BBQ Journal: boys & steaks

Wednesday, July 22 — Tonight we got some steaks. Decided to up the ante a little bit, but not over do it. I wanted to be able to just cook a good steak that highlighted the steak, not the rub.

As usual (this hasn't been mentioned before in the BBQ Journal) Caleb was at my side. He usually starts up the grill and has been upping his involvement in the cooking by helping brush on sauce, butter, etc. He helped oil the grill, but it got a little too hot for him. Even still, he wanted to put the steaks on himself. The BBQ has definitely been in Caleb's blood from, well, the beginning. This is definitely one of those things that seems inherent in him as a boy (also would be "to-wools").

We simply put fresh ground pepper and ground sea salt on the steaks before putting them on the grill. I tried to put the whole fancy crisscross pattern on the steaks by rotating them 45 degrees after 2 minutes. But, it didn't seem to really work. Maybe should have turned up the heat more to start or left them longer before the rotation.

As we waited for the steaks to grill we played with the tongs and drank some cold water. Not exactly a cold beer, but still a manly time.

The steaks looked great on the grill and the timing of 5 minutes a side for a 1 inch steak was right on (I just needed to control the flair ups a bit more). When I took the steaks off the grill we let them sit for a few minutes while we brushed on some olive oil and put on more pepper and sea salt.

Caleb immediately started getting the juices on his fingers to taste. He loved it. I have never seen him go after meat like he did tonight. He would have kept eating all night. He especially enjoyed dipping the pieces of steak in the juices on the serving plate. Great night!

BBQ Lesson 1: BBQ with your son often.
BBQ Lesson 2: Sea salt is the way to go.
BBQ Lesson 3: Enjoy the juices.