Foodie inspiration...from an LA Times article, and MOM

My Mom is great for many reasons, but for years she has been saving me the Wednesday edition of the Los Angeles Times (LA Times) Food section. Since I don't live nearby anymore, she will normally save them for me (weeks and weeks) for when I am home to take them back to San Francisco. In the meantime, I browse the Food section from LAtimes.com, and recently came across this article: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-calcook17-2009jun17,0,243805.story

What I took most from the article is not bbq'ing the meat (because I live in a studio with no access to bbq'ing outside) but rather the cuts of meat they were talking about. Especially Top Sirloin.

Now, backing up to reference my Mom, there were many afternoons when I lived at home where she would look at me and say "I am craving Filet." With that, she would be off to the market and come back with Filet Mignon and an avocado. She would simply heat up the pan, sear off the steaks and liberally season them with Lawry's seasoning salt and Lawry's garlic salt (staples in our house, but that is for another entry), and cook them to a perfect medium rare. She would then cut the avocado into slivers, then into chunks, and season the avocado simply with Lawry's seasoning salt. We would immediately dive right into a protein overload, happily satiated with a glass of either Hess or Kendall Jackson chardonnay. We literally would stand in the kitchen instead of sit down, bent over the same plate, sharing the plate and almost fighting for the last bite.

I had a similar craving the other night, but with my budget being tight, I looked to the LA Times article and figured Top Sirloin would be the best bet to satisfy my needs. Besides, it was $8.99 a pound, hormone free, grass fed, and looked amazing.

I decided to simply sear the Top Sirloin in my pan with a little olive oil but with sea salt and pepper (sorry Mom, didn't have Lawry's seasoning salt!), cooked it perfectly medium rare, and heated up some brown rice (thanks Trader Joe's frozen section), and sauteed some baby spinach with a lot of sliced garlic. When I took my first bite, I was in heaven. I remember thinking, why on earth did we spend the premium over the years for the filet--the Top Sirloin is so flavorful! And, the best part was I was all by myself, and I had the plate all to myself. No fighting over the last bite this time!

So thank you, LA Times, for giving me a good reason (besides my budget) to switch to the cheaper cuts of meat because really it was one of the best homemade steak meals I have had since those lunches with my Mom. Except I forgot the avocado.



Perfectly medium rare



My garlicky spinach