the famous "herbes de provence with sale marino siciliano" giveaway

Read on for a chance to win.

When we travel about, we really enjoy tasting the local fare and especially enjoy bringing a bit of it home with us when possible. Last spring we drove to the Provence area of Southern France, making all sorts of souvenirs possible, and returned home with jars of tapenades and aioli, vino, soaps, cheese, herbs and even a couple of table linens and market baskets, most things from the celebrated French markets.  It was a good trip. It was in a quaint store in Vaison la Romaine that we  found this "Sel aux Herbes de Provence," or Salt with Herbs of Provence.

It has quickly become a favorite in our kitchen, mostly used as a rub on meats for grilling and also on oven roasted veggies from time to time. I don't like the herbs of Provence so much when used alone, but I love it combined with the salt as a rub.  

When I saw Francesca's post on "Making Herbal Sea Salt," it occurred to me that I could easily mix up a batch of this with the herbs that I brought back with me in April.  Of course, she makes the rub with herbs she grows in her garden and puts the mix in jars that she etches. . . amazing woman, that Francesca.

I settled on making it with two varieties of salt, one from Sicily and one from Louisiana, each with a different size grain, thus eliminating the need to grind the sea salt further.

I simply combined the three ingredients until the mixture looked like the one we purchased in France.  This is not rocket science, obviously. Even so, I'm not sure I would have thought of it without inspiration from Francesca.

I just like taking photos from above, bear with me. The dish towel was a gift from a treasured friend last Christmas;  I recently saw them here.  It's still perfectly beautiful because I keep it out of Richard's reach when he is in the kitchen -- the man doesn't distinguish between a fine linen and rag very well.

The simple labels were made in Photoshop. I've discovered that full sheet labels are the by far the easiest to work with for this kind of project.  I filled some tiny jars we found in France & also created some in the smaller (oh-so-coveted) Quattro Stagione jars. 

And, Voila!, a homemade gift that can rival what's offered at fancy kitchen stores.  That makes me happy :) You know, I'm not terribly crafty.

And since I'm feeling so dang happy, I'm giving away a jar! Just leave a comment by the time I wake up on December 24, and I'll enter you into my famous "Herbes de Provence with Sale Marino Siciliano" prize giveaway.  (Maybe you want to enter just to win the jar!  It is the tiniest in the line & very, very, very cool. Just think how chic it would make you feel.) I'll announce the winner here on the 24th.

Enter!  Believe me, you have a great chance of winning as not many people frequent this space.  I appreciate the ones who do, though, and I assure you that your comment will be standing in good company. Grazie from the bottom of my heart.

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Joy and peace to you!