Hello, what sort of shoes use those shoestrings? I can do a nice spaghetti dinner for a lot less than that and spend the balance for a nice of VERY nice wine.

That was ridiculous!

The only explanation I have is that this must be for company. Even then this menu is pretty silly. Honey is very expensive right now because bees are dying all over the world. Pistachios are delicious but pretty expensive, same with lamb.

Menu
# Beet Salad with Crushed Pistachios & Soft Goat Cheese
# Lamb Ragu with Rigatoni and Fresh Ricotta
# Greek Yogurt with Blood Oranges, Honey & Mint

oh puh-lease volume buying and $35 is a shoestring?? That's 25% of my grocery budget [which includes cleaning products, paper products, toiletries]

I wound up making Greek chix phyllo pie tonite [yeah I know I danced thru many ideas :) it was the yogurt expiring in a few days that clinched it], chicken $1.99 a pound used 2 boneless skinless of 6 $2, phyllo 1 roll $1.75, dried apricots 0.50, bulgar wheat 0.65, onion .30, butter 0.50, chives, allspice, cinnamon, allspice , parsley, chives, $1, plain [greek] yogurt $1, almonds $1

and salad... dinner for 4 under $12 feh. And I've done a buck twenty five a head dinners in NYC, $35 is a burrito ;-). Lemme know where this 3 course is and I'll be there Saturday on Dh's bday, we'll be in for dim sum anyway :)

Good Lord! I note that the article doesn't mention how large a family, but being that the rigatoni cost $1.49 it can't possibly have been a family of four unless maybe the 2 kids were toddlers and Dad and Mom both dieting or the chef was citing restaurant, bulk-buying costs. You can't tell me that someone who thinks pistachios, chevre and fresh herbs are "shoestring budget" items bought cheapie, store-brand pasta!

$35 a "shoestring budget" meal. What planet do these people live on?

Spaghetti dinner on a shoestring? LOLOLOL

Here it is in my family: A pound of homegrown beef, ground, add in a jar of Prego. Pour it over a pound of store brand spaghetti and sprinkle with that cheap powdered parmesan. Add some bread and a green beans from last year's garden which I canned. Dessert could be my homemade yogurt with a drizzle of local honey and some blueberries from the freezer which I picked myself last year for 70 cents a pound.

I figure the whole thing costs less than $7 and it'll feed four. No one in my family would eat the chevre, including me.

Annie

Annie, just add a nice $30 bottle of wine, and you too can be living on a shoestring!

LOL, sushipup, Elery would pick up a bottle of Three buck Chuck from Trader Joe's and we'd still be under $10! (grin)

Annie

It's Two Bucks in California!

I'm with y'all. If $35 for one meal is "shoestring", what do they normally pay for food they're making at home, $60 or more?? I'd be hard pressed to spend that much money on one dinner which I cooked at home. The very idea! Just goes to show you how far out of the realm of reality some of these folks are.

Reminds me of the one time I was home sick a few years ago and happened to watch Oprah. She went shopping at Walmart with her designer - he was showing us how to decorate our houses cheaply. She was so amAZED that they sold BRAS at walmart, she went on and on about it. Clearly she'd never set foot in a walmart before. I was thinking, yeah, like you'd be caught dead in a walmart bra. LOL But the whole thing just made me wonder if she's totally clueless about how the other half lives.

For $35 my family of 4 can eat dinner at our favorite restaurant. It is gourmet pizza made with mostly local ingredients and we love it. I would love it if $35 for dinner meant we were saving, we would eat out a lot more. We can get great chinese, thai, vietnamese, korean etc for that as well.

-Robin

For $35, I'd be eating something other than spaghetti!
Christmas Dinner:
9# Prime Rib @ $2.98/lb. -- $27
5# Roasted Red Potatoes @ .50/lb. -- $2.50
Broccoli Salad:
Broc @ .68/lb. -- $2.10
Dried cranberries -- $2
Onion -- .25
Fako Bakos! -- .25
Deviled Eggs -- free except mayo, mustard, etc.

And I fed 12 people for Pete's Sake!!!
Not in my world is $35 living on a shoestring!!

