From healthful to sinful: the evolution of celery salt...
Mr. Mustard, Baby Balsamic and I are off on our annual reunion visit with a group of our old friends. They are good people even though one of them once tried to put a *bottled* salad dressing onto a salad that I had already covered in my homemade divine goddess elixir. It was five years ago, but I'm looking at you, GIL!
Anyway, as we dallied in the airport, waiting for our plane, Mr. Mustard and I decided that vacation doesn't begin until you pour alcohol down your throat. For those of you with your hands on the phone to call CPS about Baby Balsamic, we didn't give her her own drink, but she insisted on stealing the lemon out of my Bloody Mary to suck on.
So, this Bloody Mary. Well, I did get it at the airport, so I wasn't expecting much, and I wasn't delighted or further disappointed. BUT, it only had ONE green olive in it. For me, the greatest Bloody Mary involves many pickled vegetables swimming in a bath of spicy tomato-ey goodness. Acidity soothes me. However, the whole experience was made sublime by the glistening coat of brownish-green salt on the rim of my glass: celery salt.
Celery is fine on its own, as long as you have a decent dipping sauce. It does provide a crunchy, juicy experience that especially goes well with mayonnaise or cream-based dips. But it's not like I walk through the store and get all excited when I see celery "We have to buy celery! Right now!"
When I first heard of celery salt, I was not excited. The best part of celery, if there is a best part, is its moisture content. Why would anyone want to take away the water, reduce it to a fine powder and mix it with salt? Which leads to my other question about most everything in the world: how did someone first discover it? Was someone for some strange reason barbequeing celery? Did they then turn away to admire the sunset, then turn back to discover a fine powder and in disgust they knocked salt on top of it? Then there was one of those Reeses moments of celery? Salt? Together? Did they then swipe their finger through the new mixture and delight in the new flavor treat?
However it happened, I was eternally grateful as I licked the earthy, sharp, salty granules before taking a sip of a very weak drink. This is how much I like celery salt: Baby Balsamic lunged for the lemon in my drink and inadvertently wiped her hand through the salt on my glass. Did I prevent my little darling from ingesting the least bit of alcohol? No, I grabbed her hand and licked all the salt off of it quickly.
"I don't want her getting too thirsty on the plane." I explained to Mr. Mustard with a small grin. He snorted in disgust and finished his Corona. He knows the deepest salt mines of my soul.
Celery salt is also delicious on hot dogs (it's part of the Chicago style experience). In fact, we're barbequeing hot dogs tonight and I think I'm going to have to go find some celery salt to complete the experience. And this time, I'll let Baby Balsamic have some too.
Condiment Grrl
Anyway, as we dallied in the airport, waiting for our plane, Mr. Mustard and I decided that vacation doesn't begin until you pour alcohol down your throat. For those of you with your hands on the phone to call CPS about Baby Balsamic, we didn't give her her own drink, but she insisted on stealing the lemon out of my Bloody Mary to suck on.
So, this Bloody Mary. Well, I did get it at the airport, so I wasn't expecting much, and I wasn't delighted or further disappointed. BUT, it only had ONE green olive in it. For me, the greatest Bloody Mary involves many pickled vegetables swimming in a bath of spicy tomato-ey goodness. Acidity soothes me. However, the whole experience was made sublime by the glistening coat of brownish-green salt on the rim of my glass: celery salt.
Celery is fine on its own, as long as you have a decent dipping sauce. It does provide a crunchy, juicy experience that especially goes well with mayonnaise or cream-based dips. But it's not like I walk through the store and get all excited when I see celery "We have to buy celery! Right now!"
When I first heard of celery salt, I was not excited. The best part of celery, if there is a best part, is its moisture content. Why would anyone want to take away the water, reduce it to a fine powder and mix it with salt? Which leads to my other question about most everything in the world: how did someone first discover it? Was someone for some strange reason barbequeing celery? Did they then turn away to admire the sunset, then turn back to discover a fine powder and in disgust they knocked salt on top of it? Then there was one of those Reeses moments of celery? Salt? Together? Did they then swipe their finger through the new mixture and delight in the new flavor treat?
However it happened, I was eternally grateful as I licked the earthy, sharp, salty granules before taking a sip of a very weak drink. This is how much I like celery salt: Baby Balsamic lunged for the lemon in my drink and inadvertently wiped her hand through the salt on my glass. Did I prevent my little darling from ingesting the least bit of alcohol? No, I grabbed her hand and licked all the salt off of it quickly.
"I don't want her getting too thirsty on the plane." I explained to Mr. Mustard with a small grin. He snorted in disgust and finished his Corona. He knows the deepest salt mines of my soul.
Celery salt is also delicious on hot dogs (it's part of the Chicago style experience). In fact, we're barbequeing hot dogs tonight and I think I'm going to have to go find some celery salt to complete the experience. And this time, I'll let Baby Balsamic have some too.
Condiment Grrl
posted by CondimentGrrl at 8:44 AM
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