Did you get really excited the first time you heard about pretzel cookies? Or chocolate covered potato chips? Or rosemary and goat cheese ice cream? Do you mostly love the French for their penchant for post-dinner cheese plate? The Shop Tart likes her dessert somewhat savory. She likes a side of potato chips with her Whitman’s sampler. She’d rather have a big plate of cheese fries at the Whig than chocolate. The first thing that came to mind when she was introduced to Suzi Sheffield’s new line of Beautiful Briny Sea Artisan Salt Blends was how good the lavender or rosemary would taste sprinkled on a simple sugar cookie. But first things first.

Beautiful Briny Sea Artisan Salt Blends were named after a song from seventies Disney cult classic “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” They are the newest creation of Suzi Sheffield, owner of Shop Tart favorite El Burrito on Harden Street, caterer extraordinaire and creator of the best tiny ham biscuits ever. (Never fear, she is still selling the freshest burritos in town, catering, and rocking the tiny ham biscuits.) She has a line of salt blends, chock-full of minerals and already adored by the pros. Each stylish little jar is filled with hand-harvested sea salt, pink Himalayan salt and herbs and spices.The herbs and spices are organic, bien sûr. The first three - lavender, rosemary and gourmet mushroom blend - are in the Shop Tart’s kitchen right this very second. Aren’t they pretty?

Inside, they are even prettier.

They will be carried at Whole Foods, but if you - like the Shop Tart - can’t sit around twiddling your thumbs waiting for a d*mn Whole Foods to grace us with its presence, you will understand why she was so excited when Suzi gave her a set. If you can’t finagle that, you will only have to wait until Thursday, when Peg Averyt will be debuting them at Finleaf’s Valentine’s party. From 5:30 to 7:30 pm, enjoy wine and bubbly, fab company, gorgeous fragrances by Beth Terry, plenty of jewelry (local designer Haley Keisler of Hermosa will be there) and tasty treats. Suzi herself will be providing some of the food - if you haven’t sampled her work beyond El Burrito, now is your chance. The first three flavors are available now and several more are works in progress, including black truffle, lemon celery, lemon verbena and rosemary pink peppercorn.

At home, the Shop Tart already had a quiche thawing for dinner. (Shop Tart Tip: Check they day-old bin at Rosewood Market every day if you can. She scored a whole house-made veggie quiche for five dollars and froze it before it could age any more. The waffles from Sunday brunch also freeze well, just like Eggo, but way healthier. That bin is full of cheap treasures.) Although she was tempted to keep the quiche for another day and roast some lamb chops with mushroom salt immediately, she decided to wait. (You can only put a day-old quiche back in the fridge so many times, yo.) She rushed in and purchased a log of pre-made sugar cookie dough from the Piggly Wiggly. In the parking lot with two antsy children, she locked her keys in the car and had to wait 15 minutes for Pop-a-Lock to arrive. (But they said it would be 30, so that was pretty cool. And the guy was super nice. Yes, she does know about AAA, but someone forgot to renew it. Mr. Shop Tart.) Let this be a lesson: Shortcuts are never as short as they seem. Shortcuts will ruin your life. Anyhow.

After dinner, the three-year-old was gunning to make cookies. He made some with sprinkles which, unbeknownst to his mother, were in the pantry. Somehow, he knew exactly where they were.

Most of the sprinkles never made it to the cookies. Because he ate them. Mr. Shop Tart had to put him to bed when he got home, because his wife was at a loss as to how to get him to go to sleep.

She cut each of her cookies into quarters and sprinkled some with rosemary salt, others with lavender salt.

They were delicious.

The Shop Tart has big plans for those salts. The rosemary and mushroom blends will make the perfect rub for lamb chops. The lavender salt is begging to be sprinkled on asparagus. Lemon celery salt? Bloody Marys on the porch. She plans to blend the lemon verbena with butter and spread it on dried cherry scones. She’ll also use that one in a beurre blanc sauce for fish. Rosemary pink peppercorn should be easy…

Happy Shopping and don’t forget to tell them you read it on the Shop Tart!

P.S. As promised, photos of watches at Unforgettable Fine Jewelry. All watches - for men and ladies, by Seiko and Tommy Bahama - are 15 percent off for Shop Tart readers until Saturday. The Shop Tart believes in wearing a watch, even though she could check the time on her phone. It’s just classier, yo. These range in price from $140 to about $400, even less with the discount!

P.P.S. So, you’ve been eating healthy and working out, just like you should. But you want that little extra push to look your best. If you’ve ever considered non-invasive or minimally invasive treatments to banish cellulite, head to Illumination Med Spa tonight for an information session with Dr. Brian Hurley at 6 pm. He will cover everything you need to know about Lipotherme and Lipo-Ex. Come with all your questions! (And don’t think this will get you out of going to the gym or hitting the trail. You’ll be so happy with your new look, you’ll want to maintain it. Besides, you’ll totally want to rock shorts while jogging by the river, just to show off.) THIS JUST IN: You should r.s.v.p. to the Illumination gig this evening. Also, you will get 10 percent off treatment zones if you schedule tonight as well as FREE Latisse, 20 units of Botox and one free medical microderm-abrasion. That’s a lot of free stuff.

P.P.P.S. There are a few Twitter feeds you might want to follow right this second.

• VanJean. The ladies are in New York for fashion week, deciding what we’ll all be wearing this spring. They already met Tory Burch in person and the fun continues!
• Terra. They’ll be live-tweeting Chef Mike Davis’ James Beard dinner. Almost as good as being there. (Not really, but the Shop Tart hears the dinner will be re-created here in town, so you’ll get a great preview.)
• Camille Maurice. She’s also attending the dinner in New York tonight. Lucky!

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