Kitchen Science with Salts of the World part 1

A couple of weeks ago I won a collection of Salts of the World during a twitter party. I was pretty excited as I don't win during twitter parties usually.
The package arrived last Friday and has been patiently waiting for us to start using it.
My husband tells me that when I start playing in the kitchen I am like a scientist at work perfecting my next experiment, especially after this summer and all my fermentation fun. When the salts arrived in test tubes we had a good laugh over the forth coming experimenting.

Today I had Pot Roast on the Menu so I took a roast out of the freezer and thawed it for a few hours on the counter and then into the crock pot it went. I seasoned it with The Hawaiian Red , Italian seasoning without salt (good for when you want to play with salt flavors)2 small yellow onions , a a toe of Elephant garlic adding about 2 cups of water and covering it.
As I continued to work on my blogging and social media work for the day, I was continually distracted by this amazing smell coming from the kitchen.

I decided to continue the same salt flavor through the rest of the meal using some to season the potatoes for mashed potatoes and a touch to seasoning the gravy, I will also add a pinch to our veggies.

the orange specs on the potatoes is the salt

There are 6 different salts in the rack, so I figure I will share a different recipe for each one.

While I was given the salt rack as a prize during twitter party, this post and the forth coming posts are in no way sponsored and are something I decided to share with Mom Spot readers.

Easy Lunch of rice and chicken rice casserole

Image via WikipediaToday I wanted casserole so I decided to make chicken rice casserole with peas. It is a 1 pot recipe and the whole family loves it.

1 cup rice (I am using half white half brown)
2 cups liquid (water or broth)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can chicken (or left overs if you have them)
1 cup frozen or fresh peas
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice in 2 cups liquid until tender. Add chicken and cream of mushroom soup, stir over medium low heat until warm , add peas and let stand for about 5 minutes.

Takes about 25 minutes total.
I sometimes garnish with shredded cheddar cheese.

Parchment Paper a wonderful addition to my kitchen

I'm not a creative baker, but I do like to bake. Tonight I made a batch of chocolate chip and walnut cookies (recipe off the bag of chips) and a batch of sugar cookies (Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook). Anyway, recently I started using parchment paper on my baking sheets and all I can say is WOW! I love using parchment paper, no greasing pans to start, clean up is crazy easy. and I can pull the parchment paper and cookies off the sheets on to the counter in no time... Where has this wonderful tool been all my life (ok that was a little too dramatic even for me)..