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

iOS is not build for sharing content

Normally I take out my iPad late at night and start reading business related news, updates and blogs. On Google Currents or FlipBoard. The most interesting content I share to BufferApp,  Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, LinkedIn, Google+, etc whatever I think suits best.

Today I was activated FlipBoard on my HTC One while waiting for my daughter and I suddenly realized (pretty late I admit ) that I should quit using my iPad for sharing., iOS is not build for sharing content. You can only share to the standard channels which apple allows: twitter, Facebook and email. No direct link to tumblr, BufferApp or any other app that imho suits best for sharing the content. In Android I can share to any App via the share functionality in the menu. And mostly you share rich content, so not just a link to an article but also a thumbnail an intro text etc...

It's time I order an Android tablet.

9 months without iPhone

because of questions on Google+ asking for my experience/opinion about a switch from iOS to Android I wrote this response which might also be interesting outside of Google+ 

Over the last 3 years (iPhone3G in 2008, iPhone3Gs in 2009, iPhone4 in 2010) I had spend a serious amount of money in the AppStore (w/ Navigon Europe for €89 being my most expensive App). I had at least €200 worth of Apps on my iPhone4 in september 2011 when Apple did not give me the larger iPhone5 I wanted/needed. Nevertheless the lock-in relation I had with the iTunes AppStore I decided to give other platforms a chance. The most important reasons to move away from iOS start looking around: I was expecting the larger screen iPhone5 and I was heavily disappointed when they showed just the 4s. But more important I was very disappointed in iCloud/MobileMe: not your own email domain (always a @me.com-address), iCloud's Agenda/Mail/Contacts are incompatible with everything out there other than Macs (apart from a 1990s type of synchronization in Outlook) so they already forced me to switch entirely to GoogleApps. And that's were I started to look to Android.

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!

good customer service does exist: it's named Amazon.it

Yesterday my brand new Kindle Touch Wifi froze! The screen was stuck on a page and it did not respond to any screen touch or button press any more. In the Amazon Kindle Touch FAQ I was instructed to press the ON/OFF switch for 20 seconds where after the screen would flash and the Kindle would reboot. Unfortunately not mine! In which case I was invited to contact the Amazon Support desk. Since it was Sunday and I was in NL about to leave for the airport to return home I send an email to Amazon's Italian support desk, hoping to get an answer on Monday morning.

When I arrived at the airport I noticed someone tried to call me 4 times but since it was from a private number I didn't know whom to call.

the Jelly Bean experience

I have used Jelly Bean (Android OS 4.1) on my Galaxy Nexus for a couple of days now and I can only say it offers a great experience! 

• Google managed to get the interface more fluid and have it respond faster (Project Butter is a succes)
• The new notifications (with previews) are beautiful and much more useful then the old ones
• The improvements on how App-icons and Widgets are placed was not more then necessary, even Apple managed to do that smoother ;-) (only with App-icons of course, iOS still lacks Widgets)
• Google Voice Search works great and I think I even might start using voice commands for the first time. I still have to see if it works via my bluetooth carkit. I just ran outside and tested it via my Parrot carkit and that works too. I've seen some comparisons on YouTube on how much faster and better Google Voice is compared to Apple's Siri (in the case of the 1600 questions you really see how bad or useless Siri really is).
• I haven't had a change yet to really experience Google Now yet, but like Google explains it has to learn to know the user to predict what he/she might need (travelling directions, etc). But I really like how it already relevant information like your current or next appointment, last searches, etc.

side note:

I've never been a fanboy of either Apple nor Android, in fact I still use my iPad2 a lot and prefer certain Apps on iOS over those on Android (TweetBot for example), too n00bs I still recommend the iPhone in stead of an Android. But with the way Apple tries to force us to use all of their products versus the liberty that Google offers me (f.e. iCloud vs Google Apps) I'm becoming more and more anti-Apple!

problemi con 3Italia per un passagio da Vodafone

A febbraio/marzo decido di passare dalla Vodafone alla 3 perché ho visto che hanno migliorate la rete, ora c'è una antenna che copre Morazzone e quindi posso usufruire la loro rete 3G al max anche da casa. Passaggio da abbonamento a privato con Vodafone a abbonamento con 3 con passaggio dal mio numero non è nessun problema. Entro 1 settimana il vecchio numero è passato alla 3. 

