The lady Liz who lives in Lanikai loves to share creative recipes. I spend plenty of time walking on Lanikai beach thinking of recipes to share.

I was looking through some of my favorite recipes that I have saved over the years and found a scrap of paper with some food smudges on it and found a treasure.

These marinades are also great to make for a gift to take to someone’s home. I always bring a host/hostess gift when invited to a friend or family members home. My golden rule: never show up empty handed…never. You can always find something to bring even if it is a bunch of flowers you hand picked.

In each of these recipes you mix the ingredients in a blender or food processor until the mixture is thoroughly blended. I use the marinade in a plastic zip lock bag with the raw meat, chicken, seafood or pork. The plastic bag allows me to rotate the food inside and allow the marinade to thoroughly coat the item to be cooked. I try to prepare the marinade 2 days ahead and that will allow the meats to soak up the flavors overnight. Lamb, pork and beef ribs can be marinated in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Seafood one hour prior to cooking. Chicken 2 hours to overnight in the refrigerator.

If you barbeque the food that you marinated you can use the extra liquid from the bag as a “brush on” marinade on the meats as they are grilling so they will not dry out during cooking. Be careful not to get burned from flash flames in the BBQ. I scorched my eyebrows once looking over the BBQ too close.

If you cook your meat or chicken in the oven I recommend using a cooking bag and add all the marinade in the cooking bag. The food inside the cooking bag will be tender and the flavors will penetrate whatever you are cooking. The juices can later be used as gravy or to flavor cooked rice. Don’t forget to make a few small cuts in the top of the cooking bag. You can purchase cooking bags at the local grocery store and they come in all sizes. They are sold in a box with several bags in each and a plastic tie to seal the bag. Using a cooking bag keeps the pans clean so no mess pan to scrub. To clarify here about the bags: ziplock bags used to marinade the meats, use and throw away. The cooking bags are different and only to cook foods in the oven.

When I cook meats in the oven I lower the temperature to 325 degrees and cook for several hours. Check the times and amounts in the cooking bag instructions that come in each box of cooking bags.  I do this method of cooking if I have time to keep checking every hour until the meats are tender. If you cook chicken I recommend cooking at 350 degrees as the chicken is already tender. The chicken takes between 45 minutes to an hour to cook completely.

You can add potatoes and raw vegetables to the cooking bag. Some good choices are chunks of raw onions, chunks of potatoes (any kind) but keep the skins on. You can use whole mushrooms, carrot chunks, celery, and whole cloves of garlic. Some poor choices for cooking vegetables in the bags are zucchini, tomatoes and asparagus because they cook quickly and will be mushy before the meats are cooked.

All of the following recipes are for 2 pounds of chicken, lamb, beef, pork or seafood.

Beer Marinade

• 12 ounce bottle of beer, any brand but not dark beer
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• 2 crushed garlic cloves or ½ teaspoon garlic from the jar
• 4 Tablespoons lime juice
• 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder or chili oil

Basil Lemon Marinade

• 1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 2 crushed garlic cloves or ½ teaspoon garlic from the jar
• Grated lemon zest (rind) from one lemon
• 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
• ½ cup olive oil or blended oil

Brown Sugar Sweet Marinade

• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup grainy type dark mustard
• 1 cup chopped green onions (scallions)
• 4 Tablespoons Bourbon, any brand

Aloha Spirit Marinade

• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 2 crushed garlic cloves or ½ teaspoon garlic from the jar
• 2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
• 4 Tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon turmeric
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• 5 Tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)

Enjoy these favorites of mine and share them with a friend. Thanks for reading my column and contact me with any questions. Remember to spread the Aloha Spirit through sharing your cooked meals.