Have you ever heard of a cut of beef called "chuck tips"?

Me neither. Until about a week ago, that is, when Al Wuennecke of the City Meat Market turned me on to them (because they were out of chuck eye, which is what I usually buy for a splurge). It's this oblong-shaped cut of very lean meat that looks like a tongue. Seriously. It's about the size and shape of a tongue from a young beef. And if I say that aloud to the children, they will never eat this again. Anyway it's extremely lean, and it's very tender if you treat it right. Al told me to just basically braise it. I asked about stir-frying and Al and his staff all shook their heads firmly and said it would never work. "Bloody-ass rare," said Al. So I took one home on approval, marinated it in Mr. Yoshida's Gourmet Sauce for about half an hour, then popped it in a hot oven in a Pyrex baking dish for about 25 minutes and then sliced it into medallions across the grain. It was really good. Very tender, nice flavor. 

So today I went back and bought a whole vacuum pack of them for the freezer.  If we are reasonable about portion sizes, one steak should do for our family for supper; it just means making sure we have a couple of substantial side dishes to fill things out. We don't need as much red meat as we think we do, anyway.