One fine Friday

Yesterday was sweet, both figuratively and literally. Spencer got out of school at 11:30 yesterday so I took off to go pick him up at about 11:00. I had to break up Jasmine's slumber to load her in the car seat, then into the Kia (We've got to come up with a name for that car. I'm tired to referring to it as "The Kia"...suggestions appreciated) Somehow, I made it through the 16 minute drive to school, into the schoolhouse for 10 minutes, another 16 minutes back to our neighborhood, through a 20 minute whirlwind shopping trip at Fred Meyer and right up to the self check-out without Jasmine making a PEEP. Not a sound! What a good girl and what a huge blessing that turned out to be. Of course, the second we hit the self check-out, she announced she was done waiting for food and began demanding to be fed in a very loud, vocal manner. Fortunately, I had a bottle handy and Spencer was kind enough to hold it for me while I scanned through. Success!

After some lunch and little clean-up, I decided to bake some bread. Since it is such a hands on process, I asked Spencer to do it with me. I remember the first time I started working in the kitchen with my Mom. The science, the measurement and the creative aspect of baking makes for great little lessons.

The recipe I used made three loaves worth of bread, so I decided one regular loaf, one cinnamon swirl loaf and some cinnamon rolls would be a good plan of attack. Spencer really stepped in and did a great job. He managed the temperature of the milk and water, got the yeast going and helped get it all into the mixer.




With all the ingredients mixed together and kneaded, we let the dough rise. About 45 minutes and 7 games of Wii Fit later, the dough was ready to get punched down.



While that was going, I started to get dinner ready and thought I would share this little steak marinade with you. Take a flat iron, flank or London broil cut, and put it in a gallon sized ziplock bag. Add a cup or two of Florida's Natural Orange Tangerine juice (hey, can I get an endorsement over here?) Add 2-3 tablespoons of chopped garlic, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and some steak seasoning. You really can't beat that stuff, it's got everything you need in it. Let it sit for about an hour and a half for flat iron, 2 hours or so for flank or London broil. Then toss it on the grill and sear the living daylights out of it. The juice adds a hint of sweetness and a acidity to the savory flavor of the steak and, trust me when I tell you, it is the shiznittiest.