That Unmistakable Sizzle

                                                                                                                                                                               Outfit photo by Mark Jaremko          
                              Blouse: Vince Camuto | Skirt: Zara | Heels: Joan & David

I walked into Zara and saw a brown snakeskin pencil skirt (huge markdown now) misplaced on a rack with summery crop tops. It grabbed my attention and my immediate thought was...steak. As I approached the skirt, the bright colors from the other items surrounding it brought back memories of my first fajita-

A sizzling skillet slowly comes into view from behind me as the waiter gently places it on the colorful tablecloth. I not only can feel the heat emanating from the cast iron, but I can hear it. I remember it sounding angry, but looking delicious. The 7-year-old me was pretty scared of the hot oil jumping toward my face, which was not too far above the table top at the time, but also quite excited to fill the warm tortillas to my little heart’s desire with skirt steak, bell peppers, and onions.

Fajitas are a great dish to make all year round. Any meat with char on it reminds me of grilling in the summer. However, because a BBQ or grill is not always available or the most convenient form of cooking, the skirt steak I marinated and used for my fajitas was not made on a grill as the traditional ones are, but flash seared in a hot pan.  Fear not, you can still get that much wanted char around the edges. Keep in mind that skirt steak is very thin, so be sure to cook it at high heat and quickly so that the outside has a nice sear, but the inside is still a rosy pink medium rare. Don’t forget to let the meat rest under a tent of foil so that the juices can reabsorb before you slice it thinly.

For my marinade (you can leave the steak to soak in the flavors from 10 minutes up to 1 day), I used:

1/3 cup of OLIVE OIL
2 cloves of crushed GARLIC
Juice of 1 LIME
1 1/2 teaspoons of CUMIN
1 teaspoon of OREGANO
1 teaspoon of HONEY
2 teaspoons of CHILI FLAKES 

Unlike fajitas, brown hues for clothing do not typically remind us of summer. The color brown is sometimes a difficult color to incorporate into your outfit when the weather is bright and sunny. As a native San Franciscan, summer up in the City of Fog does not have the same feel or tone as summer in the City of Angels. Wearing browns and neutrals were never much of an issue for me up in San Francisco no matter what season it was. To "summerize" brown in Los Angeles, use bright colors and patterns to lighten up the wintery tone of brown. The pop of color from the stripes of my Vince Camuto blouse highlight the accent colors from the sliced sautéed red, orange, and yellow bell peppers. The contrast of the bright colors draws attention to my blouse and brightens up the outfit as a whole.