More than one way to skin a cat....

Belinda and I have celebrated 26 wedding anniversaries...all of them in Mandan. Most of our anniversaries were celebrated at the Seven Seas on the northwest edge of town. My favorite meal was the king-sized South American steak. I loved that steak so much that I looked for all kinds of opportunities to go to the Seven Seas and eat my favorite meal. A number of my relatives have also enjoyed eating at the Seven Seas with me and enjoying the steak as much as me.

However, two or three years ago, that changed. The Seven Seas became Montana Mike's. The decor changed from an upscale dining establishment to something that now resembles a hunting lodge on Lolo Pass. The servers also changed. Instead of the matronly ladies dressed in black dresses with white trim, we are now greeted by teenagers dressed in blue jeans and T-shirts.

The South American steaks hot off the grill

But the biggest change was the menu. No longer could I order the South American steak. This baffles me to this day because the same people own Montana Mike's who previously owned the Seven Seas. I know they still have the recipe. However, when I ate at Montana Mike's and ordered a South American steak, my server told me that they served 21 different kinds of steak, but none of them were the South American variety.

Really, I thought, you couldn't serve 22 varieties of steak...including my favorite. I tried to think of the hundreds of times I ordered that steak. Not once did I write a bum check or not leave a nice tip for the servers, so why in the world did I deserve this punishment.

Now supposedly, the recipe of the secret sauce for the South American steak is held by only a few select people in the world...however, I happen to be one of them. So tonight, Belinda and I decided to splurge for old time sake and make our favorite steaks. First we grilled a couple of T-bones outside. Then we brought them in and slathered them with South American steak sauce. And just to make sure that I had enough of the sauce on my beef, I dipped every piece I ate in small bowl of sauce...just like I used to do at the restaurant.

Belinda's first try at a blooming onion...it was delicious!

To make our dinner even more special, Belinda fried up a blooming onion, served us baked potatoes and her delicious cucumber salad. I'm sure our entire meal didn't approach the price of even one steak at Montana Mike's.

If you would like to make your own South American steak sauce and be one of the growing number of people in the world to possess the recipe, here it is: 15 ounces of reduced sodium soy sauce, 6 ounces of tomato paste, 6 tablespoons of white vinegar, 3 teaspoons of garlic powder, one and half teaspoons cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin and one half teaspoon of sage. 

The moral to my story is this...if I can't eat my favorite steak at my former favorite restaurant, at least I can eat it every once in a while at home. And now you can too!

If I could write a pilot for a TV sitcom....

I've spent a good deal of my life sitting in front of the TV set watching situation comedies. Some of them -- like Seinfeld, The Office, King of the Hill, Modern Family and the Big Bang Theory -- I nearly have memorized.

So it seems to me that I could write for any of them. I know the characters. I understand their distinct speech patterns so I can write dialogue for all of the characters from Bobby Hill to Sheldon Cooper.

But what I would really like to do is write a pilot for a new sitcom. Call it the "Steve Van Dyke Show." The stars would be my family. We don't have a quirky neighbor but we do have a quirky guest who lives with us 24-hours-a-day...my dad.

Last night for instance, he sat in the exact spot where Scott wanted to sit on the couch. Scott came home from work about 6:45 p.m. so the rest of us had already finished dinner in the kitchen.

Scott was warming up his food while hoping to settle down on the couch, enjoy dinner and watch the Red Sox game. To mark his spot, Scott placed his water glass on a stand next to the spot he hoped to sit.

Unfortunately, Scott was still putting the final touches on his soup and sandwich when Grandpa sat down...in Scott's spot. Scott had to sit in the middle of the couch, much to his dismay.

Normally, this isn't a big deal as dad has a hard time sitting still and gets up several times to check on his cat, go to the bathroom, feed his cat, go to the bathroom or just generally roam around the house.

But last night was different. Grandpa sat down at the end of the couch and a Mack truck couldn't budge him.

Scott really wanted to sit next to his water and watch the Red Sox, so he got up and found dad's cat. He placed Picasso next to his kitty food dish in hopes that Grandpa would spring to his feet to see if the cat had food. But Grandpa didn't move.

Picasso wasn't hungry so the cat simply looked at his food dish and then slowly wandered into the livingroom and then back to the office where he proceeded to take a nap.

Finally, Scott needed a drink of water. No problem. He asked for his water and Grandpa ignored him. Probably because Grandpa can't hear. So I picked up Scott's water and handed it to Grandpa to hand it to Scott. However, Grandpa said he didn't want any water. He wasn't thirsty.

I loudly told him that it wasn't for him. Scott wanted the water. So Grandpa got involved in the process and passed the water to Scott. However, after Scott had gotten a drink of water, Grandpa again didn't want to take the glass because he still wasn't thirsty.

After a while, I got up to go to the bathroom. This finally tilted the game in Scott's favor.

Grandpa had to see where I had gone, so I when I emerged from the hallway, I could see that all was right with the world. Grandpa was in the office by his cat and Scott was sitting next to his water.

I don't know if there are enough laughs in my TV pilot or not, but I know I sure enjoyed laughing at the antics of Scott and how Grandpa just ignored him.