Flavored Salt Links

http://australianfood.about.com/od/discoveraussienzfood/r/flavored_salt_recipe.htm

http://purplefoodie.com/flavoured-salts/

Homemade sea salt

The other thing I read, that I thought was really interesting, was someone in Marin made her own sea salt. She collected a few liters of sea water and boiled it down, until salt crystals formed. I'm definitely going to try that, next time I'm out at Stinson. I'm going to turn Tasch's kitchen into a salt factory!

Flavored Salts

I've been thinking about making flavored salts, ever since Jon sent me the Hawaiian black salt. For Christmas, I want to make different flavored salts to give away. I saw a recipe for Szechuan peppercorn salt, citrus salt, and macha salt on someone's blog, but forgot to note the link.

For the Szechuan peppercorn salt, the author used equal amounts of toasted peppercorns and coarse sea salt. She first ground the peppercorns in a food processor and then added the salt and pulsed a few times to incorporate.

For the citrus salt, she grated some lemon and lime peel (I would add some orange too, myself) and allowed them to dry a bit on a paper towel. She then pulsed the grated citrus peel with the salt to incorporate.

Lastly, for the macha salt, macha was pulsed with salt.

I would also like to make some rosemary/lemon salt. I have that big rosemary bush, out in the garden. It probably wont survive the winter, outside, so I might as well use it up.

Here is a recipe for parsley garlic salt from Kittens in the Kitchen:

http://kittensinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2008/09/rfj-sambuca-orange-salmon-with-spelt.html

• 5 tbsp coarse sea salt
• small handful parsley leaves
• 1/2 clove garlic, crushed

Preheat oven to 140c.

Put the garlic and parsley into a mini-blender and blitz til smooth. Scrape into a mortar and pestle, then add the salt. Pound until the salt is fine to medium ground, and the parsley mix is thoroughly incorporated.

Tip the mixture onto an oven sheet and spread it out. Put in the oven for 6 minutes, then give it a bit of a stir. Put it back in for another 6 minutes, or until it has dried out, but still green.

Allow to cool, then put back into mortar and pestle, and grind.

Sold a neck warmer

I shipped a neckwarmer out to Beth Block today. It was the knitted one that came out so soft. I sold it to her for $10 plus shipping. It was the only knitted one I made. Think it was reasonable?

Reclassifying patterns on Ravelry

Ravelry has been asking for help reclassifying all the patterns in the library. They're offering entry into a raffle for prizes for the users' help in reclassifying. For the past few days, I've been logging in my books and magazines and reviewing patterns. So far, everything in the bedroom has been logged in, the big challenge is the stacks in the work room. I'm afraid to know how much I have.

Happy Earth Day

Haven't heard this song in a long time.

Stupid Thing

I did absolutely nothing yesterday.  While making my second cup of coffee, I stupidly put the empty, HOT, teapot under the running water and burned myself with the steam.  I immediately put a bag of frozen corn over my fingers, but I knew it was a bad burn.  I put some Doctor Burt's Res-Q Ointment on and put the frozen corn over my fingers.  I couldn't find any of the 500+ bottles of aloe that I've purchased over the years.  (I'm REALLY sick of not being able to find anything in this house, but that's another blog.)

The burn hurt so bad, it was one of the worst pains I've ever felt.  I couldn't sit; I couldn't stand.  I didn't know if I should hold my hands still or wave them around.  The frozen corn provided some relief, but as soon as I removed it, my fingers would burn worse then before.  I equate it to eating lots of habaneroes and  drinking water.  As soon as you stop drinking, your mouth burns, and hotter than ever.  The only difference is, hot pepper burns ultimately go away, after a little while.  My fingers were on fire for half the day.

I eventually found some aloe gel and the coolness of the gel helped.  I put some white flower oil on my fingers, thinking it might help.  WORST MISTAKE!  White flower oil is like Tiger Balm.  You don't want to get the stuff on your furniture, because it'll eat right through the varnish.  The tingliness from the oil made the burn even more sensitive.  It was sheer torture.

I eventually fell asleep and took a nap for a couple of hours, and when I woke up, the pain was pretty much gone.  There was no blistering, except for a hard lump by my middle knuckle on my middle finger.  The burned area looked blueish-grey.  The skin's intact, but the color, along with the swelling, GROSS!

I was really scared, because it was my right hand.  The fingers worst affected were my index and middle fingers.  I can't afford to lose my right hand!  How would I crochet or bead or write?!

My fingers are doing ok today.  Obviously, I'm able to type.  A few blisters appeared overnight.  There is edema in my fingers and it's a little hard to bend them, but they seem to be ok.  I'm not going to be able to work in the garden or have my hands in water a lot, but at least I can use them.