{ eat: coca-cola marinated london broil }

This is a yummy one.

For Nana and Papa Bear's first night in town, we decided to grill a beautiful, Whole Foods london broil.

I was looking for a simple marinade, and it struck me that I could use good, ol' Coca-Cola for the job. With a few little "improvements," of course.

First, I made the marinade.

I combined about a cup of olive oil, a cup of balsamic vinegar and 5-6 cloves of garlic, all chopped up, in a plastic container.

Then I added about half of a big bottle of Coke, some kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, and gently stirred it together.

I put the london broil into the marinade, sealed it up, and left it in the fridge for about 4 hours to soak up all that yummy goodness.

About 90 minutes before dinner, I started to put together PW's Crash Hot Potatoes. Definitely the perfect complement to our Coca Cola london broil.


I boiled a bunch of red potatoes in salted water until they were about at the consistency you would need to mash them.

I lined a baking sheet with foil, drizzled it with olive oil, and set the potatoes on it. Then I used a potato masher to smash them on down.

I brushed the potatoes with extra virgin olive oil, 

and then sprinkled with ground black pepper, kosher salt and finely chopped fresh rosemary.

The potatoes went in a 450 degree oven on the top rack for about 30 minutes, until nice and crispy. Yum.

While at Whole Foods, I had also purchased a quartet of Spinach Cakes. They look like the spinach patties that my family makes, only larger. I thought they would be a yummy veggie for the meal.

And that meat? MacGyver put that bad boy on the grill. We were going for well done and medium (I prefer my red meat charred), so it's probably a little darker than most carnivores prefer. You do it your way. 

And last, but certainly not least... Coconut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, topped with toasted coconut for dessert (a belated birthday surprise for Papa Bear).