There was an incident some weeks ago with some bacon grease and the coils in the oven. It was one of those school nights when I was trying to do homework and make a nice dinner at the same time. It seemed the very moment I realized the bacon slices were not in the right pan is when the grease began to drip down the oven. Zap! The oven lit up inside and shorted out.  

The holiday vacation started with my son’s fever. We were able to break the fever in time for Santa’s arrival. Christmas morning. The boys woke up way too early of course.  

For the holiday dinner, I planned to use my range for side dishes and my outdoor grill to make some steaks. I made my buttermilk mashed potatoes in the morning. The green beans were trimmed and blanched. They would get warmed in a pan before dinner with the chopped hazelnuts. I was feeling a bit tired. I took some vitamin c and had an extra cup of tea.

The steaks marinated in my always reliable mixture of soy sauce and Worcesteshire. Salt and pepper.  The dinner table was set with my gold-rimmed holiday dishes. Time to grab a jacket, slip out the back door, and grill some steaks.

It was an overcast day which made the orange flames in the grill look even brighter. I placed the steaks on an angle. They sizzled as they hit the grates. It was so quiet and still outside as I cooked with my Mike’s Hard Lemonade. I don’t even use a watch anymore. I can sense when it seems like about 4 minutes has passed. Time to angle the meat in the opposite direction for about the same amount of time. Then, the other side.

There is a certain give to the meat I can feel when it is done to my taste. Medium rare. The most important part of cooking a steak on the grill is the amount of time it is allowed to rest when the cooking time is done. A good fifteen to twenty minutes wait, or all the flavor will just run out when it is sliced.

The steak was served with some warm caramelized onions on top. The onions reduced in their own natural sugars, with some unsalted butter, and a few sprigs of thyme.

Late Christmas night I woke up with a fever. I spent the rest of the vacation on the couch. My holiday break? Nurse, chef, sick mommy.