Please remember these are suggestions and ideas, not etched-in-stone recipes. Making homemade marinades is a good way to begin trusting your own taste, so sample as you put them together and vary measurements and ingredients as you like. They’re a snap to pull together, have none of the dubious ingredients in commercial versions, and can be inexpensive to do at home once you have gathered the ingredients.
This cooler is an old standby at our house. With no alcohol, no sugar and lots of tart-sweet citrus, it’s what to drink when the heat index is up in the stratosphere. As you sip, the mint leaves are bruised by the ice cubes just enough to let loose some of that cool snap.
This brined chicken manages to pay tribute to the traditional South of days past and the multicultural South still on the horizon.
Use only small young zucchini for this salad.
To most of the country, coleslaw is crisp and sharp, but down south it's sometimes so soft and sweet it might be dessert.
This salad is sure to be a showstopper at any picnic and is not impossible to make.
Many non-alcoholic fruit beverages are served at Native gatherings and festivals and are great with many kinds of foods. Present at both root feasts, salmon feasts, and many other festivals and private occasions, this sweet-sour drink also serves as a mild digestive aid - helpful when we are tempted to overindulge. Colorful, tasty variations are possible as the seasons change. Ripe melon slushes in late summer and cranberry-lime or mango-papaya slush in the fall are delicious combinations.
Cara De Silva, food historian and ethnic food authority, shared this very different way of eating corn on the cob. Hot chile, cool tart lime, and hot sweet corn -- a wonderful combination on a hot summer night. Have the corn hot and pass a bowl of this mixture for spooning over it. Some folks then salt the corn. Use organic ingredients, if at all possible.