HALF A MILLION PAGE VIEWS! AND IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME…

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Can you see me doing a happy dance?  Can you at least imagine me doing a very happy dance?  Today the Bewitching Kitchen hit a special milestone, reaching 500,000 page views, and I’m in heaven!  It seems like only yesterday the site registered the first 100 views, and had the first comment coming from someone other than close friends and family.  😉  Half a million page views!  Great feeling, folks!
Fivehundred

To celebrate, I am giving away a very special book called Jerusalem: A Cookbook, written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. The story behind these authors is fascinating! You can read a little bit about it here. Jerusalem is more than a cookbook, it describes the complexities of different cultures co-existing, and the way they influence each other in ways that reach way beyond cooking.  The recipes have that exotic feel that make your mind travel to far away places, imagining each smell and taste.  So, if you would like to get this book as a gift,  leave a comment in this post, and I will draw the lucky winner’s name on December 14th, which happens to be Ottolenghi’s birthday!

Thank you so much for carrying me through the milestone of half a million page views!

117 thoughts on “HALF A MILLION PAGE VIEWS! AND IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME…”

  1. I know absolutely nothing about the food popular and traditional in Jerusalem, but I would like to learn. Congrats on your continuting blog success!

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    • Celia, you just turned the 1 million mark, and I was thrilled to be part of your group of regular readers, so it’s a great pleasure for me to have you reading the Bewitching, gives me a thrill…

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  5. My only child just moved out and I am a very busy business woman. My way of experiencing new cultures is through food. I am 99% sure that I have never tasted food like this. I would love to learn a new way of cooking and experience new flavors. I would be honored to win this cookbook.

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    • You would love this book, then… Food is one of the best ways of experiencing a different culture. The other, in my opinion, is language, but wow… so much harder! 🙂 Food is easy and tastes better!

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  8. I look forward to your recipes everyday and have made quite a few. Your culinary skills will be shown off at the Christmas feast table. Thank you

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    • Gave me great pleasure to see that round number… more or less by chance. I had to go to the lab late at night and it happened right when I arrived back home, so in a way having to work late paid off. I would have missed the exact turn to the 500,000 on the stats page

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  12. Congratulations!!
    I love collecting recipes and cooking food from other countries and would love to win this cookbook.

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  13. Congrats on your half million page views! You keep an excellent blog, I’m glad others also recognize that. I will always credit your kind, helpful responses to my comments and questions about your recipes as supporting and motivating me through my earliest sourdough breadmaking days. To many more page views!

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    • Thank you so much! I try to address all comments, every once in a while one or two might slip by because they pop on an old post, and it’s easy to overlook. Plus, I must say nothing gives me more pleasure than helping people bake good bread – not that I am a great baker or anything, but I think it takes a bit of stubborness (which I have plenty) and not giving up. A little detail here, another there, I’m always eager to share and I learn A LOT from more experienced bakers such as Farine, Codruta, Susan, and many others at The Fresh Loaf forum

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  16. Congratulations!! I love your blog and have learned to cook a few delicious dishes with your help. Like you, I am also a Brazilian woman living in the U.S.

    This cookbook sounds so interesting.

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    • Another Brazilian living here! Wonderful! Hope you get to go back to Brazil every once in a while, it’s been a long time since I’ve been, and I’m starting to get a bit homesick… 🙂

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  17. Half a million pageviews is indeed an achievement, Sally! Especially these days, when the Internet has grown to an unimaginable size and there are so many excellent food blogs vying for attention, it’s a real testament to your fine writing, engaging style and scrumptious recipes that you’ve hit this mark!

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    • Paula, thank you so much! I was thinking that we’ve known each other for such a long time! The virtual world is something! So glad we keep in touch at least through the BK

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  19. Congratulations, Sally! Yours was the first food blog I ever subscribed to. Thanks for opening this world to me. I’m a big fan of Bewitching Kitchen (and Oscar, Chief, and Buck, too!).

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    • Donna, thank you! Your comment made me open a huge smile, it’s good to be considered an old friend, and I think I know exactly what you mean… the familiarity of reading some blogs makes me feel the same. Great feeling!

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  22. Congrats on half a million! thats great! I have read several reviews on this book and tried two of the recipes and they were absolutely remarkable. I’d love a copy.

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  24. Sally, **CONGRATULATIONS** on reaching this exciting milestone!!! A half million page views… wow, that rolls off the tongue nicely, doesn’t it? ;-). You know you were the very first food blogger I connected with so Bewitching Kitchen will always have a special place in my heart… Thank you for all the yummy recipes, photos (I have a particular fondness for your doggies) and laughs – please keep them coming! Your giveaway sounds terrific – thanks for that too! :).

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    • I remember so well when you sent me the message, and ever since that day I don’t think I missed a single one of your posts! NOt to mention cooking similar stuff at the same time, right? 😉

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    • Thank you so much, Joe! It’s been great fun to keep this blog going, even though sometimes it was not very easy. This year in particular, I am not quite sure how Phil and I did everything we did… but, life is good!

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  26. Congratulations, Sally! Your talent, energy and love of life are a constant source of inspiration. Here is to the next half-million page views!

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    • You ARE a sweetheart! Not sure about the talent, but energy I think I have a bit… love of life, well.. yeap. That’s here. 🙂 I hope you stick around for half a million more, and I hope I get the energy to keep it all going! 😉

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    • Hello there, Vickie! Wish we could celebrate together! Hope all is well in OK, it’s going to get pretty cold in Kansas next week. I might have to go in hybernation… (sigh)

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  28. Congratulations Sally from Denmark – and thank you for may inspiring blogs. Whenever I go to London I have to eat at Ottolenghis fantastic restaurant in Notting Hill and when I come back I love to browse through his “The Cookbook” – so I hope to be the lucky winner.

