Skiing Aspen

Another classic clip.... Originally appeared in Capital magazine.

By Jeremy Bloom

The parking lot dropped away behind us as we pulled up through the chill winter air. Thirty feet below our ski tips, hotdoggers whipped down the Lowerstein, an experts-only run that is one of the hardest at Aspen Highlands mountain.

The valley spread out behind us, in majestic green and white - green of pine, white of snow. The top of the lift was approaching swiftly.

“Which way should we turn when we get off?” I asked my companion, a native Coloradan who was escorting this Easterner on his first trip to the big mountains of the West.

“Straight, of course,” he replied. “This is just the first lift. We’ve got three more before we reach the top.”

Oh. Aspen Highlands is big. With its 3,800-foot vertical drop, it is the biggest of the four mountains here that form an 11-mile strip of ski heaven. Two more - Snowmass, at 3,555, and Aspen Mountain itself, at 3,370 - exceed the mightiest that the East has to offer - Vermont’s Killington, at 3,175. Together with their baby sister, Buttermilk, they have made the tiny village of Aspen synonymous with skiing, and a winter haven for ski bums, movie stars, European royalty and American students on a ski-blast vacation.

And also for writers who happen to love skiing. By the time we got off at Loge Peak, we were 11,800 feet above sea level and had traveled up more than three miles of lift.

We headed down Broadway, a wide but challenging track down the center of the mountain. There were five experts-only trails leading off at intervals on our right; we went over to investigate, but they looked more like vertical cliffs than slopes to me. Good thing I’m not an expert.

Adjusting our goggles against the glare of the sun and the snow, we continued down through the powder. The wind was cold on my cheeks, but that was the only part of me exposed - temperatures go down well below zero up here, and wind chill cools it off even further. We were well bundled. Under the layers of wool and Gore-Tex, we were warm with action and adrenalin.

On a mountain this size, you don’t spend anywhere near as high a percentage of your time standing and shivering on lift lines. There’s so much room to ski! And a hint: even if you are skiing in pairs, go for the singles line - an extra line that maximizes the efficiency of triple- and quad-chair lifts by letting singles fill in the empty seats. Not only will it cut your time in line, it’s also a great way to meet people and hear some wild stories.

Like the kid who told me, in an incredulous tone, about the gorgeous, blond, 30-ish corporate lawyer who comes out from California and spends one month per annum picking up blond beach-bum-type students and showering them with Champaign-and-caviar high life. This year she had found him, he told me in a tone that implied he still thought he was dreaming the whole thing.

Or the group of young ladies from London, dressed to the nines, who informed me in very posh Mayfair accents that Aspen was much better than those drab European ski resorts. “The facilities are ever so much better here, you know,” they said. “And the Alps are all above the tree line, you know, so it’s all just snow. There aren’t proper trails there a-tall.”

Skiing tends to be a sport of younger people; here that is particularly apparent. At two miles above sea level, there simply isn’t that much oxygen in the air. Even folks in the prime of life and in peak physical condition get tired after a few hours of hard, fast exertion; not being either, we exhausted quickly, and caught the free shuttle-bus back downtown.

Seasoned Aspen hands have a routine: ski ‘till three, then apres-ski and a bit of shopping ‘till eight, then party until three in the morning. Aspen is renowned for its high times as much as for its high peaks. And the paragon of Aspen night life is - the Paragon.

This restaurant/bar/disco may not be the hoity-toitiest place in town, but it truly epitomizes Aspen. The decor is rich with gorgeous woodwork and lots of stained glass, typical of the Victorian elegance of many of the buildings constructed during Aspen’s first heyday.

And as befits a restaurant serving the contemporary wild West (in a town where the cops drive Saabs), the menu is Thai. We had intensely spicy shrimp and a delectable satay beef with a tangy peanut dipping-sauce. We also tried the house drink, which was an unnatural bluish green and tasted like... well, tasted like bluish green. They wouldn’t tell us what was in it. Just as well.

All the travel guides advise against imbibing during the first three or four days of one’s stay in Aspen, because of the rarified mountain air. Judging by the crowd at the bar, most folks were either unconcerned, or didn’t mind the prospect of getting drunk quicker (and after all, many would only be staying three or four days). And the dance floor was jammed from 10:00 until 3:00 in the morning, although how they could dance on legs that had been up and down the slopes all afternoon was a mystery.

