Sneaky Buggers

During my post-gym F&E visit, I was nearly run-down by one of their employees when he grabbed a cart and bee-lined towards their front meat cooler. I did a quick scan and didn't see any 1/2 price stickers, so I started to look at their main meat cooler. As I did, I noticed him rummaging around in the front cooler. In the far back, under a few other packages, he took a 1/2 priced 12-pack of hamburgers. I jokingly commented that they stash the good ones. He then grabbed a SECOND one from back there and said he had been "saving" it for a coworker, but I could have that one. So I got 3lbs of burgers for only $4.51. Not too bad. Tara wrapped them and stashed them in our freezer for future use. :)

Wall*E opens Friday. I can't wait.

I love most of Pixar's movies. While Cars and A Bug's Life are technically (given their respective releases) impressive, their stories didn't enthrall me. The Incredibles is probably my favorite, with the Toy Stories, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and Ratatouille close behind. For kids, you can't go wrong with any of them. My nephews love Cars.

I always look forward to the new Pixar movie. They are masters at the art of trailers. They frequently create exclusive footage for them, like The Incredibles' teaser with Mr Incredible hilariously and heroically strugging with his belt buckle. The Wall*E trailers have done a great job of slowly building up Wall*E's personality first and then expanding the movie's perceived world from Earth to a whole galaxy. Yet I still don't feel like I've seen the whole movie from the trailers, which is frequently the case with most other films.

We probably won't see it opening weekend. I shudder to imagine the crowds of screaming kids who are going to mob the theaters. We'll probably do a late show July 4th weekend or something. The little kid/sci-fi geek/movie buff in me are all chomping at the bit.

Plus Tara's getting sick of me giggling every time I see a clip or hear his name. :)

"As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Somehow I only found out today that Bill Dial died earlier this month. Not a name I'd know, except he wrote one of funniest episodes of "WKRP in Cincinnati", "Turkeys Away". TV was pretty desolate in the late 70s, but WKRP was and is one of my favorite TV shows ever. WGN recently ran a slew of episodes on their 70's Night on Sundays, and that was one of the eps. From Les's Hindenburg-inspired narration to Mr. Carlson and Herb battered and covered in feathers, it's a classic. Unfortunately all the great music in the show has been replaced on the DVD sets with generic music, otherwise I'd have them in my collection.

Bill Dial also was involved with "Simon and Simon" and various Star Trek series. Still, I always laugh to myself (usually out loud) when I think about "Turkeys Away".

Grilled Teriyaki Albacore steaks

I love a good teriyaki-marinated piece of tuna, so I decided to find a simple marinade for the albacore I got yesterday at F&E. I found this one at Cooks.com. It's nice and basic:

1 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely minced
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 cup soy sauce *I used Kikkoman Light Soy*
1 cup sugar *I used dark brown sugar*
2 oz Jack Daniels (or other whiskey or rum) *I used Jim Beam*

I ended up with way too much marinade, but that happens. Luckily we had all the ingredients (the Jim Beam was purchased for a chicken marinade a couple years ago that we loved, but can't find the recipe anymore) so I mixed them up this morning in one of our big glass bowls. The albacore pieces only totaled about 1/2 a pound, so I could probably have cut the recipe in half or more. I put them in the marinade for about two hours, turning them halfway through.

At lunch, I turned the gas grill on low and once it was up to temp, I cooked the first piece for 3 min/side. It came out really good. I was still hungry, so I cooked the smaller second piece for 2 1/2 min/side. It was sorta wedge shaped and the thickest part was still just a tad less-cooked, but for a sushi person like me, it was fine. They were cooked all the way through, so this wasn't a sear at all. They had a nice sweet flavor, but not overly strong. We have a piece of frozen tuna in the freezer that will probably be great cooked this way. I can't wait.

GO CELTICS!!!

What a dominant victory. I love it. 22 years is a long time but that just makes it all the sweeter. :)

Today's cheap finds

I hit F&E after the gym today. They had some wild caught albacore, cheese tortellini, chicken ravioli, ground pork, and pineapple slices all for 1/2 off. We'll see how they work out. We'll do the pasta with some Alfredo sauce tomorrow night. I'm thinking of doing a simple teriyaki marinade for the albacore and then grilling it on our electric grill. The pork went into the freezer.

I got some 1/2 off unpasteurized OJ there last week and it was really, really good. It's fun hitting them after my workout and seeing what they have. It's fun trying to plan a meal with what they have on special.

GRRRRR

I go out to light the grill tonight so we can cook some burgers. As I open the lid, I notice that the far left burner was left on. And I hadn't closed the valve on the take like I usually do. So my less than two week old tank of gas was now probably over Eastern Canada...

I grabbed a new one at the supermarket down the road and a few more hamburger buns as well. Still, I'm not happy when I do stupid stuff like that.