The LEAST Frugal Meal of the Year

NOTE: Radical departure from Frugality-information provided in the interest of complete honesty.

Friday night we had our annual Steak and Lobster dinner for 4 adults and the 2 kiddos (they didn’t get lobster). As I have mentioned previously, sometime between Christmas and New Years we make a point to have this meal. Obviously this is not a cheap and easy meal to fix. This is a luxury, but one that Yankee Bill and I feel comfortable splurging on annually.

Menu:
Ham wrapped White Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce
Blue Cheese Crusted, Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin
Steamed Lobster
Salad
Wine Poached Pears

My biggest problem with cooking a dinner like this is the timing. I have such a difficult time getting everything ready, and on the table at the same time. It seems to be one of those things where you just have to practice, have a plan, and be prepared.

Our guests (a wonderful couple who had spent 2 full Saturdays helping us paint the interior of the house) were set to arrive between 6 and 6:15. I wanted dinner to go on the table as soon as possible after that, since the kiddos go to bed at 7:30.

Yankee Bill was picking up the lobsters, already steamed, on his way home from work. Originally we had heard from some friends that lobster was selling for $43 a LB at Wegmans. Holy Toledo! But then I called Walmart and they had it for $9.89 a LB. Yankee Bill did some more research and found out that Giant had them for $6.99 a LB uncooked and $7.99 a LB steamed. All the lobsters ran about 1 1/2 LBs. So maybe not frugal, but definitely a savings by shopping around.* YB preordered them to be steamed and ready when he swung by after work, but when he got there, they were not ready. So they reduced the price to the unsteamed price. Total $42.

I figured the best way to plan for the rest of the meal was to prepare as much as I could ahead of time.

So at about 9 am, I poached the pears, reduced the poaching liquid into a syrup, let them cool** and then placed them both in the fridge.

in the oven, poaching

ready to go in the fridge.
the baster was for the syrup. bad idea.

The pears were $1.97 a LB, which wasn’t too bad. Yankee Bill did the shopping so I’m not sure exactly how many pounds it was, but there were 6. Let’s assume about 4 LBs or roughly $8. Poached pears always look so elegant in magazines and such, and I thought it would be a nice, light ending to the meal. If the pears had been too expensive, I was going to go with bread pudding.

After that was done I took out the lovely package of beef tenderloin that YB had also picked up.

eeekkk!

Yes, you see that package right, it was $39 worth of beef! Holy Moly! I knew from past experience that when one is already eating a lobster, there isn’t a huge amount of room left for steak. So I sliced each one of the tenderloins in half and then wrapped them with the pepper crusted bacon (again, YB did the shopping, let’s guestimate on the high side at $5) and secured with a toothpick. These were set on a cookie sheet, covered with plastic wrap and placed in the fridge.

yum. raw meat.

There were only about 4 pieces of bacon left, so I cooked them and crumbled them to be used on top of the salad.

everybody loves bacon.

Ever since our honeymoon, when we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Lurray VA owned by a chef, YB and I have liked steak with blue cheese on top. Usually I make sort of a paste from the cheese ($3 for 6 oz at Aldi’s), milk, worchestershire etc. This year I had found an interesting looking recipe online.

The first surprise was that the directions said to cook the filet mignon in a heavy bottomed pan on the stovetop on medium high heat for about 5 min a side. I usually try to broil it and never can seem to get it done or to judge the right amount of time. Then it called for mixing Panko bread crumbs with the blue cheese, mounding it on top of the steaks, then placing it under the broiler for 2 min. Then you use the stuff in the pan, along with shallots, fresh garlic and wine to make a pan reduction sauce.

Well, first I substituted a slice of leftover rye bread, onions, jarred preminced garlic and the cheapo wine I have in a box on my counter for the Panko, shallots, fresh garlic and good red wine. The I did all the prep work ahead of time. I ran the slice of bread through my mini food processor, then mixed it in a container with the blue cheese and stuck it in the fridge. Then I took out the onion, diced it small, added the garlic and placed it in another container in the fridge. Lastly I put the wine on the counter near where I would cook, and put out the 1/2 cup measuring scoop, the rosemary from the spice cabinet, and the 1/2 tsp measuring spoon, so all would be ready.