Aspen Mountain, the main ski area, is not for beginners. There are no green-marked beginner trails. Although most locals seem to prefer Highlands, Aspen Mountain sports the famous World Cup Downhill Race Course, and miles of powder. As far as we were concerned, both mountains are equally tough, hard, fast and a lot of fun.

After our night out, though, we found ourselves stopping to rest more frequently. Fortunately, there are restaurants placed strategically up and down the mountain. (I asked one waitress how she got down at the end of the day; she smiled and replied, “I ski down, of course.” Everyone in Aspen skis.)

At 2:30, we had to pack it in. We walked the two blocks from the base to our strategically-located hotel, the Independence Square, knowing exactly what we needed. After a quick change, we grabbed some cheese and crackers and a bottle of wine from the apres-ski buffet, and headed up to the roof - and the hot tub.

Just what the doctor ordered. There is nothing like hot, churning water to sooth overburdened, aching muscles. The air was brisk - the steam rising off the water turned to ice in our hair and beards. But from the neck down, we were in heaven.

We sipped our wine and shared skiing stories with the other indulgent guests - a doctor from Chicago, a student from Los Angeles, and a ski bum from Sidney, Australia.

As the setting sun turned the valley behind us to umber, the last of the stragglers made their way down the slopes - just a few hundred meters in front of us - and the grooming machines rumbled out onto the mountain like some sort of gigantic, bizarre beetle. The subject turned to politics, and the doctor and the student got into a heated discussion on the relative merits of the Presidential prospects.

We didn’t care. Poaching in decadence, we had no more important long-range decisions to make than where to party that night, and upon which of the best mountains in the world we should ski on the next day.

Work Smart, Work Safe

(Originally appeared in the Albany, NY Times Union)

Take a look in the mirror.

Do you like what you see, more or less? Then count your blessings. When Ben Nomine looks in the mirror, what he sees are scars.

Ben was a top student at South-west Oswego Christian High School in western New York State, and goalie for the school soccer team. Afternoons and weekends, he was working for his father’s company. It wasn’t much of a job, but it gave him spending money - a lot of money for a 15-year-old. He would take used propane cylinders, clean them up, and slap a new sticker on them so they could be refilled.

Things were going fine until one day when he started in on a tank that seemed empty, but wasn’t. When he popped the seal, a cloud of propane whooshed out of the container, burning his face. He was running for the door when the expanding cloud met the pilot light in the shop’s furnace. It blew him out of the building, his clothes in flames. He ended up with burns over 30 to 40 percent of his body.

Summer jobs, and after-school jobs, can be great. Bringing in $50, $80, $200 a week can really do wonders for your lifestyle.

But it’s important to remember as you flip those burgers or deliver those pizzas that they can have a really ugly impact on your lifestyle, too. More than 100,000 teenagers are injured on the job every year in this country, which means you have a pretty good chance of getting hurt, if you don’t work smart. And this isn’t like blowing a test, where you can always study hard to pull your average back up. Scar tissue doesn’t go away, and some injuries are forever.

Michael Lorenzo wanted to be a drummer. He used to spend hours down in his basement in Newark, bashing away to his favorite records. He was going to be in a band when he got older - he was just 15.

He got a summer job with a company that salvaged car parts and scrap metal - one of the great natural resources of New Jersey. He got paid in cash, under the table - more money for him. He had only been on the job three weeks the day he was feeding metal into the crusher, and slipped.

He was lucky. It didn’t take off his arm, it just tore a bite out of his wrist - severing the nerves, ligaments, and muscles of his hand. Surgery managed to put things back together again, although his hand is still pretty numb, and isn’t much good for anything complicated. Of course, it’s completely useless for drumming. And it will never get better.

The sad part is, neither one of those accidents should have taken place. It is illegal for kids under 16 to operate heavy or dangerous machinery - like that metal crusher - or work around explosives, like propane gas.

There’s a good reason for that. Teenage workers often end up “filling in gaps”, helping out here or there, depending on what needs to get done. Nobody sits you down and takes an hour to explain how the machine operates; they just grab you and say, “Go take care of that, then come back.” That’s a recipe for tragedy.

Kids aren’t supposed to operate power-slicers. But Matthew Fallon’s boss told him to just turn on a meat slicer and wipe down the spinning blade with a rag. When it sliced open his finger, the bone splintered. He was 15.

