Besides grilled cheese, my favorite sandwich is a BLT. It’s been my favorite sandwich for as long as I can remember and I’m pretty sure it will always be my favorite sandwich. Bacon, lettuce and tomatoes…how can you ever go wrong with that combination?

I think the best BLT is made at home with thick slices of garden fresh tomatoes, thick slices of smoky bacon, and crisp leaves of iceberg lettuce piled high on toasted whole wheat bread that has been slathered with mayo. But judging by the photo and title of this post, I obviously changed things up a bit this time around! I won’t say that this sandwich is better than my traditional BLT, but it was definitely one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in quite some time.

I used homemade focaccia for this sandwich but I’m assuming that you can easily buy the bread at most grocery store bakeries now.
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I am pleased to announce that one of my recipes has been featured in a cooking video over at Rub My Chicken, the improvisational cooking video site formerly known as Collective Kitchen. Jonathan, an American living in Denmark and star of Rub My Chicken, chose to feature my very own Easy Egg Salad in his latest video adventure. Although his version of egg salad is based on my recipe, he gives it a bit of a face lift by making his own flavored mayonnaise and grinding the mustard seeds by hand.  YUM!

While you’re over there checking out the egg salad, make sure to browse through some of the earlier episodes as well.  Just a quick warning, Jonathan is very, um, passionate about his cooking and his colorful use of language reflects that. So, if you feel that there is no room for cursing in a cooking video, steer clear of Rub My Chicken. For those of you who can handle the salty language, head on over to Rub My Chicken for some great food and lots of laughs!

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 →

How it is that I’ve gone this long without tasting any of Nando’s Peri-Peri sauces, I will never know. But now that this wrong has been righted, I’m definitely a Nando’s convert. I like spicy foods and I like hot sauces but I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur. I always have a supply of a couple different Tabasco sauces on hand (I’ve also tried Texas Pete’s and Louisiana brands but I’ve always been a Tabasco girl), but my pantry hot sauce collection doesn’t usually get much bigger than that other than maybe some Cholula and a mild tomatillo-based green sauce. And of course, there’s the occasional Asian chili paste and I am now always fully stocked with Italian chili paste (crema di peperoncino). But really, considering the variety of hot sauces available in this world, my tiny collection doesn’t even scratch the surface. Continue reading →

It’s that time of year when many families with children find that their baskets and refrigerators runneth over with hard-boiled eggs. What to do with them all?! My favorite solution to the problem has always been deviled eggs, but today I am going to share with you my second favorite. Egg Salad Sandwiches! I love egg salad and as far as I’m concerned, the simpler the recipe, the better. Some things in life are not meant to be fooled around with and I believe that egg salad is one of those things. So, you will find nothing fancy in my egg salad and I’m pretty sure you’ll like it that way too! I learned to make it this way from my mother-in-law Sharon, who makes the most amazing egg salad but curiously, won’t eat it herself. Continue reading →

So, what does Carrot-Ginger Soup have to do with Valentine’s Day? Absolutely nothing. I had been planning on posting this soup recipe a week ago, along with some Whole Wheat Cheddar Onion Muffins that I have been working on. But, it just didn’t happen. I’m happy that the Naughty Ice Cream Sandwiches were such a hit because it makes me feel a little less guilty about my little two week break! Continue reading →

Well, after all my talk about the warm, sunny days we’ve been having around here, the skies are now gloomy and overcast. It’s still not very cold but the dreary weather makes me crave something warm and comforting. And since my husband won’t be home for a while yet, I settled for some soup.

My original intention was to make the cream of artichoke soup featured on the Castroville Artichoke Festival Web site. I had a bunch of little artichokes in the fridge and I thought it would be an interesting way to use them since I had never tasted artichoke soup. But then I realized that I also had an entire head of cauliflower tucked away that I had been saving for soup.

Hmmmm. Guess what I did? Continue reading →

People keep asking me why, if I’m living in Sicily, I haven’t posted any Italian or Sicilian recipes on this site. Well, the answer is simple. I just don’t cook Italian food at home that often because I can go out and get really good pasta or pizza anytime I want. In fact, it’s very difficult to find restaurants in Sicily that serve anything besides Italian food. While I love the food here, we like to experiment with different things at home. Of course a lot of my recipes have been influenced by the foods that are readily available here and new cooking techniques that I have picked up over the last few years. So, even if my recipes aren’t considered to be Italian, many of them are definitely born from my culinary experiences in Sicily

But there are a few Sicilian dishes I like to make at home and I will definitely be sharing them with you over time. And hopefully the list will continue to grow! One of my favorites is Pasta con Pesto al Pistacchio or Pasta with Pistacchio Sauce. Variations of this dish can be found in most restaurants here but this recipe is definitely one of the tastiest I’ve had. The best part is that it’s really fast and simple to make!

The pistachios grown here in Sicily are prized for their brilliant green color and are exported throughout the world. The majority of the nuts come from Bronte, an area situated on the base of Mount Etna. Unlike in the United States, where pistachios are often eaten out of hand, Sicilians use pistachios in a wide variety of both sweet and savory treats. Perhaps most famous is the pistachio gelato which I believe is the best gelato flavor in the world! But you will also find several types of pistachio cakes, cookies, candies and pastries. Of the savory dishes, my favorite is this one: Continue reading →