An Experimental Birthday Dinner (Part 2: Sigh)

Whoa!

I just spent the past three hours running around like a crazy chicken.

"It's all over now but the crying," as my mom would say. She loves old redneck sayings. But I'm not going to cry. Well maybe about using that saying, but not about dinner. Am I getting off track?

Okay. So I executed the plan, but I underestimated how long it would take me to do a few things.

One such thing was the potato salad. I forget about the straining, peeling, mashing, chopping and mixing all takes a while. But I got it done by 5:20 and had it chilling in the fridge (we like to eat it cold). I intended to have it done by 5 or so, but time just got away from me.

Some of that time that got away was put into the cake, or cakes should I say. But that's its own saga for tomorrow.

The other thing I did wrong on my timing was overestimate how long it would take to cook the main course. This turned out okay. The steak pieces had plenty of time to rest, yet were not cold. But they weren't as tender as they might have been if I had let them be a little more rare.

The veggies right after marinating.

The flavor was really good, though. I was also happy to discover that the potato salad was a great compliment to the meal. The tangy mustard and pickle in the potatoes complimented the sour, spicy marinade on the beef and veggies. Win!

Note my oh-so-original use of lime. ;)

The most important critic, and birthday boy set his seal of approval on the meal. So I feel like it was well-worth my effort. :)