The sauce with the mojo

We're on vacation at the beach, just relaxing in a rental house and doing a lot of grilling. We brought some pantry essentials with us (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, worcestershire, A-1, red curry paste, maple syrup, dijon mustard) so that we wouldn't have to buy new bottles of things we had in plenty at home, but did hit the supermarket for groceries. We had brought some frozen boneless chicken breasts with us, and at the supermarket I stumbled across the perfect solution to the quick summer meal: Goya brand Mojo marinade. We've tried a number of these, of various brands, and generally despaired that they all seemed to contain a lot of junky ingredients, but the Goya, which ranks among the most ubiquitous and least expensive, actually had the best ingredients list, with minimal additives. It's got a great citrus and cumin flavor, too, and I'm looking forward to using it up so that I can try the bitter orange flavor too. Extra bonus: the kids loved it.

Summer's Lease

We're packing up the little gateaux and heading out on Long Island for a week of relaxing at the beach, which has me in a lather about what to bring for the kitchen. The house we're renting is actively used by the owners, but I don't know how they stock their pantry, and I don't want to spend my first day running around buying items I have plenty of at home and will only use a little of. So I'm planning to stick a box of essentials in the back of the minivan. The list so far:

• olive oil
• balsamic and wine vinegar
• soy sauce
• fish sauce
• red curry paste
• worcestershire sauce
• A-1 steak sauce

I figure out I can flavor up practically anything with that stuff. But any other suggestions?