Learn to make bread, pizza, pastries, savoury tarts and pies, frittata.... and more: Savour is now an ebook!

Exciting news! Savour, my second book with over 100 recipes (mostly family and Italian recipes) is now available as an ebook:

 from Kobo, worldwide. Click here to find out more!

Or for Amazon for Kindle

Also From Barnes & Noble 

 

A week of Italian and Māori

Carlo and my friend Suzanne

Yes it was a full week of Italian and Māori things for me! First I got my first case of JK.14 Prosecco and wine delivery, from Veneto to the New Zealand bush! Then Chef Carlo Casoni from Mutti came to NZ (thank you Eurodell for the tickets!), and finally I went to an amazing Italian event organized by Cuisine Magazine at Gusto, with 5 of the most famous chefs in Auckland (Sean, Sergio, Stefania, Giapo and Gaetano).   

Celebrating Cuisine Magazine Italian event!

Māori

Māori Language Week/Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is coming to an end, but let us keep the korero alive, and learn the meaning of Māori place names with Oratia Books fully revised edition of A.W. Reed’s classic Māori Place Names.

This fourth edition gives meanings and origins of over 2300 of the most important and widespread Māori names, and includes the original illustrations by celebrated artist James Berry featured in the early editions of the book.

 

A bit of fun: the movie Poi E, based on the making of the famous hit by the same name, is coming out soon. So I grabbed my 'Italian' poi and went over to the Corban Art Centre for a lesson on poi dancing (and Poi E singing). So cool! I even ended up in the News…  

The original Poi E video 

Happy weekend everyone!

Win a copy of One Summer in Venice by Nicky Pellegrino

Click here and enter 

to win your copy of:

One Summer in Venice

 by Nicky Pellegrino

(open to NZ residents only).

The Edible Journey Cookbook

Photos by Bron Marshall ©

Today I would like to share with you some extracts from Bron Marshall's blog. Bron is one of the photographers (but also cook and stylist) for what I think must be the most beautiful school fundraiser cookbook ever: The Edible Journey Cookbook. 

Front Cover Photography: Amanda Jenkins

Tai Tapu School's PTA prepared, cooked, styled and photographed 200 recipes in 8 delectable chapters, covering all meals from Breakfast through to Dessert, including a chapter dedicated to encourage kids into the kitchen. 

Photo by Bron Marshall ©

All the recipes were sourced from within the Banks Peninsula community, with several restaurants and cafes contributing. And there are a couple of Bron's recipes in the book too, including these "Feta and Herb Stuffed Courgette Blossoms."


If you live in New Zealand or Australia visit Bron's blog to see more amazing pictures, and also for a chance to win this book. Click here to enter. However if you miss out on winning this time around, you can also purchase the book online through www.ediblejourneycookbook.co.nz, Scorpio Books in Christchurch or at any of the participating businesses. 

Photos by Bron Marshall ©

Party Food for Girls a finalist in the 2013 Culinary Quill Awards

Thank you New Zealand Guild of Food Writers, and congratulations to the other finalists in the Book Quill Award:Glenda and Claire Gourley, Annabel Langbein, Allyson Gofton, Penny Oliver, Lesley Christensen Yule and Lauraine Jacobs.

Rye Bread

This recipe comes from my book Savour, and I have just seen on the Amazon website that they have 4 'used' copies from $2.42 (plus postage), good to know as now it is almost impossible to find in New Zealand. 

Rye Bread

Ingredients:
300 ml warm water
2 tsp active yeast granules
1/2 tsp brown sugar
300 g rye flour
200 g high grade flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp caraway seeds

Place the warm water in a large bowl, add the yeast and brown sugar then set aside for 5 minutes. When the yeast starts to bubble, add both kinds of flour, salt, molasses and caraway seeds. Work into a dough for about 10 minutes using your fingers; it will be quite sticky so knead it in the bowl. Shape into a ball, sprinkle it with rye flour and leave to rise in the bowl, covered with a damp tea towel, for about 2 hours. Punch the dough and knead it for 1 minute. Form into an oval shape (this time I made it into a long loaf instead), sprinkle with more rye flour and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Leave the dough to rise for 1 1/2 hours. Bake in a preheated 230°C oven for approximately 30 minutes or until the loaf makes a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fan Mail

A couple of months back I posted about taking part to the Wordsmith tour of schools, it was a lovely experience, and lots of children got inspired to pick up writing as a career. Then last month the event organizers send me a parcel full of fan mail from one of the schools we visited, and I was so moved by all the letters, poems, cards and recipes that the students sent me! I was going to post this before but I am always running out of time these days, anyway, here are some photos.

