Making Dinner

It came to pass, that on Labor Day weekend, I indicated to my spouse I would make dinner on Labor Day. Except for the mosquitoes, it was a nice weekend weather wise, from what I recall. It was a big deal, as I knew I was taking my spouse away from something to keep her busy. My wife really likes to keep busy and cooking is one way she does that, so I was concerned that making a meal for the weekend, would take away from her desired tasks. I know she can find meal planning and cooking tedious at times, but she also wants to keep herself busy, so it is quite a balance on her part. The last thing I wish to do is get her upset because she got bored in not being able o make a meal. She consented to my making dinner, and this is a story of that day. 

I had suggested, and she concurred, that I would cook some steaks I received for father's day from my oldest son. We had two 1 plus inch thick bacon wrapped beef filets. I also cooked some potatoes that had come in the same father's day package. We finished it off with me having a salad and Mom Bear having her cucumber salad. We had been getting plenty of cucumbers and she desired to try to use them. She loves cucumbers, so I try to make sure to grow a sufficient number, although last year's crop was meager, quite the opposite of this year.

Everything comes down to timing and so it was with dinner. Rather than using our large gas grill, I chose to use the Weber Smoky Joe, a small grill perfect for two filets. Weather conditions can vary, and so can how long it takes to get the coals to their grey-white for grilling. I then had to try and time the start of the oven to 425 degrees, so as to be preheated when cooking the potato recipe. Each has a certain amount of time to cook (the potatoes longer than the steaks) or warm through, and each had a different internal temperature for when they were to be at their best, or for the steaks, the level at which we like them cooked. Each took a different amount of time, which added to the issue of timing, so as to have the food properly cooked, but then not sit and get too cold, or put in the oven and have the steak dry out and lose its juices.

I never would have guessed that trying to get a grill timed with an oven could be so perplexing. I made some comment that getting the timing right for the meal required quite a bit of planning. That of course got a big belly laugh out of my wife. 

I was happy to know that I got my wife to laugh, even it was at my expense. She is a first born child, and a no-nonsense woman. The latter may be due to the former.  Dinner turned out quite well, the steaks may have been on 30 seconds longer than they should have, but they were still in the appropriate temperature and color for medium rare. My mental gyrations on estimating timing for getting the grill coals to proper white-gray, and then timing of the preheat of the oven seemed to work. I am not sure when my next foray into the kitchen will come.

I am not sure when my next foray into the kitchen will come. I have to make sure my wife is in a proper state of mind, that she will not get bored from not cooking dinner. I had to write this blog post, as my wife said, "There better be a blog post about this!"