.:tulips abound:.

hey guys, I'm here again... and I feel the need to warn you: this is a picture heavy post... so, if i takes a million years loading be happy, your connection is not lame (at least not THAT much anyway... )

as I've been boasting lately, somedays the weather here has been great as of late... when there is no rain the temperature reaches 27°/28° in the sun, you can run and not melt, you can go around without a windbreaker and not freeze, all in all I say the whole year could be spring (minus the rain, of course)... 

so this weekend we decided to trust the weather forecast and hit the road to have a good time with a family of friends... close friends, which is the best kind... we have been together in rio, in italy, through our weddings and pregnancies... after all this you are bound to get more intimate... but I digress... we chose to go and see the tulips in a park near the Garda... and may I say the place is beautiful, not breathtaking as the trees from Jardim Botanico in rio, but it will do... ;) 

we had lush greens where to lay down, run and eat (hey, what do you think? it is me, remember?)...

beautiful views to rest the eyes while engaging in conversation...

sure, no big blue sky, but I must say the clean air makes up for it... even with the eventual atchoo, atchoo, snif  provided by my friendly allergies, it was worth it... and besides me enjoying it, what was crucial to the success of the day was the little lady...

yep... she had a great time... curious as she is she was EVERYWHERE... oh, how I miss the days when she wouldn't outrun me... (or give me a heart attack due to lack of exercising, guess I'll have to do sth about it...) sure, there was a lot of this  VVVV   going on... 

again, can you say tired mamma? ha... and let me tell you, those lawns are HUGE!!! as in they never end... no matter how much you scream your lungs out, or how fast you run, they just keep going... fortunately, there were some quiet moments... like when somebody spotted a dandelion in the middle of the grass... 

or when she decided to befriend a french family, yeah, cute couple and she really enjoyed having another mum making funny things together with her... just for a change...

she had new experiences that made me happy, after all, it is all about the growing and the discoveries..
like watching the bees and wondering WTH they are doing inside the flowers... ("are they smelling it?")



or watching her balloon be carried away by the wind... uhum... learning opportunities, I can't help it, stronger than me...



some new experiences weren't that successful... like the rolling down slopes business? nopz, didn't get it at all... and we have her tights' green bottom to prove it.. she would sit down and drag her bum down the slope, and had the courage to look proud of it... (LOL) hilarious...


we spent the day there, and thought the kids would enjoy the train ride, specially the little lady who would go "tchu tchu, café com pao, café com pao" everytime the train passed by... we had a nice ride and her alertness and waving lasted a whole 5 minutes time spam...

then all the enthusiasm turned into this:

until the end of the ride... sure, she usually sleeps much more than 20 minutes during nap time, but come on, people to meet, places to see... what would you have done?

I was camera happy too, the photo bug got me bad... let's say that from the 170 photos taken during the day while hunting the toddler I managed to be in 4 of them... that is a cute number, isn't it? ^^

hope you too are enjoying the new season to the fullest be it spring or autumn... see you around...

PS.: teacher friends, if you are using any photos to talk about spring, please notify me... courtesy, you know? thx...

.:il pasticcio:.

hello there, little chefs... when I left you we had a delicious "ragout" boiling...

today you have the "besciamella" recipe and how to put it all together...

some considerations about both sauces: 

point 1 - unlike the ragout that you can freeze, besciamella  is done when you will use it... it should be hot so that you can spread it, once it gets cold it gets stiff and bye bye white sauce... 

point 2 - you can use the making of the pasticcio  with other sauces besides the bolognesa sauce... I particularly like radicchio & salsiccia it is a nice version of the same old lasagna...

point 3 - you can use the white sauce for other things... I really like to use it to prepare pancakes... yep, try filling some with fresh asparagus and white sauce and bake them with some grated cheese over... heavenly, trust me... 

ok, before we start, the first thing you should know is: do NOT expect ham or that funny fake yellow mozzarella cheese people usually associate lasagna with there in brazil... you'll have none of that, but I assure you it is worth trying... ^^

so, let's cut to the ingredients, shall we?
you'll need some butter/margarine, really, in this case it doesn't make that much of a difference... the margarine makes it a little less creamy, which goes fine if your ragout is consistent (like when you defrost it and it looses water)...
for me about 100/125 gr will do the job...

