Makin' Steak

This is "Cooking with Ben: Act II"

It was pretty nice out yesterday, so after our run I busted out some mad steak grilling skillz. Now there is not much advice I can give on grilling, you either know what you are doing or you don't. If the directions are written out, it just looks like I am being a dick: You throw some meat on the grill, then you flip it, and pour tasty junk onto it.

I'm not sure if that second shot looks the way it does due to my mad skills or Taylors apparent lack of skills with food photography.

That is what steak looks like. I am being a little facetious, but honestly I can't imagine how I could give a tutorial on steak like I could with an omelette.

The one piece of advice I can give you, should you endeavor to make steak: Apparently you should be dancing or something. I don't really remember dancing, or being photographed while doing so, but I guess it happened. It was probably while we were talking about "This is Why I'm Hot" by MIMS. Or more accurately, my version with the same melody "This is How I Steak."

Anyway, I am pretty sure Talyor enjoyed it. He can attest to my ability to steak. And in case you were wondering what that red drink is, it's the watered down blood of my fallen enimies. Or as you might know it, Hawiian Punch.

We's Makin' Ice Cream!

Not really. We're eating it, a lot of it, to be precise. That's actually why we decided that we must be in the ice cream making business.

I think I may have had Ben and Jerry's ice cream a total of once. So, despite the fact that H loves the stuff, I was relatively unaware of their wonderful flavor selection. That may be their only redeeming quality, as it was ridiculously expensive, too expensive too justify buying, despite Barrack Obama telling us that, "Yes, Pecan".

As wonderful as that was, it was more than twice as expensive as some other, less colorfully named ice cream brands. But still, it was enough to get us thinking, if these guys can have ice cream flavors, why not us.

So, just tossing it out there, we may have to make Ben and Taylor's Mount Airy's Finest Ice Cream. At the very least, we demand our own flavors of Ben and Jerry's. We are at the very least as famous as anyone else who has their own flavor of ice cream. And if not as famous, then twice as awesome. Try these on for size:

Ben's Apple Sauce
(picture may or may not be forthcoming)

Taylor's Purple, Green, and Orange Sherbet

So yeah, look for it.

Roy Rogers Restaurant Review, Really!

That's some decent alliteration.

And we really did review a Roy Rogers.

We fully intended to review someplace better that a Roy Rogers, but on the bright side, it wasn't a Burger King. We went with a classier fast food establishment. Anyways, we were in Thurmont to see Cunningham Falls, and we were starving, so it was decided that we should check out the local diners and see what's what. But after driving up and down Thurmont, and having really only the option between Fast Food, and places that were both way too classy and way to crowded, we went to Roy Rogers.

Anyways, as far as Fast Food goes, Roy Rogers is the way to go if you want fast food that doesn't make you feel sick afterwards. It's a bit on the pricey side, I spent $7.52 on the double bacon cheeseburger combo with fries and a soda. Unfortunately, we were not at the one in Frederick where our FCC student ids would earn us a sweet %15 discount.

The food was pretty good. I guess our review would be a little better if we had ordered different things, but selection, not wonderful at Roy Rogers. To be fair, I specified that my double bacon cheeseburger not be a cheeseburger, since that don't offer a comparable meal without cheese, but that's pretty general across the board, and something, as a person who doesn't like cheese on most things, that I have learned to live with. I will note that it appears that they started to put cheese on it anyways, and then remembered and took it off, as I could see cheese on some of my bacon. That, or they took that piece of bacon off a different burger, one with cheese. I like to think that's it, but there's no way of knowing.

The fries were much better than most other fast food fries. I have much praise for their fries. They aren't too salty, and they have a seasoning on them that I couldn't place, but was rather good on fried slices of potatoes.

Also, the Roy Rogers in Thurmont has the soda fountain behind the counter, so if your looking for the refills, this is not the place for you. Also equally inconvenient for making building designs out of cups, lids, and straws.

The service, well, it oversteps its bounds. We knew walking in that we were at a Roy Rogers, and not some classier restaurant, so we were a bit taken aback when one of the staff came to our table, told us she would have asked us how our food was, but we hadn't started eating yet, and then offered us an after dinner mint. It was just an awkward moment. We didn't go to a restaurant where we expected to be waited on, we were not obligated to nor had any intention of tipping this woman, and we already had our food, so having someone check up on us was less than desirable. The mint was good though. I will give them that. I wouldn't be opposed to it being commonplace to have a basket of mints on the way out the door like they do in most pizza places, but I don't want someone to bring it to my table.

