New Wheels, New Salsa, New Week

Tony and I had one mission this weekend – to find me a car.  I’ve been renting the Nissan Rogue for the last few weeks.  Since Tony just bought a new car a month ago, we didn’t plan on getting a newer car for me for a few months.  No such luck as our car needed more work than it was worth.  We did end up donating it to Cars for Kids so that will be a nice tax deduction next year.

We started out at one dealership.  I’ll never understand the whole car buying process.  You start with a younger guy, he wants to know what you are interested in, I ended up test driving a 2008 Kia Sportage that had about 35k on it.  It was a decent car.  But then the dance begins.  They throw out a number, Tony throws out another number, he has to get up and “talk to his manager” even though we just watched the manager walk in a completely different direction.

We ended up walking out.  On to dealership #2!  The more we talked about it going to the second dealership, we both decided that we should look for a used Rogue.  After test driving another used Rogue, we sit down to do the dance again.  Although almost immediately the VP of the dealership took over.  Turns out our salesman has only been selling cars for 5 weeks and needed some help.

So imagine our surprise when we told him how much of a car payment we could afford, he says “for that number I can put you in a brand new 2012.”  Shut the front door.  Tony stayed behind while I went out to hand pick my 2012 car, when he says these magic words “for only another $900 over the course of the loan, you could get this special edition.”

As soon as I came back in and Tony saw my face, he realized I had already made up my mind – I wanted that car.  It was then that he told me that he should have just done this by himself!

This has all the bells and whistles – backup navigation, built in XM radio, bluetooth so I just have to press a button to answer my phone and talk through the car.  I then felt kind of guilty because this car is more deluxe than the Ford Fusion Tony just bought, but then he said “you deserve a nice car.”  Thanks honey!   The white rental Rogue is going back today!  I have to give a shout out to Patrick at M’Lady in Crystal Lake – very courteous service and would not hesitate to recommend buying a car there.  Just let me know if you do because if we refer someone that buys a car – we get a car payment made for us.

By the time we finished everything up, it was nearly a 4 hour process between the two dealerships.  We hadn’t done any grocery shopping or anything, so we made an impromptu dinner run.  We just headed in a direction and ended up at Bimbo’s in McHenry.   The place was packed, always a good sign.  We only had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated.  No pictures turned out because it was pretty dark in the restaurant, but I had the special – it was a fontina and spinach chicken breast in a white wine sauce that was amazing.  Tony got the veal marsala and it was equally delicious.  It was a long day Saturday, but mission accomplished.

I have a new salsa recipe.  You guys know I go on and on about my baja fresh salsa and grilled cherry salsa.  I decided to switch things up and made a grilled cherry tomatillo salsa.  Sadly my camera was being recharged so there aren’t a lot of pictures.  I forgot how much I like the tang of tomatillos!

Cherry Tomatillo Salsa

• 2 pounds tomatillos, husk removed
• 2 cups cherries, divided
• juice of 1 lime, zest of 1 lime
• 1 cup cilantro leaves (I loves cilantro!)
• oops – forgot to add 1 jalapeno (I left the seeds in for heat, you can take them out for a more mild salsa)
• 3 garlic cloves
• salt to taste

Heat grill.  Grill tomatillos and 1 cup of the cherries until charred.  Let the cherries cool and pit the cherries.  While the grilled cherries cool, pit the second cup of cherries.

Add the tomatillos, grilled cherries, lime juice, lime zest, cilantro, garlic and salt and pulse until pureed.  Add the remaining 1 cup fresh cherries and pulse until combined.  Season with additional salt as needed.

I was actually talking to my brother on the phone when I was making this.  I was using our gas grill when I went to check on the tomatillos, and realized my propane tank was empty and I had no spare.  I was like “damnit – I have no fuel!”  And then without skipping a beat he said – “it doesn’t suck as much as having cancer.”   True dat!  And for the record, we did have a lot of laughs in our conversation.

I love the color the cherries give this salsa.  I had to switch gears and I grilled everything on our weber, and this has that extra smoky flavor.

I am planning on doing a Mexican fiesta for our Friday work lunch, so salsas are done.

I asked Tony what he wanted for his Papa Day dinner and he said “what about a surf and turf?”  We haven’t had crab legs in ages, so this was a welcomed treat.  And you can’t have crabs without some meat!  This time we got a Ribeye to split.

Here’s the secret to a perfect steak.

1. Salt and Pepper the meat.
2. Let the meat come to room temperature before you cook it.
3. Grill at high heat.
4. Let it get a crust before moving it – and don’t move your meat too much! (that’s what she said)
5. Let the meat rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Tony watched as a chef on Jimmy Kimmel used an olive oil herb spread on the meat as it cooked, and also left some on the cutting board as the steak rested.  Our combo was basil, rosemary and a little bit of thyme.

The crab were still frozen, so they went on first to first defrost, and then cook.

The crab took about 20 minutes total since it was snow crab and not too big.

My plate, although I could only eat half of the meat on there because I ate all the crab.

The crab was so sweet, and the steak was cooked perfectly – nice and medium rare.  Hope you had a great day Tony!

So with my lack of exercise last week, I am not going to lie that I was a bit nervous getting on the scale this morning.  Imagine my surprise – exactly the same as last week – I’ll take maintenance for a victory this week!

Who wants to be my workout accountability person this week?  I need to just check in with someone to stay on track this week – I need to get to the gym 5 times this week and I want to email someone and tell them I did it – just let me know in the comments section.

I have to go check on my zucchini quiche I made for breakfast – if it turns out I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.  Make it a great day!