Father’s Day Fireball

Well, Father’s Day was a huge success with one exception. I’ll get to that in a minute. The day started out with breakfast in bed for Rob. Emma made the scrambled eggs, Hunter made the juice and toast, Hannah put the honey and ketchup on the tray and we came in singing Happy Father’s day to the tune of “Happy Birthday.” Rob loved it and ate it all even though he’s not a big breakfast eater and probably only wanted half of it. After the kids and Dad were all bathed and dressed, Hunter and Emma presented the cards and gifts they had made for him. Emma made a book telling all about her dad, and Hunter made a large card saying what he likes about his dad (to my surprise he said, “when he teases me.”) Emma had made him a paper airplane too and let Hannah give that to him because she was feeling a bit left out. Church was nice. The Primary sang a new song all about how “God gave me a dear earthly father, so I would remember His love.” It was so sweet. The Young Women even handed out a big cookie to all of the dads afterwards.

I thought it would be fun to grill a tri tip steak for dinner. It seemed like the ultimate Dad dinner. Rob was in Hunter’s room with Hunter and Emma playing school and I could hear a thump thump sound that meant they had just started gym class. So I got the roast ready and even put a digital thermometer in it so I would know when it was done. I figured I should cook it until it reached 160 degrees since I don’t like to see blood when I cut into my meat. It was doing well and I was getting the side dishes ready while it cooked. When it reached about 80 degrees I thought it was time to turn it over. No problems there. I stuck the thermometer back in and it read 82 degrees so I closed the lid and went back in the house. Almost 10 minutes later I looked at the thermometer and it still said 82, that seemed weird. Shouldn’t it be heating up faster than that? I went to take a look and noticed that the paint on the outside was bubbling. That can’t be good. I opened the lid to find that the tri-tip was literally a fireball! The flames were really going and the thermometer was burned black. I stuck it with my giant BBQ fork and moved it to the upper rack away from the grill, but it was still on fire. I turned off all of the knobs and hoped I wouldn’t have to run for the baking soda. It did die out quickly, but I was left with what looked like black volcanic rock. I thought about taking a picture to put on the blog, but the thought of having a permanent record of it almost put me in tears. Now I wish I had because to my surprise I was able to save it. The middle was still raw so I put it in the microwave and hoped for the best. When I took it out and sliced it up it didn’t look bad at all, and dousing it with Worchestershire sauce helped add some flavor. At dinner everyone was very kind and even the kids said they really liked it. I think they wanted it to be a success after hearing my fireball story. I am still upset about the permanent damage to the BBQ, but Rob just laughed about it…. He did order a How-To-Grill type book today from Amazon and insists that he had already had his eye on it and was going to get it anyway. I think I know better.