Menifee Foodie: Delicious Peanut Butter Pie

By Malissa Meeks

I apologize for not having a column the last few weeks. My sweet Aunt Edith, from Florida, passed away and I have been down south for her funeral, visiting with my southern family and friends, and reacquainting my taste buds with amazing southern cuisine.

Refined southern women take a lot of pride in their cooking. Most of them have their signature dishes. For my mother, it is her German Cheese Bread and her Squash Casserole. My grandmother’s signature dishes were Divinity, Fried Mush and Deviled Crab.

Aunt Edith had many signature dishes, but she was best known for her peanut butter pie. Considering that I am a peanut butter lover, it was not hard to fall in love with this pie. I have attempted making one as good as hers and even though mine turns out pretty good, having had hers, I know mine doesn’t quite measure up to hers.

I really would not put it past her to leave out a simple step just so that her pie was always superior to anyone who tried her recipe. So in honor of Aunt Edith, here is her recipe for amazing Peanut Butter Pie.

Peanut Butter Pie

3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
Mix with fingertips till crumbly and set aside.

Bake a pie shell and let it cool. Place the above in pie shell, saving about 2 Tbsp for top of meringue.

Filling for pie:
2/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 egg yolks
3 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Mix dry ingredients in top of double boiler; give a good stir with whisk. Add milk. Cook over boiling water in double boiler until mixture begins to thicken, stirring often to keep filling smooth.

Add a little hot mixture to slightly beaten egg yolks. Return to hot mixture; continue cooking and keep stirring until thick. Add vanilla and butter.

Cool over ice and continue stirring with whisk while cooling to prevent crusting.

Now put it together. Pour cooled filling on top of the crumbs in shell. Top with meringue and sprinkle reserved crumbs on top.

Bake on lower rack of oven for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

If you would like to make this a chocolate peanut butter pie, add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cocoa to the dry ingredients.

My mouth is watering for a piece of this deliciousness.

Cookbook Corner:

I love peanut butter and have found a really good cookbook that has a great variety of recipes using peanut butter, ranging from main dishes to desserts. The author is Pamela Barnes. She has also authored a cookbook entitled "Jams and Jellies in Less Than 30 Minutes." Her recipes are so unique and very delicious. Her cookbooks are available on amazon.com.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every other week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Great Ideas Come From Great Food Blogs

By Malissa Meeks

We are so fortunate to live in the age of computers. There is a fountain of knowledge at your fingertips. You Tube, recipe web sites and food blogs are all so valuable in our continuing quest to be the best foodie we can be.

One of my favorites is Six Sisters. Since I have six daughters, I was of course drawn to this site. Six Sisters was created as a way for six sisters to stay in contact with each other and share ideas and recipes. These awesome ladies actually have a best selling cookbook out entitled Six Sisters. They have recipes for just about anything you are looking for.

One of the things I like about their site is the organization. They have the recipes indexed by type and this makes it so easy to find just what you are looking for. Their recipes are easy to follow and I have been very pleased with just about everything I have made from their recipe file. They can be found at www.sixsistersstuff.com.

Another blog I have recently been introduced to is Fire and Spice. Sisters who just happen to be twins write this blog. They are from a very large family and are both busy moms so they keep nutrition and time saving in mind.

These sisters are very health conscious and wanted to share recipes that they have both created and tried that put a healthier meal on the table. A couple of my favorites are the Cilantro Lime Chicken Enchiladas and the Skinny Slow Cooker Taco Soup. On their blog they list some of their favorite foodie blogs, which are also a great resource. They can be located at http://twinnersrecipeblog.blogspot.com.

Once you get into the foodie blogosphere, it is almost addicting. There are so many great ideas and recipes out there and they are all at your fingertips. Mix things up. Make a new recipe every week that you have never made before. It is so much fun to get out of your rut and do something different.

