steak tonight!

Tonight we're having steak.  Here's the reason why:

On Tuesday, my local grocery store was having a sale on meat:  five packages for $19.99.  Being the bargain shopper that I am, I dug through the bin until I found the biggest package of meat I could find:  a nice, thick, juicy, london broil steak, valued at $8.43.  Since it was getting late, however, I also bought a package of hamburger which I used to throw together a quick pot of spaghetti for dinner.

On Wednesday, one of my kids had soccer practice which meant I would be in the car at the moment the steak would have to go on the grill.  So, at 3:30, I pan-seared the chicken thighs I got on sale and then smothered them in a lemon-garlic-basil sauce (the basil was my idea) and baked them in the oven for forty-five minutes  As it turned out, soccer practice was cancelled but the chicken was so yummy I didn't really mind.

Thursday morning, I suggested to Mark that he marinate the steak so we could grill it for dinner.  But, by the time dinner rolled around, we encountered two unexpected snafus:  hornets in the grill and extra kids in the yard.  Since neither seemed as though they were going to leave anytime soon, we did what any red-blooded American family would do:  we ordered Chinese food.

Last night, it was more soccer practice and more driving.  By the time I got home, it was too late to begin baking the potatoes I bought to go with the steak so I heated up the leftover Chinese food and spaghetti and set it out on the counter.  Then, after dinner, under cover of darkness, Mark sprayed the grill with hornet spray and got rid of the nest.

Which brings us, at last, to tonight.  The steak is marinated, the potatoes are washed and ready to go, and the hornets are gone.  There will be no guests for dinner tonight, I have informed my kids, and no unexpected change in plans.  Because we are going to eat that steak--and enjoy it--if it's the last thing we do!