Armchair Dining on DP

Will have to ask my wife, but I am positive it's not citrus.

 

The simplest and most versatile marinade to this day for me is the combination between olive oil, soy sauce and spices, depending on the meat. Garlic can also complement the mix and I let the meat in the marinade for at least half a day before grilling. Sweet marinades are not really my cup of tea, unless maybe when you are cooking white chicken meat, then a pineapple can soften the dry taste.

 

That sounds like a great marinade. Many times, we use either Italian salad dressing (mostly vinegar and olive oil with herbs, etc.) or Barbeque sauce as marinade/basting options for chicken. I have seen cooking shows in which they marinade chicken in brine (basically, saltwater) and it is supposed to make the meat juicy and tender, no mater how dry it started off as.

 

Continuing with the BBQ chicken @qwikad.com and @Rado_ch posts, below is my favorite barbeque sauce for chicken and other meats:




It is a sweet, yet tangy, barbeque sauce that a lot of people like around here.

But, this is not a New England product. It's made in Chicago. However, I had never heard of it until we moved to RI, so for me, it is sort of a RI thing.

 

I don't like barbecue sauce whether with my chicken or steak. I am more sweet & sour when it comes to chicken and A1 when it comes to steak. My step-son, however, always has more barbecue sauce on his plate than the actual meat. He just loves it. My wife, too, tends to buy that particular BBQ sauce.

 

Sweet and sour is good, too!

 

By the way @jrbiz I figured something out over the years. The best steak isn't made on a hot grill, rather on a hot skillet. It just keeps in the juices better and overall has a better (more intense) flavor.

 

I tend to agree that a steak can be prepared in better ways than a grill, but for a hamburger, I prefer the smoke-flavored, grilled version.

 

Oh, no doubt about that. Unless one adds fake smoke to them, they are not going to taste nearly as good. But who wants fake smoke, right?

 

We do not use liquid smoke, but I have eaten in places that obviously did. A couple of times, they used too much and it was really bad.

 

My favorite vegetable side dish has its roots in New England and takes its name from a Native American word, "succotash" which means "broken corn kernels" or something like that. It is a pretty simple recipe: lima beans, sweet corn, butter, salt/pepper to taste. The picture below shows my favorite configuration in which what we call "butter and sugar" corn is used. The yellow kernels are sweet and the white kernels are sweeter. Great complement to the lima beans. And, anything drowning in butter is good, anyway.



Goes well with many entrees.

 

This week, I want to discuss a food, as opposed to a dish. Specifically, I want to expose you to the venerable cranberry which is a food that has been grown and harvested in the bogs around the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts for a loooong time and where the largest processor of cranberries (Ocean Spray) is headquartered. I understand that the state of Wisconsin has jumped into the cranberry business in a big way, but they are johnny-come-latelies to we New Englanders. Cranberries are a very tart and tasty berry that look like this:



Some of you may have had cranberry juice, many times mixed with sweeter liquids like apple juice because they are quite tart:



My first exposure to cranberries as a kid was during our annual Thanksgiving celebrations because cranberry sauce was always served alongside the traditional Thanksgiving turkey:



And, yes, I overwhelmingly prefer cranberry sauce to be made with chunky, whole cranberries versus th more processed "jelly" version that you can also buy. Cranberry bread is a great dessert item, as well:



Keep in mind that even in a sweet cake or bread, cranberries are quite tart so it is always a nice contrast in tastes. But, my personal favorite way to eat cranberries is the dried version which are like raisins dried from grapes, except that they use cranberries, instead:



Even though cranberries are tart, these dried cranberries tend to be slightly on the sweet side (which is probably why I like them best.)

Anyway, they are a real New England berry and should be on your "must try" list when you visit. Of course, Ocean Spray has done a good job of marketing the berries, so it may be quite easy to find all of these above preparations in your region, especially North America.

 

I love berries!! Though we dont have that much variety here. I think we only have the strawberry LOL

 

If you can only have one, strawberry is a good choice. I do plan to do a post in the future on Maine wild blueberries. They might be my preference if limited to one berry.

 

YES! That sauce IS the boss!

 

Strawberry jam and peanut butter toast are like my favorite breakfast. It's been long since I have one tho. I think I'm gonna make one tomorrow

 

It may sound a bit strange, but I almost never eat breakfasts. I just drink 4-5 cups of coffee and that carries me through all the way to the lunch.

 

Hear, hear, that makes two of us. Though I only have 1 large mug of coffee and drink it slowly throughout the whole day. I just don't feel hungry in the mornings and even when I try to eat something I really love - I just get full fairly quickly and lose appetite.

And here is an even bigger confession - being the foodie that I am, I am also very fastidious and don't eat a lot of things (mainly from the fruit/vegetable family, not the meat family of course ). I like to rank the foods I don't eat in three different classes:

- foods I despise with all my heart (like tomatoes, eggplants)
- foods I don't really like but can eat if my life depends on it (like figs, pumpkin etc.)
- foods I don't really hate but will rarely buy for my fridge (many of the fruits like cranberries, peach, melon)

So we do have a lot of berries in Bulgaria too - raspberries, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries (personal fav too!). Grandmothers love to make jams from practically anything and moms love to make desserts out of them. Here is the thing - I don't mind berries. I am just a hardcore believer that a cake/ice cream/sundae is much better without fruits. I love cream, love chocolate, love caramel but the fruits really bug my taste (especially if its something very soft like a banana or kiwi).

Whew, glad I got this off my chest. You can now banish me from the Sacred Lands of Food if ya wish If not - I'll be back in the next couple of days with more local delights

 

Seriously guys? Breakfast is like the most important meal of the day I maybe one of the minority who prefer juice over coffee for breakfast . I also love coffee but I love them served cold.

 

Add some Marshmallow Fluff (see earlier posts in this thread.) My favorite combination with bread is strawberry jam, peanut butter, and fluff. Really, really good!