Wacky Takes A Night Off - Grilling Steaks With Longhorn Steakhouse!

“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Dad Central Consulting for LongHorn Steakhouse. I received a gift card to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.” 

www.dadcentralconsulting.com

In my house I do ALL of the grilling.  Much to my chagrin sometimes.  There are days when I walk in the house an I see my wife murdering perfectly good pieces of beef under the broiler.  I instantly panic and see if she wants me to finish them on the grill to try to give them some life support.  That usually elicits a scowl that makes me back off rather quickly, and I enjoy the shoe leather as much as possible!  (Its great shoe leather Cathy!)

Enter Longhorn Steakhouse.  I recently received an offer to dine out at Longhorn Steakhouse and to write a review about my dining experience. Tough right?  If anyone wants to take the grilling off my hands and do it for me, than I'm all for it.  I love a good steak! We went last night, and I must say I was impressed!  I considered it an early Father's Day present, and was really excited to try a steakhouse that I hadn't been to before.  Longhorn is relatively new to our area, and with 3 kids we don't always get out to eat as much as we would like to.   

You can see my deprived daughters are ready for a night of meat eating too!

We were greeted warmly when we walked into the restaurant  and even though they told us we'd have a 5 minute wait, we were able to sit right down after about 2 minutes.  A good thing, because my 5 year old Mia was starving!  Our server was great, she instantly made friends with my hungry little daughter, and got her some Crayons and Kids Menu to play with to give mom and dad a break.

  

I believe Mia mentioned something about me having big nostrils.  That is her likeness of me!

We all ordered up our meals.  I picked out the 20 oz. porterhouse steak with a one of those decadent butter and cinnamon sugar covered sweet potatoes to go with it and waited with bated breath for it to come out.  The salads were great, and I was thrilled to hear that they had Italian dressing. That is an instant negative if a restaurant doesn't have Italian dressing.  I mean come on!   The food came out quickly, especially for a steakhouse, and it wasn't like the place was empty, they were actually pretty packed for a Thursday night.  Here's what they presented to me.  Can you see why I was happy?! It tasted great, perfectly seasoned and tender as can be!

Nice presentation - Here's the meat!

Everybody else's food looked great, and even the 5 year old was raving about her chicken fingers (they were really good, dad snagged a taste).  

I was impressed that I actually got a perfectly "Medium" steak like I asked for!

What can I say.  It was good times all around, everyone was happy with their meals, and we got in and out in probably about an hour which is great when you have young kids.  I would recommend Longhorn Steakhouse to any family who is jonesing for a good steak, but just doesn't feel like firing up the grill that night!  Oh one last thing.  I always love the huge steak knives that are available at steakhouses, but the ones at Longhorn were really extra sharp, and heavy duty, and they actually have a signature set available for all of you Longhorn loving dads out there.  Here's a pic of what they look like.  They are very heavy in the hand, and I'm confident you might be able to saw through an oak tree with one!

And for any of you grill challenged folks out there, I have a nice grilling fact sheet to provide you with.  Next time you even think about firing up the broiler, remember Wacky Dad, and break out this hand guide!

Here are a couple photos of our experience!  

Enjoy and happy grilling!

Wacky Dad

The Energizer Bunny Goes Nightcrawling

Recently, I was presented with the opportunity to write a 
post about an Energizer Night-Headlight.

My Night Headlight!

Being the meathead that I am, I was super excited at the opportunity and jumped at it. I am a total flashlight junkie!  While shopping at Wal-Mart for the light, I opted for the 70 Lumens Trailfinder.  As every self-respecting meathead should know, it all comes down to lumens when talking about lighting.  I always opt for the most power, and I snagged the biggest, baddest version on the shelf.   I have a graveyard of flashlights that I have beat up and destroyed over the years, and that included my previous headlight that my mother-in-law gave me when headlights first became popular.  If you read my blog, you'll know that I am always up to some manner of activity that requires lighting.  Cleaning a carburetor at dusk, working under the truck, climbing in crawlspaces and attics, you name it, I do it.  I had something a little more fun in mind for my new, night headlight this time though.  

NIGHT-CRAWLING!

Mia, The Fearsome Worm Hunter

As a kid we never bought worms for fishing.  We all had "worm boxes".  We went night crawling after every major rain storm.  Those big, fat, juicy worms would be up, out of their holes, soaking up the moonlight, and we were there to grab them!  My worm-box was an old wooden box I found somewhere that I re-purposed and turned into a worm-box.  But a worm-box can be pretty much anything.  The plastic container that Mia is holding in the picture above is just fine.  It's been a while since I had taken the kids out night-crawling, and I had never tried a headlight to hunt for them so I was totally into the idea of freeing up one hunting-hand and trying the "two handed" approach!

