Dinner at Malibu Grill

Monday evening my husband and I

went to dinner with an associate of his.

We were seated in the back by the wood-fired grill.

We were last here for our 25th anniversary and I was

less than impressed then as they had boasted 

"wood-fired roasted vegetables" on the menu, 

however, what came out were previously frozen vegetables

that had been cooked in the wood-fired grill.

No amount of wood-fire is gonna revive those sad puppies.

But I had heard that they had made some menu changes

in the past three and a half years and they have been voted

one of the best restaurants in town,

so we decided to give Malibu Grill another try.

We started with appetizers.

First up was the Greek Feta Dip.

This was warm feta cheese blended with kalamata olives,

sundried tomatoes and basil and served with tri-color chips.

This was very good and I will be attempting this recipe at home

- minus the olives as we are not big olive fans.

I think the only thing that would have made this dish better

would have been if the chips had been freshly made.

After all, it's not that difficult to do.

We also ordered Malibu Crab Cakes.

These were two homemade patties, golden fried and

topped with chipotle crema.  They were served with 

a lemon remoulade and cocktail sauce.

Also very good and good size patties.  

A lot of crab and not much filler.

Please forgive the poor quality of the next pictures,

but the table next to ours was seated and I didn't want to 

bother them with the flash.

Malibu Grill sets out a bowl of freshly made focaccia 

along with warm marinara sauce and a plate of 

extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  

My suggestion is to grind sea salt and black pepper into the 

oil and vinegar and dip the bread into that.

Our companion had the Chinoy Chicken Salad,

which was my favorite dish here,

back when I could still eat chicken,

and my husband had a steak.

I chose the Penne Alla Vodka with 

Shrimp, Scallops and Peppers.

The menu describes this as 

penne pasta tossed with zesty marinara

cream sauce, Romano cheese, Roma tomatoes,

shaved red onions and crushed red pepper.

The scallops were cooked perfectly

and were the best thing on the plate.

The shrimp just a shade over-cooked and 

were lost in the pasta

- and a personal pet peeve of mine -

the tails were left on.

I do not appreciate that when the shrimp

are in a pasta dish, 

especially when it is easy to lose the tail

and one accidentally takes a bite of the tail

- which I did.

Shrimp tails are not good eats.

Also, the pasta wasn't just swimming in the sauce,

it was drowning.

I was tempted to throw in a life preserver.

Sometimes less is more.

I also was not impressed by the littering 

of the parsley around the edge of the plate.

That is so 1990s.

So here are my tips, chef:

• Don't overcook the shrimp (easier said than done)
• Take the tails off the shrimp when in a pasta dish
• Don't drown the pasta in sauce
• Don't litter the rim of the plates

Still, I'd have to say that overall this was a good meal.

It wasn't the best I have had,

but it was decent.

What was even better was the company.

We had a lovely time and that was what really mattered.

Marilyn's Money Saving Meals

That Sandra Lee is one culinary genius.* Why, on this past Sunday's new episode of Money Saving Meals, Sandy proudly proclaimed that "the whole deal with Money Saving Meals is saving money." Wow, whoda thunk?

*Not really. See, that is sarcasm at its finest. For the record, I think that Sandra Lee is a charlatan who has managed to pass off odd food and seasoning packet combinations as being "super simple" and "smart" while cashing her big, fat checks at the bank.

Still, her misguided foray into nachos and salsa inspired me to try my hand at this "Money Saving" business. And I have to admit that I have learned a lot. But more on that later.

I have to admit that I didn't even pretend to adhere to Sandy's arrussippee for the Grilled Corn and Bean Salsa with Baked Corn Chips.

My family doesn't like beans, so that part of the recipe was out.

If presented with both fresh tomatoes and canned tomatoes for a salsa, fresh tomatoes are going to win every time with me. In fact, there is absolutely no comparison with the two.

I had no limes on hand, but I did follow Aunt Sandy's advice that I could use whatever I had on hand, so I used a lemon.

We absolutely hate cilantro with the passion of a thousand burning suns, so I opted to use flat leaf parsley (not flat parsley as Sandy likes to call it. Every time Sandy calls it 'flat parsley' it makes me think that fat Aunt Flo sat on the parsley and 'ironed' it.)

I had some dried Serrano chile from last year's garden on hand, so I used that instead of buying a fresh chile at my regular grocery store.

