London broil sliced on the bias. Photo by Deborah Kaplan.

From the moment I met DH in high school geography class to present day, he has always played little practical jokes on me. Keeping that thought in mind…Back in 1980, I marinated a 4 pound top of the round London broil in the refrigerator overnight. So the next night at 5 pm when I got home from work, I placed it on the broiling pan, discarded the marinade, and seasoned the meat with garlic. Turned the broiler on which unlike my broiler now was in a drawer underneath the oven. I then placed the broiling pan with the London broil on top into the drawer under the broiler. I then closed the drawer and set the timer for 6 minutes. DH came out of the shower and went in to the kitchen to get a drink. I went into the great room to set up our TV trays so we could watch the news while eating dinner. He came back in and sat down to look at the mail. The timer went off and I opened the drawer and the London broil was gone! I screamed at DH, “WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE LONDON BROIL??” He said, he didn’t do anything with it. I yelled, “YOU DID TOO!!!” DH replied that honestly, he didn’t do anything with it. Of course I didn’t believe him at all. So he finally got up and came in the kitchen to look for it. First he looked in the oven, then the broiler, then like he thought I might be absentminded, he looked in the refrigerator. I told him that I had definitely put it in the broiler and now it was gone! So he took the drawer out completely. He then got a flash light and peered in. Only then did he see that the meat had slid back and fallen down the back, on bottom of the broiler. Apparently it was too thick. It went in fine, but when I opened the drawer, the London broil got caught on the top of the broiler. This caused it to be pushed off the broiling pan landing in the back. DH was able to fish it out. We ended up washing it and cutting off the part that was touching the bottom of the broiler. Back behind the drawer was disgusting! We don’t think it was ever cleaned since it was first installed in that apartment. By cutting off that part, it was just enough to fit in the broiler perfectly. It turned out great.