Yeah, we cooked at the motel. Got a couple of bacon-wrapped sirloin filets
at the HyVee for $7 for two. Someone was asking about marinade?

Knowing sirloin isn't exact the most tender cut, I guestimated a marinade of
about 1/4 cup of the merlot we'd bought for drinking and concocted a
marinade by adding approximately 2 Tbs. of canola oil, 1/4 cup of water and
few good shakes of Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb blend. Mixed all that together,
poked some holes in the steak with a fork and set the steaks in the marinade
in a skillet. I turned them a to coat a couple of times. Covered it with
foil. This was a necessity, of course, because the flies in Iowa are awful!
I set the covered skillet on a bed of ice in a big cooler since at this
place we didn't have a refrigerator.

I turned the steaks every thirty minutes or so in the marinade, for a couple
of hours. Really wouldn't have taken that long but we started playing cards
and backgammon and having some wine and fun We were done with the show:
this was *our* time!

He fired up the charcoal in our little mini-grill. We'd bought a frozen
veggie combo of broccoli & cauliflower. He grilled our steaks rare. These
steaks were close to 2 inches thick so it took longer than we expected; in
fact, we threw them back on the grill after taking a couple of bites. We
LOVE rare steaks but they were way too blue even for us! (hush, kili!)
Another few minutes and the steaks were perfect and the bacon was nicely
crisped. I'd simmered the frozen veggies until cooked but not mushy and
they held nicely. We had a nice dinner of marinated filets and veggies
cooked right there in the motel. Yes, it can be done. And there is nothing
wrong with saving money and still having home cooked food

I think it's a good indication of an inventive cook if you can take a small
grill, a skillet, some foil, a few ingredients, small saucepan and a hot
plate and cook a meal. Throw in a microwave and I can make you a baked
potato not "baked" in foil with a crispy salted skin; I can also bake a
potato on a grill but not that small of a grill such as we had. But if you
want french fries I can do them in a skillet and I'm not talking about
frozen fries, I'm talking fresh sliced potatoes cut into strips. I learned
how to do that from a scene in an old movie when I was about 14. My mother
sure never made fresh fries. She is/was the Freezer Queen

Jill

> Yeah, we cooked at the motel. Got a couple of bacon-wrapped sirloin
> filets
> at the HyVee for $7 for two. Someone was asking about marinade?
>
> Knowing sirloin isn't exact the most tender cut, I guestimated a marinade
> of
> about 1/4 cup of the merlot we'd bought for drinking and concocted a
> marinade by adding approximately 2 Tbs. of canola oil, 1/4 cup of water
> and
> few good shakes of Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb blend. Mixed all that
> together,
> poked some holes in the steak with a fork and set the steaks in the
> marinade
> in a skillet. I turned them a to coat a couple of times. Covered it with
> foil. This was a necessity, of course, because the flies in Iowa are
> awful!
> I set the covered skillet on a bed of ice in a big cooler since at this
> place we didn't have a refrigerator.
>
> I turned the steaks every thirty minutes or so in the marinade, for a
> couple
> of hours. Really wouldn't have taken that long but we started playing
> cards
> and backgammon and having some wine and fun We were done with the
> show:
> this was *our* time!
>
> He fired up the charcoal in our little mini-grill. We'd bought a frozen
> veggie combo of broccoli & cauliflower. He grilled our steaks rare.
> These
> steaks were close to 2 inches thick so it took longer than we expected; in
> fact, we threw them back on the grill after taking a couple of bites. We
> LOVE rare steaks but they were way too blue even for us! (hush, kili!)
> Another few minutes and the steaks were perfect and the bacon was nicely
> crisped. I'd simmered the frozen veggies until cooked but not mushy and
> they held nicely. We had a nice dinner of marinated filets and veggies
> cooked right there in the motel. Yes, it can be done. And there is
> nothing
> wrong with saving money and still having home cooked food
>
> I think it's a good indication of an inventive cook if you can take a
> small
> grill, a skillet, some foil, a few ingredients, small saucepan and a hot
> plate and cook a meal. Throw in a microwave and I can make you a baked
> potato not "baked" in foil with a crispy salted skin; I can also bake a
> potato on a grill but not that small of a grill such as we had. But if
> you
> want french fries I can do them in a skillet and I'm not talking about
> frozen fries, I'm talking fresh sliced potatoes cut into strips. I
> learned
> how to do that from a scene in an old movie when I was about 14. My
> mother
> sure never made fresh fries. She is/was the Freezer Queen
>
> Jill
>
Seems like you pulled it off....cooking in the room that is... My question
is why? no place to eat in Davenport? Haven't been there in maybe 25 years,
but I seem to remember a lot of inexepnsive steak places (prices relative to
the year in time). Has that changed so much?

