Cars, Baseball, Hot Dogs...America anyone?

Yesterday morning I went to clean out the Green Monster and say goodbye. Couldn't find anybody who wanted her, so she is going to a salvage yard. Even though I've only been driving the car 2 years, it's been in my life since I was 15. Sort of strange to walk away. But I did find A LOT of quarters in various compartments. Also proof that I never really cleaned out the glove box either when I bought the car from Mom...an Ames store "Over-55" discount key chain card, and an old grocery list in Mom's handwriting on an envelope. Also every single insurance slip for Dad and Mom since 1995 stuck together in a little plastic sleeve.

After the car clean out, since it was Matt's one day off in ten days, he was kind of enough to listen to me plan the car-getting trip on Friday. I'm planning on a Hyundai Elantra, but we'll see what happens.

Because of Matt's day off we went to the beach and then to Fraser Field to see the North Shore Navigators lose 4-1 to the Lowell All-Americans. Strangest baseball game either of us has been to. It could have been that since we went to the 4:00 game of a double-header on a Tuesday, that the lack of people was normal. At the beginning of the game there were about 20 people in the stands, mid-way through about 30, and about 40 by the end. They weren't even selling tickets, we just walked right in. But a couple beers, a couple hot dogs and the best seats in the park made for a most enjoyable afternoon. It was the first Navigators game we've been to. Hopefully the Navs get into the playoffs and we can go see another game or two in August.

We only had one hot dog each at the ball park around 4:30, which was more of a snack, so we still needed dinner. Matt was really in the mood for more hot dogs, so we picked up some good Boar's Head All-Beef Dogs (they were on sale for less than the stop and shop brand!), and some buns. Buttered and toasted the outside of the buns, and then used our trusty Lodge cast-iron grill pan to cook up the dogs. Add Mom's sweet cucumber relish, some mustard (and ketchup too for Matt). Beats any ballpark hot dog I've had.

Oh, and stay tuned for adventures in grilled panini. Matt picked up a cast iron panino press that fits perfectly with our Lodge grill pan. A little trial and error on some tuna melts the other night (we valiantly ate both the mistakes and the successes), and we've figured it out. The variables were thickness of bread (can't go too thick) and level of pre-heating of the press (can't heat high enough nestled inside the grill pan, it needs its own heat source to properly grill once atop the sandwich).