smoked

I have big plans for my kitchen adventures this fall. Ok, I only have one but it’s awesome. And it was actually Brian’s idea. He put the first step into action for me this weekend. Ok, so he started something on his own with an entirely different idea to use it and I decided that I’d hijack some of his bounty and use it for my own personal ambitions…

In any case, he made smoked sea salt. It smells sultry and heady and it’s look is downright sexy–like I’d wear a dress adorned with this salt. I almost said sparkle-licious but that is just too cute for this very mature and complex mineral. He used both alder and mesquite in our Big Chief smoker to achieve “a little bit of Alaska and a little bit Texas” flavor blend. It’s tres chic. He’s thinking steaks, I’m thinking chocolate. I’ll let you know how they both go. We have enough to get crazy with the possibilities.

Completely unrelated, I picked some huckleberries off the bush I found on my walk with J the other night. I laid them out out to freeze in a single layer on parchment before I packaged them up in a bag (a helpful trick so all your berries don’t clump together in the freezer). I can’t bear to part with the beautiful polka-dotted parchment with which I am now left. The huckleberries, on the other hand, are super tart. Whatever I make with them will have to involve much sugar.