The lure of the sea provided too much for us the next evening and we turned to a seafood menu of crab-stuffed mushrooms, scallops and almond-crusted mahi mahi.  In a labor-saving tip worthy of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade show, Marsha stuffed the mushrooms with pre-made crab cakes purchased at the seafood shop and topped them with shredded Asiago cheese before she baked them. The main cost for this meal was the seafood, which was about $50.

Ben marinated the fish in citrus juices, mostly orange and lime. He seared the scallops in butter, garlic, salt and pepper.  We had to limit the scallop portions because everyone wanted lots more after their first bite of the buttery bivalves.

Marsha arranged an elegant caprese salad from the tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella cheese and Mom added rice pilaf. For dessert, the kids served warm brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and a swirl of hard shell chocolate topping.

I can't imagine a gourmet meal such as this with appetizers and dessert costing less than $30 per person in a restaurant.

 Our final evening meal, traditionally the cleanout meal, took on a TexMex theme with whole grain tortillas wrapped around a filling of a tasty mix of black beans, browned ground beef, diced tomatoes, diced green chili peppers and salsa. We each made our own and topped them with sour cream, Monterrey jack cheese and cilantro. We cleared the cupboard and used up cans of black beans, diced tomatoes, green chili peppers and salsa for the filling. We tossed the last of the peaches, watermelon, strawberries and blueberries into an accompanying fruit salad.

 We packed up the remaining staples and sadly loaded up the cars for the return trip, knowing that we kept our vacation food costs low, while still dining especially well.

Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.

Pack 'n' save

Stocking a kitchen from scratch for a vacation's worth of meals gets expensive. You can cut the cost significantly by packing spices and mini-sized bottles of staples to bring from home. It helps if you have some idea what you'll be cooking so you can select the needed spices, but it's always safe to throw in the ones you use most often.

Fill empty, dry disposable water bottles with sugar, flour, cooking or olive oil, vinegar, then toss the bottles at vacation's end.

Use clear plastic condiment cups with lids to bring small amounts of freshly grated black pepper, Parmesan cheese or other finely ground items.

Pack a small cooler with already opened condiments from your refrigerator, rather than buying new mustards, ketchups, pickles and salad dressings and lugging them home half-full.

Add a stick or two of butter to the cooler, and partially used jams, jellies or tubs of butter.

Freeze containers of homemade sauces or soups and use them to chill the cooler.

If you grow herbs, snip some, wash and dry them thoroughly, then seal in plastic bags.

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- This time last week, I was enjoying some delectable low-country seafood and barbecue during a family vacation at Sullivans Island, S.C. Every evening meal was a culinary delight.

One night, the 10 of us pushed up our sleeves and dug into a seafood boil of shrimp, sausage, new potatoes and corn on the cob. We ate tangy Carolina pulled pork barbecue and brisket. An elegant seafood feast of almond crusted mahi mahi, succulent grilled scallops and locally grown tomato and basil caprese salad highlighted another evening's meal.

We enjoyed sweeping ocean views as we sat down together for each meal because our beach house was perched on the water's edge.

"You mean you haven't eaten out at all!?" said a friend, who lives nearby and met us for our sole dinner out on Thursday.

With several enthusiastic cooks in the family, we just weren't tempted to wait in line for expensive, and sometimes disappointing, restaurant meals when we could shop at local seafood shops and produce markets for the freshest ingredients.

After a lazy afternoon on the beach, several of us would clean up and team up in the kitchen to make mostly healthy, fresh dinners.

We arrived too early to check into our beach house Saturday, so we made our first, and most lengthy, trip to the Piggly Wiggly (love that name!) grocery store to supplement the staples, spices and seasonings we brought from home. That night we grilled thick slabs of salmon seasoned with a Tuscan spice mix, then gently mixed chucks of the salmon into a pasta dish of chopped tomatoes, kalamata olives, wilted baby spinach, caramelized onions and feta cheese.

A Mediterranean salmon pasta dish that would have cost at least $15 per plate in a restaurant was less than $5 per serving and took about half an hour to prepare.

The next day, Mom combined some leftover salmon, lemon juice and thinly sliced green onions with a block of cream cheese for an appetizer we enjoyed with crackers. For an afternoon pick-me-up, my sister-in-law Marsha Watkins blended refreshing iced coffee drinks using coffee, low fat vanilla yogurt, no-fat and sugar-free instant French vanilla coffee drink mix, skim milk and ice cubes. She suggested substituting decaf coffee and adding Kahlua or Irish cream liqueur for an after dinner treat.

