The Randomness Continues

So, we have had three or four guys at our house everyday this week helping my man put siding on our house.  I get to feed them.  I love to cook.  Have I told you that?  I really do.  But, I love to cook what I love to cook.  Which is mostly vegetarian, with a lot of different veggies and spices.  I do have several meat recipes because my man is a full-fledged carnivore, but even those recipes usually have a LOT of other stuff in them.  What I'm trying to say is this:  I do not know a lot of creative ways to cook meat.  And when you're cooking for 4 or 5 grown men, 4 days in a row, you need some fun meat ideas.  See, that doesn't even go together.  Fun, meat, ideas.  What is fun about meat?  I mean how many ideas can people really come up with to cook...meat?

Here's the limit of my creativity so far:

Day 1, Monday:
*Donuts for morn snack
*Sausage Pizza and garlic bread for lunch
*Fried apple pies for afternoon snack
(None of this was home-made, mind you!  I had been gone for nearly a week and had not make it to the grocery store yet, so they got fast food.  And you'll notice there is nothing creative about my meat here.)

Day 2, Tuesday:
*Nut clusters and peanut butter pretzels for morning snack, straight from the bag (I'm stellar; what else can I say?)
*Sandwiches, fruit, veggies, and cucumber salad for lunch
(At least I had some variety here:  ham, chicken salad, or pimento cheese.  Surprisingly, the pimento cheese went first.  Weird.)
*Home-made ice cream for snack

Day 3, Wednesday:
*Egg and cheese on English muffins
(I really didn't even expect these to be eaten since I didn't have any meat to put on them.  Those men did tease me a little, but surprised me by choking them down anyway.)
*Pork sandwiches, slaw, fruit, salad, and chips for lunch
(CREATIVE!  Well, for me it was since I had never made pull-pork sands before.  Thanks goes out, once again, to my sista "Sissa" for giving me this idea.  It was really hard, so I'm sure you all wouldn't want to be weighed down with the recipe.  Really, I slaved all. day. long.  But the guys loved it so it was worth it.  Okay, you know me better.  Throw a pork tenderloin in a crock pot and douse with "liquid smoke."  Cook for 8 hours.  Shred it and throw it on a bun with some sauce.  Seriously.  And they really did love it.)
*Old fashioned fudge pie with home-made ice cream for dessert (Thanks, Paula Deen!)

Thursday:
They took the day off.  I insisted.  All this cooking was wearing me out.  They, of course, begged me to let them work on my house another day, but I said, NO!  I'm actually laughing my head off right now because those men worked their tails off and I did next to nothing.  They told my man they weren't working today, but they were playing golf instead.  Good for them.  They'll be back in the morning though.  They are dedicated friends.  And you should know they are "retired" men.  Though, I'm not really sure what they are retired from, since they work as hard now, or harder, than most young "working" men I know.

Tomorrow:
Cinnamon rolls, straight from the Pillsbury Dough Boy (Shouldn't he be a man by now?)
Steaks, potatoes, and salad for lunch
Cake with sugared fruit for dessert

Tomorrow is the one meal in which I will get to exercise a little creative muscle with my meat.  Only I have none when it comes to meat, so what do I do?  Google "overnight steak marinade" of course.  And the first thing that pops up is "Best Steak Marinade in Existence."  So, since we all know we can believe everything that's on the internet, I decide it must be the best steak marinade in existence and it is now sitting happily in my frig in a Ziploc back with four ribeyes.  I must admit to you that I actually am a little bit skeptical, but when you're a meat ig-no-ra-moose like me, you take whatever advice you can get from Google.  Here it is, if any of you are interested.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (optional)
• 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic (optional)

Directions

1. Place the soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, basil, parsley, and pepper in a blender. Add hot pepper sauce and garlic, if desired. Blend on high speed for 30 seconds until thoroughly mixed.
2. Pour marinade over desired type of meat. Cover, and refrigerate for up to 8 hours. Cook meat as desired.

Courtesy of allrecipes.com.  They say it's the best.  Whoever they are.  I guess you'd have to actually try a whole bunch of different marinades to know.  And since I rarely eat steak, I'm pretty sure I'm disqualified from giving it such a strong commendation, even if I love it.

Some of you are probably starting to wonder if this is becoming a blog about cooking.  Well, no.  But it is a blog about me, trying to be a real mom.  And this is reality for me right now--a whole lot of my life happens in the kitchen.  And this week, more so than ever.  I feel like one of those women right out of an 1800's novel about the American frontier, cooking for her man while he is out working in the fields and the barn.  He comes in wanting a big ol' feast, eats, and goes right back out, while she cleans up meal number one and starts on meal number two.  And this cycle continues all day long.  The only difference is I'm not growing all my ingredients.  That's the only difference, really.  Really!  Why don't you believe me?

Okay, come back another time when I'm feeling more somber.  Or at least when I've had some sleep.  It's midnight and I'm just plain silly.