This German Girl's Kitchen Staple

I love this stuff.  Words cannot express how much I really and truly love Altmeister Seasoned Vinegar.  It used to be this stuff was insanely difficult to find, and I can remember when I was younger that if anyone in the Thummprints crew stumbled upon it somewhere multiple bottles would be purchased.  Now it's a little easier to find, either at the global food market or the neighborhood grocery; though I must admit that I sometimes have to suppress the urge buy multiple bottles and hoard them away like a squirrel does walnuts.

It gets used a lot in all of the different Thummprints homes - for everything from marinading flank steaks to dressing up sliced tomatoes.

Marinade for Flank Steak

Ingredients:

Altmeister Seasoned Vinegar

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Shallots

Flank Steak

Directions:

1. Lightly score flank steak and then place steak into a Ziploc bag.

2. Drizzle in some olive oil and then some vinegar, toss in some shallots and BAM! you're done.  (Making a marinade, at least in my home, is all about eyeballing it.  I'm sure there's a ration involved - but I just keep adding until it looks right.)

3. Let marinade for at least an hour (the longer the better).  Sprinkle steak with salt and pepper before grilling to your preferred level of done-ness (well, medium well, medium rare, rare).

Dressed Up Tomatoes

Ingredients:

Altmeister Seasoned Vinegar

Olive Oil

Ground Pepper

Maggi Wurze (another Thummprints household staple) or Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:

1. Get a little Tupperware container (or a bottle that you mix salad dressing in) with a tight lid.  This recipe is all about shaking things up.

2. Reader's choice:  you can peel your tomatoes and then slice them, or just slice away at them.  They're better without the skin - but I find the whole process of peeling a tomato tedious (but worth the reward).  However you slice them make sure the end up in a wide bottom bowl (you want the tomatoes to lie as flat as they can).

3. Pour a little olive oil into your Tupperware container, add some Altmeisters, ground pepper and a two dashes of Wurze (or Worcestershire sauce).  Cover with tight lid and shake the heck out of it, until everything is blended.

4. Drizzle over sliced tomatoes - there shouldn't be enough dressing to cover the tomatoes because you still want them to taste like tomatoes . . . just more fancy.