If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again

Posted on The Alameda Patch January 30, 2012 at 5:00 am Email Print 1 Comment

The plan was simple; my friend was considering a career in the wine and spirit industry so I invited her to dinner as my husband has over 30 years of experience to share. I confirmed the dinner Wednesday morning and decided to keep it simple with burgers and a big green salad. That afternoon I left a message with my husband informing him he’d be manning the barbeque and headed off to Encinal Market for some great ground beef from Scalise’s and nice fresh veggies for the salad.

My friend arrived at 6:30 as planned but Dan was running a bit late. No problem. We had plenty to chat about and I could prep the salad while we waited. When my husband arrived home around 6:45 my plan started to go a bit awry. Looks like I hadn’t thought about whether or not we had propane in the tank and of course, we didn’t. No problem. I remembered we had that great big giant silver box in the corner of my kitchen, I think they call it a stove? I’ll just broil the burgers, grilled are definitely better, but this way I could manage the cooking giving my guest and husband more time to talk. Perfect!

All right, back on track, now where’s that broiling pan? Oh yes, it’s over here, no, over here, what was I thinking its right …. dang….. frying! I’ve never fried burgers, but it’s got to be kind of like the way they do it at diners and everybody loves those. A quick peak over the shoulder, they’re still in deep conversation, so I fire up the burner, pull out the fry pan and away we go!

Ten minutes or so later I have three beautifully cooked burgers sizzling away, finally! I pull out a baking sheet to toast up the buns and melt some cheese on my pièce de résistance open up the oven door and voilà, buns go flying, burgers flip through the air and dogs fly in from every direction! Risking bodily harm I grab the burgers off the floor—don’t panic, they’re future treats for the dogs—and turn to my husband. He calmly looks up from the conversation and announces “ looks like it's all you can eat pizza at Linguini’s tonight.”

About 8 p.m. we sat at our table, pizza slices in front of us and I decide to claim the night a success. After all, the plan was fait accompli with the bonus of knowing we’ll have happiest dogs in Alameda snacking on burgers for days to come!