Il 25 aprile decidiamo di passare anche l'altro numero (quello che usa mia moglie) dalla Vodafone alla 3. Contratto fatto alla MediaWorld di Varese (Iper Malnate) e con la nuova scheda USIM 3 nella sua iPhone4 anche mia moglie è contento e carica le sue foto velocissima su Instagram... ;-)

Dopo 2 settimane però non è ancora passato il suo numero. Strano... chiamo 3 IO (loro non si sono fatto sentire) e mi spiegano che c'è stato un problema con il passaggio. Il cliente alla Vodafone non corrisponde con quello nuovo alla 3... Ma sono IO? il stesso Dagmar Sporck, come privato però, non con P.IVA... e magari li c'è stato un errore (causata dalla ragazza delle MediaWorld) che ha preso i miei dati (con P.IVA) presente nei sistemi di 3... ma tutto si puo risolvere se torno alla MediaWorld e faccio rifare tutti documenti.... SCUSA? voi (3 e MediaWorld) fatte errori ed io li devo risolvere? Dopo qualche telefonate (passano giorni) finalmente qualcuno mi manda una mail.

scambio di qualche mention e DM su Twitter tra me e @3Italia sui giorni 8, 11 e 12 maggio

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

why #UglyUGGs are bad for economy

It's a known fact to my Twitter-followers I am not fond hate UGGs and that I keep on calling them #UglyUGGs (the #, called hashtag, is something typical Twitter-like to make searching for some topics easier). I think #UglyUGGs are the worst things in fashion over the last years. Well... together with skinny models. They look horrible (both the models and #UglyUGGs), they are bad for your feet (so are high heels, but at least these look good on a woman) and if they get wet they will not keep you warm at all, no worse they'll cause influenza because of wet cold feet!

So WTF is the advantage, why are women wearing these horrible things? Because they are so comfortable and  warm is the most heard answer. Warm? But once they get wet? Which could happen in winter (especially in the Netherlands). Then you end up having soaking wet and cold feet all day! Comfortable? Ow so you girls walk on heels and other fancy shoes because they are comfortable? I don't think so, most women just buy shoes because they look nice, or make them look nice. Which is absolutely okay! I like to look at women (what an eye-opener this must be for some people), I like to see women with nice shoes or boots. Especially with heels, it makes their legs look even better. But hey, if you want to feel comfortable, no problem at all! But why does comfortable needs to be horrible and ugly? There are many many comfortable, warm and still great looking (and CHEAPER) alternatives!

The point I wanted to make is: #UglyUGGs are bad for economy! Today in a short twitter discussion between me and two (until last week completely unknown to me) women concluded that #UglyUGGs are probably the best contraception there is! And likely to be allowed by the Church as well: they cause absolute sexual abstention! And that is what makes them bad for economy! In today's crisis we need people to spend and we need as much people as possible working to pay our future pensions, so children are a must!

So if you want to get your economy going: STOP buying #UglyUGGs!

We don't need no #TVOH !

It happened last year and although I should've known better this year I fell again for the "purity" and joy of the blind auditions of a new Talent Show on Dutch TV: "The Voice of Holland", on Twitter known as #TVOH. For those who haven't seen it in their country yet an explanation of this concept:

this talent show starts with so called "blind auditions" where the jury members can't see the candidates in the beginning. They're turned with their backs towards the podium. Based on only the vocal performance they have to decide whether they want the candidate to go through to the next round, if they think he/she is good they hit a button and this juror's chair turns around and so he/she can see who is making that great sound.

It's especially nice when the candidate is a bit weird, particular, like the fully tattooed Ben Saunders. He was one of last years' contestants (and winner). Watch the video of his audition below here. Ben turned out to be a sheep -no a lamb- in wolves' clothing.

To make it even more interesting for the viewer the jury members who turned their seats (and thus want the candidate to go through) have to convince the candidate to choose him/her over another juror to join his/her team. So roles turn, it's not the candidate anymore that needs to convince the jury, it's the jury pulling on the candidates' limbs.

But back to what I wanted to point out. Right after so called blind auditions the Voice of X (fill in your country) turns back into being any other talent show with SMS votings and so the best looking boys are way ahead of the other candidates. (It's a known fact that teenage girls are the most active voters. Although Ben's charisma even managed to beat that.) But what made this show even worse is the infinite trust and positive comments by the jury. Even after a lousy performance. Where X-Factor was so interesting because the jury was sometimes very hard and direct this show looses it because it's soft, way too soft and it lacks criticism. So last week it was enough... I couldn't handle it anymore! This was too sweet and t0o incredible!

And then yesterday evening I saw the best "talent show" of this year. Seven teenage girls, tonight they'll  probably be voting for one of the cute boys in #TVOH's semi-final, were selected out a group of over 400 girls by one of Holland's best DJ's trying to become the Dutch Birdy. It was a very compact election, the 400+ girls send in a video via YouTube, the DJ (Giel Beelen) selected the best seven and they performed in the studio yesterday morning. Live on national radio and then Giel announced the winner. Apart from the fact that the best one won (Anna Verhoeven) I was very impressed by the performance all seven gave that very same evening in my favourite TV-show "De Wereld Draait Door" #DWDD singing Birdy's hit "Skinny Love". And that led to my conclusion that we do not need shows like TVOH. We just need YouTube, Social Media to push them and talent watchers like Giel!