The reality is, the workplace can be a lot more dangerous than most people think. When you think “dangerous,” you probably get a picture of a kid in a coal mine, or cutting down trees with a chainsaw. But the fact is, three of the most dangerous workplace environments are: department stores, eating and drinking establishments, and retail grocery stores.

A 13-year-old boy was working at a Bronx supermarket. Trash compactors are incredibly dangerous; these are huge, spring-loaded machines that frequently jam up. Hundreds of people are injured in them every year, and kids aren’t supposed to work on them under any circumstance. But he was assigned to stuff some boxes in the machine. He got caught and dragged inside. One arm was severed, the other broken, and his chest was crushed. His father, who managed the supermarket, rushed him to Lincoln hospital. But he was already dead.

Even when your boss cares about you, bad things can happen. But on most jobs, your boss is not your friend – he’s just your boss. The company is in business to make money, and there’s always pressure from higher up to cut costs and produce more, rest less and hustle more.

Domino’s used to guarantee pizza delivery: 30 minutes, or the customer gets $3 off. Usually, the money came out of the driver’s paycheck, an incentive for them to get there fast. Jesse Colson was 17 when he got a job driving for Domino’s in Mooresville, Indiana - illegally, since you can’t drive for a business until you’re 18.

Although the company says it never encouraged fast or unsafe driving, he knew that hustling that pizza out to the customer was the only thing that counted. The manager would hand out “King of Lates” badges to drivers who missed the deadline. The longer Jesse worked there, the tenser he got. It was really getting to him.

He had found a new job, and was putting in one last weekend for Domino’s, when he lost control of his car getting that terribly important pizza out to the customer. He died instantly when his car hit a telephone poll.

When Jesse’s mother drove by the shop the following week, she saw a sign in the window advertising for a replacement driver. The requirement of 18 years old had been scratched out, and “16 or 17” written over. She was so outraged she started an organization, People Against Dangerous Deliveries, that ultimately ended the Domino’s 30-minute delivery.

Another place that just didn’t seem interested in playing fair was Burger King. There was a period in the ‘80s when the folks down at the Labor Department got quite a laugh out of the Burger King slogan: “Sometimes you’ve just got to break the rules.” But after slapping the Pillsbury-owned hamburger chain with a whopping $318,000 fine, the company stopped making kids work long - illegal - hours.

Hours are a problem. You want to work as many hours as you can, right? You took the job to earn money.

But federal law is pretty strict on this: during summers, 14 and 15-year-olds can’t work later than 9 p.m., and no more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. During the school year, it’s even stricter: no more than 3 hours a day on a school night, 18 hours a week total, and no later than 7 p.m. on school nights. (For 16-17 year olds, the situation is looser - check you local state labor department.)

So your boss lets you work the midnight shift, and you think that’s great. But think about it. If your boss is blowing off the law on this one, what other corners are getting cut? You’re better off playing it straight. After all, if you’re already breaking the rules, and the boss asks you to start doing something really dangerous, what are you going to say?

If you find yourself being asked to violate the Child Labor Laws, the first thing you should do is speak up. Say you don’t feel right about breaking the law.

“I think the big thing you should understand is, it is okay to tell the boss you can’t do certain things,” says Bill Traynor of the American Youth Work Center, a group that works to improve workplace safety for kids. “That’s hard, I know. But the power relationship is not as vast you might think it is. Teenagers in their first job often perceive the boss as this all-powerful figure. He’s not.”

If your boss still insists, you have a couple of options: You can refuse, and risk being fired. You can simply quit. If you decide your job is worth the risk, talk to some of your fellow employees. Let them know you are doing this, and it’s wrong. See if you can get one of them to help you - that alone can make all the difference. If the boss is being a jerk, most of them will know it, too, and be happy to help out.

And as soon as you can, call you local office of the Labor Department - look in the blue, government pages of the phone book. Tell them it’s a child labor issue - those get top priority, and someone will come faster. They won’t tell your boss who called - it’s illegal for the company to retaliate, anyway, but in the real world that does happen (in fact, that’s another good reason for talking to the other workers; if everyone in the shop knows there’s a problem, then anyone might have made the call). Being given a warning is enough to make most bosses do the right thing.

You don’t want to squeal on the boss? Think about it.

“Do you think,” says Traynor, “that if the boss caught you taking money from the cash register, they would think twice about calling the cops on you? Calling the Labor Department isn’t squealing; it’s protecting your rights - and maybe your life.”

