Marinade Magic

Marinades are a delicious and an easy way to give your food a lot of flavor by exercising patience.  There are several companies who have a collection of different marinades on the market.  Don't feel overwhelmed when trying to figure out which flavor you would like your meat or which marinade is best matched with which meat.  Try a couple different ones even if they do not specify on the bottle to use it with your specific meat.  I usually use the darker marinades with dark meats like steaks, burgers and roasts and lighter marinades for chicken, fish and pork.  Pork and burgers are very versatile when it comes to the light and dark marinades.  Just pick your favorite flavor already prepared marinades or try a rub, which is a combination of spices. 

The most important thing to remember is to let the marinade sit on the meat for a minimum of one hour.  The longer it sits the better the result.  You can use a bowl with a lid or Ziploc bag, as long as the meat is completely covered with marinade.  Add your marinade to a Ziploc bag or bowl and  your meat and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.  When you prepare the meat you will have marinade magic.  Also, if you don't have marinade on hand, a regular bottle of Italian dressing always works well and will make any meat a delicious marinade.  You can even make a homemade marinade using equal parts oil and vinegar with a combination of herbs, spices and/or citrus.