• 100/125 gr of margarine
• 4 tablespoons of white flour
• 1 L of milk
• salt (I use course because it is already there on the counter, but use it to your taste)
• ground nutmeg (if you are a fan you can add black pepper as well, not too shabby... again, we had to adapt to the taste of the little lady...)

get a large pan (if possible heavy bottomed to make it easier for you to whisk on... ;) and sth to mix the white sauce (the utensil that helps get the sauce smooth is the whisker, if you do better with another route keep on it... )



first melt all of your butter on medium heat (do NOT let it boil, it tastes horrible later... not that I would know that from experience... lol)

then lower the heat to minimum and start adding your flour... I make the spoons really generous... and this is the part where you'll want to keep mixing vigorously to avoid lumps... I add the flour with the left hand while the right one keeps whisking... if you feel more comfortable you can ask for a little help... (obviously the helper can pour the wine when the flour is already mixed... ^^ it is always better to have some wine when cooking italian food, for the ambience and all that... )

when you are done with the flour the mixture should look like this... and the it is time to add the milk... do not linger with the flour mixture or you will burn everything, so better have everything close at hand... (i.e. carton of milk within your reach and already opened...)



pour the milk slowly and keep mixing...if you have time and patience go slowly and give time for the whole to incorporate (if you are lazy, or have a frenzied two-year-old in tow begging to help, just keep on pouring the milk slowly and mixing, give more time to your boil and enjoy your free hands period tossing ball or eating grated "parmiggiano" with said toddler...)

when the last of the milk is added it is time to mix in the salt and the nutmeg (black pepper as well if you are going for it) in before it gets too dense to have a uniform flavour all through... also taste it... you can fix it later if it is not the way you like it, but it is not the same...



when all the ingredients are in, bring the whole to a boil and let it simmer a bit... you will get a nice creamy white sauce...

now for the layers...



you will need

1. your ragout, 
2. besciamella, 
3. lasagna sheets (check the refrigerated ones that go straight in the oven, I particularly like thin sheets, but whatever rows your boat I say... again, if you choose the wrong lasagna it is not a disaster, the sauce can save a "pasticcio" but if you mess up the sauce I suggest you go eat out because the end result will be nothing short of gruesome... so here I go again: taste it!!!
4. grated cheese (parmiggiano, grana, whatever GOOD cheese you find, in rio blue label works just fine)
5. olive oil
6. the cute toddler helper is oprional, but if you have one you are lucky... =)

some people (ok, most people if not all of them) prefer to have the bottom layer prepared with the bolognese sauce (the ragout) but my OCD self hates to serve a piece of the lasagna and have all those random pieces of meat flying around on the bottom of the roasting dish, so instead I dose some olive oil at the bottom... this way the bottom layer doesn't get dry and you have no mess left when you serve your portions... a win-win situation for me... 

yeah, I know.. go on, laugh all you want, but just to remind you:

I let my daughter help me make the layers...  

now, how is that for balance, hmmm... 

ok, so now you have your first layer done, try and get everything you need close at hand because both sauces you are using are boiling hot and you don't want the pasta to curl up with the heat while you run from one place to the other to get the ladles full of yummines... (sure, that is a word... says who? me... )

now the shocker, you don't need (and really mustn't) make separate layers, that is why the name is "pasticcio" (mess, remember?) because you make a big mess preparing it... and it is also kind of fun to make, if you have the right company, and wine, of course...

so put more or less 2/1 of red/white sauce (2 parts red, 1 part white) on the lasagna sheet... 

spread both all over the dish with a spoon and put some cheese over it... in case you were wondering, yeah, the little lady is in charge of the pasta and the cheese while I cover the boiling hot sauces... 

then cover it with another sheet of pasta and repeat... see? there, easy...  for the last layer I usually get the white sauce first, spread it and then add the red sauce over it... and be generous with the cheese... 

now all that is left is to bake it according to the pasta's instructions... can you see how excited someone is about cooking? uhum... I know, I encourage her to watch "junior master chef" just to be on the safe side... lol... 

enjoy it! ah, and invite your friends... 

buon appetito!