And don’t figure, “I won’t say anything; I’ll just keep working for a while and when an inspector comes, the government will make my boss stop.” The sad truth is, the government has only 800 inspectors to cover millions of work-sites in all 50 states. In too many cases, the only way they can find out about abuses is when someone ends up in the hospital. Then they can step in and issue a fine, but it’s too late.

Like the case of Mr. B’s Supermarket in Valadosta Georgia. They were slapped with a hefty fine - $10,000 - when an 11-year-old employee (working under the table for below minimum wage) had his arm severed at the elbow while he was operating a meat grinder.

Mr. B’s blew it several different ways. It’s illegal to employ a kid under 14; it’s illegal for a kid under 18 to work dangerous machinery. But the kid was in no position to complain: he was working under the table, right? If he had gone to the Labor Department, he would have lost his job. So he kept working - and lost his arm instead.

Sometimes your boss just won’t seem to care at all. Knowing that you’re “just a kid,” counting on your being afraid to complain, not knowing what your rights are.

Michelle Vanagel worked at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Londonderry, New Hampshire. She was 15. One morning she burned herself baking muffins. In pain, she continued working. Her boss would have kept her there, baking muffins - but Michelle’s mother happened to stop by the store, and got her to the hospital in time. As it was, the burn became infected.

Knowing your rights can be the difference between life and death. On a construction site, teenagers are not allowed to work on roofs, in excavations, or with hoisting equipment or other heavy machinery. It may not seem like a big deal when the boss tells you to carry some tar paper up on the roof, and for the boss it isn’t. In one labor department case, a company was fined all of $280 for having a 15-year-old working on a roof.

But it was a big deal for the kid. He died when he broke through a skylight opening that was hidden under paper and fell 25 feet.

Sidebar:
The National Child Labor Coalition offers the following tips for working smart and working safe:

1) Don’t assume a workplace is safe.
2) Avoid under-the-table employment
3) Know your rights under the child labor laws
4) Ask questions of your employer - even if you think you can trust them
5) Pay attention to what’s happening around you
6) If you see something dangerous, call the Labor Department

Eat Like A Linebacker

(Originally appeared in the Albany, NY Times Union)

Q: What does a 300-pound linebacker eat?
A: Anything he wants to. . .

Used to be, athletes followed that 800-pound-gorilla style of diet. Steak and potatoes, burgers and fries. But National Football League teams are hiring nutritional consultants to broaden the players’ dietary choices not because it’s trendy, but because eating right gives players more energy on the field.

Tying in to that, the folks who make A.1. Steak Sauce have put out a pack of NFL “Masters of the Grill” recipe cards to encourage people to find a healthier range of foods to put on their grills (and under their steak sauce).

“There’s no question that our players are eating healthier,” says Mike Kensil. As director of operations for the New York Jets, Kensil plans the players’ menu. “And these players eat more fish and chicken than I’ve ever seen in my 17 years with the team.”

He says the scrambled eggs are now scrambled egg whites, and fewer team members are eating bacon. When he orders pizza for the team, he calls for plain and veggie, not sausage and pepperoni.

“They’re eating oatmeal. They’re drinking water, or skim milk. They’re asking me for low-fat dressings, low-fat cheese. They’ve basically cut the grease and fat out of their diet.”

“When you cut the fat, you have to flavor foods in a different way,” adds Heidi Skolnik, sports nutrition consultant to the New York Giants. “But you can use steak sauce, Italian dressings, vegetable broths, lemon - there’s lots of options. Low fat doesn’t need to be low taste.”

So, on one of the A.1. recipe cards we have Kent Hull, offensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills, pictured in chef hat and apron in pseudo-backyard setting. On the flip side, we have a recipe for steak ranchero, lean beef and veggies flavored with a zingy blend of steak sauce, lime juice, salsa and olives.

New York Jets linebacker Jeff Lageman has an even healthier recipe on his card: Greek grilled pizza wedges, featuring whole-wheat pita, black olives and feta cheese.

According to Ann Smith of Nabisco Foods, which makes A.1. Sauce, the company’s test kitchen worked with the players to come up with recipes that reflected their likes and dislikes, the kind of foods they would actually eat.

A few players draw on their roots for their recipes. New England Patriot Eugene Chung offers up one for chicken stir-fry, while Philadelphia Eagle Burt Grossman gives his version of the traditional Philly cheese steak sandwich (one of the few non-grilled recipes).

