Welcome September! Can you believe it that the summer is coming rapidly to a close?! Did you get all your BBQ’s, summer parties, beach visits, and summer reading checked off your ‘How to Spend your Summer Days’ list? It has been such a phenomenal summer of good activity for us. We did have some lows with our kiddos sick with a summer flu while at their grandparent’s house in CT, and a bout of poison ivy before sail camp was to start, and topped off with a dog bite, but other than those incidents we had a beautiful summer being back in New England with our family and friends.  Our boys learned to sail and crab, and we enjoyed our summer living in Fort Adams to the full extent with these amazing coastal views.

Last year at this time, we just arrived back from living overseas in Naples, Italy and were living on inflatable mattresses while waiting for our household goods to arrive. We also were just acclimating ourselves to living back in the U.S. after being stationed in Italy for 3 years and driving and gesticulating like a Napolitano.  Before long, we settled smoothly back into Newport and were planning New England activities like apple and pumpkin picking over the winery visits and truffle hunting excursions we took in Italy. (sniff. sniff.)

This September is different as all our kitchen goods and Italian products are unpacked and already long enjoyed, a new small business and Matt’s retirement from The United States Navy - WHEW!! With all this change, came the need for some good old comfort food to welcome this September in. With some cookbook inspiration from Ruth Reichl of the late Gourmet magazine “My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes that Saved My Life' only seemed fit to read whilst our own personal changes. Ms. Reichl wrote this memoir following the abrupt closure of Condé Nast's Gourmet magazine, our country's oldest food and wine publication. 

For my family, I oven roasted a chicken from Ruth Reichl's recipe with quartered potatoes, slivered onions, sliced garlic, fresh picked herbs, and tossed with the last of our Il Fontanaro extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkled all together with our sea salt. We served this along with roasted brussel sprouts with Be Mine honey from Il Fontanaro and 12 year old aged italian balsamic vinegar. Not to forget we did uncork a 2010 bottle of Taurasi from Feudi San Gregorio to cheers Matt, "Fair winds and following seas" as he retires from the U.S. Navy and to know we don't have to go far to add a little flavor to our life now with our Newport Sea Salt Co. 

Cheers! 

PS: Let us know how you stay salty! ;)