Let them eat steak!

First, a quick update on the fridge. The new fridge came on Tuesday (yet again, my friends came through for me and made miracles happen) and it is AWESOME!!!!! You can't even tell it's a scratch n' dent fridge that also survived a truck going off the side of the road! Look at how lovely it is:

It's ginormous!

Look at all the storage space, including two humidity controlled crisper drawers, a temperature control meat/cheese/deli tray, and bonus third drawer for whatever! And did I mention the shelves are spill proof and slide-out?!?!?

And look at all the storage in the pull-out freezer! I can easily fit a turkey in the bottom and upper tray makes for great organization!

You're jealous, I know. :p

Enough about my fancy new fridge that I got for under cost (I will be cooking a gourmet dinner for my girlfriend who sold it to me in thanks this Sunday). Let's talk about steak. It's been well over 5 months since I last ate a piece of steak, and my only exposure to red meat since that time has been the occasional lamb in my lamb stuffed vegetables. After all that time, I risked it and had a small amount of steak last night at my work's holiday party. We were at a country club and allowed to order off the menu, but unfortunately there were not many things on the menu that were bubble-girl friendly.

Side note: speaking of bubble-girl my coworker yesterday was joking that I should live in a bubble... it actually makes me smile when people say that because it is so true given my ridiculous amount of allergies and now that I have a blog and lifestyle dedicated to talking about and actually breaking those bubbles it makes me motivated to do it more!

Everything available to eat last night was laden with non-bubble friendly foods. The safest looking item on the menu, that also would require the least effort on the chef's effort to accommodate said food allergies (which is how I make these things work as opposed to calling ahead of time and talking with the chef like I should... I'm lazy in that respect) was the 5oz fillet with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. I spoke with a waitress to let her know of my food allergies (or at least the ones that were likely to be present in the meal I was ordering, it's easier than listing all 20 million of them), and she was so understanding and accommodating I couldn't believe it! When I thanked her for being so wonderful, she told me that she had food allergies when she was a child and grew out of them so she understood what it's like eating with food allergies. Takes one to know one, right?

My dinner was wonderful and my gallbladder (thankfully) did not complain at all. Granted I only ate half of the 5oz fillet because I was so satisfied from the baked potato (I substituted from the garlic mash to save on some unneeded fat and heavy cream) and asparagus and starter salad- which had a very tasty raspberry poppy seed dressing- that I didn't feel like eating more than that of the steak. Plus, the steak was way overcooked and dried out. I can't say the chef was good chef, but at least he went above and beyond in accommodating my needs so I can't talk too much smack about him. I even split a triple berry lemon cake for dessert with my husband, and still no complaints from the GB! Success! Granted, I did feel like my stomach was churning a little bit in it's attempt to digest the food, but it was probably mostly a result of my stressing about whether or not I would have GB attack. These things are frequently psychosomatic, I've discovered.

I still have a ton of pics and other stories to share from the move in to the new house, but right now I am off to get a move on my day and finish some unpacking. It's my day off and I've got things to do!