I've got Gas.

And with it I scalded me up some good steak and potatoes this evening. Yes, we broke out the barbecue this evening and after marinating some steak in soy sauce and crushed garlic we grilled it up. I also made some baked potatoes and wrapped up some onion, mushroom and butter in foil as well. It all turned out quite nicely.In another interesting turn of events today the daughter got a slight hair cut. When I say slight I mean dramatic. It is now at her chin whereas it used to be at the middle of her back. We also forked out for a good head lice comb. Not the 20 dollar affair (the Rolls Royce of head lice combs) but we have steel teeth and I am pretty sure it will do the job. We are tired of fighting this fight. I started back in late 2008. If we are not successful in the next month she is going to get a much shorter hair cut. Something along the lines of what I sport. Yes, she will be scarred. But aren't we all scarred, in some way.

Keep the good meals rolling.

As we finished up our dinner this evening the wife said to me, "you really enjoy making dinner don't you." I responded, "When I can use my thinking power to think about dinner instead of work it is a pleasure. However, when I am working I just don't have the power left at the end of the day to think about it or I am still thinking about work." Which is to say, I am loving taking care of dinner and making it to the best of my ability each night. It really is something that you can think about all day.
Tonight I made a marinated steak salad, mashed turnip and beans. I went on line to find steak marinade recipes and the advice seemed to be either soy sauce savory or lemon juice acidic. I put in a little bit of both. I also added vegetable oil, prepared mustard, mustard powder, garlic powder and honey. There may have been something else but I forget. I put the still frozen steaks in a Ziploc with the marinade and left it on top of the fridge for most of the day. I turned it a couple of times and once the steaks had thawed and I could separate them I moved them to the fridge. The turnips were boil and mash with some butter, salt and pepper. Kids loved it. The beans were right out of the can cooked in their own tomato sauce. I liked the accent they added to the meal. The Green salad was romaine lettuce, green onions, cucumber and tomato. I forgot to dress the salads before putting the sliced up steak on, but no one was overly put out.
The wife had made her healthy chocolate brownie yesterday so we had that with some hokey pokey ice-cream. Delish. Funny story. The ice cream was on sale, normally 8 dollars on for 4. So we got two. One was hokey pokey (toffee chocolate) and the son requested vanilla. At the check out stand we had an incident with some chips which I thought were over priced but you had to buy four to get the deal though there was no sign indicating this. Then the wife bought some feminine products which she thought were on sale and when the check out lady rung them back through they were indeed discounted we just hadn't seen the price as they went through due to the chip debacle. So at this point I am apologizing and just wanting to get out the door. Once outside the wife makes me check the receipt and I notice that the vanilla ice cream was charged at $8.19. So I head back in to the frozen foods and just as expected, the only ice cream of this brand that was not on sale was the french vanilla. I am sure it should have been on sale or at the very least should have been separated from all the other flavours (everyone of which was on sale) but after having the two ring through refund ring through agains I was in no mood to debate the relative merits of their pricing schemes seeing as the ice cream was priced correctly. I get back outside and relate the details to the wife. She thinks we should return the over priced ice cream. I don't and we walk home. So the son is an $8.00 ice cream man from now on. Although I can't complain. I managed to get a free four pack of red peppers the other day for noticing that they charged me twenty cents too much. Literally every time we shop there we find something that isn't properly priced in the system. The store's policy is that if you bring it to their attention you get one of the item for free. Every time I have found a mistake I get the item for free. The wife says that from the tens of times she has found a price mistake she has only gotten the item for free three or four times. Crazy. It makes me angry and sad at the same time. It is just much tougher to be a woman than a man. I wonder how many times harder it is when you are a minority.
Speaking of gender, here are the men of the house having some quality bonding time while the daughter is at a play day at her friends house. I took everyone (including the friend ) swimming this afternoon before making lunch. Definitely getting my shots in while I can.

Simply Sunday

Well my simple dinner plans won out this evening. On the way back from playing frisbee and soccer at the elementary school up the street, my daughter and I were surprised to see the wife and son riding towards us. Earlier, I had woken from my nap only to find said daughter packing. She was had been planning to run away because everyone else was having a nap. So we had gone to the park to play while mom and son slept on. As the family congregated on the road the decision was made to go and get some groceries for dinner. We bought a steak, some veggies, milk and ... maybe that was it. Back at the ranch I threw the steak on the barbecue. Red onions and minced garlic were sauteed before adding red peppers and green beans. We were out of mushrooms, I guess I put them all in the curry. Rats. Spices and a can of crushed tomatoes later the sauce was bubbling. I had turned the steak once in the mean time and now I brought it inside. I sliced it up (some hyena's made off with a fair portion of it but I scared them off with the big knife and some cussing) and here was the big mistake. I put it in with the sauce. I should have kept it aside and put it on top of the noodles before ladling on the sauce. It was still pretty good but the whole barbecue effect was lost. Rats number two. The salad dressing was a new number, fresh ground rhubarb, maple syrup, dijon mustard, vinegar and a little bit of oil. It really does just keep getting better and better. By the way the sun shone today so we mowed the lawn, weeded a massive section of the garden, and even managed to get the trimmer out. Just a little bit of paradise here. Doors open, make yourself at home. We're expecting you. Soon.

The Queen's BBQ

Thanks must be given this evening to our good friends in Midway. They were kind enough to invite us to a fantastic feast. Even allowed us to bring a bunch of relatives. All they said was bring something to bbq, something to drink, and a pot luck dish. This may seem burdensome to some but the payoff feasting on others potluck ideas and enjoying the generally festive nature of something this grand is easily worth the effort. My intrepid wife also took on all of the potluck task producing some of her finest Korokke yet. Just the right amount of curry and not too much salt. I was in charge of marinating the steak. By the way we paid a little more for the steak this evening and it was out of this world. Have we learned are lesson. Not likely, I love it at the track, all my friends are there. Anyways back to the marinade. We used fresh grated garlic (not really grated but I don't know how to say when you scrape it around on the thing with all the little bumps and it becomes a kind of mush), soy sauce, golden syrup, pepper and oregano. It sat in that for about five hours pre-cooking and was then cooked on a nice high flame, about five minutes on either side. Easily the best steak I have ever cooked, by a mile. The salads and sides were all special in their own way but as they were not made by yours truly or his wife I will not go into details. Suffice it to say I have pains down the side of my torso and I am not in labour. It was that good. My sis and bro-n-law are here for the long weekend so we have guests choice for dinner tomorrow. After a day at the lake and a possible hike (this has not been mentioned to them yet so we will really have to see) it may end up being take out Chinese. Only time will tell.

Late for Supper

So I arrive home to this amazing smell wafting out the door. Just a rich, drippy, saucy smell. Seconds later in am knee deep in the facts of the day. Our son has managed to realise he needed to go pee and used the toilet today. It is a milestone. Pulled down his own pants and everything. So much excitement ensues. I get to see the lake that has accumulated in the little plastic kiddie potty. We all watch as he flushes it down. We say a fond farewell. From here we proceed outside, all the while I am wondering when the dinner bell will gong and I can begin. We start to trampoline a bit and then check out the garden and so on and so on until finally I ask when dinner will be. To which my wife blithely replies, "we already ate, remember you were going to be at a meeting tonight." Well I finally went inside and ate my steak and it was great. Marinated and pan fried. The sprouts were stir fried with the beans and rice was resoundingly defeated so that potato salad could play another night. Tonights lesson: Always ask when dinner will be ready as soon as you get home.