Viva Vienna!

There is a festival (sort of) in Vienna, VA, this Memorial Day weekend. It's called Viva Vienna, and, since we only live about 1.5 miles from it, we decided to walk there this morning for a snack and to take a look around.

Well, we were a bit early for everything. Genius boy, yours truly, did NOT really read the schedule of events. Today was only carnival rides and a few food vendors. The main event starts tomorrow when they block of a few streets and set up about 100 vendors or so. Some of them are interesting, some not.

Regardless, we ate a decent Italian sausage and some pretty good ribs for an early lunch. I think we'll head back tomorrow for some hot vendor-customer action! Actually, we really might only head back because it says there should be a Lebanese food vendor and this one stall said they would have jerk chicken. But, who knows what we will find at the vendors? Perhaps...um, a barrel!

Oh yeah, they are also doing an E-waste drive, wheeeeee!

The locale:

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Marinades

I read an article in the New York Times quite awhile back while sitting on a runway somewhere, probably in Texas. It was all about marinading meat. It delved a bit into the biochemical reactions of marinades. I was interested to find that many of the findings noted that it really did not matter how long you allowed meat to sit in most marinades, as long as it was maybe an hour or so. I cannot recall exactly.

That said, I still think that one should do whatever they want with a marinade. Make it complex or simple. Keep it traditional or make something new. It's up to the cook. I am writing about this because I cook fajitas often during the warmer months. Whether the fajitas are chicken, beef, or venison (which, unfortunately, I will probably do less now that I am not back home), they are quick, tasty, and easy.

The secret marinade: Wish Bone Italian Dressing. That's it. I let the meat marinade for at least an hour, grill it, slice it. That's it.

Stay hungry, my friends.

Image copyright/courtesy/thanks to/whatever the US Meat Institute, 1947 - or something.

Hand Tenderizing!

OK, yeah, it's been awhile. I'll make a comeback sooner or later.

I made fajitas again yesterday and worked on another beef flank stank in addition to tenderized (by the store) beef round steak. Last time, the flank stank was still a bit thick when I cooked it. The flavor was great, but the thickness was too much.

This go-round: HAND TENDERIZING! I have a regular stainless steel hand tenderizer that (I think) cost me about $5 or so. I tried it last time with the flank steak on the countertop, but not this time! Oh no, Mr. Beef Flank Steak, I pounded you out on the porch! The process: place a towel on the concrete, put some plastic wrap on the meat and a towel over it, and SMASH! Or at least that is the way I did it.

This process worked quite well, and it thinned out the flank steak just enough. Now, I cooked plenty of other food and we ate that first, so the flank steak is all mine! MWAHAAHAHAH. OK, I like beef fajitas.

In sum, hand tenderizing is fun because you get to pound on something and then actually use/eat it!