I picked up the latest copy of Country Living magazine when I was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store. I was starving and fell for the photo of the halloween-themed chocolate cake on the front cover. The magazine promised that it was “Scrumptious!” and “Sooooo moist!” And how could I resist the cute orange frosting and dark chocolate glaze. The truth is that I am very easily swayed by advertising when I’m hungry.

After I got home and ate lunch, I really wasn’t that interested in the magazine anymore. In fact, I kind of forgot about it for a day or two. When I finally got around to thumbing through it, I realized the cake recipe was for a Chocolate Pumpkin Cake. “Mmmmmm,” I thought. “Possibly even better than just plain chocolate!” I’ve never combined chocolate and pumpkin before and I was instantly intrigued. Continue reading →

Good Intentions. I’m full of them! There are so many tips, tricks and recipes that I’ve been meaning to share with you. So many photos that have been sitting patiently on my hard drive, waiting to be paired with recipes, with stories, or at the very least a few words of explanation. So many recipes that have been written, tested, and tasted that are just waiting for that perfect photo.

I never write what I plan on writing when I plan on writing it. It just doesn’t work that way. I don’t work that way. I can tell myself that I want to share my mom’s Potato Leek Soup recipe, I can take photos of it, I can even begin to write about it. But it just won’t be posted until it’s ready to be posted! I really can’t even explain how my process works. Some days I just feel like writing about certain things. Continue reading →

Well, I don’t think I could ever get tired of banana bread. But if you’re looking to try something a little different with those overripe bananas sitting in your fruit basket, how about a banana roll? Banana sponge cake spread with a thick cream cheese filling rolled up into one yummy package — what’s not to love?

You’ve had pumpkin roll before, haven’t you? This is the same thing, except made with banana sponge cake rather than pumpkin. In fact, I just used the recipe for pumpkin roll, substituted banana for the pumpkin, took out the spices, and voila!

It was one of those experiments that could have been a total disaster but just happened to turn out very well. If you’ve been reading Pinch My Salt long, you know that most of my ‘original recipes’ are created this way! Continue reading →

Canned biscuits caused our ruination!

That was the subject of an e-mail I received after my last biscuit post. Who knew biscuits could stir such passion! Apparently, when canned biscuits made their debut, many women quit making them from scratch, even in the southern states.

Even in Tennessee where I’m from, when canned biscuits came out, women quit making homemade ones except for my grandmother who is 90 years old and still going strong. We live in Texas now and it amazes me how many people have never had a great homemade biscuit.

Carmen, the reader who sent the e-mail, went on to explain to me some of the real secrets of making great homemade biscuits and I am now forever in her debt! Continue reading →

This is the lemon cake that my Nana usually always makes for me when I go home to California. We both forgot about it during my last visit and I didn’t realize until I got back to Sicily that I hadn’t had my Lemon Jello Cake fix.

Luckily, I have the recipe! And lucky for you, I’m going to share it!

This is one of the easiest cakes you can make and I will argue that it’s one of the best-tasting cakes you will ever eat. Continue reading →

I love olives. I’ve never met an olive I didn’t like except, perhaps, straight from the tree. Whatever you do, don’t eat an olive straight off the tree! But, I love olives.

I grew up in the middle of California, in olive county. Yes, Spain, Italy and Greece may be known for their bold and flavorful olives but if you’ve ever popped open a can of black olives from the supermarket, chances are it came from California!

I’m sure there are olive snobs out there that turn their noses up at the canned variety. It’s true that they are nothing like ‘real’ olives, but canned olives have their place. On American pizza, for instance. Or Nana’s tamale pie. And when you’re a kid, it’s fun to stick them on the ends of all your fingers and then eat them one by one. Continue reading →

I’ve never really eaten a paella because I’m just not much of a seafood eater. But I just watched the latest Mark Bittman video over at the New York Times and I’ve just become a paella convert.

Bittman suggests a much simpler version of the famously extravagant meat and fish-laden rice dish. His is Paella with Tomatoes. I am already a huge fan of tomato-based rice dishes but this paella, rich with saffron and smoked paprika and topped with lightly seasoned fresh tomatoes, looks absolutely amazing. Continue reading →

I think so.

It was my first night back in my own kitchen but thanks to jet lag, I was far from ready to put a lot of effort into dinner. I put my husband in charge of grilling some meat and I managed to make a decent-tasting side dish out of some canned beans, frozen vegetables and rice.

But what I really wanted was something warm from the oven, dripping with butter.

I started flipping through my latest cookbook, a gift my cousin brought me from a recent trip to Wisconsin, called Best of the Best from Wisconsin. I would have been satisfied with any of the quick muffins or corn bread recipes I found but I realized we had no eggs. Then I found a variety of quick and easy beer bread recipes that sounded good, but we had no beer.

That’s when I saw it: a recipe for Cheese Drop Biscuits. Quick. Easy. Cheesy. It was exactly what I needed and I had all five ingredients on hand! Continue reading →