Steak - The Next Generation

This post is about steak. My dad used to grill up awesome steaks. So did my brother. Here is a steak picture from about 45 years ago:



This picture was taken in our backyard. We had a huge brick barbecue pit and it got used a lot. My dad and my brother loved a good steak, and they loved making them as much as eating them. I remember once at my sister's house, my dad and brother were barbecuing on a Weber grill. My brother kept shooting water through the air vent holes in the lid, creating so much smoke that I thought for sure the fire department was going to show up. Everyone was coughing and through all the smoke I see my brother turn to my dad and say "Good Smoke", and my dad replied back, "Good Smoke". It was hilarious! Those steaks were really good too. Anyway, all this to say that steak and barbecue have been part of the family as long as I can remember.

So you would think that I would know how to cook a steak, right? Wrong. Dead wrong. I have a reputation in my family as a non-cooker. And you'd think that as much as I love food, that I would have taken the time to learn how to make it. Sadly, this has not been the case. This is not to say that I don't cook at all, but I rarely take the time and effort to make a really good meal.

I do get bursts of inspiration from time to time. They usually come after long periods of watching Food Network. The last burst came right before Christmas, when I had the presence of mind to ask for a cast iron grill/griddle as a present from the boys. And they bought me one! So far I have used it about three times. And I saw where Rachel Ray made steaks on one. So I went to one of my favorite blogs, The Pioneer Woman, and found this. I followed her basic rules and threw some top sirloin steaks on my grill. And guess what? They turned out fantastic! The best steak I EVER made BY FAR!!! My kids could not believe it, as they have been eating my cooking their whole lives and know what happens when I go into the kitchen. We were all so excited that Max took a pioture with his cell phone:



My dad and brother would be so proud of me! I am so proud of me!! Thank you Pioneer Woman for showing me the light!

Random Crap

I almost wrote Random Carp but that would not have made any sense, so Random Crap it is.

1) There is this show on XM called blog radio where they play all this obscure stuff and they played this song and it has stuck with me, I love it for really deep reasons that I cannot put my finger on.

2) February Supper Club was last night and the theme was Chocolate and Wine. There was lots of both. Andrea made a delicious chicken mole and I don't even like mole. And Jen C. made the best cake I have ever eaten. Chocolate sour cream cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting topped with chocolate ganache. Seriously. The Best Cake Ever. It was a lot of work, so I'll never make it which is probably a good thing.

3) This sock I am knitting, the yarn was given to me and I like it because it is self patterning, but the colors are not my faves, too much red and not enough blue.

4) I am undefeated in Wii boxing. This has pissed Max off to the point where he won't play with me anymore. He keeps reminding me that if we were actually boxing that he would put me in the hospital. Nobody is disputing that. But I think Max should let his mother have her fun. It's just a game, right?

5) I have an appointment tomorrow morning for a complete physical. Let's just say that I have been dancing for a long time, and now it's time to pay the piper. Oh boy.

6) Enjoy your Sunday.

Meet Johnny

My good friend Elizabeth phoned me the other night to inform me that it was Linda Blair's 50th birthday. The reason that this merited a phone call is that Linda Blair and her movies had a profound effect on us. Here is the story.

I read somewhere once that the teen years are the most impressionable that a person will be in their entire life and that the stuff you liked back then you will like throughout your life. This has certainly proven to be the case with me and my friends. We all remember the same stuff, and here is why.
1) The TV only had 13 channels. There was no cable. It's true! Therefore, everyone watched the same stuff on TV.
2) There were no VCR's. You couldn't record a show and watch it later. (I know, how did we survive those dark times?) Consequently, everyone watched the same stuff at the same time.
Bacause of these two things, certain TV events were the talk of the school the next day. The more memorable ones were Roots and Trilogy of Terror, but the one that I remember as being the most talked about among my teenage girlfriends was a movie of the week called "Born Innocent" starring Linda Blair. We already knew her from "The Excorcist", so we couldn't wait to see what kind of role she would play next. And she did not disappoint!



She played a teenage girl that ended up in Juvenile Hall for reasons that escape me. In fact, most of the movie escapes me now except for that one scene. The scene we all talked about the next day. The scene where she was raped with a toilet plunger handle in the shower by the other girls there. They called the plunger Johnny. They said meet Johnny and then they raped her. Whoa. It was a fairly graphic scene and left a serious impression on all of us. As I recall, none of us ever ended up in Juvy. Or is it Juvie?



