I’ve Moved!

It’s amazing that I had time to bake this sourdough bread considering all the changes that have been happening! Pinch My Salt has officially moved to a new home! I am still going through unpacking process and things at the new place might be a little messy for a while but I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with myself for getting things set up so quickly! Since I’m a military wife, I’ve had lots of practice in the moving department 😉

Once you get to the new site, please bookmark the new address so you don’t miss out on any of my upcoming posts! This old site will not disappear but I will not be updating it. And don’t worry, I’ve moved all of my recipes and older posts to the new site!

And to the new readers who have arrived here thanks to the mention in The Sacramento Bee, welcome! So without further ado, let’s head on over to the new site and see what’s happening! Are you ready? Are you sure? Ok, now close your eyes…wait, you’d better keep them open. Oh what the hell, just CLICK HERE!

Any Foodies out there using Twitter?

If you are interested in what I’m doing every second of the day (it’s usually food-related), come find me here!

New recipes coming soon! My husband, who has been serving in Iraq for the past 9 1/2 months is home. Now you know why I haven’t been posting anything lately!

It’s Strawberry Time!

 

If you’ve had a chance to visit any of the outdoor markets lately, you’ve seen them. Piles of bright red berries, gleaming in the sunlight, just waiting to be taken home and devoured! There are a variety of strawberries here in Sicily, from the impossibly tiny fragoline to the gigantic fragolone, and every size in between. Although strawberries are a wonderfully healthy, low-calorie treat when eaten plain, I look forward to strawberry season for another reason: Strawberry Shortcake!

Happy Mother’s Day!

This is an older post but it reminds me of my mom so I decided to re-post it for Mother’s Day. We lost my mom in 1998 but I think of her every day, especially when I’m in the kitchen!

I’ve been baking bread since I was small. My mom baked bread a lot when we were kids and my sister and I used to have fun helping (dressed in our matching chef’s hats and aprons, of course).

Spice Up Your Spring!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written about one of my favorite online shops. No, I’m not talking about Zappos, I’m not talking about King Arthur Flour, and I’m not talking about Burt’s Bees. While it’s true that all of those businesses get their share of my money, my most recent online purchase was from The Spice House. Does it seem strange to shop for spices online? I kind of thought so too. But one visit to their site changed my mind and after my first package arrived in the mail over a year ago, I was completely hooked!

I was one of those people whose spice cabinet was packed with old bottles of spices that had been purchased for one recipe or another and then never touched again.

Herbed Tuna Salad with Feta and Pine Nuts

There’s a weekly food blog event that I have been meaning to participate in for quite some time now. It’s called Weekend Herb Blogging and it’s a great way for people who enjoy using fresh herbs to share tips, ideas, information, and recipes with one another. The event, now on it’s 82nd week I believe, was founded by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and is still hosted there the first weekend of each month. During the other three weeks, the event roams around the food blog community, hosted by different bloggers each week. If you wish to participate, simply write a little something about a fresh herb and/or post a recipe featuring fresh herbs. Put it on your blog sometime during the week (any week, every week) and then e-mail the link to the person who is hosting the event. All of the links are compiled and then posted together at the end of the week by the host. Like all food blog events, it’s a great way to learn something new, find recipes, and also discover new food blogs.

Calling All Strawberry Lovers

I have noticed that I am not the only one who has been enjoying fresh strawberries lately! I will be posting a homemade strawberry shortcake recipe soon and thought it might be fun to add some links to other fresh strawberry recipes that are floating around the blogosphere right now. So, if you have recently posted a fresh strawberry recipe or plan on doing so this weekend, send me your link in the next couple of days and I’ll include it in my strawberry recipe round-up! I would really love to see some fresh strawberry pie recipes — I’ll be making one as soon as my aunt tracks down my mom’s old recipe!

One more thing!  Have you notice that I added a Guest Book Page to my site?  Whether you’re a Pinch My Salt regular or visiting for the first time, please take a moment to tell me who you are and where you’re from 🙂

The Minimalist Kitchen

Just saw a great Mark Bittman video and read the accompanying article on NYTimes.com about equipping an entire kitchen for $200-300. Although I am as guilty of lusting over ridiculously expensive kitchen equipment as the next foodblogger, living here in Sicily has really made me step back and think about what is actually “essential” in a kitchen. In a country where electricity is expensive and limited, I quickly learned that packing away my stand mixer, food processor and blender not only freed up counter space, but didn’t really put many limitations on what was coming out of my kitchen. We lived in an Italian villa for two years and rather than use a transformer to get my U.S. 110v appliances to work in my Italian 220v kitchen, I really did pack them all away. I purchased a 220v Braun hand mixer that had some useful attachments and an inexpensive food mill. I learned to love my knives, I rediscovered the joy of kneading bread by hand, and I realized that the pleasures of cooking really have nothing to do with the price or quantity of your kitchen equipment.

Nando’s Honey Garlic Wings

This is a continuation of my previous review of Nando’s Peri Peri Sauces. I had three sauces to try out–Roasted Reds Cooking Sauce, Peri-Peri Marinade, and Garlic Peri-Peri Sauce. I used the first two sauces in my chicken pizza, but I had different plans for the Garlic Peri-Peri Sauce. It seemed like the sauce might be good on some chicken wings, so of course I tried it out. Guess what? It was good on chicken wings 🙂

Can Ya Digg It?

Hey everyone! It’s time for a little shameless self-promotion!

You will notice that from now on, a few of my posts will contain a little box in the top right corner with the words “digg it.” For those of you who have never heard of Digg.com, check out the site or read the Wikipedia explanation. It’s basically another way to help spread the word about the Pinch My Salt recipes you enjoy.