Roy Rogers is also a apparently not getting on the going green bandwagon. For my meal, I got four receipts. One that tells me what I ordered, one that tells me what I ordered and that I paid, the customer copy of my credit card transaction that's also on the other receipt saying I paid, and the store copy of the credit card transaction. I think I would have been fine with the one with everything on it, but you know, wasting paper is cool too. Not to mention the paper they lay down on the tray. I'm pretty sure, well at least I'm hoping that they have washed the trays and they are safe to east off of. I'm already in the restaurant, eating, so there is no need to advertise themselves further. I just ate off of it, so I'm not going to take it home (well I might, if I use it to design something awesome, not unlikely). While some people can get annoying in their showing off about how much they're going green, saving the earth is not something I will be too upset with you for.

Also, the fake flowers take some serious inspection before you are %100 positive that they are indeed fake. It adds an almost cheery atmosphere. The country music playing was pretty terrible. What made it better was Ben's imitation of all country music. (Look for it in the near future! Ben's putting out a country album) The western cowboy theme seemed a little too much, until I saw that they have fry holders shaped like holsters, that you can actually wear! I didn't enjoy this idea at first, for some reason, but it grows on you, as I'm sure all sorts of molds, bacterias and fungi would be growing on your hip should you actually wear a holster full of fries around. Brilliant.

Roy Rogers also leaves this handy comment card on the tables. I suppose if I were to rate it based on the standards they set down, it would be like so:

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being poor, 3 being good, and 5 being excellent

1. Taste of Food: 3
It was pretty good, but a far cry from excellent.
2. Speed of service: 4
It's tough to say, but I was pleased because my food was ready by the time I came out of the bathroom. And you don't want your food ready too quickly anyways, because then you have to wonder, how long ago did they make it?
3. Order Accuracy: 2
Yeah, I definitely saw where they had started to put cheese on my burger, when I specifically said, multiple times, no cheese.
4. Attentiveness & Courtesy: 3
They greeted us once we came in, but not as we were walking in the door, which is nice, but then, as I said, they overstepped their bounds.
5. Cleanliness: 4
Their bathroom was pretty clean, and I liked how it had both the air dryers and paper towels.

Well, I saved the best for last. As enjoyable as the fry holster is, the regular shaped small fry container is even more wonderful.

The Roy Rogers small fry holder.


You're going to want to open it up along the seams.


Fold the little side lip thingies down.


Fold it in half longways.


Fold it in half again shortways.

And BAM, you have a cardboard frog, curtesy of Roy Rogers. Good for hours of fun. I'm sure this is totally feasible with most any fry holders, but I would have to see them. Anyways, enjoy.

Makin' Bacon

More specifically a bacon and cheese omelette. And just because we like music on this here blog, this is a sample of what I was listening to while creating this delectable fuel.

See, unlike my juice loving counterpart, I quite like food. I like making it, and I especially like eating it. It was only recently that I decided to learn how to make on omelette, and before that I had only eaten one. That was in a hotel no less. Before I get too off topic the point is omelettes are tasty, and it is well worth a try if you haven't made one before.

This particular omelette will consist of two eggs, two thick cut bacon slices and some cheese. Chesse is pretty much a nessesity, it is the gule that holds the omelette together. Aside from that pretty much anything can go into it. Vegtables, meat, mushrooms, whatever goes with eggs.

First thing is first, I'm using two pans, one for the bacon, one for the eggs. The bacon is made to taste, so you can figure that one out. The egg pan should be at a medium high setting, greased in whatever fashion you desire.

The eggs go into a mixing bowl with about 1/4 cup milk and that gets mixed until it is consistent. That mixture goes into the pan, and you can leave it sit for a while.

Once you see some white spots and big bubbles forming in the eggs it is time to give the pan a swirl. The idea is to get a filmy skin of egg around the edge of the pan. Let it sit for a couple more minutes and then repeat the swirl, by now most of the egg should be solidified.

Now you stick a fork between the skin you make earlier and the pan, slightly lifting the egg. Slide the fork around the edge of the pan and then you are ready to add the innards.


As I said before the cheese holds it together, so don't skimp on it. Everything other than the cheese should be situated on one side, for ease of folding.


The next step is to fold the egg over, ideally this would be done with something other than a fork, as you can see I ripped my egg a little.

Leave it sitting long enough to melt the cheese and get everything to a nice warm temperature, flipping it at least once. And that is it.

Delicious Omelette.

I have nothing more to say to you for now, go make an omelette.