Questions Answered: January 2007

It's time for another installment of Questions Answered! This is that part of the blog where I check out what sorts of things people are putting in the search engines when they stumble across the blog - and then try to answer some of them. Let's get started!

The Ballards phenomenon continues!
A reader from Fort Bragg, North Carolina came in search of "Ballards Cornbread Dressing" and another reader in nearby Charlotte, North Carolina searched for "Ballards Corn Bread".

Again, I ask that if anyone out there searching for Ballards is actually successful in their search that they please, please come back here and share the knowledge with me & other desperate southern cooks.

Someone in Mountainview, California wanted to find out about 'spreading saltillo grout', while a reader from Midland, Texas asks "how to install saltillo tile" and another reader from Ocean Springs, Mississippi came searching for information about those "lucky saltillo animal prints".

With absolutely NO previous tile installation experience, my husband and I installed 100 square feet of raw saltillo tile in our laundry room in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We have no nightmares to report. We have yet to experience the legendary nightmare of efflourescence and the floor came out exactly the way we had hoped it would. For the whole scoop on exactly what methods we used - check out the link at the bottom of this post. However, I'll shoot out a couple quick answers here as well.

1) Spreading saltillo grout: DO preseal raw tile before grouting (preferably before the mortar stage as well). We also used a grout release sealer before grouting to make grout haze removal easier (if only we had had this done by the professionals when they installed the kitchen tile!). Even with the sealers, however, I recommend a careful spreading of saltillo grout - i.e. don't smear the grout all over the tiles willy-nilly like you just don't care.... Spread along grout lines as much as possible and be sure really pack the stuff into the joints (this is particularly necessary if you have any of those 'lucky animal print' tiles because picking dried grout out of pawprints with a toothpick is not fun).

2) Those lucky saltillo animal prints: We heard they were lucky too! Of course, I think they were much luckier back when they were actually random... and did not come in boxes labelled "Contains animal prints". Even so -- we have several animal print tiles prominently displayed in our laundry room.. and I'd like to think they bring us a little luck. We can always use a little luck.

Some of the 'lucky' pawprints that grace our saltillo'ed laundry room floor.

Readers from Diberville MS, New Orleans LA, Sherman TX, Metairie LA, and two unknown locations have come in search of information regarding the Mississippi and/or Louisiana Katrina homeowner grant programs.

If you would like some insight on the process or have any questions about our experience with the grant program (phase I) here in Mississippi - please leave a comment or send an email...

A reader from Brooklyn, New York wants to know: "why did hurricane katrina happens?"

I have lots of theories - most of which I probably will never post here... But I hope that no one will be able to answer this question with certainty because .. well.. that would mean some very strange things are happening, indeed. And that would be bad. Bad!