Larry T

LT wrote:
>> He fired up the charcoal in our little mini-grill. We'd bought a
>> frozen veggie combo of broccoli & cauliflower. He grilled our
>> steaks rare. These
>> steaks were close to 2 inches thick so it took longer than we
>> expected; in fact, we threw them back on the grill after taking a
>> couple of bites. We LOVE rare steaks but they were way too blue
>> even for us! (hush, kili!) Another few minutes and the steaks were
>> perfect and the bacon was nicely crisped. I'd simmered the frozen
>> veggies until cooked but not mushy and they held nicely. We had a
>> nice dinner of marinated filets and veggies cooked right there in
>> the motel. Yes, it can be done. And there is nothing
>> wrong with saving money and still having home cooked food
>>
>> Jill
>>
> Seems like you pulled it off....cooking in the room that is... My
> question is why? no place to eat in Davenport? Haven't been there in
> maybe 25 years, but I seem to remember a lot of inexepnsive steak
> places (prices relative to the year in time). Has that changed so
> much?
>
> Larry T

Oh, I'm sure there are. We've done the Riverssance Festival of Fine Arts
Show for the last three years; it's always been a good show. He won an
award again this year, in fact. 'The Boat Dock' down on Highway 67 heading
towards the Rock Island bridge has great steaks and seafood. If you go the
other direction into Bettendorf, 'Tiramisu' offers some to die for Italian
food. If we'd wandered around we'd have found lots of places, to be sure.

This year, the show and the one in Edina, MN the weekend before were
spectacularly *unsuccessful* But even if the shows had been successful,
I find it is much more fun to get a couple of steaks from a grocery store,
pick up some things to go with it and cook it back at the room. By the time
the show winds down we are dead tired and not ready to deal with the public
any more than necessary LOL

I enjoy cooking and he's like most guys: give him a grill and some coals and
he has to prove he can cook meat (He does very well, heheh.) Let's face
it, what we cooked on the grill and using the hot plate, we paid about $12
for in total. (I forgot to mention the frozen - never saw it before! -
boil-n-bag cream of broccoli soup which we had as a starter and it was
*tasty* for a pre-prepared soup.) This same meal would have cost us about
$40 had we eaten in a restaurant. Add to that the 2 glasses of wine each.
It was not only much less expensive, we didn't complain to each other when
we sent the steaks back to the grill for a couple of minutes! And we didn't
have to tip anyone. Meanwhile, we listened to the music CD's we enjoy and
got to walk around in our pajamas. You can't do that in a restaurant

Jill

jmcquown wrote:
> LT wrote:
> >> He fired up the charcoal in our little mini-grill. We'd bought a
> >> frozen veggie combo of broccoli & cauliflower. He grilled our

Did you cook inside the room? I thought it was dangerous to use a
charcoal grill inside.

The nuisance-y flies were thick because you were close to the river.
;-) We have very few, here in the middle of the prairie. That is,
until you get some food out. LOL.

N.

Nancy2 wrote:
> jmcquown wrote:
>> LT wrote:
>>>> He fired up the charcoal in our little mini-grill. We'd bought a
>>>> frozen veggie combo of broccoli & cauliflower. He grilled our
>
> Did you cook inside the room? I thought it was dangerous to use a
> charcoal grill inside.
>
Of course not! The grill was outside the room out in the parking lot. Who
would fire up a grill of any kind in a motel room? Do you think we're
stupid?

> The nuisance-y flies were thick because you were close to the river.
> ;-) We have very few, here in the middle of the prairie. That is,
> until you get some food out. LOL.
>
We didn't leave any food out. But the windows wouldn't open and we wanted
some fresh air so he opened the door. Flies have always been thick as
thieves in Iowa - we've done this show at Lindsey Park for the last three
years. Even though the room was miles away from the Mississippi, the flies
and the gnats were there - yeeesh!

I live 50 miles from the Mississippi down south and we don't have half the
flies and no gnats down here. Mosquitoes are another story down south.
Jill

jmcquown wrote:
> Nancy2 wrote:
> > jmcquown wrote:
> >> LT wrote:
> >>>> He fired up the charcoal in our little mini-grill. We'd bought a
> >>>> frozen veggie combo of broccoli & cauliflower. He grilled our
> >
> > Did you cook inside the room? I thought it was dangerous to use a
> > charcoal grill inside.
> >
> Of course not! The grill was outside the room out in the parking lot. Who
> would fire up a grill of any kind in a motel room? Do you think we're
> stupid?

Didn't mean to be insulting but I didn't see anyplace where you said
you cooked outside, and since the grill was "mini," well, you can see
how I didn't understand. Mea culpa.

>
> > The nuisance-y flies were thick because you were close to the river.
> > ;-) We have very few, here in the middle of the prairie. That is,
> > until you get some food out. LOL.
> >
> We didn't leave any food out. But the windows wouldn't open and we wanted
> some fresh air so he opened the door. Flies have always been thick as
> thieves in Iowa - we've done this show at Lindsey Park for the last three
> years. Even though the room was miles away from the Mississippi, the flies
> and the gnats were there - yeeesh!

