I love shelling fresh beans from the garden, especially borlotti, as they are so pretty!

I usually put fresh beans in soups, or boil them to make a salad (and keep the water for a soup). To cook them slowly in a frying pan takes a bit longer, but they are delicious!

Chop a small red onion and sauté with a little olive oil for a few minutes, then add the borlotti. Stir and add a little water and salt, cover and check form time to time, stirring well and adding more water when needed. It takes about a hour (or more if you simmer on low), so be patient. No need to add tomato paste as the onion will almost melt and make a nice colored sauce. Taste for salt at the end and adjust with black pepper, if you like. 1000 times better than baked beans!

Another bit of news, I am well over the 200,000 page views per month now, so thank you for all of you that visited this blog. :-)

Sweet Reminder

Kiwi Bloggers: remember also that there is one day left to enter your recipe for Sweet NZ, (click here for the instructions) to be in the draw to win two delicious packs of Fresh As products: Raspberry Powder and Strawberries slices. 

The Festival Italiano is coming to Auckland, this year bigger and better than ever, and in a new location: Newmarket! Follow the buzz on the Festival FB Page and on the Festival website! 

Today we did our tramp for  The Moodie Report Charity Educathlon.

We were set to do 7 km, but in the end we walked about 10 km in the beautiful Waitakere Ranges.

There was mud, and a little rain too, but mostly we were blessed with good weather and fantastic scenery.

We also saw some big Kauri trees, impressive!

We walked from the Arataki Visitor Centre to the Lower Huia Reservoir, stopping halfway at the Hamilton Saddle for lunch.

Being a vegetarian has many advantages, and one is that I don't eat horse simply because I don't eat beef either (or lamb, or pork, or chicken, or... you name it). Of course you never know these days! I never buy ready made food as I tend to cook from scratch, but I do travel a lot and have to rely on restaurants and already prepared food then. For all I know the vegetarian patties they serve me may be cooked in pork fat or being flavored with chicken feathers, and more than once I detected alien flesh flavors, and felt really upset about the lies.

Anyway, back to horses:

I read many opinions about horse meat in the UK food, ranging for people who say that horse meat is very good and it is stupid to be fussy (good point, after all it becomes pet food, but I bet these people won't eat dog), to those who say that food will cost more money if we were to apply stricter controls (hallo????), and it is all very interesting, but there is only one short piece that I really would like to share with you, as it is something I finally agree with.

I know that it will sound strange to the readers in the Northern Hemisphere, but now for me it is strawberries everyday! Mostly I have them just fresh or marinated with lemon and sugar, and I found that since I am very lazy at eating green kiwis, I have more if I add them to my strawberry salads.

If you live out west or drive by on your way to the West Coast beaches, stop at Lucy's (in front of Nola's) for a real fresh strawberry ice cream. Just be prepared to wait: it takes a while to make them! 

Last news for the day: check out the latest edition of Little Treasures Magazine for my refreshing and healthy fruit and vegetables recipes and ideas for the little ones, and also an article about Kiwi blogger Frances (The Bake Club) and her baby Tui. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Very happy to have my book Party Food for Girls at the Frankfurt Book Fair (did you know that New Zealand is the guest of honor?). Here is a photo with New Holland Publishers NZ MD Belinda Cooke (Belinda you look radiant!)...

And here is a photo of Peter in front of our stand, Oratia Media / Libro International.