So let's continue with the program, shall we?

My ingredients for the salsa are:

1 oz. frozen corn (tossed with olive oil and chili powder and roasted in the oven for several minutes)

6 oz. grape tomatoes, diced

1/2 oz. red onion, diced

1/2 oz. green onion, sliced

1 tablespoon fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1/4 lemon)

1/2 teaspoon dried Serrano chile, minced

pinch Kosher salt

pinch black pepper

In direct opposition to what Sandy told us in her *cough* informative program, I found that white corn tortillas were only $0.88 for a package of 10, while the same company offered the same size and same number of flour tortillas for $1.88 at my local grocery store. And regardless of what Aunt Sandy tries to tell us, these two products are very different, and are not interchangeable.



Now, if you watched this particular episode, you would have seen that Sandy would have you cut a tortilla into eighths. Like this... Um, no.

Let's do this the smart way, shall we? Cut in half, and then in half again.

Then, after cutting each quarter into half, we have eighths. Simple, yes?

I absolutely refused to drag out the Pam(tm) to spray on the tortilla wedges. Instead, I used a mixture of olive oil and canola oil. I then sprinkled sea salt over the first batch. I mixed a bit of chile powder in the oil for the second batch before also adding salt.

And the best part? According to Simple Sandy's Shady Mad Math Methods, I don't have to count the cost of these extra ingredients because they were already in my pantry (and presumably free - I wish).

As usual, Sandy misses the mark. The prescribed cooking time was not nearly long enough. I solved the problem by placing the 'cooked' chips on a rack on the baking sheet, popping them back into the 400 degree oven for another five minutes before turning off the oven and opening the door. I let the chips sit in the oven for another ten minutes before pulling them out. The result? Crisp, tasty chips.

My salsa looks and tastes great.

Let's see what our Money Saving Meals gig has saved us: According to Aunt Sandy, store-bought salsa and chips (counting the entire bag of chips) is $1.00 per person. Silly Sandy claims that she was able to give us the 'same' thing for only 43 cents per serving. Please note that Aunt Sandy would also only be giving her guests eight to ten chips per serving. Generous, no? No, I didn't think so.

Now, my version breaks down like this:

Corn = $0.14

Tomato = $2.39

Red onion = $0.06

Green onion = $0.10

Flat leaf parsley = $0.02 (per a previous MSM episode)

Lemon juice = $0.13

Dried Serrano chile = free**

Salt = free**

Black pepper = free**

Total = $2.84 or $ 0. 71 per person.

**According to Aunt Sandy, food in my pantry is free. Funny, I seem to recall paying for that stuff at some point....

At any rate, I am a woman on a mission, so I am continuing on with my vision for this meal.

I wanted this to be a real meal, so I decided to include meat in the recipe.

Here I have 8 oz. of ground beef @ $1.02 and 1 tablespoon of homemade taco seasoning (free!)

I cooked the ground beef and then drained off the grease before adding the taco seasoning. Simple. Don't make me say 'super simple'. It's just not going to happen.

And now you know the secret of how I am able to figure out just what the costs of all of these ingredients are. I weighed everything and then used my mad math skills to find the exact cost of the ingredients. And isn't this a royal pain? Really, who does this? ...Er, besides the dedicated food blogger who only wishes to educate and amuse her readers? (yeah, that works...)

Now, as I meant for this to be a meal, I had also prepared the taco-flavored meat as well as the grated sharp cheddar cheese in addition to the tortilla chips and salsa.

My daughter and I are in disagreement at this point. She claims that I must count the dollop of sour cream in the final figures, but I say that since I had it in my refrigerator already that it counts as free (and we'll just ignore the fact that it is technically past due date, but still good).

The final verdict is that this was good, especially since I didn't even remotely follow Sandra Lee's recipe.

Now, for the price "savings":

According to Sandra Lee, store-bought salsa and chips would cost you $1.00 per person, while her Sloppy recipe would only put you back $0.43 per person. I guess that doesn't count the cost of the emergency room visit or the stomach pump.

My version (the salsa and tortilla chips) will set you back a mere $0.93 cents. Wow, I've saved you a whopping $0.07. Aren't you impressed?

Adding the cost of the taco beef and cheese, we come up with a total cost of (drum roll please...) of $1.34 per person.

