Never order something because it's cute.

Pam took me to Steak 'n Shake on Tuesday after we picked up the car. Actually, I paid for the car and left it parked in the lot until after we'd had supper because the mechanic was on the way home after going to Steak 'n Shake.

Pam knows me very well. She knew that I would go home and not eat because I was stressed, even though I could pay for the car. I wouldn't exactly mope about but I certainly would stand in front of the open refrigerator and think, "I don't want to cook, but I should eat, but I don't want to." So, she kindly insisted we go for dinner.

We walked into Steak 'n Shake and this was on the table. Back last year, they were pushing these mini-hamburgers. Pam always orders the Frisco Melt but, on this occasion, she ordered the mini-hamburgers. They were a disappointment and she uttered the title of this post. Tuesday, I sat down, looked at the placard and thought, "Ooooh." But her original comment and her subsequent disappointment rose to the top of my thoughts. This is a manufactured picture. It can't possibly be decent.

I'm not that fond of cheese fries. The are very high in fat. But, after the 2 days I'd had, I decided I needed comfort food and fried potatoes, cheese and bacon are, most definately, comfort food. So, having made that decision, I perused the menu to find the rest of the meal. The next item to be considered was the shake portion.

They have a huge variety of shakes and it was difficult to pick, but I settled on the turtle shake. Finally, did I want a sandwich? Well, of course. Since I was already ordering something very high in fat, I decided the bacon double cheeseburger was out of the question. I considered ordering a salad but we had agreed on the drive there that, while Steak 'n Shake does have 3 salads on the menu, we don't go there for salads. I settled on the grilled chicken breast sandwich with no tomato and no mayo. I don't like mayonnaise and raw tomato. It wound up being a bun, a breast and a leaf of lettuce, which was fine because I was justifying ordering cheese fries with bacon.

The waitress was very nice and even laughed with us as Pam was in stitches across from me listening to my justifications for having bacon cheese fries. Here's my meal.

Pam had a double chocolate shake which was a chocolate shake with hot fudge on top. Mine was vanilla with hot fudge, whipped cream, cherry and pecan pieces. It was very good.

And, actually, the bacon cheese fries were good too, surprisingly good. I like Steak 'n Shake's fries. They have a good flavor to them. The sandwich was also good and the right compliment to the fries. The best part was that it wasn't that expensive. We ate for a bit over $20 for two of us and got food that hadn't been sitting under a heat lamp for an hour.

So, while you probably shouldn't order something because it's cute or because it looks very good in a staged photo, this turned out okay. I would recommend the bacon cheese fries to someone. But, I won't order them again for awhile. I need to let that congealed cheese work its way out of my system.

Beverage: Irish Breakfast tea

Deb