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Lettuce? Whaddya, crazy? Why? It adds nothing. Maybe some arugula (strong flavor) under the burger if you need a built-in salad, but plain old lettuce would just disappear.

But tomato in the grilled cheeses sounds good. Gotta have tomato on a cheeseburger.

I'm thinking maybe blue and swiss/Gruyère/Comté for the cheeses (one each), if not all extra-sharp cheddar. If using jalapeño cheddar (or better yet, habanero cheddar), only in one sammy, plain cheddar on the other. Otherwise the chiles will overwhelm everything else.

Bacon only if using cheddar. And not too much. Still have to taste the burger. Balance is important.

I can relate to paulraphael - I'm a working chef, New York foodie, and worked in gourmet food stores for seven years. The quality of the fish that is available in the wholesale markets is dismal, and by the time it gets to the retailer it is too old to sell. It comes from all over the world, is caught by questionable methods, or farm-raised under often questionable conditions. I don't eat much fish these days unless i catch it.

Forgot to mention The Crab Shack, which is part of-but just next to The Trenton Farmers Market. All of the shrimp at The Crab Shack is wild, not farm-raised like that of most supermarkets - Great difference in the taste! Every Sunday, they drop the prices down really low, so you can buy wonderful seafood, such as salmon, halibut, scallops, tilapia at rock bottom prices. The owner is picky, and has a nose for freshness. Visit the website: http://www.trentoncrabshack.yolasite.com

I'm living in New Jersey and I have never heard of Kalas, but I have used La Baleine coarse sea salt in the red tube; the fine version of this salt is in the blue tube. La Baleine is a naturally evaporated sea salt from France. Neither of the types (fine or coarse) are refined or iodized so check your label again. It actually says in big letters on the tube, "This salt does not supply iodide, a necessary nutrient." And just because the blue tube contains smaller, finer salt crystals does not mean it is refined; it was simply ground by a machine. Refined means treated, fillers added, or altered in some way aside from being simply ground up.

I think the majority of Americans are probably using iodized table salt. What should be in everyones cupboard, however, is Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. I'm not surprised most people don't have Fleur de sel or Maldon in their cupboards; it is expensive stuff. I use it because I'm a chef.

On another note, Food Network Cooks, for the majority, are cooking for your entertainment. They "dumbify" the recipes for the novice home cook. Trust me, if they actually cooked like they have been trained to cook, as a Chef, most people would not be able to keep up nor understand why they were using certain techniques. I used to watch FN all the time, and then I became a chef and my view of the programming has completely changed. Top chef and Iron chef are among the better, slightly more realistic culinary shows in TV. Rachel Ray is another story; I wouldn't listen to that woman.

For most of you who think TV chefs use too much salt, they actually don't. That is the amount of salt necessary to accentuate the natural flavors of that food and the reason why your home cooked food is not as good as food at a restaurant. They're not using fine ground salt either; that stuff is too salty on solid foods and is usually meant for baking use and/or seasoning liquids, where it can be easily dissolved.

I have a serious love for maldon sea salt, and I snack on it. But I undersalt when cooking, in order to enjoy the particular taste of salt on my tongue from the surface of food. Some of the FN chefs use an absurd amount of salt, and I seriously doubt that batch of food is edible. Rachel Rae in particular uses a ton, with much enthusiasm for salting every "layer" of food.

You are sorely mistaken if you think that the stuff most people buy labeled as sea salt is refined and iodized. It is the exact opposite; unrefined and not iodized and made from evaporated sea water. Table salt is refined salt, which may be as high as 99% sodium chloride. Different natural salts have different mineralities, giving each one a unique flavor. Fleur de sel, natural sea salt harvested by hand, has a unique flavor varying from region to region.

Take a look at a grain of each salt. Sea salt should be flakey and translucent while kosher salt should look like a little white pyramid and table salt is simply a small, refined dot. The finer the crystal is, the more salt you will taste on your palate. And yes, salt is mostly sodium chloride, but different varieties contain anti-caking fillers and small amounts of other minerals such as potassium iodide, magnesium and calcium. Instead of these compounds "diluting" sodium levels in refined salts, they "concentrate" it. I'm sure you have heard of calcium chloride, the stuff we use on our sidewalks to melt the ice that forms in the winter? A minute amount of that is in table salt. Again, it's not enough to do harm, but it makes standard table salt more salty than the rest.

Attention home cooks:

Stop using iodized table salt! Of course you dislike using salt since this stuff packs more sodium per teaspoon than others, such as kosher and sea salt. Why? It has to do with both the salt crystals size and the amount of sodium in each crystal.

Most sodium = table salt
Just the right amount of sodium = kosher salt
Least sodium= most sea salts

ice cream. and chocolate.
preferably a whole gallon of fudge brownie fro yo. :)

Wow, just when you think they've thought of it all.... I would prefer savory,
Maybe you could use a ravioli cutter or a dumpling mold to form them.

This is nothing. On the show Road Tasted on the Food Network the Deen brothers went to The Blonde Giraffe, where they make piepops... chocolate-dipped key lime pie. Yes.

http://www.keylimeshop.com/html/key_lime_pie.html

I like it! Where do you get them or how do you make them? I think they would be the food hit of a party. The guest would get a hoot out of these. I know many times that's all I want, a bit or two. I'd love to be able to get a hold of these.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Seinfeld moments:

Elaine: I met this lawyer, we went out to dinner, I had the lobster bisque, we went back to my place, yada yada yada, I never heard from him again.

Jerry: But you yada yada'd over the best part.

Elaine: No, I mentioned the bisque.