If you click to make this bigger, you can read the back of the DVD box in the original 70"s curvy font. Awesome!



And the front of the box is hilarious!

The next movie of the week she was in was called "Sarah T, Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic". It was good, but not as controversial and we must not have learned any lessons from it since by that time we were all stealing liquor from our parents' cabinets.



Sarah T., your efforts were in vain!

So anyway, I couldn't talk to Elizabeth the other night when she called because I was out knitting at Starbucks with a bunch of people, so the next morning she calls me at 6am to tell me that I should knit a plunger cozy. For Johnny. I declined. Then she said that if we lived closer then we could rent Sarah T. and watch it over drinks. That sounds perfect.

So Happy 50th, Linda. And thanks.

Out Of The Loop

Our phone and internet was out for 5 days. Seemed like a year. Irritating yet strangely peaceful. Totally inconvenient for sure. But we are back now. Yay!

Snow is melting slowly, no longer having to shovel the path to freedom. Starting to decompress from all the stress of the past month. Today I was actually able to enjoy some music in the car instead of trying not to slide off the road or hit another car.

I hope we have a long hot summer.

(Don't remind me that I said this when I complain about the heat in August. Thank you.)

Roof Drama

So yesterday Steve and I decided that enough was enough in terms of snow on the roof, and made plans for him to shovel it all off today. I went to bed feeling good and relieved that I would no longer have to worry about one of those pesky roof collapses I have been hearing about every day here. I thought I was home free. After all, the roof had held and was not even making any creaking sounds.

Until this morning at 4 am.

The cracking sound woke me out of a dead sleep and I sat straight up in my bed. I thought that maybe I had dreamt it until it happened again 10 minutes later. I laid in my bed listening to the roof crack every 5-15 minutes until 5 am, then got dressed and went out into the living room until 5:30 when I couldn't take it anymore and called Steve, who said it was ok, we had a plan, just go downstairs where the collapsing roof cannot hurt you. So I woke up Leo and herded the cats and we all went downstairs where I felt better because I could no longer hear the cracking and managed to sleep for another hour until I got Steve. Thank God for him. He has been on the roof since about 9 am and now it is 4:15 pm and he is about 2/3 done.




Even though all the snow will be off the roof by the next storm which is tomorrow night, I am still a little nervous, all that cracking this morning made me jumpy. Please please get the snow off your roof if you can.

Freedom Isn't Free

But it sure is beautiful!

Happy New Snow, I mean YEAR! Happy New Year!

I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone if I report that it is snowing again. This time we are supposed to get 5-7 inches, which in reality means about 2 feet. But that is OK because I have 4 days off which will give me plenty of time to deal with the roof when it collapses! We didn't do much last night. I did manage to stay awake for midnight, but only because I had a 90 minute nap earlier, or as I like to call them, periods of unconciousness brought on by shovelling snow.
So now it's 2009. I don't like resolutions because I suck at keeping them. But here is something I plan to do this weekend--organize my yarn. That is a big job because first I have to figure out where in the world I am going to put it all. I may even have to get rid of some. Just thinking about it is exhausting. I need some coffee. Be right back.

(Insert cheesy hold muzak here)

That's better. anyway, back to resolutions. I think I would do better if I just made resolutions at the start of every day, and just make the same ones over and over every day. I can do anything for a day that would kill me if I thought I had to keep it up for a year. Maybe not a day. Maybe fifteen minutes. I can do anything for 15 minutes. So today my fifteen minute resolutions will include cleaning my house, folding laundry (wow I'm really pushing it here), and taking down the Christmas decorations.

I feel another period of unconciousness coming on. Happy New Year everybody.

It's Never Going To Stop

I have been in a sort of survival mode these past 10 days or so since the snow started. My shoulder hurts from all the shovelling and the rest of me doesn't feel too great either. I find myself doing a lot of knitting as a defense mechanism. Once we dig ourselves out every day, driving is quite an adventure. An adventure that usually ends up with me irritated and agitated. And I am worried about my roof caving in from all the snow buildup.

But other than that, it's really pretty. All 4 feet of it.


The color photo above is looking out my bedroom window.






The forecast calls for snow every day next week. Can't wait.

Enough With The Snow Already!

