I just tho’d a little salt

and some pepper and minced garlic on a piece of cow, and when my wife gets in I’ll cook the steak the way she found on an internet site – crank up the grill or oven to 600 or so degrees and put a cast arn skillet in the oven or on the grill. I’ve got a 12-inch Lodge skillet, heavy enough for two handles, a long and a short, and big enough to take a fair size steak.

When the temperature is reached, crank up a top burner to blast furnace setting, take the skillet from the oven and put it on the burner. Since the skillet’s already hot, you don’t need to wait, but drop in the steak and sear it on both sides. If you do the cooking on a grill, you don’t have to worry about a top burner. When the searing is done – you can sear the sides, too, if you can arrange the steak to stand up – put the steak in the oven or on the grill and close the top.

Cooking time … I forget what it is, something like one minute each side for rare, two minutes for medium rare … Something like that. My wife knows, and I’ll ask her before I start cooking.

That method makes the best darn home-cooked steak ever. It’s even better when you remember to marinate it, or “Soak it in some stuff,” as a friend back in Texas says.

I didn’t intend to get steak yesterday at WalMart, but while getting lean chicken and lean pork, I saw this chunk of red meat on sale, past its sell-by date, but not even close to do not consume, and at half price. So I got it.

WalMart mark-downs reminded me of when I was a doughnut cook at the Sulphur Springs, Texas, WalMart – September 1996 – September 1997. One night when the other cook and I went into the bakery, we found six cheese cakes, still packaged, still sealed, on top of paper in a trash can. The sell-by date was that day. Four of the cheese cakes went out the front door next morning.

Chalmer, the other cook, was also a Pentecostal preacher and had a land clearing business. He, a son and two Mexicans made firewood. My wife and I bought a cord from Chalmer, and it was a full cord.

A few weeks after Chalmer started as a doughnut cook, two of his congregants visited him at home. They said it was unseemly, their preacher a doughnut cook at WalMart. Chalmer said he had the WalMart job for the health insurance. He told the two he would quit if the congregation would start an insurance plan for him and his wife. The congregants said the church couldn’t afford insurance. “Well, there you are,” Chalmer said.

This is later. Priscilla got home, so I stopped writing. We did the steak. I was right about the cook time – one minute each side for rare, two minutes each side for medium rare, and so forth. We had salad and baked beans, too. A good supper.