sea salt

Freshly Cut Avocado with Cornish Lemon & Thyme Sea Salt

My name is Joi (“Joy”) and I am an Amazon addict. Not complaining. Not bragging. Certainly NOT looking for intervention… just merely and merrily stating a fact. There are many reasons for this happy addiction (I love buying things for my large family, I’m an avid reader, I collect old movies on dvd…) but the main thing I use Amazon for these days – as in right up there with books – is for salts, seasonings, and other food items I can’t get in stores.

Seriously, using Amazon for food-related goodies is one of the absolutely most enjoyable rabbit holes you’ll ever find.

It’s all in keeping with something I’ve always preached, to be a good cook…

You need a passion for it.
You need to practice regularly – and, not only with food(s) you’ve never made before, but with those you regularly make. You can always find new tricks, tweaks, and tools to make regular meals more enjoyable and maybe EVEN tastier.
Get creative! Never be as boring, predictable, or stale and for crying out loud, never be average.
Your food will only be as good as the tools you surround yourself with. Make sure your knives, pans, pots, blenders, mixers, etc are all in tip top shape.
Use the best ingredients you can afford. Some items are simply WORTH paying more for – garlic powder and vanilla come to mind.
Life (and a kitchen) without seasoning and spice is BORING!

The outrageously delicious and crazy fun salts I want to tell you about today tick off quite a few of the aforementioned requirements. They’re also very affordable and, if I can get super girly for a hot minute, they look amazing sitting on the counter.

Well, they do.

Using different salts, peppers, seasonings, oils, vinegars, and sauces is a huge passion (obsession) of mine. I just counted and we currently have 12 salts in our kitchen. TWELVE! If I were to use full disclosure, there are about to be thirteen (more about the one on the way in a minute).

I recently came across a company who really knows their salt and they have a fan for life. I first spied the Cornish Sea Salt Company on Amazon about a month ago when I was (as I can often be found doing) shopping for fun salt blends.

(Salty Conversation Continued Below…)

Cornish Sea Salt Company Salt & Peppery Blend

The first one of their blends I saw and ordered is pictured above, the Salt & Peppery blend (Amazon link). The Cornish sea salt is accompanied by four wonderful peppers and the result is a beautiful and delicious thing. I’ve used (and loved) this blend on burgers, eggs, bacon, chicken, baked potatoes, fried potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, pinto beans… basically anyplace I’d add regular salt and pepper together, this allows me to add them at once in a knock-out blend that brings even more flavor to the moment. Used as a finishing touch, it adds a great deal to the food’s presentation – in addition to tasting fantastic.

When I saw that they had another blend, Fresh & Zesty: Lemon, Thyme & Cornish Sea Salt (Amazon link), I ordered a tub immediately.

The tubs may look small, but these salt blends last a really long time. The flavor is so concentrated, it hardly takes any at all to make a big impact.

I knew the minute I smelled the Lemon, Thyme & Cornish Sea Salt blend that I had another winner on my hands. I’ve used this one on pasta, garlic toast, hummus, salmon (it’s amazing in salmon patties!), shrimp, and other fish. One of my favorite ways to enjoy it is also one of the simplest, on freshly cut avocado. The flavors it brings to the avocado party are unbelievable.

Remember when I said I currently had 12 different salts in my kitchen and they were about to be joined by salt number 13? Well, we can blame the Cornish Sea Salt Company for this one, too! They have another blend that sounds as wonderful as these two… Cornish Roasted Garlic Sea Salt (Amazon link) and it is sitting in my Amazon cart as we speak.

I honestly cannot wait to get creative with this one. I mean, are you kidding me? Garlic!? The possibilities are endless.

I hope you’ll give these salts a try – they’re outstanding! ~ Joi (“Joy”)

Fresh & Zesty: Lemon, Thyme & Cornish Sea Salt (Amazon link)

Fleur de Sel (“Flower of Salt”)With my reputation as a great salt lover preceding me, I was contacted by Artisanal Foods about doing a review on my food blog. I was sent a beautiful (and I do mean beautiful) jar of Fleur de Sel by Artisan Salt Company (France). Fleur de Sel (Flower of Salt) isn’t just “a sea salt,” it is considered by many chefs around the world to be the best sea salt.

To say I was anxious to get my hands on my own jar is a huge understatement.

Before I get to the rest of the review, allow me to just kind of set the stage for my salt fixation. Like pepper, salt is grossly taken for granted in the kitchen – to the point of ridiculousness. Most disappointments I encounter with food (in restaurants, for example) involves one thing: someone either failed to season the food or the didn’t season it enough.

I have an entire shelf (and she’s a big one) dedicated entirely to different varieties of salt, pepper, dried herbs and spices in my kitchen. This is the most essential part of my kitchen. Yes, I value (greatly!) my pots, pans, mixers, kitchen gadgets, and so on – but they, alone, could never pull together a great tasting meal.

I feel very strongly about starting with great ingredients and believe that salt and pepper should be at the foreground of just about any recipe or meal preparation. When I read a recipe that says, “… add a dash of salt” as though it’s an afterthought, I cringe. When someone says, “salt and pepper, optional” – I know we’ll never be friends.

So there you have it. Spices and seasonings rule my kitchen like royalty and salt and pepper are the King and Queen.

ArtisanSalt Company Fleur de Sel and Samples

Fleur de Sel and Salt Samples from Artisanal Foods

The first thing I noticed about my jar of Fleur de Sel was the fact that it’s a real beauty. My “royal” shelf is open for the world to see in my kitchen, so I covet pretty, eye-catching containers. This one more than fits the bill. I also realized, right away, that I’ll be able to use and re-use this little jar forever.

Fleur de Sel’s fine, light crystals are as beautiful as the jar they call home. They have a delicate, wonderful flavor along with a high concentration of minerals that makes this possibly the best finishing salt in the salt world.

Fleur de Sel has been gathered on an island off of France’s Atlantic coast, since the seventh century. It is harvested from the sea foam created by winds passing over salt ponds.

The light, unobtrusive… yet unmistakable… sea salt dissolves instantly into your food, not only providing just the right seasoning – but also bringing out the best in that particular food.

Pasta Topped with Fleur de Sel

We’ve been using it religiously on tomatoes, salads, pasta, watermelon, eggs, potatoes… the list goes on and on. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been the most blown away by what Fleur de Sel brings to the party with eggs and pasta dishes. It truly makes scrambled eggs, fried eggs, deviled eggs, omelets, spaghetti, ravioli, and even macaroni and cheese taste better than ever.

Then again, if I’m being honest, I think the same thing when I use it with potatoes or any other vegetable.

This is simply a beautiful artisan salt and I can’t imagine my spice shelf without it.

I 110% recommend heading over to Artisanal Foods and grabbing a jar of Fleur de Sel. It’s just around $15 and, quite frankly, I’d have given that for the reusable jar alone. While on their website, also take a look at the other artisanal salts, spices, seasonings, coffee, vanilla, and so on. They also have a lot of wonderful cheeses that I have my eye on. The Fleur de Sel – or anything else on the website, for that matter – would make an ideal gift for the foodies in your life. You could actually put together a gift basket to end all gift baskets.

Just be sure to grab some Fleur de Self for yourself. Adding special seasonings, spices, and artisanal ingredients to your kitchen keeps your cooking fresh, flavorful, and fun.

Head over to Artisanal Foods and open up a whole new culinary world.

Feeling ALL Kinds of Salty: Why You Need Cornish Sea Salt Company Salts in Your Life

Review: Fleur de Sel by the Artisan Salt Company

T-fal… As Good as Good Gets

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T-fal… As Good as Good Gets

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