Burnt Steak and Sauteed Mushrooms

It had been about 15 minutes since my dad put the steaks on the grill. It was the third quarter of the Bills game and my dad was constantly yelling at the rectangular screen sitting in the middle of our living room. Clearly, he had forgotten about the steaks, and my mom was watching her own little Japanese show on her ipad. Before her attention had gotten sucked up by the ipad, she constantly kept reminding my dad, “don’t forget the steak” and my dad would reply, “I know hon, I knowww” so after the 10 minute show had ended, she was silent. She had just remembered that my dad had left the steaks on for far too long and so my mom went absolutely ballistic. “Hey, Peter, go and get the goddamn steaks of the f***ing grill!” And my dad hurriedly ran outside and grabbed the steaks off the grill with his bare hands. You could just see the fear in his eyes of my mom just screaming at him. He comes inside and sets it on the table and while we are waiting for the steaks to rest so that the juices soak back up, my mom cooks the mushrooms. First, she slices them up with her old part time job skills that she worked for when my grandma had started a restaurant. Then, she threw them in the pan and sauteed them for 15 minutes, and put balsamic vinegar over them to add a little flavor. At the moment, you could smell the burnt steak but it just smelled amazing in the moment because we were so hungry and could also smell the balsamic vinegar in the air mixing with the smell of the steak.

At the dinner table, you could just see dad's tense movements filled with anxiety. He was ready to get the death stare from my mom. He slowly watched my mother take a bite out of the tough, hard beef and you could see the disappointment in her face. But this time, she didn’t yell, or scream, or stare at him. She had walked with her plate, to the garbage, and thrown the steak away. 

My family that day had mushrooms and fast food for dinner and it was really good. My dad had made his famous, inedible steak, and got chewed out by my mom. It was a very funny night watching my dad get scolded again and later that night, the Bills had won.