Repeats

We actually had time to go out and eat a real lunch at Red Robin. Well, we were still shorted a bit, but since we met there, it wasn't so bad. I arrived before Jim and ordered; he stayed and paid the bill. Teamwork at its finest, eh? The usual orders were placed with my Boca burger and Jim's Monster burger. Our server was not the best in the world and it took freaking forever for us to get our food. Then she made the really bad mistake of giving me pickles on my burger. Kiss of death.

Anyway, the food was good as usual, and it was a fun lunch. They've started in on Beijing, so the TV's were all highlighting previous Olympic champions, including Mary Lou Retton. I vaguely remember watching her at the Olympics, but since I was only 3 at the time, I don't have any particularly solid memories of it. It wasn't until the '92 Olympics that I really got into watching gymnastics. Anyway, we had a nice (slightly heated) conversation about Natalie Coughlin, of which we have mixed opinions. I think she's an arrogant snot who may be super talented and amazing, but has no loyalty to her humble roots. Jim thinks she's great. It's one of those agree to disagree things.

So after work we fired up the grill and 'cued up the New York strip steaks we got at Whole Foods. I used some of the coffee spice rub on them and was that much more adept at rubbing the stuff on. It really does help to repeat a recipe, as far as mastering it goes. It's amazing how much faster you get even the second time around. We also grilled some ciabatta bread, which was really, really good. I drizzled a little EVOO and sprinkled it with s & p. That's all it needed, and it was beautifully crisp and chewy all at the same time. I really like grilling bread. For whatever reason, grilledbread doesn't harden up when it gets cold like toasting it does. So it's fantastic because even as leftovers, it's still edible. We also did some asparagus and onions, and I made some buttermilk mashed potatoes, winging it because I didn't have Ina's recipe on hand. It was pretty good, but I put too much liquid into the potatoes. All my bad.

For the steak, Jim said these weren't quite as good as the Rib Eye was, which is kind of a relief, since the rib eyes were twice as expensive. I've decided that this summer we're going to learn how to grill. We're going to become Grill Masters! Of course, I guess that involves me actually learning how to light it first . . .