Click on the images above to view the recipes.

Other Valentine’s Day ideas from around the Web:

• Valentine’s Day Recipes from Simply Recipes
• Valentine’s Day Desserts from Brown-Eyed Baker
• Valentine’s Day Recipes from Cafe Fernando
• Valentine’s Day Recipes from Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Gluten-Free Valentine’s Day Recipes from Elana’s Pantry

I was searching through old photos today and found these whole wheat blueberry muffins I made a while back.  Since I remember them tasting just as delicious as they look, I decided that they shouldn’t be kept hidden on my hard drive any longer.

The muffin recipe came from Elise at Simply Recipes and the only change I made was to use King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat Flour instead of all-purpose flour.  If you haven’t started baking with white whole wheat flour yet, now is the time to start!

The name “white whole wheat flour” might seem confusing since we are used to associating the term “white flour” with something that has had most of the nutrition processed and bleached right out of it.  But white whole wheat flour is a whole grain flour that has been milled from hard white spring wheat, rather than traditional red wheat.  It offers all the same nutritional benefits of traditional whole wheat, but has a milder flavor, lighter color, and finer grind, making it perfect for quick breads.

I happen to really enjoy the flavor of traditional whole wheat flour and still use it for yeast breads, but I find myself turning to white whole wheat for things like cookies, quick breads, pancakes, pizza dough, and even pie crusts.  It’s wonderful stuff!  And if you’re new to baking with whole wheat flour, white whole wheat might make for an easier transition – especially if you’re baking for picky eaters!

I haven’t tried any brands other than King Arthur Flour, but I know Trader Joe’s (who unfortunately stopped selling King Arthur) is now stocking their own brand of white whole wheat and Hodgson Mill is also producing a white whole wheat flour.  I’m sure there are even more brands out there now.

If you’d like to try experimenting with white whole wheat flour, I think a batch of muffins is a great place to start.  You can use it in any recipe, just replace the all-purpose or traditional whole wheat flour with an equal part of white whole wheat flour.

One thing to keep in mind:  while white whole wheat flour does bake up a bit lighter than traditional whole wheat, it is still a whole grain flour and will not perform exactly like the processed all-purpose version.  Your quick breads might not rise quite as high, and the crumb might be a bit more dense than in breads baked with all-purpose flour, but I really enjoy the flavor and texture of whole grain baked goods and think you will, too.

And really, who is going to say no to a blueberry muffin that looks like this?

If you’d like to try these blueberry muffins, head over to Simply Recipes and print the recipe.  Just don’t forget to use white whole wheat flour!

Related Recipes:

• Whole Wheat Orange Spice Muffins
• Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes
• Whole Grain Sour Cream Blueberry Pancakes
• Whole Wheat Rosemary Pizza Dough
• Whole Wheat Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies

Around the Web:

• The Bottom Line on White Whole Wheat Flour at Dani Spies
• White Whole Wheat Pizza Dough at 101 Cookbooks
• White Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls at Baking Bites
• White Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil at Kalyn’s Kitchen
• White Whole Wheat Carrot Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting at The Perfect Pantry

The winner of this beautiful 9-inch knife from New West KnifeWorks is Adam, whose favorite thing to eat over the holidays is Mac and Cheese.  Congratulations, Adam!

I chose the winner using the Random Integer Generator at Random.org.  The random number chosen was 224, and Adam was the 224th person to leave a comment on the Knife Giveaway post.

Thanks to everyone who participated, it was a lot of fun reading about your favorite holiday foods! And thanks again to New West KnifeWorks for providing the knife.

I’ll be back later with today’s recipe. Stay tuned!

We’ve recently had a few out of town guests and, as usually happens, our regular food budget/cooking routine kind of went out the window!  It’s always fun to break out of the routine and splurge a little, but now it’s time to get back on track!

So I’ve spent the morning clipping coupons and surveying the contents of my pantry, fridge and freezer.  And since I want to use up what I already have on hand, it looks like we’ll be eating a lot of pork and whole wheat pasta this week!

I wasn’t planning on sharing these mundane details of my life, but as I was scouring the food blogs looking for new ways to use up the Costco-sized package of pork chops in my freezer, I realized that you might also be interested in a few of the recipes I came across.

