Salt snob.

Fleur de sel just makes life better.

I am a salt snob. I admit it. I have actually not picked up a shaker of table salt in years. I don’t even have it in my house. Of course I used to believe that salt is salt…and the “fancy” ones were simply a gimmick. But oh how wrong I was. My first switch was from table salt to plain old “sea salt”. I felt better about using it, but honestly, I couldn’t taste much difference when it came down to it. Then, a friend of mine forced me to try fleur de sel, the “flower of salt”. I probably rolled my eyes, but what I really remember was the incredible taste…the slight crunch…the revelation. Had I been a fool all those years? Yes, I had…and there was no looking back.
Fleur de sel is only one of many different salts that I have sampled and enjoyed, but it is my favorite. Salt is kind of like Tequila to me. One isn’t necessarily better than the rest; it’s simply a matter of taste. They are different, and they each have notable characteristics. I won’t bore you with too much salt talk, but I will break it down for you based on what I have learned…

Kosher Salt is a necessary kitchen staple. Buy it. That’s the one in the box that people usually use to rim margarita glasses. This is the one you should use when cooking. If a recipe calls for salt, use kosher salt. However, my advice is to reduce the amount called for and finish the dish later with a nice finishing salt.

Sea Salt varies from source to source. It is also acceptable for cooking, but reduce the amount because I find that it tends to impart a very salty flavor. It works as a finishing salt, and is quite inexpensive, but treat yourself and go for the good stuff!

Fleur de Sel, and other fancy salts out there have one purpose for me (though I have rimmed my margarita glass with it…and it was amazing)…and that is for finishing a great meal. You will be amazed at how much flavor a small pinch of it can coax out of your meal. Sometimes, it miraculously pulls all of the flavors together. It is quite pricey, but do your research. You can sometimes find a pound or so for around $12 bucks online. That’s a bargain! And remember...a little goes a long way.

There are many others out there to try including Grey Sea Salt, Real Salt, Hawaiian Sea Salt, etc...even Smoked Salt! Again, it's not about better or worse, it's about taste and variety. While I certainly love them all, my advice is to choose one or two of your favorites at first and don't get overwhelmed by the selection.

Oh, and throw away the table salt. Now. It is bitter, offensive, and useless. Or better yet, run a nice hot bath, add a few drops of lavender oil, and dump a few tablespoons of it in the water for a nice relaxing spa day.

susan & jon's sunday barbeque

"baby tunnel"

in a drunken stupor, i ordered this online for the cats. i figured they would have a blast with it...they still do of course, but they only inherited it after jeff and i finished playing with it.

08.08.08

visitor

every morning. for peanuts.

sunday at golden gardens park

bonfire at alki beach

alki beach is in west seattle. jon hosted a bonfire complete with beer and s'mores!

jeff jr. cookin up some ribs

oakland california

GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY

seattle's annual gay pride event is always a hoot. gay boys, gay girls and parties galore! it usually occurs in late june over the course of a week and ends with a march downtown as well as a huge party at the seattle center. this year, there was a dyke march down broadway that passed right in front of brian's house. dykes + booze = partytime!!

breakfast + sun + gus

Zen, Utah

i have been reading a fair amount lately. i just finished my third book by cheri huber called "how to get from where you are to where you want to be". in a nutshell, it's an intro to zen. i have begun reading "big mind big heart" by dennis genpo merzel. it is a different perspective on the same topic really. i also flew to salt lake city to participate in a week-long zen retreat. i won't go into details because i have told the story way too many times, but basically, i arrived on sunday afternoon, participated in the evening orientation and met lots of great people. then i awoke at 5 am monday, sat silently through 2 40-minute meditation sessions, then grabbed my shoes and left. it was a crazy, amazing, intense and beautiful place...but it was much too much for me at the time. i went back to my room and called allysia angus, a friend of mine that i met in college. she lives five hours south of slc in escalante, utah. i asked if she would mind terribly if i rented a car and crashed with her for a week, and fortunately, she said "come on down!"
i was on the road by 11 am, and five hours later i was in one of the most beautiful places in the world. allysia has been building her house for awhile now, and i even got to help her a little bit while visiting (can't wait to return in september with jeff and see the finished product). so basically, i found the experience i was looking for. i found peace, i found answers, and i found lots and lots of love...for myself as well as for the cowboys!
below are some pics of allysia's work in progress. i'll post some of the finished home later in the year. also, there is one of me, allysia and her friend nancy taken in salt lake city the day before i returned to seattle.

dinner time

when i was in high school, the home economics teacher, mary guill, tricked some of the boys into taking home ec by making up a bogus name for a class called "adult living". according to her, it would be a class where we would arrange fake marriages, learn to do taxes, banking, household budgets...useful things like that. i really thought that would be cool. we ended up doing nothing more than learning to make an omelet and briefly discussing the reproductive cycle....the southern christian version of the story mind you. the apron in this picture was actually an "end of term" project. i found the fabric in the back of mom's closet and paid lee bullock $25 to sew it for me. i got an a. i still love it.

PS3 party with dan's dad!!

funny nose cup

friends 101

obviously, these aren't all of them, but here are some of my favorite portraits i've taken of friends. brian and i had each of these blown up into huge black and white posters to hang throughout the house for our 2007 birthday party. a few of them are still up because i love looking at them. i always say i'm going to get some of my photos professionally printed and framed, but i'm always saying something.

keith
jon
lisa
jeff
ava

donna
brian
susan
dan
kevin

constance
blake
jeff & hazen
kobalt (click on the image and you will see me and jeff!)

a day out for gus