Next on the agenda was the asparagus. When YB and I lived in Germany, every spring there would be an explosion of asparagus available-all white. The gausthaus would all feature recipes highlighting the tender white asparagus. Our favorite was always the white asparagus wrapped in ham with hollandaise sauce. In November I happened to spot jarred white asparagus for sale at Aldi’s (which is a German chain). I picked up 2 bottles, total cost $4. I used my regular cheapo ham luncheon meat that I always buy at Aldi’s. It was already in the freezer but cost about $2.50 or so. I buy the McCormick seasoning packet for the hollandaise-about $.99. To make the recipe (if you can call something so simple that) You simply wrap a single slice of ham around each asparagus. Then you heat before eating and each person pours on their own hollandaise at the table.

Buddy helped me roll asparagus, then they went into the fridge. I even made up the hollandaise packet-I would reheat it right before dinner.

all done. this is not the serving platter!

I took 3 sticks of butter out of the fridge and heated them up. Then I let it cool to separate and give me “clarified butter”. The clarified part went in one container in the fridge, and the other part (what do you call that anyway?) was left separate to be used in the pan reduction sauce.

Lastly I set the table and set up the sideboard (in reality 2 wooden TV tables covered with a cloth).

instant sideboard.
the yucky bowls are for lobster carcasses.

I used the Christmas dishes that I had bought fairly inexpensively 8 years ago, and the plastic lace tablecloth Cici had just given me (she doesn’t use it anymore). Interesting thing about the tablecloth, it isn’t a big sheet of plastic with lace printed on it. It is actually thin plastic somehow crocheted into lace. Easy to wipe and clean with butter and kids. For silverware I used our good stuff, which is Lenox stainless steel with gold accents. It was a wedding gift.

pretty pretty.
I did put a candle thing in the middle later.

I set up the coffee pot with decaf so that all I had to do was push a button. Next to it I stacked the coffee cups and saucers, spoons, sugarbowl, dessert plates and forks. I filled the Christmas creamer with eggnog and placed it in the fridge.

Then I actually got to relax for a bit, oh yeah, after making sure the bathroom was decent, unloading the dishwasher and straightening up the living room. (again-I swear that room only stays neat for about 15 min at a time). Yankee Bill got home with the lobsters, and he helped greatly with the straightening and kid wrangling. He even scrubbed the toilet (isn’t he a prince?)

About 45 minutes before the guests came, I put together the salad. (I’m not sure the cost, let’s just say $5)

look, I even scored the cukes to make them look pretty.
and that is my coffee in the back. I drank lots of coffee.

Since I don’t have a nice salad bowl, I used the glass trifle dish that my friend Chris gave us for our wedding. I don’t think I’ve ever made trifle, but it has hosted salad, and even punch before. Something about it being footed makes it look classy. I was able to use the cool silver salad servers YB’s German “mom” Margot gave us for our wedding.

Then about 20 minutes before they were due, I started cooking the beef. My guestimate was it would have to cook in two batches, and each batch would take around 10 or 12 minutes. That ran just about on time. While they were cooking, I warmed up an plated the asparagus, warmed up the butter and hollandaise and put them in gravy boats, and filled my water pitcher with icewater.

When the guests arrived, the meat was done, and I was making the pan sauce. After about 10 min of socializing we sat down to eat. When it was time for desert all I had to do was push a button on the coffee pot, warm the pears and sauce up in the microwave and then plate it.

To be honest, I was so darn pleased with myself! Everything was done exactly when I needed it to be. It made me feel like such a grownup having a dinner party and getting it all done. (isn’t it sad that at 35, with 2 kids, I frequently feel like I’m just “faking” being a grownup!)

Total cost? $110.

Now don’t faint. That is a lot of money, but compared to a similar meal for 6 at a high end restaurant that is actually very reasonable(and I must say, this meal was high end-it even LOOKED like something you’d get eating out!-sorry no pictures of that, I was busy getting the food on the table). And do recall-we plan for this each year, and it is only once a year that we spend so much.

So if you don’t have an extra $110 in your budget, what are some ways you could make a similar sort of meal for less? Well, you could substitute something else for the lobster. What about a Seafood Newburg type of dish, made with fake crab and evaporated milk in place of cream. That would significantly reduce the cost. Or “crab cakes” made with the same stuff? You could go with a much less expensive cut of meat, and skip the blue cheese or even use sale blue cheese dressing brushed on top of it. Or how about a nice London Broil, bought on sale and sliced nice and thin? Substitute any nice veggie-or even check the price of green asparagus and ham. For desert you could poach apples, or go with a fruit compote or seasonal fresh fruit.

*Note: There is no way on God’s green earth we would have bought lobster for $43 a LB. No way. No how.

**Note: You aren’t supposed to put steaming hot food directly into your fridge. Supposedly it can raise the internal temp of your fridge for a little while, possibly to the point where some icky stuff could have a chance to grown. I figure it is best not to chance it!