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.

Chalet ready for winter to come!

The winter seemed far away. Every morning around eight, the sun came over the mountains just to set the bench in front of the house in a warm and pleasant atmosphere. 

A perfect place for a fresh espresso. As the little shop of Les Masses was closed, the bread was in the oven, giving the house this great and mouth-watering smell. The book stayed in my lap, as the view of the white top of the Matterhorn is so stunning.

We left a nasty and rainy Holland to enjoy a week of hard work in Switzerland. We had to paint some windows on the outside, cut the grass and the herbs on the slope near the house, and do some local business.

picture ©Tanja Enninga

Although we worked hard, we enjoyed every minute of it! We had some spare moments left to go for a walk and enjoy a glass of Dole Blanche, the local rose wine, on the terrace of Hotel la Cambuse.

And the house is ready for the season to come.

In my next posts I will keep you up to date about the house and surroundings, so you all can do a bit of armchair skiing and wet your appetite for the winter to come!