Hello. My name is Shelly ~ and I'm a die hard Food Network Junkie. I've been known to watch the Barefoot Contessa for an hour straight, even though I may have already seen the episode. I enjoy The Pioneer Woman and Giada at Home. I actually bite my nails during Iron Chef and will admit that I've shed tears at the reveal during Restaurant Impossible. I can't believe the audacity of the staff in Mystery Diners and Restaurant Stakeout. My kiddos love seeing how things are made on Unwrapped, and they absolutely adore Cupcake Wars. In fact, the hubs has been know to watch a little bit of "Triple D" (a.k.a. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives ~ when nothing else was on, mind you!).
My cooking has improved immensely ever since we had satellite installed (which means having Food Network available). The hubs has even declared that it pays for itself because of the delicious, new dishes I've brought to the dinner table. I've picked up little tips and hints over that past years, but one that amazes me over and over is the use of ~ salt.
Salt actually enhances and brings out the sweetness in sugar. I tried an amazing chocolate bar a few months ago that was a bittersweet chocolate laced with ~ of all things ~ sea salt. It was incredible! Salt also brings out the sugars in veggies, especially onions. I love sauteing onions in butter ~ there's nothing quite like that smell ~ and I add in a little pinch of salt. It causes the moisture in the onion to evaporate, and the natural sugars come out and caramelize the onion into tasty goodness!
I also love roasting veggies, chicken breasts, and pork tenderloin with a mixture of salt, pepper, and olive oil. It's simply amazing what the salt does! I also have learned to toss in a good amount of salt when I'm boiling potatoes, rice, or pasta. None of these items have much flavor on their own, but when you add salt ~ flavor!
Not only does salt season food, it also preserves food. I used quite a bit of pickling salt a few years ago during my pickle-making episode. I've seen Ina Garten use a rub of kosher salt and dill plus other spices to make gravlox. Just yesterday on Public Television, Martha Stewart made a lemon confit (a French cooking term ~ meaning lemon preserves) by slicing the lemon partially in fourths and packing them full of salt. She then stuffed them into a canning jar. In the span of a few months, the salt completely softened the entire lemon ~ rind and all, to make an entire jar of preserved lemons.
Salt can also used as an abrasive. Rachael Ray uses a bunch of coarse salt and garlic to make a garlic paste. I've seen Martha Stewart clean tarnished copper pans with a paste made of nothing but salt and a lemon wedge.
Salt also heals. Almost 20 (gulp!) years ago, some friends & I took a cruise to the Bahamas. A week previous, I got a few scrapes from a canoeing adventure. Although I had treated those cuts with peroxide & Neosporin, the salt water from the ocean healed them even more. I must say it burned like the dickens, but an afternoon splashing in the waves did wonders for my scraped-up shins!
Although inedible, rock salt melts the ice and gives one enough traction to keep from slipping on it. Salt. Who would have thought? Something so inexpensive and readily available can improve almost anything!
I've now become a bit of a "Salt Snob". I have four different types of salt in my cabinet right now. Regular table salt ~ I bake and finish foods with it. Kosher salt ~ I cook with it all the time. Pickling salt ~ umm ~ I've made pickles with it. I've also used it in baking since it dissolves so quickly. Coarse or flaked sea salt ~ I finish dishes with it when I want a salty bite, like on the crust of Chicken Pot Pie.
As I did my little study on salt and its uses, the Lord reminded me of his command from the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:13) "Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."
Also, the Apostle Paul wrote in his epistle (Colossians 4:6) "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."
That got me to thinking, "What kind of salt am I?" First of all, only the genuinely born-again person is salt and can help meet the needs of the world. Just as salt adds flavoring, acts as a preservative, melts coldness and heals wounds, Jesus has called us to do the same.
Which brings me back to the question ~ What kind of salt am I? Do I enhance and bring out the sweetness of Christ in my life? Do I add a liveliness/flavor? Do I warm people, or leave them out in the cold? Are my words wholesome and encouraging? or am I too abrasive? If I "loose my savor", then I loose my effectiveness as a Christian. My "testimony will be trampled under the feet of men."
So, my dear sister, I leave you with this challenge: "What kind of salt are you?"
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