If you have a favorite blog that you would like to share with our readers, leave a comment. We would love to explore your blogs.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every other week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Breakfast House Gets High Marks

By Malissa Meeks

I don’t go out to breakfast very often, but when I do, I know where I will be headed.

One recent morning I went to The Breakfast House Los Tejabanes, located at 27701 Scott Road in Menifee. Let me just say it was delightful.

We were greeted immediately upon arriving by a very friendly hostess. We were seated and our waiter came out immediately with a cinnamon coated flour tortilla as a treat to snack on while we decided what we would order.

The menu has something for everyone. The breakfast menu offered everything from steak to grits, and this Southern girl was excited to see grits on the menu.

The restaurant was very clean and welcoming. There were booths as well as tables with fresh linen on them. The music was at the right volume where it was easy to have a conversation at your table and be able to hear everyone. The kitchen is well partitioned off so you are not hearing a lot of kitchen noise. They have an area for larger groups and can accommodate between 13 and 20 in a larger group setting.

I ordered the corned beef scramble bowl. The bowl came with a choice of toast or biscuits and gravy. I, of course, chose the biscuits and gravy. The bowl contained corned beef, cubed potatoes, bell pepper, onion, cheese, and scrambled eggs and was topped with an adequate amount of cheese. It was delicious. It was almost like a homemade corned beef hash but one step better with the added ingredients.

The menu also includes lunch and dinner with a very large variety of choices. I am eager to try some of their dinner choices.

They have daily specials, which are displayed on a board when you enter the restaurant. Check out their website for their specials at www.breakfasthouselostejabanes.com. Some of the specials include Taco Tuesday, which they also have on Thursday. Street Tacos are only 99 cents and Fish or Shrimp Tacos are only $1.99. Wednesday’s kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entrée. Monday through Friday they have a breakfast special from 6-8 a.m. This includes two pancakes, one egg and bacon or sausage for $2.99.

They have a children’s menu and offer a 10 percent military discount.

I highly recommend The Breakfast House Los Tejabanes. I give this restaurant five out or five spoons.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every other week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Chocolate Fondue Makes a Valentines Treat

By Malissa Meeks

Valentines Day – the day of romantic love.

This is one of my favorite celebrations. Actually, as I write my columns, I am coming to realize that all of the holidays and celebrations are my favorites. Valentines Day is such a fun holiday.

I am sure we all remember the fun we had in elementary school, making our special giant envelopes where our fellow students would place that very special Valentine that they had chosen just for us. It was so much fun to go home and read them, see if a little treat had been placed in the envelope and compare ours to our friends and siblings. The best would be if there were homemade treats inside of a Valentine.

Then I became a mom. With seven kids, Valentines Day became such a busy time. Getting all of the kids Valentines for their classmates and making sure they were all addressed correctly and had a yummy treat inside was quite an ordeal. I figure that in my tenure as a mother, I have helped address approximately 1,200 Valentines.

Through all of that confusion, my husband and I have always made Valentines Day a special day for us. In fact, when I came home tonight, there was a large basket on my dining room table, filled with chocolates, Martinellis and various other treats that had my name on it.

Some of our best Valentines Days have been the ones where we stay at home and create our own beautiful evening. A very fun and romantic dinner choice would be fondue. You can have both the main course and the dessert as fondue. It is just a fun thing to eat.

Here is a great recipe for Cheese Fondue:

1 tsp. minced garlic
1 cup dry white wine
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 cups Swiss cheese, shredded
2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded
½ tsp. dry mustard
Pinch nutmeg

Simmer garlic, wine, and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add cheeses, and blend until melted. Add mustard and nutmeg.

Dip meats, assorted breads and veggies in the cheese.

Now for the good one: Chocolate Fondue!

8 oz. milk chocolate (either chips or broken into chips)
2 T. heavy cream
2 T. chunky peanut butter

Combine the chocolate and cream in a double boiler or the top bowl of your fondue set with boiling water in the bottom bowl.

