Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Attention all food bloggers and friends of Sweet New Zealand: Remember to enter your sweet recipes this month (info  here  - I am hosting so you will need to email me the entries) by February 27th and  you will be in the draw to win  two delicious packs of  Fresh As  products: Raspberry Powder and Strawberries slices. You can enter old recipes as long as you add the SNZ logo. You can enter as many times as you like, winners will be chosen with Random.org, so you just need to be lucky!

I have these really cute grappa glasses, they are small straight tubes with one side of the glass almost 'melted' into it, like a thumb had been pressing it... and in fact it is quite nice to hold! Possibly these are not so practical for dessert (fortunately I have some tiny long spoons) but I wanted to use them, just for look.  So here is the recipes For the Vanilla layer: 3 free range eggs 4 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp flour 1.5 l full cream milk Vanilla essence 1 tsp grappa For the Chocolate layer: Just add some  72% dark chocolate to the vanilla mixture (about 50 g) Add more grappa if you like For the Cream: Just whip some cream Mix the eggs with the sugar and flour and add the milk slowly. Simmer until the custard thickens then add the vanilla essence and grappa. Pour half in a jug and stir. Add the chocolate to the rest and stir, then pour into the glasses (bowls, cups, trifle bowl...). Let it set then add the vanilla layer. Refrigerate then top it ...

I felt like baking something savoury, like cheese scones, but instead of making individual ones (like you are supposed to do with scones) I made a cheese scone ring, it was soft and delicious, especially when still warm from the oven, cut in slices and served with butter. A great afternoon snack for a rainy day, when it is nice to have the oven on and the kitchen warm and smelling of baking. Ingredients: 1 egg plus 3 eggs yolks 200 g self raising flour 100 g grated cheese (like Edam) 1 pinch dried mixed Italian herbs (rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme) 1 cup milk Salt to taste Mix all the ingredients and pour into a ring tin greased with butter. Bake at 180°C until the top is golden and the "big scone" is shrinking away from the edges of the tin.  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Do you get tomatoes plants that die and leave you with green tomatoes hanging there not ripening? I do! What a pity, but even if some veggie are ugly I can still manage to make a soup out of them! I don't know why the yellow zucchini plant is three times more prolific than the green one! Still, I am not complaining, look at the colour! My favourite additions to soups are beans, it is just so much fun shelling them and look at the beautiful colours. Pity that they become all brown during cooking. And here is the minestrone. No recipe, just wash, chop and boil, add salt to taste and extra virgin olive oil at the end. So tasty and healthy! Some of the photos are mine, but the prettiest are Arantxa's! Photos and recipe by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling  ©