But there are also more exotic selections, like Tampa Bay Buccaneer Hardy Nickerson’s gazpacho steak roll, or Rickey Jackson’s South of the Border Vegetable Kabobs (spiced to delight a New Orleans Saint even after he’s been traded to the ‘49ers).

Of course, football players still have elements of the 800-pound-gorilla syndrome.
“I went through 40 pounds of pasta with marinara sauce at a pre-game dinner recently,” Kensil says. “And six turkeys.”

“Our players eat between 3,000 and 5,000 calories a day,” says the Giants’ Skolnik. “Some even more than that. And they don’t get fat. They can eat eight or 12 pieces of fruit a day, plus meat, plus vegetables. If you worked out that hard every day you could eat that much and not get fat. It’s the body’s lean mass that burns calories even when they’re not doing anything, they’re more metabolically active.”

That’s one element of Skolnik’s NFL work that has relevance to her general-public clients (she also consults for the Plus 1 Fitness Clinics in Manhattan). She says too many dieters focus on cutting calories, when simply adding more exercise to a sedentary life will allow them to eat the same amount and not gain weight.

In her work with the players, Skolnik says she emphasizes choices and variety, rather than cutting back and limiting.

“But if you’re not getting any exercise, it’s very difficult to get all the nutrients you need, eat the right variety of fruits and vegetables and complex carbohydrates, throw in a sweet for dessert, and not gain weight,” she says.

“When someone is trying to cut back to 1,200 calories a day, compare that to 5,000. Think how much more nutrient-dense every selection has to be. If they become more active they could double the amount of calories they’re taking in.”

Even so, Skolnik doesn’t want her players soaking up those extra calories with extra steak and potatoes. She is introducing the team to more grains, rounding out meals with complex carbohydrates and vegetables. And even football players have to budget their fat intake.

“Even though they can eat more, the fat can add up,” she says. “So you don’t eat both the cheeseburger and the fries today; you have the cheeseburger with a baked potato. And the next day you get the fries, but have them with grilled chicken.”

Of course, some players eat better than others. She notes that center Bart Oates, A.1.’s featured Giants player (recently traded to San Francisco), is a conscientious eater who would certainly enjoy the grilled chicken salad on his card.

“This is a man with 15 percent body fat at 300 pounds,” she says. He’s got a lot of lean mass to absorb those calories even when he’s working in his New Jersey Law firm during the off-season, explains Skolnik.

Among the Jets, Kensil singles out defensive lineman Alfred Ogelsby, who dropped from 300 out-of-shape pounds last winter to his current weight of 282 pounds. “Plus he turned about 20 more of those 282 pounds into muscle,” Kensil adds.

Not everyone has joined in the health-fest.

“I’ve got some players who have been here 12, 15 years,” says Kensil. “(Kicker) Nick Lowrey has been here 15 years, (safety) Ronnie Lotz has been here 14 years. You’re not going to change their style. They’re going to keep eating their bacon.”

But Skolnik says that if she can’t get some of her players to switch from sausage to oatmeal in the morning, she can at least get them to change to Canadian bacon, with its lower fat content.

“They may not stop eating steak and potatoes, but they’ll start adding vegetables and fruit,” she says. “If you add two or three pieces at each meal, plus snacks, then suddenly you’re getting 12 pieces a day. People forget that carbohydrates aren’t just pasta and bread - they’re in the fruits and vegetables, too. Eating a balanced diet with enough fruit and vegetables makes a huge impact on their energy level.”

And she adds that steak has gotten a bad rap: “It’s a great food that is rich in iron, zinc, minerals, protein. The trick is finding the leaner cuts, and eating it a couple of times a week instead of a couple of times a day.

“Another thing - instead of ordering a 24-ounce or 16-ounce steak, get a 10- or 12-ounce steak,” she says. “Or even smaller.

“I grew up eating red meat two to three times a day. The difference is learning how to fit things like red meat into a healthy diet, not restricting yourself but expanding the repertoire so you have a greater range of foods to choose from.”