Davenport has always been terrible for bugs - if you ever drive around
the Quad Cities in mayfly season, you will never go back. They're so
slick on the roads, people have accidents like they're driving on ice.
>
> I live 50 miles from the Mississippi down south and we don't have half the
> flies and no gnats down here. Mosquitoes are another story down south.
> Jill

Yup, we have flies - not too many in recent years, I don't know why
(where I am, that is) - but picnics are horrible because of the bees.
The ones that nest in the ground. I can recall eating a picnic lunch
at our city park with all of us totally huddled under blankets just to
keep the bees out of our mouths.

Mosquitoes haven't been very bothersome this year, either - even though
we've had lots of regular rain ... maybe some of the damage we're doing
to the environment is finally getting to the pesty critters. ;-)

N.

jmcquown wrote:

> Yeah, we cooked at the motel. Got a couple of bacon-wrapped sirloin filets
> at the HyVee for $7 for two.


Did you scope out the HyVee Jill, and if so how did it seem? I was
last in a HyVee about 30 years ago I guess...

Also, did you notice any roadside stands/farmers markets on yer
trip...???

--
Best
Greg

One time on Usenet, "jmcquown" > said:
> Nancy2 wrote:
> > jmcquown wrote:

> >>>> He fired up the charcoal in our little mini-grill. We'd bought a
> >>>> frozen veggie combo of broccoli & cauliflower. He grilled our
> >
> > Did you cook inside the room? I thought it was dangerous to use a
> > charcoal grill inside.
> >
> Of course not! The grill was outside the room out in the parking lot. Who
> would fire up a grill of any kind in a motel room? Do you think we're
> stupid?

<snip re bugs>

Miguel (DH) and I stayed at a place in Seaside, OR that had a small
gas grill on every patio outside of the rooms. It was a really balmy
January, so instead of eating at a restaurant, we bought some steaks
and grilled them -- fantastic! We weren't alone either; quite a few
people were cooking out and taking advantage of the unseasonal
weather -- the courtyard smelled wonderful. I wish more hotels had
that kind of set up...

--
"Little Malice" is Jani in WA
~ mom, Trollop, novice cook ~

Gregory Morrow wrote:
> jmcquown wrote:
>
>> Yeah, we cooked at the motel. Got a couple of bacon-wrapped sirloin
>> filets at the HyVee for $7 for two.
>
>
> Did you scope out the HyVee Jill, and if so how did it seem? I was
> last in a HyVee about 30 years ago I guess...
>
Seemed like a neat and tidy grocery store, Greg. We went there a couple of
times.

> Also, did you notice any roadside stands/farmers markets on yer
> trip...???

Saw a few stands but mostly big signs offering (off the main highway)
cheese. A few of the apple picking orchards were advertised but they were
marked closed. Not that we were prepared to stop to buy cheese or apples
No other farm stands were around that I saw. Lots of cows and what appeared
to be Amish dairy farms, since the Amish are so neat and have their farms
close together, family like, in Wisconsin and upper Iowa. Windmills were
powering everything, evidently. See www.lehmans.com for fun without
electricity

It was pretty country. I took some photos, but my digital camera uses
diskettes as well as a memory stick; I chose to use the diskette option.
The diskette now has a "read error" so I lost all those photos Dammit!

Jill

jmcquown wrote:
> Gregory Morrow wrote:

> to be Amish dairy farms, since the Amish are so neat and have their farms
> close together, family like, in Wisconsin and upper Iowa. Windmills were
> powering everything, evidently. See www.lehmans.com for fun without
> electricity

We have lots of Mennonite and Amish, too, especially around
Independence. Close to me is Kalona, famous for quilts.

I don't know whether it's the old-order Amish or the Mennonites, but
one of the other doesn't paint their outbuildings beyond the initial
whitewash. It's pretty easy to tell which farms belong to whom.

A group of Mennonite church ladies in Kalona have always done my
hand-quilting. Beautiful work and definitely not something I want to
do.

N.

Gregory Morrow wrote:
> jmcquown wrote:
>
> > Yeah, we cooked at the motel. Got a couple of bacon-wrapped sirloin filets
> > at the HyVee for $7 for two.
>
>
> Did you scope out the HyVee Jill, and if so how did it seem? I was
> last in a HyVee about 30 years ago I guess...
>
> Also, did you notice any roadside stands/farmers markets on yer
> trip...???
>
> --
> Best
> Greg

Around here, the Hy-Vee stores have pretty much got a monopoly except
for specialty shops. They are for the most part very clean, bright,
and regularly updated and since the employees are also owners, the help
is always great. OTOH, they overstock their shelves with their own
brands to the point of being ridiculous and sometimes it is impossible
to find a product you want in a national well-known brand*; and, they
don't sell anything but Armor injected pork products and now have
started with health clinics in some of their stores (I think the QC has
the first). This is a concept I have a problem with.

*As to the brands, the most recent annoyance was when I tried to find
some Vlasic classic-style hamburger dill chips, and there were 4
shelves of Hy-Vee pickles, and one shelf of Vlasic pickles, with no
dill chips. That's ridiculous.

N.