8/17: John's birthday

John's birthday is 3 days after Lily's and again it was a busy week.  He asked for steak, potatoes, and corn for dinner.  I added sliced tomatoes so we had a semblance of a vegetable.  This was a quick meal for us and was a good illustration of how I prep a lot of stuff in advance.

Weekend before:
boiled potatoes after cooking the pasta in the same pan and water.

Night before:
Marinated steak
Smashed potatoes, put them on the cookie sheet, and seasoned them for the crash hot potatoes so all I had to do is bake them in the oven the next day.

While charcoal got ready that day:
Prepped steak
Shucked the corn with the kids.  They love to do this.
Sliced the fresh tomatoes.

John baked the potatoes and set the table while the kids played outside with me and I grilled.  On the table in about 45 minutes.  Most of that time was spent waiting for the charcoal to preheat and waiting for the meat to cook.

Finished product:

The kids eating corn always cracks me up.