There is something about Pinterest… or: how to make the most of your Pinterest Boards

I have reached 10,000 followers on Pinterest, and since this is one of my favourite social media (after this blog, of course!) I would like to share a few experiences and, hopefully, tips.

First of all I often read some advice from Social media 'experts' who say to differentiate, have unique boards, bla bla bla… not true in my experience! These six below are my most popular boards, and I can see that, no matter what, since the majority of pinners are women my age, flowers, cats and cupcakes still rule, together with popular food trends like Vegan food or eating flowers (in fact I have seen more interest in this Cooking with Flowers blog - much of it directed by Pinterest, in the past few months). Another popular board is a collective board that I have created for Props for Food Photography, it doesn't have many members but it does gets followers because it is… pretty?

And after the top 6 there are more animals and food! Butterflies and horses are very 'feminine' pins, more sweet things (and I think that often we feel content just at looking at pretty photos of cakes and macaroons), food trends like raw cuisine, gluten free, and words like Italian, Vegetarian and Pasta are bound to be winners, so my combined board does well even if it doesn't have as many pins as most of the others boards (need to work on this!). Photographic background for food, styling ideas and props is another popular one, and a great inspiration, plus I can put in there all the beautiful photos that I like but don't quite fit in my other boards.




Since I have over 120 boards I guess that some visitors often stop at the top, so keeping the most popular boards in a good top position makes sense, but also moving up theme boards during the year works well. I have just moved down the Christmas board, and substitute it with the Hearts board, thinking of St Valentine next month. Then Easter will come round, so I will make another change. Moving boards also keeps me interested, and that is the most important thing: Social Media work better if you like doing it!




So where do my pins come from? Many form my blog and many form other pinners, especially the pinners I follow. And this is the good part: I don't follow many pinners, I heard that the more people you follow the more followers you will get, but I tend to get overwhelmed by my home feed as it is, especially from the community boards. I don't want to give up the community boards, since they are mostly about food and they send lots of visitors back to my blog.

But I think that this year I will seek out a few more pinners to follow, I often seek them out among my own followers, thinking that we may like the same things.

A few pins come from my Tumblr and Instagram accounts, and I still feel uncomfortable pinning too much around the net, unless a site specifically invites readers to pin.

So, what are the most popular pins? Difficult to say since some go round the block a lot, but looking at the statistics from this blog I can say, more or less, what are the posts that get more hits directly from Pinterest:

This is probably the winner:

baked halloumi rolls

I am surprised since the photo is not that great and yet, when I tried to trace it, it has been pinned over and over again thousands of times now! I admit that I do love this recipe, which is more of an idea (of mine) rather than a recipe, and I think that simplicity was what won the top pin title here.

Season does play a part, and for the month of December most Pinterest visits came to this:

Home Made Marzipan Sweets

However, this particular post is also a popular Pinterest-driven hit all year round, possibly because it is sweet, raw, gluten free and vegan!

The same thing applies to this pin:

Home Made Marzipan Sweets

Again sweet, vegan and gluten free (albeit not raw this time) and pink with flowers too! But I think that the words Home Made are also good, there is a lot of craft and home made stuff on Pinterest!

In line with the 'home made' we have this other very popular pin…. 

How to Make a Rose Liqueur

… which makes me think that sweet, vegan, gluten free AND PINK are all good 'pins', together with the how to make, of course...

… and perhaps mason jars too? This is another favourite (both images in fact).

Picking, treating and preserving olives in brine, and olives marinated in olive oil and herbs

and I have to say that all the jams and preserves do well on Pinterest (home made factor again…).

Healthy food, especially raw juices and smoothies, are popular, this is my most visited (and it is not even my favourite!), plus was picked up on Pinterest by a raw vegan site as one of their top 10 smoothies, so hits now come from that site as well.

The joy of free feijoas, and feijoa smoothie

I could continue because there are so many more pins that work for getting visits, but I think that you got the idea now: these are the sort of topics that work for me in this particular media, and maybe they could work for you too, if you write recipes. I have just now upgraded my Pinterest Account for business to access the analytics, so maybe in a few months I can have even more insights to share.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Capsicum pastry rolls and sailing in Waiheke on board of Timetama

This is one of those creations that happened while using up leftover puff pastry and a bit of peperonata I had in the pot. The resulting dish was so pretty and delicious that I decided to share it, (Scroll down for the recipe) together with some colourful pictures of our recent trip to Waiheke on Board of Timetama.

