Bobby had no idea what I was talking about. If it were Wine Spectator, he may have noticed, but he doesn't care about Bon Appetit. To him it's just a magazine I get that leads to him eating an experiment for dinner.
I knew I'd received a new issue a couple weeks ago. I'd glanced at it on our way out the door before heading to the beach with Emma. There was a big ice cream cone on the front; I remember it clearly. Now I had some downtime, and wanted to peruse it - but it was no where to be found.
Last week I cleaned the whole house - if I picked up and put away everything, I had to come across it, right? No such luck. It was just gone.
The other day I was standing in line at the grocery store (does anyone else think the lines at grocery stores seem to be getting longer and longer?) and there was a woman with two 4 or 5 year-old girls in front of me. They'd clearly been playing outside - had that dirt smear on their arms, legs and faces. Still full of energy though; not loud or obnoxious, just curious and investigative and talkative. Each was clutching one of those mini Haagen Daas - one had coffee flavored. All I could think was that the last thing these girls needed was sugar, and I don't know if there is caffeine in coffee flavored ice cream, but they didn't need that either.
"Where'd you get that?" one asks, pointing to my bluetooth headset.
"At the store."
"Wow..." they awe in unison.
Mom is clearly frazzled. Two kids don't require twice the effort than one kid, it's more like 2 to the second power. They are exponents. Right now she's just trying to keep them confined to the grocery line, but that is proving to be as difficult as herding cats. She pulls one towards her, and the other goes off to grab a magazine off the rack. She holds it up, "Look - ice cream!"
She's holding the issue of Bon Appetit that I'm missing. I never would have seen it on the rack. "Can I see that?" I ask. She brings it right over and hands it to me. "You love ice cream too?"
"Yes, yes I do."
Flipping through it, I decided to just go ahead and buy the replacement. Because of this:
Grilled Steak Sandwiches with Marinated Watercress, Onion, and Tomato Salad
Oh, that looks so tasty! I suddenly had to have it. Had I the right stuff, I would have made it for dinner that very night, but alas, I don't have tri-tip just laying around, and I don't like buying meat at Ralph's. It would have to wait... until tonight!I had some serious grocery shopping to do. Bobby and I have been eating through a lot of the foods that I always have in the house - tuna, corned beef hash, eggs, milk, white onions, pasta, rice... all the basics. My cupboards desperately needed replenishing.
Tuna and hash mean a trip to Costco. Luckily it's on the way home from work, and in the same shopping center as Whole Foods. I skipped lunch so that I could bail out of work early guilt free. But that meant I was grocery shopping, and starving.
Right next to the tuna there was a woman set up with samples - mini tuna sandwiches. I grabbed one eagerly. I was surprised at how tasty it was, considering I normally don't care for sandwiches without veggies. I listened as she told another woman what was in it.
"It's just tuna, chopped artichoke hearts, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. All Kirkland Signature products. It's a Martha Stewart recipe..." Huh, no mayo. I made a mental note to try it sometime.
At Whole Foods I was confronted with more egg choices than ever before. I've never had brown eggs, but was tempted to try them (is there even taste a difference, or would i just be buying them for the novelty of it?). I could just imagine Bobby's reaction, "Why are the eggs brown!?" No, that probably wouldn't happen... he'd have to look at the eggs in order to comment on them, and he's conveniently forgotten how to fry an egg. At twice the price of boring old white eggs, I left brown eggs for another day.
Then there was the gourmet salt rack. So may different kinds (and so many cute packages!); I'm tempted to try so many. Focus Annette, focus! What on earth do you need to venture into salts this week for? I finally made it home 2 1/2 hours after leaving work, having successfully avoided most of the tempations.
Brian joined us for dinner. I made the much anticipated (by me) Grilled Steak Sandwiches. I liked but didn't love it. The meat was very tender, although it was a tad overcooked (still pink, but only barely). I used indirect heat, which the recipe didn't call for but seemed important to me. Brian is always very complimentary of the meal, but his sandwich had way more dressing than mine. I had assembled mine first, his last, and the greens at the top of the bowl had way less dressing on them even though I stirred them; he later admitted it was a little too much dressing. Meanwhile, I thought mine didn't have enough. Bobby didn't really comment (which means he didn't love it), but he ate the whole thing (so he didn't dislike it).
Notes to self: Next time make more marinade and marinade the meat much longer, like overnight perhaps, brush the inside of the bread with either olive oil or marinade before and after grilling it, and pull the greens out of their marinade and toss them around a bit so they are more evenly coated. If someone wants to add more dressing then they can.
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