meat. it's what's for dinner.

Ethan made this chateaubriand, starting with
a center-cut filet mignon roast from Sun Fed

One of the highlights of the week for me is Sunday mornings when Ethan and I head off to the farmer's market in Jackson Heights. At the market, one of our highlights is Sun Fed Beef.

Ethan loves steak, but he's picky. And that pickiness is both a potential problem for me and its own solution. The problem is that Ethan won't cook himself just any steak. He wants Sun Fed. And he likes expensive cuts. And with his appetite, if I bought him the quantity of beef he wants, I'd go broke.

Fortunately, he's picky enough that I don't end up buying a whole lot of steak. Last weekend was a good example.

Mike, the guy who works the Sun Fed booth, knows us by now. He and Ethan spend a lot of time discussing the relative qualities of various cuts of meat, and how to prepare them. So he knows what's coming. Ethan asked about thick-cut ribeyes. And thick-cut porterhouses. And filet mignon. And prime ribs. Brisket flats. And a bunch of others. Of course, they all have to be grass-fed -- Ethan doesn't feel that grain fed beef tastes beefy enough.

Mike had some of some of them. I don't really remember which he had and didn't have. Ethan examined the offerings, This one has a nerve in it. That one isn't marbled properly. The seal had popped on another. In the end, all we ended up with was a brisket (which will be the basis for a family dinner) and a small shoulder tender steak. So, fortunately, it wasn't a terribly expensive trip.

And one of the best parts of this is that I see Ethan learning that we don't just buy stuff in order to buy stuff. The meat has to be what he wants. Honestly, though, I would have bought and enjoyed a whole lot of those pieces that he rejected.