I have the Himalayan salt block and used it once. I used the stove-top method, low fire, and cook some steak. I didn't add any seasoning at all, and the steak turned out really good! That said, I probably won't do it again. It took forever to pre-heat the salt block, and forever more for the steak.

My favorite local cooking show uses these salt blocks all the time! I am going to get one. They are not for germaphobes, though, as they are not washed, only scraped.(not saying you are one...just general info....)

They also take a lot longer cooking times. A steak that would sear, then cook in a few minutes in cast iron, took a LONG time to get to rare...even with editing, lol.

we can have a Himalayan salt block virtual cook-a-thon when we get them, and compare notes!

OK, I'm going to have to go look up what a kale stripper is, but this is a great sugar cookie recipe and the method for rolling and cutting they suggest is the best ever too. http://www.fancyflours.com/product/no-fail-sugar-cookie-recipe/basic-recipes

I don't see the method with the recipe on this page, but right after mixing, do not chill the dough first but roll it between two sheets of baking parchment. Slide the dough and parcment onto a cookie sheet, repeat and slode that on top as needed to use all the dough. Put the stack in the fridge and they should be chilled in 20 minutes or so. Don't leave them too long or the edges will dry out (wrap tightly if you need to leave them longer than an hour or two). No flour is needed for rolling or cutting. The scraps can be rerolled betweent he parchemnt sheets without flour. The last cookie tastes just as good at the first cookie -- not tougher, not drier, not sweeter. You can use the same parchment for lining the baking sheet, starting with the top sheet of the first dough section. For really delicate shapes or dough that has gotten too warm, you can remove the scraps and leave the cocokie on the parchment and slide them over tot he baking sheet all together, but I've only needed to do that once when I should have rechilled the dough but was pressed for time to finish. Anyway, this process makes cutout cookies easy enough to actually enjoy making rather than something to endure so you can decorate them.

Looked up the kale stripper -- interesting but I plan to stick with my knives.

I have neither of those gadgets. I am not much of a gadget person. I did somehow buy a strawberry huller while I was Christmas shopping. We go through a lot of strawberries at my house. My kids could live on them. It is kind of a neat gadget to have!

I had to look up kale stripper but I had an idea what it was because I got an herb stripper for Christmas. My neighbor is a total gadget guy and had one. Dh saw it just before Christmas and picked one up when he was at the kitchen store getting something else. I used it for the first time this morning to strip thyme for butternut squash soup I was making. Waste of thyme (haha!). Out of all the strips of thyme I put through it, only one worked. So much easier to use my fingers, which I learned watching a cooking show years ago. Perhaps it works better on different herbs, but I'll probably donate it - just taking up room in my already full drawers.

I've never used a salt block but a friend of mine has one and uses it. Says it's great but I've never seen it in use or had anything cooked on it.

i don't have either... (i do like the cedar planks tho for grilling salmon!)

i think certain gadgets are more of a pain to use...i don't love stripping rosemary or thyme or kale, but not sure the stripper would make the job easier!

boopadaboo- i have a strawberry huller and find i prefer a knife! (i do like my cherry pitter and jalapeno corer tho!!)

love parchment paper- makes lots of things so much easier- i tend to like it more than silpats.... the recipe used has a lot to do with how easily cookies roll out, ime...

Haven't seen a kale stripper, but I did get an herb stripper in my Christmas stocking this year. I haven't used it yet, but since I do grow and use a lot of fresh herbs when I cook, I'm hoping that it will come in handy. Especially for the rosemary and thyme.

Lynn, this kale stripper also strips herbs. I find thyme the most annoying.

Busybee, I agree, parchment rules

Boop, we have a fresh fruit plate with dinner every night, and strawberries are often on it. Typically one of my kids assembles the platter, and they like the huller. Without it, they'd chop off about half the berry to get rid of the stem leaves!

Lascatx, thanks, I may try that recipe. I love sugar cookies and my kids like to decorate them.

Springroz, Too funny, I realized that part of what attracted me was that I read that Mark Bittman, cook book author and former NYT author, was selling them and wrote about cooking with salt blocks.

Oh, except he did not. It was some guy named Mark Bitterman. oops

LOL Funky, our local bakery makes dog biscuits.

Good lord, my life is complicated enough without trying to cook on a block of dirty salt!

Hmm, rosemary doesn't seem to work well in my herb stripper either! I just made a marinade for chicken and gave the thing another try. It was promising at first, and stripped a few bits of the rosemary off, but then the rest just broke right off so once again, I resorted to just stripped with my fingers. Going right into the giveaway bag as I'm going to try very hard to keep clutter from accruing this year!