Here are a few recipes:

GRILLED ANTIPASTO (Keith Jackson, Miami Dolphins)
Two-thirds cup A.1. Steak Sauce
One-fourth cup lemon juice
Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
One tablespoon dried basil leaves
Two cloves garlic, minced
Sixteen medium scallops (about 2/3 pound)
Sixteen medium shrimp, shelled and deviened (about 2/3 pound)
12 mushrooms
Two ounces thinly sliced roast beef or ham
One medium-sized eggplant
One jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained
One red bell pepper, thinly sliced
Lettuce leaves and lemon wedges for garnish

Soak 12 (10-inch) wooden skewers in water for at least 30 minutes.
In medium bowl, combine steak sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, basil and garlic; set aside.
Thread four scallops onto each of four skewers and four shrimp onto each of four skewers; thread six mushrooms onto each of two skewers. Cut eggplant into 16 strips (two inches by one-half inch).
Cut roast beef or ham into three by one-inch strips; wrap these around eggplant strips and secure with wooden toothpicks. Wrap remaining meat around artichoke hearts; thread onto remaining two skewers. Place skewers, eggplant bundles and pepper slices on baking sheet; brush with steak sauce mixture.
Grill over medium heat for seven to 10 minutes or until seafood is opaque and vegetables are tender, turning and basting several times. Remove each item from grill as it is done; place on a large lettuce-lined serving platter. Garnish with lemon wedges.

GREEK GRILLED PIZZA WEDGES (Jeff Lageman, New York Jets)
One-third cup pizza sauce
One-fourth cup A.1. Steak Sauce
Four (six-inch) pita breads
Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Four ounces sliced roast beef, coarsely chopped
One-half cup chopped tomato
One-third cup sliced pitted ripe black olives
One-half cup (two ounces) crumbled feta cheese (or three-fourths cup mozzarella cheese)

In small bowl, combine sauces; set aside. Brush both sides of pita bread with oil. Spread sauce mix on one side of each pita; top with meat, tomato, olives and cheese.
Grill prepared pitas, topping-side up, over medium heat for four-five minutes or until topping side is hot and pita is crisp. Cut each pita into four wedges to serve.

HEALTHY GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD (Bart Oates, formerly New York Giants, now San Francisco 49rs)
One-half cup A.1. Steak Sauce
One-half cup prepared Italian salad dressing
One teaspoon dried basil leaves
One pound boneless chicken breast
Six cups mixed salad greens
One-fourth pound snow peas, blanched and halved
One cup sliced mushrooms
One medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

In small bowl, combine steak sauce, dressing and basil. Place chicken in glass dish, coat with one-fourth cup marinade. Cover; chill one hour, turning occasionally. Arrange salad greens, snow peas, mushrooms and pepper slices on 6 individual salad plates; set aside.
In small saucepan, over medium heat, heat remaining marinade mixture; keep warm. Remove chicken from cold marinade. Grill over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until done, turning occasionally. Slice chicken into thin strips; arrange over salad greens and drizzle warm marinade dressing over. Serve immediately; sprinkle with parmesan cheese if desired.

GAZPACHO STEAK ROLL (Hardy Nickerson, Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
One (two-pound) beef flank steak, butterflied
Two-thirds cup A.1. Steak Sauce
One cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (two ounces)
One-half cup chopped tomato
One-third cup chopped zucchini or cucumber
One-fourth cup chopped green pepper
Two tablespoons sliced green onion

Open butterflied steak like a book on smooth surface and flatten slightly. Spread one-third cup steak sauce over surface. Layer remaining ingredients over sauce. Roll up steak from short edge; secure with wooden toothpicks or tie with string.
Grill steak roll over medium heat for 30-40 minutes or until done, turning and (during the last 10 minutes of cooking) brushing often with remaining steak sauce. When done, remove toothpicks/string and cut round slices to serve.

STEAK RANCHERO (Kent Hull, Buffalo Bills)
Two-thirds cup A.1. Steak Sauce
Two-thirds cup salsa
Two tablespoons lime juice
One (one pound) beef top round steak, about 3/4-inch thick
One-third cup sliced ripe olives
Four cups shredded lettuce
One-third cup sour cream

In small bowl, combine steak sauce, salsa and lime juice. Place steak in glass dish; coat both sides with one-half cup of the salsa marinade. Cover; chill one hour, turning occasionally.
In small saucepan over medium heat, heat remaining salsa mixture. Reserve two tablespoons of olives as garnish; stir remaining olives into sauce. Keep warm. Remove steak from marinade. Grill over medium heat for six minutes each side or until done, turning once.
To serve, arrange lettuce on serving platter. Thinly slice steak across grain; arrange over lettuce. Top with warm sauce and sour cream. Garnish with reserved olive slices.