One recipe we’ll definitely be trying this week is the Vermont Maple Syrup Pork Chops from Simply Recipes. Just reading over the sweet and sour flavors present in the ingredient list made my mouth start watering!

I also recently bookmarked this Five-Minute Indian-style Cabbage from Herbivoracious.  It looks like a quick, easy, and inexpensive side dish since I already have all the spices in my cupboard.  If you’re new to cooking with Indian spices, this would be a great introduction!

I’ve really been craving soup the last couple of days and Rachel’s Autumn Vegetable Chowder over at Coconut & Lime looks like a rich, hearty, and surprisingly healthy chowder.  It’s definitely on my list!

And since there will be an emphasis on pork chops this week, here’s another one that caught my eye.  Peter’s Grilled Pork Chops with Mustard, Honey and Sage look amazing!  Here in San Diego, we can keep the grill going all year round!

So those are my must-try food blog recipes for the week.  The rest of our meals will probably be improvised, as usual!

Are there any new recipes that have caught your eye this week?  Leave a comment and share the link!

Today is the first day of Autumn, and even though we haven’t seen too much of a change down here in sunny southern California, I am ready to dive head first into some fall flavors!

Just this week, the mornings have cooled down enough that I can now wear my comfy slippers rather than flip flops when I walk down the driveway to pick up the morning paper.  And that alone is enough to make me crave warm pumpkin pancakes dripping with butter and maple syrup!

Can you tell that I’ve been looking forward to the end of summer?

So I thought perhaps I’m not the only one who is already excited to start a season filled with pumpkiny delights!  I spent the morning rounding up all my own pumpkin recipes and then headed to Food Blog Search to dig up some more pumpkin recipes that look appealing.  Happy browsing!

Pumpkin Recipes from Pinch My Salt:

• Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes
• Whole Wheat Pumpkin Maple Muffins
• Pumpkin Spice Scones
• Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins with Cranberries and Walnuts
• Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll
• Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
• Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

Savory Pumpkin Recipes:

• Thai Spiced Pumpkin Soup from 101 Cookbooks
• Penne with Pumpkin and Sage Sauce from Closet Cooking
• Pumpkin Gratin from Thyme for Cooking
• Black Bean Pumpkin Soup from Smitten Kitchen

Sweet Pumpkin Recipes:

• Pumpkin Bread Pudding from Smitten Kitchen
• Pumpkin Buttermilk Bundt Cake from Whipped
• Easy Pumpkin Ice Cream from Simply Recipes
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ring from David Lebovitz
• Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce from Taste and Tell
• Orange Frosted Pumpkin Muffins from Erin Cooks

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Recipes:

• Pumpkin Corn Muffins from Karina’s Kitchen
• Gluten-free Pumpkin Cupcakes from Simply Recipes
• Pumpkin Chicken Enchiladas from Gluten Free Mommy
• Pumpkin Squares from Going Gluten Free

San Diego is known for many things. Beautiful weather and beautiful people? Yes. Beaches, great fish tacos, and palm trees? There’s plenty! Handmade artisan chocolate? Hmmmm.

Chocolate just isn’t something that come to mind when you think of California’s southernmost city. But Will Gustwiller, owner of Eclipse Chocolat, is on his way to changing that.

Besides being owner, Will is the head chocolatier of this San Diego-based artisan chocolate shop. This isn’t the corner candy shop you remember from your youth. Eclipse specializes in creating exotic chocolate infusions in truffles, chocolate bars, and a variety of other confections such as crème fraîche cupcakes and dark chocolate croissant bread pudding with creme anglaise.

But Eclipse Chocolat is a special kind of business for reasons other than its amazing chocolate creations. As you walk into the shop, you will see the Eclipse Chocolat Pledge painted on the wall:

• To provide the highest quality chocolates made from all natural and, when possible, organic ingredients. We never use additives or preservatives.
• To sponsor local and regional non-profit organizations by donating 10% of our net profits.
• To maintain “green” operations, using post-consumer paper products and reducing our eco-footprint.

Sounds like a good pledge to me!

Those of you who read Pinch My Salt regularly know that this post is a bit of a break from the norm. For one thing, I don’t normally frequent high end chocolate shops (I’m not much of a chocoholic). For another, I don’t normally write reviews of such places. So what the heck is going on?