I do have a strawberry huller but only use it when I'm making a dessert. My kids tho' do need it b/c like Mtn's, they'd cut off half the strawberry if given a knife instead.

Another useless item, for me, is our apple corer. Much easier for me to just cut up with a knife b/c most of the time, the corer does not cut evenly and I end up having to use a knife to get the small slivers of core left behind. But for whatever reason, the kids like to use it, so I've kept that.

We have at least five apple corers. DH is convinced that there is one out there that actually works.

Oh, my I dislike baking and cookies most of all. I want to make something, shove it in/out of the oven once and be done with it. The thought of rolling once, waiting 2 hours, then rolling again to a precise thickness makes my eyes roll back into my head. Then I have to make more cookies than fit into the oven at one time? And decorate them? You all who bake have my admiration.

Mtn, that recipe is a buttery sugar cookie and it always gets compliments. I discovered it when I somehow volunteered to make cookies for a school function where they needed something like 12 dozen sugar cookies in cut out in the traditional gingerbread shape to be decorated by kindergarteners. Without that recipe, I might have had to move. It really saved me. And whetehr you try the recipe or not, the rolling the dough first and then chilling is so much easier. I can't believe we used to chill the bowl and then try to rough out the cold, stiff dough. No wonder they were a once a year ordeal for us.

Funky, your dog treats are what I envisions when I tried some for my dogs. The dough turned out to be so stiff that I just pressed it out and cut it into squares. I was disappointed, but the dogs still loved them. And it is easier now that I continue to make them (my lab is addicted -- to the point we call them "puppy crack"). Kuddos to you for sticking with it though.

yeah, my young adult kids still insist on using the apple corer too! i don't get it! :)

we also have one of tho spiral apple peelers with the crank handle which we've had for years and years... i have no idea how they are supposed to be easier-- yet, it still sits in our cabinet...

I use my fingers to strip rosemary and thyme.

Typically I'm a knife user, but when it comes time to core more than one apple I reach for the corer. Works for me. Dh loves to use the peeler/slicer/corer when I need apples for a dessert. It's amazing how fast it gets the job done.

I have such limited drawer space, I need to be very judicious about what gadgets make the cut.

Segue to...I use my knives. Except the really sharp one that scares me.

I saw the kale stripper in the Sur La Table catalog but figured that just pulling the leaves off with my hands does not take all that much longer, or a knife works pretty quickly, too.

I finally bought one of those crank spiral apple slicers. I could kick myself for waiting so long. If I need just an apple for lunch, I do not bother with it. But if I am making a pie, apple chips or whatever, that thing is wonderful. It is also wonderful when I am only partially awake (like this morning) and I wanted sliced apples for German pancakes and did not trust myself with a knife yet.

really?!!? isn't it a pain to pull off the core and uncrank(?) and.... i'm not sure what else, it's been so long since i've used it!! but, when doing lots of apples for pies, etc i thought it was way easier just to use a knife and peeler... maybe i should take it out and try again- it's been probably about 20 yrs since i have!! maybe i'll appreciate it more now than i did when i was quite a bit younger...???

Lascatx,

Yes, moving might have been easier. LOL

I think I've bored folks with this anecdote before, but 10 or 12 years ago I decided I wanted to learn how to make perfect sugar cookies. I did a lot of research and was able to get picture perfect cookies. I put them in baskets, bought the clear cellophane wrap, and topped it all off with a French wired bow. No on believed they were homemade!

Fast forward to last week. My kids wanted to decorate cookies on Christmas and so I gamely tried to remember how to do it. We had a lot of sorry looking cookies. Yummy though. So now I am on a mission again to do it right. But I don't think I will ice them, which is true perfection.

Tishtosh, I've been using a lot of Kale lately and I find stripping it to be necessary but annoying.

cindymac, that doesn't look too difficult!! ok, next apple pie or applesauce, i will try it again! thx. :)

MtnR, I confess, I often delegate that task. I will buy several bunches for me to blanche and freeze and it is likely my younger boys will be stripping them for me.

Busybee, I admit that I do not use the spiral slicer for applesauce because I run it through the food mill before canning it so peeling would just be an extra step for me. The spiral slicer is also nice when you want the pieces to be of even thickness, which I especially like with apple chips or in pies. No matter how much better I get with a knife, I am not likely to be able to get everything so even, so quickly.