We're eating our way through this house, not because we're gluttons (?), but because we're moving in three weeks! So tonight, I'm cooking a macho man's favorite dinner: steaks on the grill = lots of healthy testosterone at work.

Some seraphic wisdom is in order here: buy only USDA PRIME meat. Yes, it has more fat. Yes, it costs much more. No, most supermarches do not have it. So go to Costco on the weekend and buy it in whole pieces, which takes the cost down from the stratosphere of $18.00 per pound and brings it nicely down into a tolerable range (for New York strips, we're talking $12.00-$13.00). You will have to cut your own, but hey, that's nice. Choose your own thickness, get a sharp knife, and begin. You can't mess it up; Costco already trims it up nicely, so you're not getting just a huge piece of meat where you'll have lots of waste. If you're careful with the knife, you shouldn't have any waste.

If you're blessed with copious amounts of discretionary spending, Allen Brothers (via overnight FedEx) is the supreme delight (www.allenbrothers.com). But before you get on their website or peruse their catalogue, beware, you must first acquire the contents of an armored truck! Having been in the industry, I have a wholesale account from my days in the industry to alleviate the sticker shock!

I avoid all the trendy marinades; they're usually overly salted and full of preservatives, thereby detracting from the full flavour of the beef. Marinate your steaks at room temp with some good olive oil, fresh cracked tellicherry peppercorns, fresh rosemary, and sea salt (preferably Maldon from Britain) for a few hours before you grill them. When they're done, bring them in and let them stand for ten minutes with a freshly sliced pat of butter on top (please, no margarine here! Get some good stuff like Plugra).

We're also drinking our way through lots of wine - can't move wine in this heat. Oh well, I guess that means we must drink it to keep it from going to waste, 'tis a pity, aye? I like steaks with, of course, my alma mater, Bordeaux rouge, hailing preferably from the left-bank with some age on it.

And why tell you all this? Well, to share with you the joie de vivre, of course! Cooking doesn't have to be mundane and totally secular, you know. Next time you're in the kitchen try silently meditating on an old Celtic poem, "Give us, O God, the needs of the body, give us, O God, the needs of the soul". Keep saying it over and over as you move about. Suddenly, the menial task of preparing dinner takes on an eternal dimension. And this, my friends, is never a bad thing.

Pax vobiscum,

"Nevertheless I am always with you: for you hold me by my right hand," (Psalm 73:23)