My family has been requesting pictures because they want to see what I have been telling them about. Here they are:







Tha path to freedom:


The grill:



It's pretty and all, but seriously, it needs to stop now.

Linda and Erna, The Next Generation

I have lots of friends. Really good old friends. But only one can hold the official title of Best Friend. In my life, that person is Tami McGinley. She has a different last name now, but to me her last name will always be McGinley. She has been my Best Friend since we were nine years old. That's pretty impressive now that we are 47. And not only were we best friends, but our moms, Linda and Erna, were good friends too. Tami and I spent many a Saturday afternoon talking about David Cassidy in her bedroom while our moms were in the living room drinking Gin and Tonics and talking about whatever middle age ladies talked about back then. Needless to say, we know each others' life stories, the good and the bad. Tami lives in Maine, and with the three hour time difference we don't have the chance to talk that often, but today we were lucky and got to have a long conversation. Today's topic: We are turning into our moms. Seriously, we are. It's scary. Tami now wears reading glasses on a chain around her neck just like they did. And we both have an affinity for tacky Christmas decorations, just like they did. In fact, I decorated my little tacky tree while I was on the phone with her.



Tacky! I love it!

But here is the thing that made me realize that we are becoming Linda and Erna. She says this:
"So for $6.53 at Sam's Club, I bought a Video Fireplace for my TV!"
I started laughing because the emphasis was not on the video fireplace, it was that she got it for $6.53 at Sam's Club. That is SO our moms! My mom in particular loved a deal and for years she had a giant jar of maraschino cherries in her cupboard that she did not need and would never use, simply because she had gotten them on sale at Long's.
So for all the grief we gave our mothers and for all the grief they gave us, we are becoming them, the cruelest twist of all! You just know that they are up in heaven with their Gin and Tonics laughing and laughing about it.

Merry Christmas, Linda Jr.!



Love, Erna Jr.

A Miracle!

Well, my computer has been acting stupid lately, what with the virus and all. Faythe's Ryan got rid of the virus but it has still been way slow and giving me all kinds of error messages and not letting me get on my websites. This computer is five years old, which is like 150 in people years, so I figured I would just get myself a new tower for like $350 and it would be 110 times better than what I have now. So since I had nothing to lose, this morning I reformatted my computer. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but I am a complete idiot when it comes to these things. I really don't care to know, either. It's like electricity, I don't want to know how it works, I just want the light to come on when I flip the switch. Anyway, I stumbled along, not really knowing what I was doing, and after calls to Qwest and Dell, my computer was up and running, no error messages, so far so good! I did this with NO help from Max and just a little bit of help with some sarcasm thrown in from Leo. It is indeed a miracle! Unfortunately, I have lost all my bookmarks as well. I have remembered a lot of them but I know I am missing some. If you know of any good websites that are funny you can send them in the comments. Here is a funny one for you--Cakewrecks. I laugh until I cry.

Hopefully my "fixed" computer will stay that way and I will feel like blogging more often. Maybe.
OK I'm going to bring the christmas boxes up from the garage now!

Why Grocery Outlet Is The Best Store Ever

WTF??!!

The Door To Stupidity

So I went to Vegas to meet Elizabeth and go here. It was so much fun! The sponsors are Ford, Jack Daniels, Copenhagen and the US Border Patrol. Perfect. We went to the Copenhagen tent:



And got some free chew,



And a hat:




Bullriding is awesome!



We went some other places too. The Bellagio to look at the dancing waters:



And the ceiling of their lobby:



We went to the Fremont Street Experience:



And enjoyed an interpretive dance by a local:



But by far the most fun we had was this morning in the airport. Elizabeth and I decided that we could replicate the fountains of the Bellagio with side by side drinking fountains. We were singing California Dreaming by the Mamas and the Papas. My drinking fountain was the Papas' part and Elizabeth worked her fountain to the Mamas' part. It was going real well until some guy wanted a drink of water, then we had to quit. I guess you had to be there. It was hilarious. Elizabeth and I make a good team, because she opens the door to stupidity, and I run right through every time. But hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?

Oh The Horror!

So I haven't been blogging lately for no other reason than sheer laziness. I have been busy though. But now I have a reason. Yesterday my computer got a virus and died. Just like the pioneers on the Oregon Trail did. Right now I am using Max's laptop which I am not at all comfortable with. He is going to try and reformat my computer this weekend while I am in Las Vegas with my goofy friend Elizabeth. We are going to the National Bullriding championships. Don't ask me how I got roped into that but I did. We will have fun because we always have fun together no matter what we do. I will take pictures and someday when I get my computer back I will post them. so now I have to go pack and wash dishes. Have a great weekend you all.

