Keep It Simple

In the Sunday supplements, which consist of 500 pages of trash ads, one for Longhorn steak house caught my eye. This chain has never been on my radar, and for a good steak I go to the meat market or the supermarket and hand the steak to S.O. to cook on the grill, or we go out and spread really big bucks at a snazzy steak house, but not very often. Mostly, we grill our own, and splurge at D'Agostino's Meat Market in Mansfield which has very good meat by the way. The Best Ribs In the Universe came from them. Friendly folks, too.

Anyway, the photo in the Longhorn Ad, was a steak, in theory. I say in theory, because you could hardly see the steak it was so gloppped up by lobster, sauce, apasaragus, and well, you get the idea. Lobster is all right. I eat lobster rolls every summer. Lobster Bisque is good. Huge hunks of lobster dipped in butter is a delicacy I no longer indulge in. Overeating it made me lose my appetite for same. Pity. But why would you want to dilute the flavor of a perfectly good steak by piling it with lobster and then Dijon butter sauce and asparagus? Xtreme surf and turf Asparagus, sure, on the side. Give me a dab of Bernaise or Bordelaise any day, but hold the lobster with the Dijon butter sauce. What do you bet the sauce is made from a mix? Wonder if it's real butter. Looks like it has cheese, too. Omigod.

Sunday night, we cooked a top round roast on the grill. Indirect heat, Barbecue of the Americas rub (www.penzeys.com) salt and pepper. Got it medium rare. Cooked a big side of yukon gold potatoes, carrots, celery, garlic, onions (lots of onions) tossed with fresh herbs. Used a mix of bacon grease and canola oil, the perfect yin yang for the potatoes. Did you know bacon fat has less cholesterol than butter? I thought not. A few sun dried tomatoes soaked and added at the end. Really good veggies. Could have eaten the side instead of the meat. Ate them both.

Now I have to get out all my mom's collection of serving silver. In the exhibit yesterday, there was a tool called a marrow spoon. For getting marrow out of the bone. As a kid I loved round steak marrow. I think I remember a pewter marrow spoon. And all sorts of cool tools. Noticed no steak knives in the exhibit. Wonder why. Maybe they weren't called same. My dad called big knives toad stabbers. Don't you love it?

Grapeshot