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re:LUNA PIER COOK--WOW are you from the south also ? I was married in the 60's. It made my husband so uncomfortable that Granny rarely sat down at the table. She would just have "a bit of dessert", which was served at every meal. Granny, my mother and daddy were excellent cooks. Back to my husband. He thought he was helping out with the dishes. Daddy caught him just as he was starting to use an SOS pad on his 16" cast iron skillet. The one that had been seas'n for 30 years. We use it now. He still tells that story, with a smile after 40 years.

Have any of you folks made your own salt? I do.We have a salt water well. The water is about 10 times heavier in volume than pure water. I slowly simmer the liquid out. What is left, is wonderful salt. I dry the salt on sheet pans, then sift to what ever size wanted. Course to fine. We have it tested at Okla.University. Wish I could sell it so others could enjoy my salt mine.

My mom was a good cook ... a really good cook. She wasn't an exceptionally experimental or avante garde cook, but when it came to comfort food, she was tops. When I was very young, she started teaching me how to cook. Her philosophy was that "My sons are not going to have to rely on any woman to provide for them."
She taught us how to cook, clean, sew, dust, do laundry ... everything we needed to be self sufficient.
As I was growing up, I watched Jeff Smith, Julia Child, Justin Wilson and Martin Yan like a previous commenter. I remember an apron Yan wore ... "50 ways to WOK your dog." Cracked me up!
I worked in many restaurants in my early years and learned much, but had it not been for my mom ... as my son just told me, we would be eating Ramen noodles today. Thanks mom.
TG

re:Cheffy, Wish I could share some of my salt with you! Even though it is pure, the "RULES" won't let me. Yet, I had to get my grandson tested for lead, after playing with an ELMO from China. Go figure!

I read a blog entry on Brownie Points about Salted Ice cream. It was simply vanilla ice cream with some of these gourmet salts added! It made me want to try them soo badly, but the thought of regular table or kosher salt with ice cream makes me cringe. Does that say anything about the difference?

Hillary
Chew on That

Jeffrey Steingarten devoted a very interesting chapter to salt in his book "It Must've Been Something I Ate" where he taste-tested the various salts from the regular Kosher to some quite expensive salts. And basically his conclusion was that salt is salt and that the Kosher was the way to go. Anyway, if you haven't read the book - read it!

This is where I bought my salt if anyone is interested:
http://www.saltworks.us/shop/category.asp?idCat=3

The above is the 'bulk' stuff...they have even more on the main page.

Love & White light,

Cheffy =0)