Where do I start?

the weekend....hmmmm.  It seemed long and full and I slept a lot.  That's pretty much it.  I'm not really sick but I don't feel wonderful and I keep coughing up small animals and taking naps.  In between all that I fixed dinner for my Mom and Judi.  I gotta say....this recipe is fantastic and it takes about 5 minutes to make.  I used strip steaks from Stan instead of flank steak.  It's been a hit every time I've made it.

Grilled Asian Flank Steak with Sweet Slaw
Bon Appetit June 2008

1/4 cup soy sauce
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger,divided
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 1 1/2-pound flank steak
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 red jalapeños, thinly sliced into rounds
5 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage (about9 ounces)
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided

Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Mix soysauce, oil, 3 teaspoons ginger, and garlic inresealable plastic bag. Add flank steak andseal bag; turn to coat. Let stand at roomtemperature 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Stir sugar and vinegar in small saucepanover medium heat until sugar dissolves;remove from heat. Add jalapenos andremaining 2 teaspoons ginger. Place cabbageand 1/2 cup green onions in medium bowl.

Pour vinegar mixture over and toss to coat.Season with salt and pepper. Let stand whilegrilling steak, tossing occasionally.

Grill steak until cooked to desireddoneness, about 6 minutes per side formedium-rare. Transfer to work surface. Letrest 10 minutes. Slice steak thinly againstgrain. Sprinkle 1/4 cup green onions over slaw.

Obviously you could add more to the slaw if you felt like it but it's great as is.

Let's see...what else?  Oh.  Well, I hate to report this but the two months of planning that Leo and Allen put into their cupcake/cookie/lemonade stand didn't seem to pay off.  They were SO excited and had little signs made, even 'back in 5 minutes' signs so they could take a break.  Some of their strategies were a bit off I fear but I tried not to interfere too much.  Unfortunately they only made $4 and closed up after about 2 and a half hours or so.   My heart broke for him.  In addition Leo's latest Lego package (oh, I know, I know...but we have this point system going on and he deserved a reward....  Maybe I am an enabler.) did not arrive on Saturday even though DHL delivered it to the USPS in Urbana on Friday at 10:44 a.m.  Geesh.  I hate it when my baby is heartbroken.

The management team:  Leo and Allen

Here's Dema (one of the employees) with one of their signs:

and the other employee who was in charge of filling orders:

Later we had dinner at Fries and Peanuts with Judi and my mom.  When we go with my mother we sit in the pool area because that's the only place for the wheelchair.  There was a guy playing pool and he glared at us. I smiled and said, "we'll try to stay out of your way."  He just kind of looked at me and said, "well, out of all the places to sit that's probably the worst."  I smiled again and said, "well if you know where I can sit this many people with someone in a wheelchair you just let me know."  "Oh," he said.  He moved to a different pool table, poor thing.

Later in the evening we prepared to watch the first new episode of Ice Road Truckers (the only thing that brought Leo out of his doldrums). Owen attempted to toss the remote control over to the couch and it flew squarely into the side of my head.  A bit of a headache.

We ended up curled up in bed with the laptop listening to Nick Digilio of WGN talk about the Vertebrats.  My esteemed husband even called in....possibly fueled by a tumbler of whiskey....to tell them that they played the wrong song (they were supposed to play Left in the Dark but got it wrong) and ended up on air.  I don't quite recall what he said but of course I thought he sounded great.  We giggled a lot, went to sleep and that was the end of the weekend....