Maybe if my computer is really dead I should bury it by the interstate, like the pioneers did with Aunt Bessie when she caught a virus and died. It's a thought!

Becoming A Better Blogger

I just read on this blog (which is one of my favorites) that the key to good blogging is posting lots of pictures. So here are some pictures:

Staring At The Ceiling

I am starting to think that taking a nap from 7:30 to 9pm this evening was a bad idea. Also the cup of coffee I had when I woke up from said nap, not a very well thought out idea.

Tomorrow will be a long day. Hopefully I can stay awake for it!

PS Heroes was awesome tonight!

AC/DC Was The Holy Ghost

When I was in high school, there were three bands that I loved. LOVED. They were, and still are, Led Zeppelin (duh!), Aerosmith, and AC/DC. I called them the Holy Trinity of Rock, and I still consider that to be true. We have already discussed my freakish obsessive love for all things Zep. Today we are talking about AC/DC.

There was a period of time, well, my entire senior year of high school, when all I truly wanted for my future was to be Mrs. Angus Young. I was going to balance my marriage to Angus with my career, which was going to be managing Aerosmith. I saw no conflict of interest there at all.

Then Bon died! Stupid Bon Scott, choking on his own vomit and dying in a car, how could he? He was the lead singer of AC/DC! What was going to happen to the band?? Well, they got this new guy Brian to sing, and it was just never the same for me after that. I really loved Bon's voice, and the new guy's voice is not my cup of tea. There have been some good songs since the new guy joined the group in 1980, but I never bought another AC/DC album after Bon.

So now here we are. About a month ago, XM started an AC/DC channel much like they did with Led Zeppelin last year. All AC/DC, all the time! So I have been listening to it a lot and they play all the old Bon Scott songs that I loved so much. So I am very happy with that. XM is doing this to celebrate the release of the first AC/DC album in eight years, called Black Ice. I'm still not buying it, it's not Bon! BUT, I encourage everyone else to buy it. I guess the new guy is here to stay, he has been in the band for 28 years now. And he is good in his own way. One thing though. The new album is only available at Walmart. Walmart? Whatever. And it comes out today! VH1 Classic is running only AC/DC videos and concerts all day long today. So watch that too.

So now all I need to make the Holy Trinity complete is for XM to do an Aerosmith channel. But I probably wouldn't listen to it that much, because I hate all that power ballad crap they did in the late 80's and 90's. I tell you, if I was managing that band, there never would have been all that stupid Amazing Crazy Cryin' business.

This Will Mean Nothing Unless You Are Into Hip-Hop.

Tonight is the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. Sort of like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but for Hip-Hop artists. One of the inductees is a fellow who goes by the name of Slick Rick. He is perhaps best known for his song "Childrens Story". Here is my own children's story about Slick Rick.

About 3 years ago when we still lived in Monterey, Slick Rick came to town to do a show. The afternoon of the show, Max told me that him and Leo were going downtown to meet Slick Rick. Naturally, I was skeptical, because what possessed Max to think he could just go downtown, find Slick Rick, and meet him? So you can imagine my amazement when the boys came home and showed me these:




Not only did they meet Slick Rick, they also had dinner with him at Taco Bell. I just have to wonder what this hip hop legend thought of these two pudgy faced white kids who went downtown just to meet him. Quite the welcoming committee I think.

So as I watch Slick Rick on tv tonight, I am reminded of the story of three people with vastly different lives sharing a meal, and also gold chains.

Reality Check

It has been a bit of a rough week. I don't like rough weeks. They always seem to point up the fact that my life is a struggle. I feel like I have been struggling for a long time. I never lose hope, though, that someday maybe life in general won't be so hard. People think that I am a strong person, but really I'm not. And sometimes the harshness of everything just gets to me. I have a little pity party, but I try not to dwell for too long there. I am scared and lonely just like everyone else, but I try not to stay too long in that headspace either. I just try and take care of myself, get a good night's sleep and pray that I wake up with hope again, and a restored sense of the optimism that everyone says I have.

I'm grateful that rough weeks don't come around too often.

So here's to next week. May it be a smooth one for all of us.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I CAN'T BREATHE