Just Steak

Bought a top sirloin steak on sale at our local IGA, where they stock decent meat and slice it an inch thick if you ask (thanks, guys). Rubbed it with a little oil and put it on the grill, flipping it over about once every two minutes, which gives a better result than the char-one-side-until-rubbery-then-turn-to-the-drippy-blood-side method. We ate it with salt and pepper; it didn't need anything else.

Oh, and we had some of those green beans. What did Ernest Hemingway eat for Labor Day dinner?


Artichokes

Much of our cooking is dictated by what's fresh at Findlay Market, the open-air urban and farmers' market where we shop every Saturday. We have good relationships with many of the salespeople and farmers - the Nice People, the Sister of the Nice People, Nancy from Shadygrove - but we're not so trusting with others, due to past experience. For example, the Gonifs, who sell discount produce and have a permanent thumb (we don't know whose) on the scale. We will sometimes buy their stuff, but only if it's sold by count, not by weight. This Saturday, we got five good-looking artichokes for $2.

I think that these were a different breed from the usual globe artichokes. They were pine cone shaped, spikier than usual, and fought back as Holt tried to trim them. We prepare them by boiling in a pressure-cooker for about 20 minutes, until they're as tender as artichokes can be, which is not very. We serve them stem-up in individual majolica bowls that look like green cabbages, with another bowl for stripped leaves in the center; eating them involves a lot of tossing and splashing. The chokes turned out to be colorful, purple and white, but there was very little heart for all that effort.

But for me, the best thing about artichokes is the dipping sauce, again served in individual bowls, since you have to have it close to your chin to avoid drippage. Nowadays a stroll through the garden is all you need for herbs, so Holt made a green sauce of minced garlic chives, sorrel, tarragon, oregano, and lime thyme, with capers, lemon juice, lime juice, and olive oil. If there's any left over (there rarely is) you can put it on a piece of fish, or toss it in a salad.