What I have learned from this little experiment:

Sandra Lee is an idiot (funny, I already knew that)

Regardless of what you may have heard, fresh tomatoes and canned tomatoes do taste different. Who knew?

Sometimes it's about more than just the money.

Taste does matter.

It is a lot of hard work to figure out how much all of this actually costs!

If I am this worried about food costs, I'm not going to be inviting anyone over for food.

I really need to get a life (but then where would my dear readers be?).

A Couple of Turns in the Kitchen

I decided to get started on the food for Super Bowl Sunday a day early. After all, I would have enough to do tomorrow, so I might as well make things easier on myself.

First off is a recipe that I shamelessly lifted from the blog of my good friend, Rosie Hawthorne. In my defense, the recipe worked in perfectly with some of the other items on my menu. Rosie had recently made homemade tortilla chips, and I decided that I could do that too. Just remember, Rosie: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Here I have white corn tortillas, Old Bay seasoning mix, ground cayenne pepper, whole cumin seeds and melted butter.

The Old Bay, cayenne pepper and freshly ground cumin go into the butter.




After the tortillas were cut into wedges, they were arranged on baking sheets and brushed with the seasoned butter. Following Rosie's recipe, I baked these in a 300 degree oven for about 30 minutes.




Looking good.



And they are good with the freshly-made salsa.



I think something for breakfast is also in order. And luckily, I know just the thing to make.





I decided to do a recipe that I have not made in years. In fact, I don't know that the dear daughter has ever had these. I think she will like these Drop Donuts.


Drop Donuts

My mother taught me this recipe. I loved when she made this when I was a child.

1-3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, mace or nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon canola oil




Stir together the dry ingredients. In a separate container, mix the wet ingredients together before mixing with the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

Here we have a bowl of powdered sugar and a rack on a baking sheet sitting by.

Meanwhile, heat the oil to 375 degrees.

I clip a remote thermometer to the side of the pan so that I can keep an eye on the temperature of the oil.

When the oil is hot enough, drop small spoonfuls (about 1 tablespoon) of the batter into the oil.

The donuts cook quickly, so keep an eye on them.

Now it's time to coat the donut. This is best done when the donut is still warm.

The daughter took on the donut-coating task. Then she placed the coated donut on the rack to cool.

I keep cooking them while she plays with the powder sugar.

Don't these look good?

This recipe makes about 2 dozen donuts.

A couple of donuts had to be tested for quality-control, of course.

I think we are ready for tomorrow.

We do Tex-Mex for Lunch

Thanks to Rosie Hawthorne's blog, I had a sudden hankering for quesadillas. Having recently 'discovered' a package of flour tortilla shells in my freezer, I decided that this would be our lunch for today.

I have a new-found love for salsa (homemade only, please) and decided to make three to accompany the quesadillas and tortilla chips. Here we have salt, roma tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, a serrano chile, some pineapple chunks and a lime.

With these ingredients, I made (clockwise, from top left) a tomato-cucumber salsa, a tomato salsa and a pineapple-cucumber salsa. Late in the game, I decided to add a bit of honey to the pineapple-cucumber salsa and I added a pinch of dried cilantro to each salsa.

Now I am ready to assemble the quesadillas. I grated sharp cheddar cheese and smoked gouda cheese. I also had some shredded mozzarella cheese on hand, as well as a yellow onion, chopped, dried cilantro, tortilla shells, homemade taco seasoning, deli sliced turkey breast and melted butter.

After brushing two tortillas with melted butter, I placed them butter-side down and layered the cheese, chopped turkey and onion on top. I added a bit of the dried cilantro and more cheese.

I topped each with another tortilla, brushed with the butter, and added the remaining cheddar and gouda cheese. I then sprinkled with a bit of the taco seasoning.

We have three salsas as well as some sour cream for toppings.

After about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, I cut each quesadilla into wedges.

And this is my plate. Oh, all right, I admit it. The first of a few plates.

As soon as I read one of Rosie's recent posts, I knew I had to try this recipe. Scroll down the post to see what Rosie does with leftover tortilla shells. And how did we like them? I thought they were great with salsa and my husband grated some cheese over the top of a few, nuked them in the microwave, and had them as nachos.

Thanks Rosie! You're the best!

My husband relaxes with the Sunday morning paper and the cat.