Successes:

I sliced cube steak thinly while still frozen, minced garlic cloves over the top, and stir-fried for 45 to 60 seconds. After cooking the vegetable mix separately, I added back the cooked steak. Tasty, nutritious dinner in just a few minutes.

I found a good spice rub for lamb steaks at Epicurious.com consisting of salt, black pepper, cumin, coriander, and cinnamon. I cooked them in a cast iron skillet for 4 minutes, turned, cooked 3 minutes. Again, a very fast dinner, provided the lamb is thawed in advance.

The bacon is all gone now but lives on in the memory of fettucini carbonara. I tried to honor the bacon by making fresh pasta from scratch. This is more ambitious than a non-cook mother of a toddler should attempt at dinner time. The next time I bought some excellent (dried) egg fettucini at G&G. Much more my speed.

Failures:

I still cannot get the timing right on the pork chops -- they turn out dry. Any advice?

Ditto the London broil, a cut of meat I had never cooked before.