Celebrate Your Independence From The Kitchen!

Make July 4th mean something all month long. Give yourself some freedom from the kitchen or as the assigned grill master. You can find a prime steak house or fine dining restaurant that allows you to dine in casual clothes and in a casual atmosphere. We do not mean eating in your shorts and swimming suits - but you can wear casual slacks and shirts. There are no suits and ties required.

Save the backyard cookouts for hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and potato salad. You will not be able to find a prime steak to serve your family and friends. Prime steaks represent the top 2% of the beef sold in the country and this beef is graded USDA Prime Beef. While you may have to pay a small fortune in the grocery store for steaks, the best they have to offer is USDA Choice Beef. Prime is saved and purveyed to only prime steak and upscale dining restaurants.

Do not think that USDA Choice is bad beef. It is not. It just is not the very best you can eat. But no matter how much seasoning, tenderizer or rub you put on a choice steak, you cannot magically turn it into prime beef.

If you are a steak connoisseur, you might choose a mighty bone-in Kansas City strip or a huge T-bone. With the T-bone you get cuts from two of the best parts of the cow including a filet. Your stomach tells you that you want the largest cut you can get. However, the meal would not be complete without all the accoutrements.

Since you are famished you begin with an appetizer. You look over the nice selection and decide since you are going to have beef for your entrée you will have a nice shrimp cocktail. That should take the edge off until your salad arrives. After the salad you are brought a huge platter with your steak cooked to perfection. You ordered a baked potato and for your veggie you ordered Spinach Au Gratin. Yum. You are about to dig in and remember you have brought a companion. You need to wait for her to begin her feast.

Maybe she isn't the steak connoisseur you are. It took her a long time to decide on what she wanted because there were so many tempting dishes on the menu. You were becoming impatient - but you tried not to show it.

For her appetizer she chose Shrimp Remoulade. She kept going back and forth between Alaskan King Crab legsserved with drawn butter and lemon or North Atlantic Salmon broiled with lemonbutter and capers. She took long enough, but she opted for the salmon. She also chose roasted garlic mashed potatoes and fresh broccoli.

You both had a glass of the house wine and you even had a signature dessert. She had traditional cheese cake and you had bread pudding with Maker's Mark sauce. Not only did no one have to cook or wash dishes, you had one of the finest prime steaks you had in ages!