I am so excited to announce that Curt of Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread and Nika of Nika’s Culinaria have collaborated to create an online food photography course called Food Photo 101.

The course objective is to guide interested budding food photographers through the technical and creative barriers they may be experiencing with their Point and Shoot or DSLR cameras. In other words, this course will help you learn how to take better food photos with whatever camera you are currently using! Continue reading →

I was just catching up on my food blog reading and I found some exciting news! Matt Armendariz, food photographer extraordinaire, will be teaching a class called ‘The Ins and Outs of foodblogging’ at Whole Foods Market Bowery on July 15th. I really really really want to attend that class! I was planning on visiting New York City (for the first time EVER) at the end of July but now I’m thinking about changing up my travel plans a little so that I’m there for the class!

Although I probably don’t have to tell you guys this, Matt is an amazingly talented photographer and writer. His blog is one of my favorite reads and I’ve been following his photography on Flickr for quite some time. If you are a food blogger in New York, you should definitely try to attend this class! I just checked and registration is only $25 for a 2 hour class.

Visit Matt Bites for information on how to register for the class.

UPDATE:  I just registered for the class!  I’m not quite sure how I’m going to rearrange my travel plans, but I’ll figure out something.  Now I just need suggestions on where to stay in New York

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! Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

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!

Well, it’s official, I WON!! First of all, you’ll have to excuse my excessive use of exclamation points in this post but…Pinch My Salt is officially the Best New Food Blog of 2006!! I would like to thank everyone who took a moment out of their day to go vote for me! And I would especially like to thank my friends who not only voted, but went out of their way (through blog posts and e-mail campaigns) to encourage others to vote as well, especially Emon, Jessica, Sandi, and Karen! Continue reading →

What a way to start off the new year! First I find out that I’m in the running for Best New Food Blog in the 2006 Food Blog Awards and now I learn that I’m one of the winners in the latest round of DMBLGIT (Does My Blog Look Good in This), a monthly photography contest for food bloggers! Continue reading →

Jennifer over at Bake or Break has tagged me to participate in The Foodblogger’s Guide to the Globe, a joint project started by Melissa at The Traveler’s Lunchbox. The goal is to compile a comprehensive list of foods from around the world that everyone must try at least once. The hard part is that each foodblogger must limit their list to five things so that it doesn’t get completely out of control!

It was extremely difficult to limit my list to five things, especially since I think there are at least ten “must-eat” things in Sicily alone! But I tried to diversify the list a little bit and limited Sicily to only two slots on the list.

1. Original Yumm! from Cafe Yumm! in Eugene, Oregon: Cafe Yumm! is famous for their Yumm! Sauce and they very well should be. This stuff is awesome. No, I really don’t know what it is but just go there and order a bowl of Original Yumm! and you will understand why it is on this list. The Original Yumm! consists of brown rice, red and black beans and the famous Yumm! sauce. The whole thing is topped off with organic salsa. It is so tasty and it is definitely the healthiest thing on this list!

2. Sweet Potato Tempura with Spicy Plum Sauce: My favorite restaurant in Eugene, Oregon is Ring of Fire. They serve Thai and Pacific Rim cuisine and although I haven’t tried anything there I didn’t love, my absolute favorite is the Sweet Potato Tempura appetizer served with a super yummy spicy plum sauce. These things are amazing. And if you can stand some heat in your drink, I also highly recommend the chili margarita to go with!

3. Grilled Tri-Tip: Although it has definitely gained in popularity over the years, I still run across people who have never heard of tri-tip. It’s a wonderful, lean, tender cut of beef that needs nothing more than a simple rub of garlic, salt, and black pepper (and occasionally some parsley). I grew up in central California where tri-tip is very popular.

4. Almond Granita with Brioche in Catania, Sicily: Granita served with a side of brioche is THE thing to have for breakfast in Sicily during the summer. Almond is my favorite and I think they do it best in Catania!

5. Pizza in Sicily: It doesn’t matter what kind. Just come here and eat some. Now!

Now it’s time for me to tag five other foodbloggers to make lists of their own. If any of you have already been tagged, let me know and I’ll update the list. Have fun!

• Sandy at Gardenpath
• Jessica at These are a few of our favorite things…
• Pearl at Eaten Up
• Nika at Nika’s Culinaria
• Curt at Bucky’s Barbeque Blog