Why, but of course. Grilled badly, apparently.

flattened between two bricks first.

IME it's Americans who cook their meat to death. Even when I order a rare steak it often comes 1-2 "notches" more cooked, and I have received a steak with a little "rare" flag stuck in an honest-to-goodness thoroughly well done steak!

In restaurants I invariably get some sort of verbal warning that my steak will have a cool red center. Sometimes I wouldn't be surprised if I was brought a waiver of liability to sign.
Well I time the grilling of my steaks using a watch with a second hand (somewhere around 90-105 seconds per side on my grill), and always have done. But as far as I can tell, in America I should be timing the grilling using a calendar.

Mrs N. grills an awesome steak Comes out perfect every time. I do too, but mine are only good for things like shoe repair (so no use for 'em in Texas).

Stops 'em rolling off.

Quite.

Often I order a rare steak only to be told they can only do medium rare Surely, just cook it a bit less? It's not difficult.

I was about to disagree with you, but then I realized you may have a point. No it's not "difficult", ..... I suspect it is actually impossible!

Pretty sure it's a "liability" thing.

I think Pulaski has actually hit on the reason with his mention of a waiver of liability. In our litigious society, restaurants do not want to get sued by customers who get sick from eating meat that might somehow have become a tad contaminated. Perfectly fine if adequately cooked, but a potential hazard if served as rare as some people might like. Just not worth the risk.

Regards, JEff

As I am sure you are aware Ruth my remark was directed at the yanks not the brits .........to be honest every man I have ever met reckons they can cook a piece of meat better than the other, makes no odds where they come from, the only difference in my opinion is that the brits tend to slack on seasoning and spices etc.

Unfortunately it isn't widely understood that for cuts of beef at least, the risk of microbe contamination is confined almost entirely to the surface. So the risk of a ground beef patty not cooked through to the middle is massively greater than for a steak, which can be made safe to consume by searing the exterior. The same is true for lamb, and I've heard it is now true for farmed pork, but historically the risk of getting worms from pork was much greater.

You can get little knives in World Market, they're 4 inches tall so perfectly kid sized.

http://www.worldmarket.com/product/l...-4.do?&from=fn

Perhaps you should get out of your little box a wee bit more, a quick Google will show you that you are wrong. It is the norm for most children's cutlery sets to contain the basic 3 pc cutlery. fork, spoon, knife. Look at any Target, Walmart or children's store, perhaps it is easier to make false claims, even pointless blunt ones !

Or she could use the heavy duty plastic cutlery sets, the knives are even slightly serrated , I let my toddler grandchildren use them, they love them.

Kind of a redundant statement, that ...