Happy Birthday!


Well crikey, blimey and gosh, it’s only that time of year again, when I celebrate the anniversary of my very first post: Sal’s Kitchen is now two whole years old. Of course, the very first thing I must do is say a great big thank you to you, dear reader, for popping in to see me and leaving some lovely comments. You’ve visited my blog 12,162 times over the past year, which equates to an increase of roughly 20% on last year’s traffic (and that’s all the maths I will be doing for this post).

Amazingly, my recipe for Mars Bar Cookies remains the most popular post of all time – who knew you were such Mars Bar fiends? The second most popular post was my Easy-Peasy Homemade Fudge, which is excellent, because I’m keen to spread the word that this is much, much easier than most people think it is, and thus increase the amount of homemade fudge in the world (my own small contribution to global happiness). New entries to the top ten include my Parsnip & Mozzarella Arancini, which I’m delighted about because it’s one of my favourite recipes – the combination of sweetness from the vegetables, creaminess from the cheese and a kick of spiciness is the perfect thing to warm you up on a cold day.

Unsurprisingly, your favourite page was the Recipes index, but after that the next most popular was the How To page, which is excellent news because I’m a firm believer in communicating to as many people as possible that cooking is really easy (or at least, it can be) and helping them get stuck in. If there’s anything you’d like to see featured amongst the beautiful basics on my How To page, do let me know – I’d love to hear from you. I also introduced a new page this year, Chatterbox, where I occasionally push aside my plate and ponder food-related issues for a bit instead.

If you’re a fan of my blog, then you’re most likely to be from the UK or America, but once again, if you’re not from either of those places then you’ll probably be Russian. Any Russian fans fancy saying hi? Following closely behind Russia is Australia – somehow it’s very exciting to think of all my ramblings being perused by lovely people so far away. Hello to you all and thank you!

You’re most likely to come to my blog via Twitter (hello lovely Twitter chums) but after that it’s Facebook, which is exciting considering Sal’s Kitchen hasn’t been on Facebook for that long – if you haven’t liked my page yet, you can find it here. Increasingly, you might also find me via Pinterest, which is an absolutely marvellous way to find new recipe ideas (not all of which are mine) – check it out here.

Finally, I’d like to say a big thank you to all the lovely people who bought my very first recipe ebook, Delicious, and announce that I’ll be releasing a new book in 2014 which combines my very best budgeting tips and my favourite easy recipes, with plenty of examples, tips and tricks to help even the most timid or cash-strapped get started in the kitchen. Watch this space!