Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

The juice of the day is just carrots and orange. Usually I have this in winter, but I had a couple of oranges to use and it is refreshing (it has been hot!) Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Carrot and cucumber sticks, grapes, blueberries and Cape gooseberries, Olive focaccia (homemade) When I was living in Japan I learned to present lunch boxes including a spectrum of at least 5 colours. I try to do this with the kids' lunch boxes now, and these days the  5 + a Day  is also promoting 'colours', which is a good way to make food more interesting. Of course here in NZ lunch boxes are stuffed down the school bag and tossed around, so I could never make them like  these  super pretty bentos, (I also wouldn't have the time in the morning or late at night!) but sometimes I do them for a lunch at home. Now it is a complete coincidence that these lunch boxes are all Vegan (and containing mostly raw food!), often the kids would have cheese rolls and homemade pizza, and often a milky chocolate drink or a drinking yogurt too, but as they have so much milk and yogurt for breakfast everyday that they can do without for lunch! My problem has been tr...

Photo and Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini  © Well, it isn't a tea as such, maybe just a hot drink? But very nice! Squeeze the juice of one orange into a cup, top with boiling water, add a teaspoon of honey (I used  beechwood honeydew ) and stir with  cinnamon quill.  Also I would like to take this chance to congratulate   J.Friend and Co  for winning the Cuisine Artisan Awards ! Bravi!

Italian panettone is quite expensive in New Zealand, and pandoro too (a part from being difficult to find). But I always make sure that I get my hands on some. The other day I though of doing something 'adventurous': I bought some locally made panettone. Usually I am not one who criticize products on the blog: if I don't like something I just don't talk about it. But I cannot hold back here: I opened this panettone and I immediately knew that it was wrong. Those of you who know panettone will understand: you open a box and a wonderful fragrance fills the room, but here... nothing! No smell. And no taste. It was dry, boring, and reminded me of cardboard. Even my kids agreed (and they are no panettone experts, but they know the real thing when they smell it, and taste it!). I have to tell you another thing about me: I don't throw food away. For me it is a sin, the food must be really bad or gone off to end up in the rubbish. I thought my kids to clean their plates, th...

From my window I can see.... Snow!!!! I thought that in Italy I would start cooking complicated dishes, instead I am just enjoying eating simple things, tasting the ingredients...and then...it snowed! Wow! So we all need some extra vitamin C. This is not a recipe, sorry, but I wanted to show you how beautiful and red are the Sicilian red oranges! The children asked me if I added sugar to the drinks: no, no sugar, just fresh red orange juice, lovely and sweet. Drink it quickly as vitamin C tends to 'evaporate' in the air...apparently! :-) Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©