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06/24/2003 Archived Entry: "FIRING UP THE BARBIE"

FIRING UP THE BARBIE

What is it with guys? Someone I know who only had a bowl of soup for lunch thought it would be good to fix a steak outside tonight. He offered to cook out on our fifty year old Char-broil and give me a break from the kitchen. "He'd fix" a couple of the bacon-wrapped filets that Dane, Barb and Mackenzie gave me for my birthday, he said.

I know exactly what this means. I've been on this journey a bazillion times during our married life. It hasn’t escaped me what his participation in this event is.

First of all, I have to go get the steaks out of the freezer, unwrap and marinate them in special seasonings….the way he likes them but can’t seem to duplicate on his own. Then I need to run to the store for potatoes to bake and salad makings….and clean all of that for later use. Mixing salads is not my favorite thing to do…as I like a lot of veggies and that seems to take a lot of time. Oh well…

Then he lays the fire for this operation using ten times as much charcoal as necessary. He just dumps from the sack while my calculating brother-in-law actually counts the number of briquettes he needs for each steak. When we’re finishing cooking whatever, we have enough fire left to roast half a hog.

Anyway, once the fire is started, I set the table, make the salad, check the potatoes in the oven, put the water on the table, pull out the steak sauce so he can ruin a perfectly good steak and get everything else ready. No problem.

Then it comes time to test the doneness of the steaks. That is interesting. Maybe you have to be a serious cook to know the difference between a hunk of raw meat and a medium cooked steak. I’ve pondered that a lot. We have a problem here as you can imagine. If it’s really soft and you can shove your finger in it easily, it probably is still possible for it to heal itself and go scamper off with the herd. If, however, it is slightly resistant to touch, it’s time to keep an eye on it as it is getting close to where you want it for doneness. I’m thinking about posting that information above the grill as it apparently is a very difficult concept to grasp.

Well, as he proudly removes the meat from the grill and brings it to the table for its presentation, it’s as if the rest of the dinner appeared by magic. Of course, by comparison to striking a match and sitting there waiting, fixing the rest of the meal is nothing at all. Right! I believe he really thinks he gives me the night off from cooking. But his heart is in the right place…I think. I’m still pondering that.

And then there are the dishes…..

Now I'll take my tongue out of my cheek ....