Suzy Baker’s Fancy Meat Marinade

Suzy Baker was my college boyfriend’s mom. She was wonderful. Fun, lovely, stylish, composed, and a great cook. I didn’t know a lot about cooking until I met her. I mean, I had put together Chicken marinated with Italian dressing, brownies from a box, salads, and made pizzas from Pillsbury biscuits, but I didn’t use recipes to create a finished product. Suzy taught me to marinade cheap pieces of meat to create grilled masterpieces that tasted like they were filet mignon, mix together common household ingredients to make amazing dips and sauces when company showed up unexpectedly and more importantly taught me that you could be an educated mother and wife while not sacrificing your freedom or integrity of mind by finding joy in taking care of others; that it was still cool to be a care giver and a feminist at the same time. Suzy passed away a few years ago this week from cancer that she battled so gracefully for years, so I thought I’d feature this post of her “Fancy Meat Marinade” created from common pantry ingredients, which turns flank steak or any other cheap piece of meat (excluding seafood) into a succulent prime cut every time. This recipe helped create my dish that I entered in the Beat Bob’s Meat Contest that I wrote about in my last post. Thanks Suzy for lighting my culinary fuse.

Fancy Meat Marinade

• 1 large sweet yellow onion cut into 1/8ths
• 4 cloves garlic smashed with skins removed
• 1 C EVOO
• 1 C Red Wine Vinegar (any vinegar would be fine)
• 1 C Soy Sauce
• 1 C Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 C Worchestershire Sauce

Put above ingredients into a Ziploc freezer bag, add meat, marinade in fridge flat over night turning every 4 hours or so.  Marinade at least 12 hours, but not more than 48.  Grill meat to taste.  Do not use on seafood or tofu. 

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