Yesterday, the family went to a local mall to do a little back to school shopping, to give D a carousel ride, and to have dinner.  One of the reasons we like the West Nyack mall is because they have a bunch of family activities - movie theater, bowling alley, skating rink, carousel, ferris wheel and like a half dozen arcades (one of which has a mini roller coaster and mini golf).  The closest mall to us has got to be the dumbest mall ever - plenty of Tiffany's, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, etc. but no bookstore or toy store.  The only full service restaurant in there is PF Chang's, which is easily one of the worst chain restaurants out there.  And they charge you a couple bucks to park there.  Really?!?  

We went to a few stores to get G some pants.  I was shocked to find out that he wears a "husky" size, because to me he looks like a perfectly healthy normal-sized boy.  Not too thin, not too fat.  One store said they only carried normal sizes and that husky sizes are only on their web site.  WTF?!?  How can you not carry sizes for "normal" looking kids in your store?  BTW, in case you think I'm delusional, I'm think I'm fat... and big boned.

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Then we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  We hadn't been there in a long time, but they were offering happy hour drinks and appetizers.  What kind of freak is going to say "no" to that?!?  I think the food at the Outback is above average for a chain restaurant but I find it ironic that the *worst* things on their menu are the steaks.  I've probably given them like 5 chances to impress me (usually with me saying "maybe it was just that branch" or "maybe it was just the ribeye") but every time, I leave thinking "how can you possibly call yourself a steak house and make a steak that tastes like that?!?"  That just makes no sense.  Since I can't have a steak, I looked at the menu and saw New Zealand lamb (that's where I first started liking lamb), so decided to give it a go.  I was pretty disappointed to find that the "rules" that work on their steaks carries over to their lamb.  Maybe they should change their name to Outback Appetizers Plus.

You pretty much have to be a spaz not to be able to grill a better steak than the Outback.  Which got me to thinking...  Since Mrs. Fly is "most likely" going to start posting next week, I thought I would  kick off the cooking segment of the blog by posting how to make the NUMBER ONE EASIEST, BUT BEST MEALS out there...  Can you guess what it is?  (Hint above)

Alas, I'm running out of room in today's post, so I will continue tomorrow.