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" Where do you spend your summers?   Outdoors, primarily. We \u2014 my wife, journalist Deborah Roberts, and my youngest kids, who are 4 and 8 \u2014 spend most of our summer weekends at our house in upstate New York. Sometimes we visit friends out on Long Island, but we leave our weekends pretty open. Summer isn&amp;#039;t meant to be heavily programmed.  Any tricks for beating the heat?  Air-conditioning. That&amp;#039;s pretty much it. Growing up, we didn&amp;#039;t have it, but I&amp;#039;ve blocked that out of my memory.  How do you keep your kids occupied in the car on long trips? Family drives are my favorite quality summer time. We have a rule: We only use the DVD player if the drive is longer than three hours. Any shorter and we sing songs and play games instead. We do car bingo and I Spy and &amp;quot;The Wheels on the Bus.&amp;quot; Any traditions from your childhood that you still enjoy?  I used to love bike riding \u2014 it&amp;#039;s your first set of wheels, really. I like to ride along the West Side in New York City and up in the Hudson Valley. Also, my dad would grill in the evenings, and I do that, too. I try not to use the kitchen when it&amp;#039;s hot. The backyard really says summer to me: a Weber kettle grill, some hot dogs and hamburgers, good potato salad, and a little coleslaw \u2014 and away you go.  What other ingredients make a great barbecue?  Good-quality meats and good-quality friends \u2014 not necessarily in that order. All you need to grill a good steak is salt and pepper. I will throw you out of my house if you ask for steak sauce! Someone once asked, and I said, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m sorry, we don&amp;#039;t have any. And get out!&amp;quot; I hated to do that to my mother, but rules are rules.  Roker is a reporter and weatherman for NBC&amp;#039;s Today and the host of the Food Network&amp;#039;s Roker on the Road. He&amp;#039;s also the author of Al Roker&amp;#039;s Big Bad Book of Barbecue. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/friends-family/interviews/a1936/al-roker/?click=main_sr>