Time to Think about Cool Alternatives
With the onset of summer and after experiencing a couple of scorching days like we had last week, it is time to start thinking about getting out of the hot kitchen and making plans to eat out this summer. There aren’t too many Moms who enjoy slaving over a hot stove in the summertime. Having a backyard BBQ is one way to beat the heat, and is an all American pastime.
Having a backyard BBQ is not always as easy as it sound. You have to clean the grill light the charcoal, dust off the furniture, and then drag the food and the dishes from the kitchen to the backyard. And when you think you have everything set up, you sit down to wait for your hot juicy hamburger to find it’s way from the grill to your plate. Then in- variably someone says. “Where’s the mustard, where’s this, where’s that?” So it is back to the kitchen once, twice…three more times. By the time everything is dragged from the kitchen to the backyard, your hot juicy hamburger looks and tastes like the coals that it was cremated over. It seems like the most enjoyable part of the backyard BBQ is the thrill of challenging the bugs for your food.
The other alternative to standing over a hot stove in the summertime is to eat out. Not in the backyard but at one of the many quickie hamburger places that have sprung up over the past twenty years or so. I thoroughly enjoy watching all the TV advertising that these people spend a fortune on, just to get us out of the kitchen and down to fast food row. The competition between Wendy’s and McDonald’s is getting down right fierce. McDonald’s started a revolution in fast food breakfasts. Now Wendy’s tells us we don’t have to eat an Egg McMuffin anymore, they will fix our breakfast anyway we want it. I’m just waiting for McDonald’s to fight back with eggs benedict and champagne.
With the new fitness craze that is going on all around us, Wendy’s has jumped on the bandwagon. Now they are appealing to the fat fast food lovers on a diet. In their TV ad, a pretty, skinny 18 year old girl announces that she’s “not guilty”…she eats salad and low-cal buns at Wendy’s. So it seems if you are a fat fast food lover on a diet, Wendy’s has the most to offer from low-cal dressing for your garden fresh salad from their garden fresh salad bar to low-cal multi-grain buns and plain baked potatoes. I can’t find fault with a plain baked potato, but I prefer it to be sitting on a plate along side a 16 oz. T-Bone steak. Maybe that is why Wendy’s hasn’t asked me to do an “I’m not guilty” commercial
With Wendy’s appealing to the fitness generation, McDonald’s still gets Mom and Dad in the door by appealing to the grade school generation. They offer “Happy Meals” for the kids. Ronald McDonald has given away more toys in happy meal boxes than Santa Claus has given away at Christmas time. With this approach they don’t have to worry about having a salad bar because they know mom and dad will eat quarter pounders just to shut the kids up. And have you noticed that McDonald’s offers the kids toys in a set. By offering four or more toys in a set, (one each week) they are assured that the same family will be back each week until the offer expires. Everyone knows that kids will not settle for just one.
So as the kitchen gets hotter, the dilemma will start…will we share our fine homestyle charcoal burgers with all the creeper crawlers from three miles around or will we set out to make the great decision of who has the freshest, healthiest buns on fast food row. One thing is for sure. I truly believe in the old saying… “If you can’t stand the heat..get out of the kitchen.”
