Not grilling - sucked down the TVWBB rabbit hole

[Scott Smith]

So my wife has a new job at a medical office. She's a patient there, and the hours are flexible, and she can do it while the kids are in school, so it works out well for her. The thing is all the free food. It looks to me like pharmaceutical reps have gotten away from bribing doctors and giving free pens and notepads. The new way to get some face time with the doctor seems to be buying lunch for the entire office. Of course, they try to be generous.

My wife has taken on the roll of bringing home the extra food each day, which seems like almost all of it. We've seen bags of bagels, a giant tray of Italian cookies, taco beef and taco chicken and taco salad, trays of salad, the ubiquitous cut fruit platter. This is probably a regional thing, but we had an unopened approx. 15 pound tray of wraps and cut up submarine sandwiches full of tuna and sliced deli meats. Each was held together with a toothpick.

One rep thought outside of the box and brought nothing but individual bowls of Wendy's chili and individual Wendy's salads. I think that was actually successful in terms of the staff eating the food, but my wife still brought home about eight of each.

So we haven't been doing much cooking or grilling lately. I hate to see food go to waste.

In the meantime, my three Genesis grills are partly disassembled on the lawn because I'm washing the deck. I'm not using them, and I'm feeling the pull of the TVWBB rabbit hole. I bought a little five dollar razor scraper and gleefully scraped twenty years of carbon off those lids almost like it was nothing. Now i'm looking at the end caps on the lids and thinking those really could use some paint, and how easy it would be to do them all at the same time.....

 

[Bruce]

Sitting in that lawn chair taking pictures of the grills seems like enough work for one day.

 

[THyde]

Leave the best one for a cooker and redo the others, then switch! You never know when one of those reps really go outside the box and brings in something of recent extreme value: uncooked groceries!

 

[Scott Smith]

Leave the best one for a cooker and redo the others, then switch! You never know when one of those reps really go outside the box and brings in something of recent extreme value: uncooked groceries!

No joke with the food prices. We regularly go to three supermarkets, and we used to know what items would be cheapest at each store. Now, its a game of who can hold onto their low price on eggs, meat, chicken, milk, etc. the longest.

 

[Bruce]

There are no "Low Prices" on eggs, meat, chicken, milk any more.

 

[Scott Smith]

Just ordered the Rustoleum ultra spray paint and primer and some threaded inserts to reattach a crossbar that came off as I was getting the grills down the stairs.

 

[Bruce]

You don't need the Ultra high temp spray paint for the cross members on the frame. Rustoleum 2X semi-gloss is less expensive and a great paint for parts of the grill that do not need high temp. BUt the high temp stuff will work just the same.

 

[Teddy J.]

Wendy’s chili and cold cuts with tuna, I’ll take ‘em.

 

[Scott Smith]

So I've got a bunch of projects going - and three little kids running around at home. I follow them and go with the flow. The grill stuff is great to do while watching them in the pool because its pretty straightforward and right there. I was taking the end caps off the lids today and discovered a partial crack near the hinge in one end cap. Not sure if I might have caused it while working the end cap off. So I ran to the old stash and got a replacement lid. The top of the lid is a bit faded, but the end caps were better. Curiously, while the parts interchanged, one pair of end caps had separate studs to attach to the lid while the other did not. The bezel for the thermometer was also different. This is all on a Silver A from about 2002.

My neighbor also gave me a non-running snowblower this week. I had to use everything I know about small engines, but eventually got it running by running a cleaning up the needle and the float and the bowl and running a small stiff wire up the middle of the cab (not sure what that part is called) to manually clean the gunk out.

I also spray painted a replacement deck for my lawn tractor. Krylon sells spray cans to match Husqvarna, and it matches perfectly but actually looks better than the original paint because of the gloss.

 

[JBaker]

Wendy’s chili and cold cuts with tuna, I’ll take ‘em.

Many years ago I managed a successful pub style restaurant from startup in Northern Massachusetts. Had been about a year with the company working other areas of the business.
One of my first interactions was with the BoH (Board of Health). I'm pretty sure we weren't open for more than 3 weeks when we got the first visit (other than visits to sin off on construction items). Nice guy, but by the book and no fooling around. Cooler temps, reaching temps, hot table temps, cold table temps. Samples taken away in a cooler of various items. Guy was thorough.
First inspection I got a couple of demerits. It was just before we were opening, he found a french fry under the Garland range. The other was a container in the walk in that wasn't labeled with date and time.
I vowed then that I was going to ace each and every inspection. Sat with the kitchen crew, asst managers, waitstaff. Every day we'd pre-meal with another idea for how to keep the restaurant in top order.
Over the next few months he'd stop in at least once a month. All the inspections were 100%, but he would still pull me aside with some tips, address minor issues, etc.
It became routine, every 5 or 6 weeks. I eventually noticed that when he was through with the inspections he would sit at the bar and order lunch. I'd be busy, never paid much attention. One day talked with the bartender on duty about how he felt about the BoH sitting at his bar watching him work. Got to talking about his habits.
Bartender told me he always ordered tuna salad (mayo base) on dark rye.
Whoa....everyone knows you NEVER order the tuna salad. Too many issues with spoilage, it goes quickly to an off state.
Next time he was in I made it a point to stop by and chat him up. Sat down and had such with him. Eventually I asked him about ordering the tuna salad....being in the BoH biz and all.
He told me my restaurant was the only place he would order it, feeling comfortable with the kitchen operation, cleanliness.

That made my day.