Here below the clip of the performance by the Dutch Birdies, judge for yourself and let me know what you think by leaving a comment! (and here a link to the entire item/interview with all seven Birdies - in Dutch)

Pizzoccheri della Valtellina

Via Twitter, Facebook and Google+ I received some requests for the recipe of Pizzoccheri. I have taken the recipe of the box of the pizzoccheri I usually buy in our local supermarket.

Ingredients (for 6p):
500g pizzoccheri
300g potatoes (in 2x2cm cubes)
150-250g butter (I think 150g is more then enough)
300g Savoy cabbage, chard leaves (the white stamps) or spinach (I prefer Savoy cabbage) sliced
500g half fat cheese from Valtellina (Casera, Bito) - these can be hard to find outside Italy, maybe Fontina, Toma or (worst case) Brie can be used as an alternative (sliced)
150g grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves of garlic
some leaves of sage

Preparation (15-20mins):
Cook the potatoes and vegetables in boiling water, add the pizzoccheri after a couple of minutes and boil it for another 12-15mins until the pasta is nicely cooked "al dente".
When the pasta (and potatoes and veggies) are cooked drain the water and mix the slices of cheese and grated Parmesan under the pasta and veggies.
Meanwhile melt the butter on low fire with the garlic and sage (don't fry the garlic) and serve it over the pasta.

Buon Appetito!

La spada Varesina ed il furto 2.0

 --- I will try to translate this blog one of these days ---



C'era una volta una spada. Una spada, chiamiamolo Excalibur, molta preziosa per i cavalieri della Round Table 64 Varese perché è una dei due simboli presente ai giorni della fondazione di questa bellissima Table. Al Decennale della Round Table 64 Varese il 22 maggio 2010 Excalibur fu dato in prestito ai Tabler di Mantova per farli spadellare i loro nuovi soci all'AGM di 2010. A Mantova la spada sparisse e per qualche mesi i Tabler di Varese sono rimasti disperati; dov'era finita la spada?

Cosi "the Quest" (la ricerca) per ricuperare questa spada iniziasse! Dopo ore e ore di telefonate, sacchi di mail, interventi dai comitati di zona e quello nazionale e forze ancora più maggiore venisse fuori che la spada era finito nei mani di due ladrocini Bresciani. Grazie alla buona ricerca del nostro carissimo ex-President Paolo 007 Duco ed i suoi contatti ladrici abbiamo saputo che la spada potrebbe essere presente alla apertura dell'anno dei Tabler Bresciani nel loro covo. Fu cosi che il giorno giovedì 22 settembre 2011 io, Dagmar Sporck - presidente della Round Table 64 Varese, sono andato a Brescia e mi nascosi nella tana dei leoni, aspettando il branco dei Bresciani. Già in quel momento ebbi la possibilità di fare un contro-furto, la loro bandiera fu esposto senza protezione e senza guardie, ma ovviamente avrei già spifferato i miei intenzioni.

Tonight: my worst culinary experience in Italy

My friends/followers know we like to go out for dinner/lumch and enjoy a good meal with a good glass of wine. And it doesn't need to be fancy, we appreciate honest food prepared with joy and love whether it costs 10euros or 100euros.

After this afternoon's pastalunch I fancied a good piece of fish so we went to Rosetto's boulevard where we expected to find some restaurant. Well we found some lido's and this particular place (no names, one could check my Foursquare postings if you really want to know) seemed pretty popular and had an inviting look.

The girls insisted on having pizza (it was a ristorante pizzeria) and Maddy and I choose some simple antipasti (affettato and bruschette) and a "sogliola (sole) mugnaia" for her and "spiedini di pesce griliati" for me. After OVER ONE HOUR waiting we finally got a plate of sliced ham and salami and 5 bruschette with that same ham and tomato slices. It would have taken me less then 5 minutes to prepare, so why did we had to wait over an hour for this?! The ham and salami were badly cut (too thick), the bruschette were not prepared (with oil and garlic) but just roasted and had a (too) thick slice of ham and tomato on them, impossible to eat with you hands as you should. But okay, maybe this is normal in Abruzzo, everything a bit more "rustico". 

In the meantime the girls received their pizzas, which were maybe okay to Dutch/German standards but any Italian pizzeria should be ashamed of itself serving these pizze.

And still I was hoping the fish would save the evening. That hope vaporised once the main courses arrived (30secs after we finished the ham) the sole was not even close to the one I had 3 evenings before.It was tough (maybe kept warm for over an hour) and I wondered if it was a reanimated frozen one. My fish skewers were prepared without any fantasy, just pieces of squid (tough, lousy quality) and shrimps (even mealy), no other fish, nor vegetables.

This was by far our worst culinary experience in Italy ever!