We steal a lot from our parents – ideas, recipes, their clothes, political views. 
You could argue that they’re passing them down to their offspring so it’s
not really stealing.  I’m cool with describing it that way.

It’s also true that we tend to get used to the food we grew up with and want
to recreate it.  It might be a brownie recipe that stays with you or a delicious pot
roast.  Whatever, if you don’t write the recipe down, you have to figure it
out and build it as best you can.

Our mom made an Italian salad dressing that was a favorite of mine.
I knew she bought seasoned packets and mixed them up in
a jar.  At some point in my adult life, it occurred to me to make it. 
So I found Seven Seas Italian seasoning salad packets, and lo and behold,
they sold a bottle to mix it in.

It’s pretty simple to mix it up if you can read.  I like my dressing with a
little more bite, so when you measure to the lines on the bottle for oil,
vinegar and water, I add a little extra red vinegar. 
It cuts a little of the sweetness out of the taste.

Shake it over a crisp summer salad.  Use it on sandwiches (a favorite is
grilled ham and swiss cheese), season your chicken with it before grilling. 
There are multiple options.  You can’t go wrong.

There are all sorts of marinades you can
buy for meats. In the old days, you had Worcester sauce. 
It enhanced the meat flavor.  Salt, pepper, Accent, Mrs.
Dash’s, Old Bay, you could go on and on from
the basics to a list so long you couldn’t even begin to count. 
The only limit to what you sprinkle on is the length of the supermarket
aisle.  You can ultimately season your steak, chicken, fish or
pork however you want. Find something you like.

That requires some exploration and thievery. One of my favorites is a
combination of the two. I’ve always found tastier burgers tend to have a bit of
smoke flavor, and after some questioning years ago, I went out and purchased both
hickory and mesquite bottles of Liquid Smoke.  Other brands are fine, I’m sure.
I used that on burgers and steaks for years.

One day, our neighbors invited us over for steaks on the grill.  Our neighbor
was South American, and he lathered up the steaks with yellow mustard
as we were having pre-dinner cocktails.  I thought, “Now that’s weird.”  But
let us not rush to judge.

When it came time to eat, his steaks were some of the tastiest I’d (or my wife)
had ever eaten.  I didn’t need to ask how he did it.  I saw how. 
So I did it next time I grilled steaks, and they turned out
spectacularly.  Somehow, basic yellow mustard enhances that steak
flavor.

Taking this one step further, I now mix yellow mustard and
Liquid Smoke (either mesquite or hickory) in a bowl, poke the
steaks with a fork, then brush the sauce across it a half hour or so before I’m
going to grill.  The combination of the two is phenomenal.  Try it. Mix
a couple of your favorites together.  Experiment. You’ll find something you
love.

One of the undersung aspects of creating a new dish is naming it.  You get to
be creative.   If it resonates, maybe it could even become something
big.

“Hotchos”came about from combining hot dogs and nachos, hence “Hotchos.”  It’s
got a nice ring, doesn’t it?  You can picture fast food restaurants called “Hotchos”
across the world, selling a basic inexpensive meal that can be good for you (or bad) depending the extras you put in it.

The basic dish started as follows:  My kids loved the nachos I made (lots
of grated cheese), but making the same thing over and over was getting old.  So one day I chopped up some hot dogs and put them under the cheese, and Hotchos were born. 
It’s a tasty combination of the chips, hot dogs and cheddar cheese.

You can make it more.  Experiment.  If you have some leftover beef brisket, put that
on top of the chips, add some onions and corn, put the cheese on top and melt that
all together.  If you do that, you get your meat, carbos and veggie all together in one
quick dish.

Ground beef works well.  Soon, I plan to try meatballs on the chips and maybe
add some marinara sauce and make a kind of Italian nachos surprise. 
Maybe we’ll call that “Itchos.”  We’ll see how it tastes first, then work on the
name.