For the kids, she made smoothies of cranberry juice, ice, sliced peaches and strawberries.

Instead of ordering pizza one night, we had make-your-own pizza night. We cut long loaves of French bread in half, coated them with olive oil, basil and oregano and toasted them under the broiler. Everyone choose from fresh mushrooms, bell peppers, tomato slices, onions, sausage, pepperoni, and shredded or fresh mozzarella, Parmesan, and Asiago cheeses to make their own personal pizzas that we popped back under the broiler.

Another evening, we feasted on a low-country boil of shrimp, spicy andouille sausage and kielbasa, quartered new red potatoes and half-cobs of corn with a fresh garden salad. Inspired by a "Shrimp and Grits" cookbook at a bookstore in nearby Charleston earlier in the day, I made a batch of bacon and cheese shrimp and grits, also.

 Although the fish markets undoubtedly offered fresh-from-the-sea shrimp, I couldn't pass up the 1-pound bags of large, de-veined shrimp that Publix grocery store had on sale for $5 a pound. We spent about $70 for the fresh ingredients we purchased for this meal, and had leftover shrimp, potatoes and corn.

Some of the natives we met at the local farmers market recommended Melvin's for Carolina barbecue, so my brother Ben and Marsha brought home about 3 pounds of pulled pork and 1 pound of smoked brisket for about $50. It came with a classic Carolina vinegar mustard sauce. We brought our own Memphis-style, tomato-based sauce for those in the family who like their barbecue sweet.

While at the farmers market, we snagged freshly baked rolls for about $7, a cabbage to make coleslaw, freshly sliced tomatoes and basil for a salad for about $10. Mom picked up benne seed cookies for dessert. Preparation was especially easy that night -- we shredded the cabbage for coleslaw and sliced and fried the leftover potatoes to round out the meal.

The full Carolina barbecue meal with freshly made fixings cost less than $7 a person, with plenty of leftover barbecue and rolls for lunch the next day.

The lure of the sea provided too much for us the next evening and we turned to a seafood menu of crab-stuffed mushrooms, scallops and almond-crusted mahi mahi.  In a labor-saving tip worthy of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade show, Marsha stuffed the mushrooms with pre-made crab cakes purchased at the seafood shop and topped them with shredded Asiago cheese before she baked them. The main cost for this meal was the seafood, which was about $50.

Ben marinated the fish in citrus juices, mostly orange and lime. He seared the scallops in butter, garlic, salt and pepper.  We had to limit the scallop portions because everyone wanted lots more after their first bite of the buttery bivalves.

Marsha arranged an elegant caprese salad from the tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella cheese and Mom added rice pilaf. For dessert, the kids served warm brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and a swirl of hard shell chocolate topping.

I can't imagine a gourmet meal such as this with appetizers and dessert costing less than $30 per person in a restaurant.

 Our final evening meal, traditionally the cleanout meal, took on a TexMex theme with whole grain tortillas wrapped around a filling of a tasty mix of black beans, browned ground beef, diced tomatoes, diced green chili peppers and salsa. We each made our own and topped them with sour cream, Monterrey jack cheese and cilantro. We cleared the cupboard and used up cans of black beans, diced tomatoes, green chili peppers and salsa for the filling. We tossed the last of the peaches, watermelon, strawberries and blueberries into an accompanying fruit salad.

 We packed up the remaining staples and sadly loaded up the cars for the return trip, knowing that we kept our vacation food costs low, while still dining especially well.

Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.

Pack 'n' save

Stocking a kitchen from scratch for a vacation's worth of meals gets expensive. You can cut the cost significantly by packing spices and mini-sized bottles of staples to bring from home. It helps if you have some idea what you'll be cooking so you can select the needed spices, but it's always safe to throw in the ones you use most often.

Fill empty, dry disposable water bottles with sugar, flour, cooking or olive oil, vinegar, then toss the bottles at vacation's end.

Use clear plastic condiment cups with lids to bring small amounts of freshly grated black pepper, Parmesan cheese or other finely ground items.

Pack a small cooler with already opened condiments from your refrigerator, rather than buying new mustards, ketchups, pickles and salad dressings and lugging them home half-full.

Add a stick or two of butter to the cooler, and partially used jams, jellies or tubs of butter.

Freeze containers of homemade sauces or soups and use them to chill the cooler.

If you grow herbs, snip some, wash and dry them thoroughly, then seal in plastic bags.