never start something new during lacrosse season

Three games last week, prom, four games this week, playoffs next week, Kelly moves home and my time is just pretty darn limited.

You can imagine that during the lacrosse season that what goes on my table is not always my "A Game". Costco loves the Rogers family this time of year. My parents visited two weekends ago and they loved everything, of course, and Greg and I would just reply in unison, "Costco".

I am not a chocolate person, but one fateful trip to Costco we sampled the milk chocolate salted caramel macadamia nut clusters (key words: salted caramel - really, try it: make caramel brownies and dust with some sea salt). Greg simply popped one in his mouth and put a jar in our cart. The best $9.99 ever.

Our big meal that weekend was our famous Barbecued Tri-Tip with Carmelized Onions based on a recipe from epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Barbecued-Tri-Tip-with-Caramelized-Red-Onions-109697 . Tri-Tip is a yummy cut of beef that I buy at Costco and used to find in a cut that resembles brisket, but recently it's cut in strips that resemble boneless short ribs. Very few changes were made by me in the preparation from the Bon Appetit recipe: the Red Wine Barbecue sauce is yummy and full of heat if you use a canned chipotle with some of the adobo sauce (let's say 2 tsps or more for more heat) instead of chipotle chili powder and (as almost always) I forgot to add the chives. Fabulous company meal and great leftovers. I've even reviewed it on epicurious. So good.

Serve your tri-tip with some potato dish, grilled asparagus and a nice salad. Buy yourself a nice non-stick grilling basket and toss in some fingerling potatoes (Costco has delicious ones and we fight over the purple potatoes), olive oil and kosher salt. Throw in some chopped sweet onion and a couple of cloves of minced garlic to make it fancy if you like. Put the basket on one side of the grill and toss it every now and then for 15 to 25 minutes. Easy.

Dessert was a double-crust strawberry rhubarb pie and vanilla bean ice cream. Another time I'll share my piecrust recipe. I'll remember a photo or two too because my fruit pies are gorgeous and delicious. Not to brag, but honestly it's not too much trouble especially if one of your favorite foods is fruit pie.

I learned to cook and bake and I do both on an almost daily basis because I love to eat. Food is fuel, but at my house food is love too.