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    • Denmark! A place I always wanted to visit! When I worked at Stanford, for a while there was a guy from Denmark working in the lab next door, and he told many nice stories about life there. I’ve never had a chance to visit, too bad…

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  29. Never had a single doubt in my mind that Bewitching Kitchen would rise to the top, just like the best cream! You, yourself, are the crème-de-la-crème, my dear! Congratulations on this huge milestone! xxxooo

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    • Oh, dear… creme de la creme, is more than I can handle! Phil won’t be able to stand me with this smile plastered on my face non-stop..

      thanks for your constant feedback and.. remember when we were discussing possible names for the blog? Sweet memories… almost as sweet as watching the first election when Obama won… remember?

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  30. Congratulations, Sally. That’s quite the milestone, but your posts are always interesting, just as you are! You and your blog are always full of special surprises. 🙂

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  32. Congratulations Sally! There are so many blogs out there and many, many more delicious recipes but your delightful personality just shines through. I wish I could meet you personally

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    • Ok, now let’s pause here. Delightful personality. Phil will have to read this and that is just it. That is just the way this is going to be from now on. 🙂

      Thank you so much for your comment, it made my heart melt a little, and that’s a nice thing!

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  33. dearest sally, congratulations on this great milestone!
    you were the second food blogger connected with (right after dearest celia of fig jam and lime cordial, so you have a warm place in my heart!
    thank you for all the creative culinary inspiration and for your generous giveaway! warm seasonal hellenic greetings! (✿◠‿◠) gina

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    • So wonderful that you connected through Celia, I’ve met quite a few bloggers through her site, you know, jumping from one comment and… voila’ Another great spot in the blogosphere to visit.
      Glad to have you here!

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  34. Congrats Sally on your fantastic milestone. I also discovered you through Celia’s blog and I have been loving your posts ever since. Here’s to another half a million blog visits. The cookbook sounds fascinating. What a great giveaway.

    Kindest regards,
    Robyn.

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    • Another Celia visitor! This is just too cool!

      Let’s see if I can get 500 thousand more, sounds like a big task, but as they say, what matters is not the destination, is the road, the path, and enjoying each step. And that, I do! 😉

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    • Oh, my… Jane, life is never the same once a person tries those cheese breads, isn’t that true? Phil fell in love with them from the first time, and I definitely don’t make them often enough…. that’s gotta change in 2013. Seriously. 🙂

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  36. OMG!!!
    I truly enjoy all of your post. It’s as if I know you. You are a fantabulous presenter. I enjoy traveling along with you, and your adventures. You are so full of life. Keep up the good work.
    Parabéns
    Nadine

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    • Ok, I need another pause here. Fantabulous Presenter. Dear beloved Phil, are you going to read this or what? 🙂

      Thank you so much, Nadine, so nice to read your comment, it definitely gives me the desire to keep going, no matter what…

      THANK YOU!

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  38. Being your niece and knowing you my whole life, the Bewitching success comes as no surprise. Soon we will be celebrating 1 million views! Congrats!

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    • Raquel, let’s hope you are right there with me on the 1 million mark! I know I owe you a couple of recipes, I feel so ashamed, I blog and blog and still haven’t sent you the two recipes you are waiting for. But, I PROMISE I will get to them soon!

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  40. My very best wishes on your marvellous achievement;has not this form of reaching out and sharing become important in the world of today – what our parents and grandparents missed!

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    • Indeed… I was talking to a friend of mine today and we discussed the incredible change in the way people interact and connect. Fascinating… Fascinating, Mr. Spock, fascinating… 🙂

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  41. Parabens! Don’t even know how I found your blog but have been following and enjoying it for a while! All the best from another Brazilian living in the US 😉

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  42. Oh, Sally! Congrats! I don’t comment very often, but had to come and say something now. I read quite a few blogs, almost all related to cooking, and I must say that a blogger who responds to comments like you do, is a special blogger. And I admire you for that. So many blogs have comments and I don’t even know why they have them, because they are just hanging there, without attention. Not you. You take good care of your readers.

    I’ll be following around for the next 500 thousand, congrats again!

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    • Thanks for such a nice comment! I try to address each comment indeed, but as I said, sometimes a few slip by. Of course, I read them all, unless they go to the spam folder, which happens every once in a while

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  43. I’m so not surprised, Sally!! Your blog is one of my favorite places to visit when I’m feeling like a little chat, some foodie ideas, and your smile is infectious!! That’s such an accomplishment, it’s a testament to your talent and your wonderful personality!! Congratulations!!! xx Smidge

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    • Infectious smile…. well, I am going to need to pause and enjoy this one too 🙂

      thank you for your constant support of my little site, it’s so nice to have you reading my blog!

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  46. I have just become aware of your site and am happy to be one of your 500,000 page viewers. The cookbook Jerusalem: A Cookbook is of great interest to me because I am Jewish. My husband and I went to Israel in Sept. and did visit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We also stayed at the Mount Zion Hotel. The story behind the two chefs is encouraging and gives one hope that more people from Israel and Palestine can find a way to be friends and work together.

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  51. Oi Sally,
    Eu adoro o seu site (que ja venho acompanhando a um tempo) e as receitas (pao de queijo, sendo a minha favorita). Parabens!!
    Bj

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  54. Congratulations Sally! I think this totally deserves a happy dance! I think you’re one of the blogs I’ve followed the longest and am very grateful to have stumbled upon. I enjoy your recipes, and your friendship. Here’s to the next 500,000 views. 🙂

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