Making cooking easier means no excuses for take-out

   When I first set up kitchen, they didn't have all the fancy ceramic or wooden salt boxes. In my neck of the woods, they didn't even have kitchen stores like Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma (still don't!). For years, when a recipe called for salt, I poured salt directly from the box, over the sink of course, to catch the inevitable spills. Don't know why it took me so long to think to put salt into a little jar instead.
   Having salt readily accessible is just one of the many little ways to make cooking easier. Quick and easy means no excuses. No need to eat lousy, polystyrene-packaged take-out food on the run when it is just as quick, more delicious and much more comfy to eat at home.
   No need to buy a fancy salt box to make salt readily accessible when an old canning jar has just as much character. And for all those who have never suffered the frustration of trying to pour salt from the original container's little metal spout onto a little measuring spoon, why didn't someone tell me sooner?