Deanna

I was going to say I thought it was 2 buck chuck! LOL - TJ's can't sell wine here in New York! Never had it! But if it is $3, then that is ridiculous:) Well, for someone that drinks as much wine as me:D heeheee

The original concept of this show was to put the chef on a shoestring. They were from top $$$$$ restaurants and the challenge was to interpret something from their restaurant for the home cook at a moderate price. I worked at a restaurant where the chef appeared often.

The idea now that this is a shoestring budget for a family is ridiculous! I see they are saying it is a recession budget of $35! That meal isn't even appealing to me. I'll take Deana's meal (except the fako bakos???) LOL!!!!! It is insulting, really.

If I spent $35 per meal we'd be in the Poor House in a week or so! Gotta love em' though don't ya"?

Go back to the original article and read the comments at the bottom. We aren't the only ones insulted. So maybe the powers-that-be will learn how ridiculous idea of "budget" is!

I saw that show last Saturday, and was pshawing all the way through it. I thought maybe it was a New York thing, where everything costs more. I watch that segment every week to try to get ideas, and because it's on while I'm getting ready for work, but it rarely pays off, as the stuff I'm interested in watching them make usually is barely mentioned. That had to be almost the worst of those segments ever. I bet the chef had to work at getting it UP TO the $35 limit. Another one they did recently was when they had the chef from the Italian restaurant in Chicago that the Obamas like to eat at. He used a technique or some ingredients, I don't remember exactly, that were so out of the average homeowners league, it was ridiculous. I wish I could remember what it was, but I think it was a process that took 24 hours to do, or something like that.

Sally

TJ's can't sell wine here in New York! Never had it!
My son is at school in NYCity and shops at Trader Joe's when he happens to be down at Union Square. He told me he's bought ThreeBuckChuck there before. Apparently it's three bucks because of the NY taxes on alcohol.

I thought maybe it was a New York thing, where everything costs more.
That's funny -- if they REALLY want to talk about cooking on a shoestring, maybe they ought to ask a college student! My son lives in a dorm with kitchens and has no meal plan. He cooks a lot - and believe me, it's on a shoestring. And it's not junk either, he's MY son and cooks good food. If he (and lots of other college students he knows who cook) can survive on a REAL shoestring budget in Manhatten, well, let's just say, it CAN be done.

Sushipup, Maggie, May, here in Michigan it's $2.99, I'm only assuming it's because of taxes or shipping or something, but it's Three Buck Chuck here, LOL.

Annie

Michigan has sky high alcohol taxes to pay for the prisons. Drink up or criminals will run loose!

My last spagetti was a bowl of noodles with a pat of garlic butter. Used tri-color noodles so there was even veggies in there. Cup of Maxwell House So Pathetic blend coffee. Not great coffee but drinkable a $5.57 a can.

Now off to make more of my ham/cabbage/onion/hot pepper soup. Might go fancy and add some kidney beans.

Heck... not even on a budget just eating good stuffs.

: )
lyra

Just to show you how far out of touch this recipe is, I went on a search for a pair of shoestrings and only found Velcro to fasten shoes with. Maybe they could have used a phrase like "pulled up by the bootstraps" spaghetti dinner.

Here is a link that might be useful: traveling and cooking with grandpa

I don't think CBS is going to change anything. Any time you get a restaurant chef to "create" one of these family meals, of course, the chef is going to go over the top. I wonder where the money went, though, as only the chevre seemed pricey. Lamb is more expensive that ground beef, but the rest of the ingredients didn't seem so out of line.

But if she had to buy and price everything--like sugar and salt, which most people have already--then that's where the $35 went.

The ragu sounds good. My family would rather starve than eat store-bought sauce.

My son is at school in NYCity and shops at Trader Joe's when he happens to be down at Union Square. He told me he's bought ThreeBuckChuck there before. Apparently it's three bucks because of the NY taxes on alcohol.

New York State law does not allow wine to be sold in supermarkets. I don't know why because they sell beer (not Tj's but supermarkets). Apparantley, The Union Square TJ's has a separate wine shop.