the dutch language because only the dutch (mostly the goverment) can be that irritating in their ways that one would say "oh my god, what  a MIERENNEUKERIJ". it means fucking ants, which you can understand would be very difficult for a man. this time i am so upset because little boy needs a new pasport. he has been getting a new pasport every five years since he was born. when we were still able to get our pasport thru the consulat of lugano there was never a problem. i do not know if that counts and because we go to italy now where there are also numerable complications in government offices and dutch who live there got influenced by the manners of grandeur of the italian, or if the dutch laws have changed. anyway, the dutch are very good at making a simple task very complicated. so complicated that you do not understand shit. for a new pasport one needs a photo. too complicted to explain so here is the link! http://www.paspoortinformatie.nl/dsresource?objectid=5126&type=pdf.
the consulate of milan states: we need a legalized birthcertificate, not older than six months. why isn't the original good enough. as if the information on the fucking piece of paper changed since the kid was born! we need a legal piece of paper where it is written that little boy lives with big boy and mommy and daddy in the same household. should i also have mentioned the dog, three cats, two degu's and numerous illegal mite? what if i would kick out his father, or he would die? when i go to the consulate in milan for my pasport, i will ask them if they need the ashes form my parents and do some dna testing to see if i was really there child. up to now i have spent 45 euro's and that little booklet will set me back another 42,50. it makes me definity think about becoming swiss. on this matter they are very relaxed. anyway, i am looking on the official website from the dutch government now, and there is written "only if the child has never had it's own pasport, one needs to bring a legalized birthcertificate". well, it seems that in milan they do not know that! no need for a paper that states the family composition either. but i can see some hope for the future. but i hope they 'don't make me happy with a dead sparrow'. they are trying out a new service at schiphol airport so that can one can make a new one there. and some cities are also giving that possibility to abroadies. just one catch. in the hague they promised that already a year ago. but the pasport making would take six to eight weeks. hello, which abroadie would have the possibility to stay in NL for that long a period? last time i went to milan with big boy, one year ago, we had no trouble at all. we'll see what happens. maybe i am making an anthill out of a molehill;)

off to another part of CH

for little boy's 15th birthday we had chosen a destination outside of our little canton of ticino, laax. going to an inside adventure activity(freestyle academy laax by the way). i loaded my car up with all foreigners. we live in a multiculti society eventhough it is a small place. us three dutchies, my danish friend an her two boys and a cute little scotsman, redheaded and full of freckles. we had a lovely drive over the lucomagno pass. stopped on top, in the middle of fog and the three younger boys had a run around on the stony hills. an atmosphere like in the lord of the rings. anything could break loose at any moment. we drove on down to disentis entering the famous skiing region of graubünden. what a change of surroundings compared to ticino. a wide open valley, with rather hills than mountains, and hardly any forests. all of us were amazed by the beauty of the to us unknown. laax, as a village, is nothing special. not a characteristic village centre, no nothing. just a place to start from for going skiing or hiking. the boys had a great time at the academy and showed off their international heritage by choosing english as the language in which they would get the introduction of the day. my friend and i went on a hiking trip over falera. it was so beautiful. what a view. rows and rows of mountians around us. i can remember that i went to ilanz, near laax, when i just came to CH in 1993, to look for a job. and i was so impressed by the stony walls that surrounded me, i went slightly claustrofobic. what i saw then, i saw with different eyes now. compared to ticino, this is wide open space. i hope i will have chance to visit this region again.