Last week was my good friend’s birthday and like me, she popped out kids back to back, 16 months apart, which meant we both had the same momentary lapse of judgment. Date nights are rare events, not because we’re lame, married, boring people, but that trustworthy sitters are really hard to come by. The good ones, i.e. kids with no arrest record, know that they’re in high demand, thus can play the game of extortion and can charge as much as a car payment and require a 20% tip.

Even a bigger deal is when we want to double-date with my friend and her husband. The planning started 2 weeks ago, going back and forth on a suitable date, scoring a sitter each, keeping our children quarantined in a bubble so that they wouldn’t catch any dreadful diseases, and of course collecting every bit of loose change into a jar just so we could afford a good night out without having to turn dish-washing tricks in a restaurant kitchen to pay for our meal.

We chose a fancy steakhouse in Sarasota, because when you go through that much of an ordeal to prepare for the big night, you really want to make sure that odds are you’ll eat better than at Steak ‘n Shake.

I ordered the surf and turf hold-the-bernaise-hold-the-bacon 6 ounce fresh lobster with 2 superb, prime grade, filet mignons. Drumroll…please….the filets arrived flaccid, with a lowercase f.

The waiter even bragged about their 1,600 degree broiler that could sear an entire herd of buffalos in 4.6 seconds. Sadly, that signature steakhouse charred crust did not come with my turf. But the filet was buttah tender, cooked spot-on medium rare, so I would have felt silly sending it back. Plus, having the chef put the crusty sear on the filets would have cooked them too done for my tastes.

Unfortunately, the service was even worse, having lost our waiter for 25 minutes between courses. He was probably couldn’t resist but grab the busboy and go out on a joyride in our smoky blue, sexy Hyundai minivan.

Let’s look at this from an economic standpoint. Just for our portion, $200 for dinner + $5 parking + $5 gas + $50 babysitter = $260. And, if you remember high school econ, it’s only fair that I calculate opportunity cost too. For $260, I could have gotten new floor mats and a Disney antenna danglebobber for my minivan.

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I would love to have a stovetop hot enough to produce that expensive steakhouse quality sear on my steaks. With just a home stovetop and prime going for $24 a pound (eeek!), I’m perfectly happy with the choice grade on sale at the supermarket. With a lush sweet and sour tomato onion sauce topping, eating at home tonight felt even better for the pocketbook and my stomach.

Pan Seared Steak with Sweet and Sour Tomato Onion Sauce is an oldie favorite that I’ve had many times in western style Hong Kong cafes in the U.S. The steak usually comes on a sizzling platter with a sweet and tangy tomato and onion sauce.