Well, I was lucky enough to be invited to Eclipse Chocolat for a San Diego Foodblogger Mixer! That’s right, in addition to sampling some amazing desserts, I got to meet and mingle with a whole bunch of local foodbloggers!

As an American writing a food blog in Sicily, I was a bit isolated from the rest of the foodblogging world (geographically, that is). I was always jealous when I would read about other bloggers meeting up for dinner and becoming friends in ‘real life.’ All of that changed during my trip to New York and Chicago last summer when, for the first time, I got to meet some of my favorite foodbloggers in person. And it was wonderful to discover that they are all as much fun in person as their blogs suggest!

So when we finally had to pack up and make the big move from Sicily back to the states, one of the things I looked forward to was becoming a part of a local foodblogging community!

Although I haven’t been writing much lately, I was really excited when I received the evite from Will inviting myself and several other San Diego Foodbloggers to meet up and indulge in some complimentary dessert tasting platters. I admit I was a little nervous, as I always am in large groups of people I’ve never met, but the event turned out to be lots of fun and I met a great group people!

And let’s not forget about the desserts…

Chocolate and Olive Oil Fondue. The combination sounded strange but it was good, especially with the strawberries!

This is the latest seasonal tasting platter, which included: Frozen Chocolate-Mixed Berry Merlot Mousse (say that five times fast!), Grilled White Chocolate Carrot Gateau, Dark Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding with Creme Anglaise, and a White Chocolate-Chamomile Lemon Bar.

A better view of the bread pudding from the same platter.

Kim from Foolin’ Around in the Kitchen digs into that yummy frozen mousse!

Tyler of What We’re Eating with a Roast Beef Panini that apparently contained chocolate in some form or another. Yes, Eclipse Chocolat also offers sandwiches!

Surprisingly, this Lavender Vanilla Bean Lemonade was one of my favorite things!

Unfortunately I didn’t get a good group shot of everyone but as you can see, there was lots of mingling going on! Will had the great idea for us to wear name tags featuring our first name plus the name of our blog.

Again, I do not consider myself to be a chocoholic and I freely admit that I prefer milk chocolate over dark. But truffles, whether made from milk or dark chocolate, are one of my weaknesses. The one below consisted of caramel chocolate ganache dipped in milk chocolate, topped with Lavender-scented gray sea salt and we were each given one as a parting gift.

Oh my!

Not sure how I managed to photograph that truffle before biting into it but it really was as good as it looks! I loved the crunchy sea salt on top and the hint of lavender worked well.

All in all, it was a great afternoon. My only regret is I didn’t get a chance to chat with everyone who was there. I guess we’ll just have to plan another event! Some of the bloggers I did get a chance to meet were:

Marie from Adventures of an Amateur Foodie
Kim from Foolin’ Around in the Kitchen
Alice from Alice Q. Foodie
Tyler and Amanda from What We’re Eating
Roger from The Fifth Deadly Sin
Katherine from Koko’s Corner
Darlene from My Burning Kitchen
Dennis and Elena from Sea Rocket Bistro
Liz from Fooding 411
Caron from San Diego Foodstuff
Marcie from FoodBuzzSD
Angie from CrazySalad
Ben from Ben Bakes a Cake
Josh the SD Chowhound
Will from Eclipse Chocolat Blog

I apologize because I’m sure I’m missing a few of you! If you know of anyone I’ve left out, let me know in the comments and I’ll add them to the list!

In short, the San Diego Foodblogger Mixer was quite a success. Not only did I get to meet a great group of people but I was introduced to a wonderful local chocolate shop that I probably never would have sought out on my own.

So, if you happen to find yourself in San Diego and in need of a serious dessert fix, Eclipse Chocolat is the place to go!

Eclipse Chocolat
2121 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92104
619-578-2984
info@eclipsechocolat.com

Store Hours:
Mon-Thurs 9am-10pm
Friday 9am-11pm
Saturday 10am-11pm
Sunday 10am-6pm

Eclipse Chocolat Online
Eclipse Chocolat Blog

And did I mention they have a very comfortable couch and free wi-fi? These are the things that make me happy in life

I loved his recent post about why he refuses to buy vinaigrette.