Heat the chocolate in the pot over the boiling water until the chocolate is melting, stirring constantly. Once melted, add peanut butter and stir until blended.

Dip fresh strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, Rice Krispy Treats, marshmallows, pound cake, Oreos, cream puffs, etc.

So set a beautiful, romantic table, put on some good music and enjoy dinner with someone you love.

Happy Valentines Day!

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every other week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Here's Some Recipes for Super Bowl Sunday

By Malissa Meeks

I am not a huge television football fan. I enjoy going to football games, especially when I have a team to cheer on. When my girls were in high school, two of them were cheerleaders. My husband and I would go to every football game. We always had a great time, except for the games where there was that one obnoxious fan sitting in the bleachers with her cowbell. Sheesh, I guess there’s one in every crowd.

I'm also a huge fan of people gathering together to have some fun when a great game is being played.

The Super Bowl is such a popular time for friends and family to gather together to watch an exciting game with awesome commercials. In my old neighborhood, we could hear the cheers coming from our neighbors' houses when there was a good play made or the frustration when there was a bad call.

If you are the lucky one hosting a Super Bowl party, it is a lot of work. So let’s make this a little easier. The first recipe I am going to share is almost too good to be true, but believe me, it is so simple and so delicious. In fact, my husband had a work potluck on Monday and his fellow workers were literally scooping up this meat into paper cups to take home.

Carnitas Tacos

Ingredients:

Pork Roast
1 large jar of salsa

1. Get out your trusty crock pot. You know, the one we just had a column about.

2. Put in your pork roast. At Costco, there is a 4-pack of pork roasts for about $1.99 per pound. They are a great size, packaged individually, and perfect for this recipe. You can cook as many as you need. For a group of 30, I cooked 3.

3. Pour the entire jar of salsa over the top of the meat. (I really like the Kirkland Organic Salsa for this recipe. It is a large jar and really gives this meat great flavor).

4. Set your crock pot on low for 7 hours and go put your feet up.

5. After the 7 hours, the meat should be tender enough to pull apart in large chunks. Pull the meat apart, stir it around in the juices and set it to cook for another hour. This allows all of that yummy salsa flavored juice to make it to all of the meat.

6. Once the meat is done cooking, drain off some of the liquid and shred the meat with a fork. I don’t shred it super fine, as we enjoy nice pieces of meat to bite into.

7. I like to serve these with corn tortillas, but flour also works out well.

The toppings I like to use are:

1. Chopped cabbage
2. Diced onion
3. Chopped cilantro
4. Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
5. Sour cream
6. Salsa

Great sides to this are Chips and Salsa, Black Beans and Cilantro Lime Rice. This is a fun meal to serve in the foil tins. You can get those at Smart and Final.

Black Beans just out of the can aren’t that great. An easy way to turn OK black beans into great black beans is below.

Black Beans (copycat recipe from Café Rio)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 c. tomato juice
½ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions:

In a skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Add the cilantro just prior to serving.

Serves: 6

How easy is that recipe?

Cilantro Lime Rice (another copycat recipe from Café Rio)

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
1 tsp. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 can chicken broth (15 oz.)
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro chopped

Instructions:

In a saucepan, combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime juice, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low for 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, combine 1 Tbsp. lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

Make these recipes for your guests and I guarantee you will score a winning touchdown.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here each Wednesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Nothing Tops the Magic of the Crock Pot

By Malissa Meeks

One of the greatest tools available to a busy household is the crock pot. It has been around since the early 70’s. I remember when I got my first crock pot. It was the basic Rival crock pot that had a setting for low and high heat. Now crock pots are amazing. They have come a long way.

Now they have timers, multiple uses, temperature probes, locking lids, removable cooking inserts and you can even set them to turn on and off when you want them to.