Thank you Henderson Intermediate School!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Frankfurt Book Fair, a few photos

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.

Bums and Roses at the Going West Storyfest

Pretty cupcakes for the Storyfest

Party Food for Girls was once more on tour, today at the Storyfest with another sugar roses' workshop for children (of all ages) and a baking demonstration too. We started with baking cupcakes at 10am, and then we moved to our workshop table to show the kids how to make sugar roses and decorate their own cupcakes.

 

Arantxa and Martina teaching the children how to make sugar roses.

Next table down we had lovely Dawn McMillan (pictured here with Libro International children book editor Carolyn Lagahetau). Dawn is the author of I need a new bum!, an hilarious new book all about ... Bums! She was at the Storyfest with illustrator Ross Kinnaird who did a lot of sketches for the children present. And we had so many children around, all reading books and attending all the creative workshops that Storyfest had to offer. 

Literally hundred of children came to our stall to make sugar roses, here is what some of them made.

I would like to thank Martina and Arantxa for helping all day long (9:30 to 4:30!), and everyone at Going West for organizing another wonderful Book & Writers Festival. Well done!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Going West Festival Storyfest, 22nd September 2012

The Wordsmith Tour of Schools

If you live in Auckland you may know that the Going West Books and Writers Festival is now in full swing! I am delighted to be part of the Festival this year, and last month I visited 10 Intermediate and High Schools in West Auckland together with authors Johnny Angel and Phillip W. Simpson as part of the Festivla's Wordsmith Tour.

Wordsmith is sponsored by Creative New Zealand, Auckland Council, and the Going West Trust, and aims to educate and inspire intermediate and high school students about writing as a career by bringing writers into schools so that the students have the chance to hear and speak to them free of charge. It was an great experience for all the three of us, and we loved talking with the students who asked very interesting and intelligent questions. 

This Saturday the Festival will close with the Storyfest, and I will be there starting with a baking demonstration in the morning and then all day long with my sugar roses workshop. If you live in West Auckland and have children do come along, many writers will be there and it is going to be another day full of books, workshops and creativity. Scroll down for the full programme.

Give Away: the family-friendly gluten-free cookbook by Sarah King!

This giveaway is now close, you can find out who the winner is by clicking here

Thank you for entering, and see you at the next giveaway!

This week I have a wonderful give away to New Zealand readers, a beautiful book by Sarah King:

The Family-friendly Gluten-free Cookbook  (RRP $39.99), courtesy of New Holland Publishers NZ

The Family-friendly Gluten-free Cookbook is the culmination of one family’s fight to eat well, after being diagnosed with varying degrees of gluten-intolerance. Author Sarah King proves it is possible for a family to follow a gluten-free diet, however challenging the circumstances and on a limited budget.

To win this book just leave a message at the end of this post from today, Monday 10 September,  through to Friday 14 September. I will pick the winner by random.org on Saturday. 

You don't have to be a follower of this blog to enter (but if you follow me of course I will be happy!)

The give away is open to everyone who lives in New Zealand (only NZ!)

Good luck!

A few words about coeliac disease and The Family-friendly Gluten-free Cookbook.

§  Over 24 million people worldwide are affected by coeliac disease. Under-diagnosis is a significant problem, with only 1 in 8 people being diagnosed.

§  Children in particular can suffer serious health consequences from coeliac disease unless they are introduced to a good gluten-free diet. Coeliac disease has a tendency to run in families. If one family member suffers from the condition then there is a 10-15% chance that an immediate family member will also have the condition.

§  Families find it hardest to adopt a gluten-free diet, as children demand food ‘that is the same as everyone else eats’. This book provides recipes with many Kiwi family favourites.