On another note, I’ve really been enjoying Bittman’s latest cookbook, How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. The book is a great resource for anyone, vegetarian or not, who is interested in incorporating more vegetables and whole grains into their diet. But it’s not a book about health food. It’s filled with every meat-free recipe you can imagine. And it’s a huge book. I think it’s well worth the 2o bucks or so you’ll pay for it on Amazon. Don’t believe me? Go read Heidi’s review of the book on 101 Cookbooks.

So, go check out Bitten if you’re ready for a daily dose of Bittman. And if you’re ready for a great new cookbook (who isn’t?), pick up a copy of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Good Food.

Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Black Olive Muffins. Sounds good, right? What if I told you they were also wheat-free, gluten-free, and low carb? Would you still be interested?

You guys know that I’m not a low-carber but that doesn’t mean that I shy away from low-carb recipes. When it comes to food blogs, I don’t discriminate! One of my favorite food blogs is Kalyn’s Kitchen and the majority of her recipes are South Beach Diet friendly. I don’t follow the South Beach Diet but I love Kalyn’s recipes because they are both healthy and delicious with an emphasis on whole, unprocessed foods.

One of Kalyn’s recent posts was about Egg Muffins. No, not Egg McMuffins! These are much healthier and much tastier than anything off the McDonald’s breakfast menu.

Kalyn’s Egg Muffins are basically a portable omelet that can be eaten on the run. The recipe is simple: whip up some eggs with whatever veggies, cheese, meats, herbs and spices you have on hand, pour the batter into some muffin cups and bake. Kalyn has an actual recipe for you to follow but I found it was easy to improvise. I whipped up my own creation with chicken, goat cheese, black olives and fresh chopped parsley and they turned out perfectly on the first try.

When I made my egg muffins, I used silicone muffin cups that I had recently received as a gift. They worked really well! But Kalyn says you can also use a regular muffin tin if you line it with foil baking cups. The cool thing about these ‘muffins’ is that you can refrigerate or freeze them and pop a couple in the microwave on your way out the door.

Since I suffer from hypoglycemia, it is important for me to start the day with some protein. I’m not always very good at forcing myself to eat breakfast but it’s much easier when I have something like this on hand. In fact, one of these egg muffins along with one of my whole wheat muffins is a pretty good combination to get me through the morning.

To read more about Egg Muffins, see some photos, and get the recipe, visit Kalyn’s Kitchen.

Do you remember the giant lemon sugar cookie recipe that I posted in August? You might not have even noticed it because the recipe was just kind of stuck at the bottom of my Lemon Tips and Tricks post. Well I really should have dedicated an entire post to those cookies because they were really amazing! Luckily, Patricia, of the wonderful Brazilian food blog Technicolor Kitchen, did it for me! But Patricia added an exciting new twist and turned them into Lime Sugar Cookies!

When I was in Sicily, limes were ridiculously expensive in our grocery store on the military base and were almost impossible to find anywhere else since lemons and oranges are the citrus fruits of choice in Italy. But now that I’m back in California where limes are generally about 10 cents each, I will be using them much more often! I love the flavor of limes and I know that it will be really great in these cookies!

Go check out Patricia’s beautiful lime cookies and be sure to let us know if you give either version a try! I also think an orange version of these would be wonderful. If anyone wants to give it a try and then blog about it, let me know so that I can link to the recipe!

Jim Gaffigan, found on Make and Takes

I woke up this morning and was browsing through the hundreds of blog feeds that I now follow (thanks, Google reader!) and noticed this Jim Gaffigan clip at one of my favorite crafty/foodie blogs, Make and Takes. It made me laugh so hard that I just had to steal the video! Technically, it’s a food video. Right?

Jim Gaffigan is hilarious, and now you’re going to have the hot pockets ‘jingle’ in your head all day now, just like me!

And if you’re at all interested in crafts, go check out Make and Takes. You’ll find lots of cute ideas as well as some great fall recipes. My favorite post lately was the homemade graham cracker crust filled with store-bought pumpkin ice cream — a simple idea that I never would have though of on my own! And you can start your Christmas shopping early by visiting her Etsy shop, where she sells adorable handmade baby bibs and children’s aprons, among other things!