Marinades.Dressings.Sauces

Additives, preservatives, color enhancers and other 'fake' ingredients are pervasive in many of the foods we buy, especially, the 'toppings' that grace the 'main' dishes in our diet. We strive to buy quality foods but we fail, realizing some food companies just don't get it. Stop it already. Save your money. Save your health. (We cannot survive without them).

The biggest concern is the continual use of sodium EDTA and other ridiculous non-food but food grade??add-ins that frequent the 'toppings' we use. Perhaps the time has come to wrest control from those companies who do not care. Momsey's sauces, marinades and dressings are simple, meant to provide health benefits while adding to the the overall appeal of the food. Eating is about health not just satisfying hunger. (Glucose-fructose is still there stimulating our appetites to no end).

Using a dry rub concoction, after the marinade has done its duty, requires simple experimentation: choosing 'clean' spices that excite your palate that can also add colour for visual appeal. I use iodized salt, pepper and tumeric to start then add smoked paprika (mimics bacon's flavour) other paprikas, oregano, thyme, rosemary to customize the taste for a specific meat or vegetable. (Sourdough breadcrumbs are the only breadcrumbs I use for breading foods for frying since writing about Sourdough, Rice and Pasta (Oct. 5/15) Marinades are simple. Using a heavy duty freezer bag, I add vinegar and/or, lemon juice, salt, perhaps Worcestershire sauce, chopped yellow onions or the milder vidalia onions, diced or sliced crosswise for a stronger flavour. Massaging the contents, before the air is removed from the bag, helps strengthen the process of tenderizing and flavour enhancement. Leave in fridge for a few hours or overnight. (My favourite is a Saskatchewan recipe using lamb chunks layered with onions and lemon juice. It's a tremendous addiction).

With dressings, we begin the process of making the salads that begin or end a meal, with their suitable topping on top. (Homemade concoctions trumps anything in the grocery aisle). All it takes is one look at the ingredient list. Glucose-fructose is still with us. Go away! Even Dr. Oz has warned us of its use in processed foods. It has not been a part of food preparation in my kitchen for decades. Can't 'afford' it. For my simple oil and vinegar dressing, I use organic white vinegar with organic olive oil, canola, grape seed or avocado oils, to name a few, or a combo of all. A mix of oil to vinegar or lemon juice to suit one's palate, (2:1 ratio ) shaken with salt and pepper and other herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme is all it takes. Refrigerate. I never add sugar. Why? Dessert is just around the corner, if wanted. Let us add our own reduced sugar, if the need arises. When making a fruity dressing, adding pureed fruit to the oil and lemon/vinegar base kicks the flavour up a notch or two for a change of pace delicious. (Pureeing dried fruits adds flavour and sweetness according to your meal time rules)

Lemon juice is truly the 'additive' king. It cleanses the body as it adds incredible tenderizing flavour to all meats, other foods and salads, too. In a marinade, lemon juice modifies the flavour of lamb, beef, pork, chicken, when paired with them. Lemon is my #1 go-to ingredient for nearly every food or mix of ingredients I eat. This powerful 'additive' is on the counter, ready for action. Into my Chinese teas, lemon is added, adding health benefits, too. It takes no time or effort to shake the ingredients into fresh homemade salad dressing. With white sauces, it is brown rice flour, a discovery by my 'daughter' a few years ago. I love it. It's nutrient value, ease of combining and mild flavour makes it my gluten-free flour of choice. Into the white sauce, I add other ingredients to make varied cheese sauces, foundation for chowders, stews and chicken pot pie, to name a few dishes. (My gravies are now 'guilt-free'). With tomato-based sauces, there is a litany of herbs to add after the onions and garlic have been sauteed. Keeping life simple helps to keep food preparation simple, as well, and more likely to happen. No added sugar!

While visiting a bakery, recently, we noticed the gallery of cookies, pies and cakes enticing us to buy. (We had already eaten.) The adjacent 'hot table' provided a cornucopia of choices to wet the appetite. When told of the maker of some of the cakes we were adoring, we were disappointed, but not surprised when we discovered their 'online' 20 non-food ingredients found in these elegant desserts. Their composite list far exceeded any I would have had in any cake or pie I might have made at home. Real ingredients, mixed in with strange sounding names, and other additives to make the sweet creations had me wondering, “What exactly is modified corn starch?” When will 'they' realize they would sell more product if they would only use real ingredients? We do not need additives or preservatives in our food. We have refrigerators and freezers for that!