Arantxa, Max and Milo in 2016

The same kids back in 2010!

The Hauraki Gulf is a beautiful place for sailing, and to me Waiheke is best seen from the water. I know that there are lots of Wineries and such, but I prefer the tranquillity of being on a boat and looking at the land, rather than the other way round. Also seeing the kids on the water, so confident (more that I could possibly be) and playful is just fantastic.

Playing and .... relaxing! We sailed to Rocky Bay for two nights of shelter, I am now getting more familiar with the coast, and I like walking on semi-deserted beaches and reserves. Yes, very few people around, but as soon as we went to a winery for lunch it all changed, it was packed with people and noise. The ferry to the island is always full at this time of the year, and although the island is quite big most people really seem to concentrate around the wineries/restaurants, or Oneroa village.
Not me, so here are a few pictures of peace and tranquillity!

Capsicum pastry rolls

You must use some cooked capsicums (bell peppers) for this recipes, and I had some peperonata ready:

Peperonata

2 yellow capsicums

2 red capsicums

1 green capsicum

1 garlic clove

half carrot

1 small celery stalk

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (plus more to drizzle at the end)

A little water

salt to taste (if the capers are not too salty)

chopped Italian parsley and fresh basil leaves, plus a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to finish

Wash and cut the capsicums into thin strips. Peel the garlic and cut into two. Wash and chop the carrot and celery into small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the vegetables, then add the a little water and salt. Cover and simmer on the lowest setting for 45 minutes to one hour, stirring from time to time, and adding more water if necessary. Adjust with salt at the end, if necessary, and finish with some freshly chopped parsley, fresh basil and another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

I then used some of the capsicum strips for my pastry rolls: I cut the puff pastry sheets in long strips and place a thin strip of capsicum on the border of each pastry strip (see photo) and then rolled it up.

To keep the rolls nice and round I place them in a mini-muffin pan, and used some mini-cupcake cases. I sprinkle the top with salt and dried herbs and baked everything at medium heat until the pastry was golden and puffy. Serve hot or cold.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Cotolette di pane e borragine and my garden this Summer

The best crop in my garden is borage because snails, rats, possums and caterpillars don't eat it! So here is yet another borage recipe! 

Pick the top of the plant with flowers and tender leaves (make sure the flowers have no seeds yet). Wash well. Grate some old bread (must be really hard and dry) to make breadcrumbs. Or use ready made breadcrumbs. Make a batter with eggs, salt and pepper and breadcrumbs, the ratio being approximately one egg for one tbsp of breadcrumbs, use s much as you need depending on how many flowers you are cooking. Coat the borage in the batter and pan fry in hot olive oil, turing on both sides, until golden. Place on kitchen paper to drain excess oil. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

And now a few photos from my garden:

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Macedonia di frutta

Strawberries, nectarines, pears, blueberries and kiwi fruit, a drop of lemon juice and some coconut water. No sugar. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Homemade Vegan meat, Seitan (muscolo di grano)

Easy to make, low cost and versatile, and you can do it at home! The basic ingredient is gluten flour, and with a 500g pack (about $7) you can eat for days and days. I like to make 'fillets' and strips, suitable for different uses. Put the gluten flour in a bowl and add seasoning (a little salt, or herbs, or what you like, even a little olive oil if you like it 'fatter'. Then add the same amount of water and mix with your hand until you get an elastic dough. Squeeze out any excess water (usually just a little if none) and set aside for 10 minutes. Cut into very thin slices with a serrated knife.

Or use scissor for thinner strips.

Place one slice at the time in a large pot of simmering vegetable broth (use plenty of broth for 500g of gluten flour, as it makes many slices and they will grow while simmering). Cook for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.

When the 'meat' is ready pick up piece by piece and place on a couple of clean cotton tea towels to dry for 10-20 minutes. Now it is ready to use for you favourite recipes (use the remaining stock to make soup). If you are not using it straight away place in a sealed glass or plastic container and store in the fridge for up to two weeks (or freeze for longer periods). 

When you need a few slices just take out and sauté with a little oil in a skillet. One of my favourite uses is to brown the slices on both sides and then add some lemon juice and soy sauce and put them in a sandwich, or on top of rice or ramen noodles. More recipes will follow when I get time to photograph and post more :-)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©