Today, at 2:15 pm MST, three Ph.D.’s will decide my fate - at least where graduate school is concerned. Yes, today, I defend my thesis.

If all goes well, I’ll have my M.A. in hand, and I can go gently into that good night somewhere here in the academy, live long and prosper and all that. If not, I have a back up plan, you know.

Over the holidays, I started cooking at a restaurant here in town - good deal for me and the new owners who were trying to get the thing off the ground. Lots of fun to cook, socialize, and experiment with food in a big kitchen. So, tonight is my last night doing that (getting my M.A. is unrelated), but before I departed, I decided to do an interpretation of the classic steak dinner, with bar food. Here it is:

Served in the classic fry basket, are: Hand cut sirloin finger steaks topped with onion rings and crumbled blue cheese; Idaho Potato Skins with sour cream and green onions; fried asparagus spears; and a side of homemade ranch dressing in a classy plastic 1 oz cup. There you have it, the steak dinner, reinterpreted for the pub.

So can I come cook at Canyon Crest with my masters degree and my domination of the deep fryer?