After 38 years, I finally replaced my crock pot. I wanted one of the newer ones with all the bells and whistles. I kept thinking that my old one would die and then I could justify getting a new one. I decided it was never going to die and just went ahead and got a new one. The old one has been moved to the RV and is used often when we are camping.

The biggest down side to the crock pot has always been the cleanup, but now that is not even an issue. There are liners that you line your crock pot with. Cook and serve your dinner and when it’s time to clean up, you simply remove the crock pot liner. Now there is no excuse to not use your crock pot.

Here are some tips for better tasting meals when you use your crock pot:

1. Only fill the crock pot one-half to one-third full. The crock pot needs to have room to form steam. If it is filled to the top, your food will not cook as evenly and will not be as moist as you want it to be.

2. Fresh vegetables taste much better than frozen or canned vegetables when cooking in the crock pot.

3. Browning your meat before you put it in the crock pot enhances the flavor of the meat.

4. I like to trim the fat from meat before adding it to my meal. Fat does add flavor, but it will make your broth too oily. Leave some fat, but trim most of it off.

5. Don’t add too much liquid. Most recipes do not require much liquid for cooking. If you’re making soup, then add all the liquid you need, but don’t let all of your crock pot meals turn into soup.

6. High temperature is about 300 degrees. Low is about 200 degrees.

7. DO NOT take the lid off during your cooking time. Every time you remove the lid, it takes between 15 and 20 minutes for the crock pot to return to the correct temperature. A lot of the cooking is done by steam and you lose the steam every time you lift the lid.

8. Less expensive cuts of meat are great in the crock pot. Cook them on low and they are so tender and tasty.

9. Add hard vegetables such as potatoes and carrots in the early stages of cooking. Add softer vegetables such as squash and mushrooms during the last hour of cooking.

10. If you find that your dish is too soupy, remove the lid, leave the heat on and allow some of the liquid to evaporate.

One of my favorite things to cook in my crock pot is pot roast. When I cook a pot roast in the crock pot, my house smells so good all day long. I cook my roast the same way my mom did. To me, it is the most delicious pot roast recipe I have tasted.

Here it is:

1. Brown your pot roast. Some crock pots have a browning setting. If yours does not, just brown it in a skillet on your cook top. Browning helps to build the flavor of the meat.

2. Put roast in the crock pot.
3. Pour on package of powdered onion soup over top of meat.
4. Add about 1 cup of water.
5. Cook on low.
6. After a couple of hours I add peeled potatoes, cut into large chunks and carrots.

Cooking time will depend on the size of your roast. Don’t forget to make gravy out of the wonderful juices.

There are literally hundreds of recipes on Pinterest and the Internet for crock pot cooking. Save yourself some time, dust off that crock pot and get cooking.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here each week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Try the King of the Cookbooks

By Malissa Meeks

Some people have a cookbook corner, or a cookbook shelf, or just a few cookbooks that fit in a drawer. Not me. I have a complete cabinet dedicated to one of my favorite things -- COOKBOOKS!!!!!

I love cookbooks. I read cookbooks the same way some people read a good novel. I love to get ideas, combine recipes and make the recipes my own by changing things up.

I have never been one to be content with a cooking rut. I love to have variety in our menu. I love to cook things that have a great presentation as well as great taste.

Several years ago, I came across one of my favorite cookbooks: "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes" by Todd Wilbur. He has several books out but I enjoy his trilogy, books 1, 2 and 3. With these books, you can recreate your favorite meals from P.F. Chang, Red Lobster, Buca di Beppo, Hard Rock Café, Applebee's, Tony Romas and the list goes on and on. I gave these cookbooks to my daughters as a gift and they use them often. In fact, it could have been the recipe for Chang’s Spicy Chicken that won over my son-in-law.

My personal favorite recipe is Buca de Beppo Chicken Limone. It is such a simple recipe and I love to make the sauce and serve it over a seafood medley or asparagus. It is delicious.