Recipes include:

-          Mediterranean Vegetable Tart

-          Bacon and Corn Muffins

-          Garlic Bread

-          Homestyle Chicken Pie

-          Lemon Meringue Pie

-          White Chocolate and Orange Biscotti

-          Chocolate Brownies

-          Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Filling

-          Self-saucing Chocolate Pudding

-          Baked New York Style Cheesecake

About the author and photographer:

Sarah now runs the Gluten-free Grocer in Mount Eden with her husband Mitch, as a way of sharing her knowledge with others, providing an affordable way of living gluten-free. With a commercial kitchen available through the catering company, they set about making gluten-free food themselves. The Gluten-free Grocer was the Winner of The Bloom Her Business Best New Business 2011 and Sarah was a finalist for Most Inspirational Role model in 2011. She has four children and lives in Auckland.

Devin Hart is a freelance photographer with experience in food, commercial and wedding photography. His work appears in New World supermarket’s Real magazine.

The Wordsmith Tour of schools and the Going West Books and Writers Festival

On August 13 the annual Going West Books & Writers Festival, will kick off with the Wordsmith Tour of schools. 

Going West Books and Writers Festival is a month-long festival, celebrating the word in Aotearoa, New Zealand and featuring over five major events. 

From the local schools touring programme (Wordsmith) to the infamous Books and Writers Weekend, there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Join us to see New Zealand literature in action as the west of Auckland is transformed into a hotbed of literary discussion, debate, oration and performance.

The Wordsmith Tour of schools

The Wordsmith Tour aims to inspire kids in intermediate and high schools to write, and to become writers!  Every year three writers are chosen to tour the schools and talk to the students, and this year I am thrilled to be one of them, alongside Phillip W. Simpson and Johnny Angel. 

We will start tomorrow, speaking to 700 kids at Block House Bay Intermediate, and then we will have ten more sessions in other schools around West Auckland. Wish us luck! 

Dino is famous, and the winner is... (actually, are!)

Is this really me? Says Dino Yes it is me! Look at me, I am famous!

Dino is happy! We were shooting my dinosaur minestrone and I just thought that it would be nice to have a 'model'. I went up to Max's room and picked up Dino, who has been in our family since Max was a baby (11 years), just to see how he looked! Well, I think that Dino is exceptionally cute and well kept too for an 11 years old soft toy! And guess what: he made it, he is in this issue of Little Treasures Magazine, and I can assure you that both him and Max are over the moon about it!

Minestrone with dinosaur pasta and tomato soup with animal crackers

Out now,  Little Treasures Magazine

Pumpkin soup with bruschetta, cauliflower and broccoli soup, red beetroot soup with puff pastry grissini,
and Asian noodles with veggies

And now for the winner of this competition. But I should say winners, in all senses! As usual I put the name through the Randomizer, and below is how they came out:

There were 40 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Fance e Vale
2. Stefania
3. 2 Amiche
4. Michelle
5. Artu
6. Iana
7. Paola
8. Ester
9. Chairina
10. Sastuki
11. Isabella
12. Mariangela
13. Melissa
14. Jennifer
15. Astrofiammante
16. Wagashi Stories
17. Alice
18. Valentina
19. Anotosh
20. Kitchen Flavours
21. Gaia Celiaca
22. Lo
23. Le cognate
24. Mariint
25. La gelida anolina
26. Sandra
27. Barbara
28. Vanessa
29. Katrina
30. Sweet Snow Flakes
31. Elena
32. Natasha
33. Chiara
34. Food, Fun
35. British Mum
36. Cheryl
37. Lucy
38. Lisa
39. Shatzy
40. Veronica

Timestamp: 2012-05-26 07:50:13 UTC

First of all i would like to congratulate Franci and Vale, who have a beautiful blog, La Signora die Biscotti. But this is not the reason why I say winners. When Stefania wrote her comment she said that the first person to write is never picked because she is already number 1 in the list, so the odd weren't with her, but she was graceful enough to start the comments and lead the way for all other entrants. And look at this! She came number 2! I am sure that everyone who knows Stefania will agree with me: she also deserve the prize! So Araba Felice, you won a copy of Party Food For Girls too! 

Thank you to all who entered the competition, I will run more in the future so stay tune, and 

congratulations to the winners, I hope that you will all enjoy the book, and make something from it.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©