Three more days before Mr. Kitchentales arrives for the summer. That's when I'll have to start thinking about regular meals. Fortunately, he eats cold cereal and toast for breakfast and fixes it himself. I need to set up the toast station for him - the toaster on a side table in the dining room so he doesn't have to be in the kitchen. It makes him feel special and in control. If I get around to it, I'll make a couple of loaves of toasting bread for him. Otherwise, he'll have to settle for Double Fiber from the store.

He doesn't know yet that we are having a summer without hot dogs. He would love for me to buy a five-pound box of some cheap tube steaks and heat up a couple for him at least two or three times a week. When I first got home with the big box, I spread them out on baking sheets to freeze them, then bagged them up and thawed out as many as we needed. And I have to admit I enjoyed the convenience.

Well, now that I've brought it up, I'm hungry for a hot dog. But no, we'll go another direction - steak. He likes those little ones that come from Omaha Steaks that he used to get free from the casino. I always thought they were tricky to cook because they are so small: trying not to cook them too well done, they came out too rare. Also, they are expensive to buy, especially with the shipping.

I like their All Natural Steak Seasoning. If you taste it by itself, it has a kick to it. Here is my guess of what's in it:

Omaha Steak Seasoning
Seasoning salt (like Lawrys)
Onion powder (or onion flakes ground fine)
Garlic powder
Dried diced jalapeno (from the spice section)
Dried orange peel (from the spice section) - not a lot
Sugar (not very much)

Put all this in the blender or spice grinder and process it until a fine sprinkling consistency but not too fine. These are the ingredients they listed plus 'spices' whatever that means.

For the meat part, I bought a beef tenderloin on sale and cut it into steaks. It turned out to be the tails (tapered part) of two tenderloins held together with string, but it worked out. I spread them out on a plastic wrap-lined baking sheet to freeze them, then gathered them into plastic bags to be thawed out as needed. A fraction of the cost. We don't have a gas grill, so grilling for us is an occasion. I'll cook these steaks in a hot cast iron skillet, but will keep an eye on that brown sugar business gumming up the pan; it wouldn't be such a problem with a grill because it'd just stick to the rack.

Bourbon Steak

2 tenderloin steaks, 1 1/2 inches thick
2 tablespoons bourbon
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 tablespoon black pepper, freshly ground
Salt, to taste (or that steak seasoning above)

Combine bourbon, brown sugar and pepper; rub over steaks. Preheat grill. Place steaks on grill and cook for 13 minutes (rare) to 17 minutes (medium), turning once. Season to taste with salt and serve.

Not much to those steaks. Here is a baked potato recipe from America's Test Kitchen. I am a little surprised at the long baking time, but haven't tried it yet.

Salt Baked Potatoes with Roasted Garlic Butter

2 1/2 cups kosher (or table) salt
4 potatoes, washed and scrubbed
2 sprigs rosemary
1 head garlic, top sliced off

4 tbsp softened butter
Fresh rosemary, chopped
Salt to taste
Roasted garlic squeezed from skin

Put the salt in a 9 by 13 inch dish and put the potatoes on it. Put herbs and garlic in pan, and cover tightly with foil. Bake at 450 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes. Brush the potatoes with olive oil, and bake at 500 degrees 15 - 20 minutes (uncovered).

Chop off the end of the garlic head and squeeze out the pulp with one hand into a small bowl and stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Scrape the salt off the bottom of the potatoes before serving.

==

We use a Weber kettle grill, and the other day the folks at America's Test Kitchen were talking about the internal temperatures (ours doesn't have a gauge). Depending on which vents you open, the grill will go down to 250 in 10 minutes from 440 with all vents closed. Half open: 340 degrees.

I was thinking that it burned hotter with vents open because more oxygen gets in, but adjusting it is an art as far as I'm concerned, not a science.

Speaking of the grills, we are looking at a busy June for rentals and one of the toughest jobs is cleaning the grill grates between guests. Ideally, it gets done at the end of cooking while the grates are still hot, but that never happens, so I'm going to try the Black and Decker Heat Gun on it. The hardest part is finding a good cleaning spot outside with an electrical outlet.