CROÛTE NATURE

Playing outside in the snow can make you hungry, isn't it? This part of Switzerland has a variety of local dishes to fuel you for a few extra hours skiing. (And promisse that you'll just do that, otherwise you have to go on a diet immediately after you're home).

One of our favourites is a local dish called "croûte au fromage". Literally it means 'crust'.
You have a plain croûte (croûte nature) or topped with egg, ham or both. And of course, all kinds of varieties are possible.

A basic croûte is very easy to make:
use some slices of old bread, a bit of garlic, half a cup of white wine, thick slices of local cheese (hard cheese like gruyère, ementaler or similar will do).
Use an attractive small oven dish.
Roast the slices of bread. Cut the garlic into two halves and rub the inside of the oven dish as well as the slices of toasted bread on both sides. Put the slices in the dish and spread the slices of cheese on top. Spoon the wine in.
Put the dish in the middle of the oven at about 180 degrees, or under the grill for five (or so) minutes.  The cheese should melt and gratin a bit.

Take it out of the oven (be carefull!!) and top the dish with fresh pepper from the mill and 2 or 3 gherkins.
Drink with a glass of local white whine, like a Fendant or Dôle Blanche (a bit of a white rosé).

Bon appetit!

LE FORESTIER

The forester came with 2 m3 of wood. Here, the forester is working for the municipality, maintaining all the woods around the villages, but also helping with huge trees in private gardens and making fences and wooden bridges. They also make beautiful outdoor garden furniture and wooden sculptures. http://www.conedethyon.ch/  When we ordered the other day, it seemed not that much, but when we saw it in his pickup it was a huge pile.

Taking that all down, a few blocks at a time, was a lot of hard work!
This year we came up with a shortcut, a simple piece of plastic, firmly tight to the stairs.

That made life easier! Why didn't we before?! It still was two hours work, but together (and me with the important task of taking pictures) it was finished before lunch. And by now the winter may come! We have enough wood to make a nice and comfy fire every evening.
Next time I'll tell you about nice local cheese, that goes fine with the local wines, and with the evening fire, of course.

IT IS SNOWING!

I look at the webcams now and then. And today all of a sudden the slopes in thyon are white!
Not enough to de-dust your ski's. But enough to get exited and long for the lifts to open.

picture from webcam http://www.imalp.ch/webcam.jpg

FOUR THOUSANDERS

Can you imagine yourself sitting on the bench in front of Les Bonnets? What you'll see is the view on all these four-thousanders. Actually, the picture in the heading of this blog I made sitting on that bench (and the ones who know me, can picture the fresh espresso within hand).
From left to right at this photograph in the heading you can see famous four-thousanders: 
Weishorn (4505m), Zinalrothorn (4221m), OberGabelhorn (4063m),  Dent Blanche (4357m), and Mont Cervin (4477) on the far right.
The French name of this last mountain probably doesn't ring a bell, but the German name does! It is the Matterhorn. Easy to recognize on its exposure, from this side a night-cap bending to the right.

© picture Tanja Enninga

Explore the mountain tops and beautiful pictures at http://www.alpen-panoramen.de/