Fashion Diva Meets Worm Hunting

So basically, there isn't any brain surgery to hunting night-crawlers, except that you need to be very stealthy, and you need to be mindful of your light and where you point it.  Night-crawlers can sense you coming at them.  It must be the vibration of the ground that they feel because you need to tread very lightly.  Also if you shine a light directly at them, they "scram" back into their holes as fast as can be.  One thing I was intrigued by on my new beam headlight was it's ability to operate with "red light".  My daughter Ailey and I hypothesized the red light would probably allow us to sneak up on the worms without scaring them away.  It turns out that we were right on the money with that guess!  The red light mode on our night headlights was a "killer" for sneaking up on the worms.  It was almost as if they couldn't sense it at all.  It allowed us to get right up on top of them and grab them before they knew what was coming.

Ailey Showing Off Our New Secret Weapon - Red Light!

Note The "Two Handed" approach and the fabulous head-light quality and brightness!

This time of year you often find two worms snuggled up next to each other, which can only be some sort of worm mating ritual.  Kind of gross if you ask me but invariably, you only catch one of the worms when you're holding a flashlight since you only have one hand free.  Last night was the first time I was able to "Double Fist" and actually catch 2 worms at a time! Having two hands free, and the red light mode made us unstoppable!  We probably pulled in about 2 dozen worms of assorted sizes.  Below you can check out the big bruiser that Ailey spotted!

All in all, I was super impressed with my new night headlight from Energizer.  The build-quality seemed good, the water tight case impressed me, and the battery compartment was easily accessible as well as watertight.  All things that are a must for any true outdoors-person.  I am certainly a happy customer.  I'm also glad that my kids and I were able to enjoy a night out, night-crawling, and reliving some of my childhood memories, while also helping them to hone their night-crawling skills!

Note the red waterproof gasket surrounding the battery compartment.  Very cool.

For all of my fellow meatheads who are going to run out and pick up a headlight for their next worming excursion, I highly recommend the Energizer Trailfinder. Be sure to check out Energizer at www.energizer.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Energizer

Don't forget when you store worms, you'll want to keep them in a very cool place (I prefer the refrigerator). We like to feed our worms old coffee grounds.  It makes them fat and juicy, as well as super energetic (maybe the caffeine?)!

Just A Teaspoon full Of Coffee Grounds!
Disregard the messy kitchen in the background!

OH, AND BY THE WAY...

And Always put a warning sign on your worm box!

Happy Hunting!

Love,

Wacky Dad

The Simple Things.

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best. A 40 year old kid and a 5 year old kid having a grand old time out in the sprinkler on a "wicked" hot day! Thanks for the fun Mia!

Love,

Wacky Dad

A Wine Box - A Man's Best Friend!

My favorite box.

Hey wackys!  wait till you see what I have on "tap" for you tonight!  As most of you know I am a big fan of boxed wine.  Actually I'm a big fan of cheap wine, which happens to be in the box most of the time.

Nice Technique!

Well last night I had a pretty huge revelation.  There is a hidden gem inside of the box!  The bladder inside has ohhhhhh so many potential uses. Can you see it?

Dig!

This revelation came when I pulled the bladder out of the inside of the box, and I blew it up like a balloon as usual.  This puts the last dregs of wine under pressure so you can get every last drop out and not waste a bit (yeah I know, awesome trick.  Learned that from my old friend Billy).

My new friend - I call him Ralphie.

  It was right about then that the light bulb went off (true : the bulb was hazy and purple)!  The bladder inside has so much promise!  It can be a volleyball, a football, water wings, a best friend, etc.  My God the possibilities are endless. Hell if you put enough of these things inside the Titantic, I'm pretty sure we could raise the damned thing.   It could be dock material, a scuba tank, a balloon.  I could go on and on.  I have found my ticket to ride.  Look for me peddling (or drinking) these babies on a corner near you!

Thank Me Later!

Wacky Dad

A Star Is Born!

Tonight was really a special night.  My daughter Abby sang in her spring music concert.  It is the culmination of a whole year of voice lessons and practice.  I was really blown away by Abigail and her peers tonight.  What a bunch of talented young ladies and men.  I am not always the type that goes in for music and theater, but when it is good I really enjoy it.  Except for the sweaty five year old bouncing on my lap for an hour and a half I would have been content to listen further.

I am totally impressed by the level of awe all of these kids hold for their teacher Phoebe Madden.  She really is an incredible singer and teacher.  Her fantastic show tonight was proof positive.  Of course I'm here mostly to brag about my own daughter!  Abigail played three roles tonight.  She sang her own solo, which included a small acting piece, she accompanied her friend, and it just so happens that she wrote the lyrics and the music for the song she accompanied.



Now I don't know much about music, but I know enough to know that a kid who can pull that all off is got something going for her.  The thing is that Abby seems to do it all with such ease.  She really enjoys every second of it, and I am so happy to see her truly in her element enjoying herself so much.  God knows she doesn't get it from me.  I'm afraid to even go near a stage! Here is a video of Abby performing "Wouldn't It Be Lovely".  Sorry for the small aspect ratio - Abby's dad can't remember which way to hold his phone while taking video..ughh.

To my Abby, I love you, I am so proud of what you can do, and with how well you hold it all together with so much grace and poise.  I am truly humbled to be your father.


Love,

Your Wacky Dad