One of the things I like about these cookbooks is that Wilbur not only gives you the recipe, he also provides a blueprint which shows you how to make the recipe as well as a write-up explaining how he found the secret to reproducing the restaurant recipe. The secret to some of the recipes is not always in an ingredient but in the process of how you use the ingredients.

I suggest that you start with books 2 and 3. While book 1 has good recipes, books 2 and 3 have awesome recipes. You can purchase these on Amazon.

Every recipe I have made from these books has been a home run. Believe me, fellow foodies, these cookbooks will change the way you cook.

Pick one of these books up and begin to impress your family and friends with these amazing recipes. It’s time to put away the Sloppy Joe's and spaghetti and try some new recipes.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here each week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Carnitas Express Earns a 4-Star Review

By Malissa Meeks

Today I decided to check out the Mexican food options in Menifee. Most Mexican restaurants seem to be the same to me, but when you find a bad one, it can be miserable. Fortunately, I had some good Mexican food at Carnitas Express.

Carnitas Express is located at 26900 Newport Road in Menifee. It is in a strip mall but is a large location. The Health Department rating is an “A”.

I went during lunch and was very pleased with the lunch menu. There are about 10 items on the lunch menu and all cost less than $6. The menu at Carnitas Express also includes a large breakfast menu, salads, a very large Mexican menu and some American items.

My daughter, who recommended the restaurant, ordered their grilled chicken salad and it was beautiful and delicious. The lettuce was crisp, the chicken was tender and everything on the salad was very fresh. The salad included garlic toast and it was also delicious.

I had the cheese enchilada with rice and beans. It was a fairly large enchilada. It was very cheesy. The beans were fresh and the rice was very good. Every table is served chips and salsa. The salsa was very good. They have a salsa and pepper bar as well.

The service was good. We were greeted immediately and taken to our table.

Carnitas Express has Taco Tuesday, where ground beef, shredded beef, and chicken tacos are $1.49 each all day. On Wednesday, kids eat free with an adult entrée purchase.

On Friday, there is a Mariachi band from 6-9 p.m. The band performs in the bar as well as strolling through the dining room and performs at your table. Breakfast is served all day.

Carnitas Express has been in Menifee for 16 years. I give Carnitas Express 4 spoons.

If you know of a restaurant in Menifee that you would like me to try, please respond to this article.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here each week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Time for Traditions, a New Beginning

By Malissa Meeks

When I was a child growing up in Florida, we always ate Black-Eyed Peas on New Years Day. I didn’t really understand why it was so important to my mom that we ate our peas, but as I grew older, I gained that understanding.

The tradition is that by doing this, we will bring ourselves good luck and prosperity for the New Year. I am not a superstitious person, but I do have a dish of black-eyed peas every New Year.

Some other traditional New Years foods are greens. Greens are the color of money and are believed to bring financial prosperity. Dried beans are believed to represent coins. Fish is lucky for a couple of reasons. The scales represent money and because they swim in schools, they represent abundance. Noodles and rice are symbols of long life and abundance. If you were to plan your New Years celebration around these symbolic foods, you might end up with a strange dinner.

My husband and I have been married for 39 years and we have made the same New Years Eve dinner for all 39 years. It has been a great opportunity for us to invite friends and family to come over for our traditional Japanese dinner.

My husband spent two years in Japan and learned to love Japanese food. Every year he cooks tempura, gyoza, teriyaki chicken and rice for our New Years party. If our kids cannot make it to our house for New Years Eve, they prepare this same dinner at their house.

Traditions are so much fun and often food is a big part of family traditions. What would camping be without smores? What would a birthday be without a birthday cake? It is interesting how food is not just part of nutrition but also a huge part of bringing people together and families forming their own traditions.

My New Years wish for all of you is a year of prosperity, love, peace and a year full of all of the good things that you desire.

Share with our readers what your New Years traditions are by writing a comment to this column.

Happy New Year from the Menifee 24/7 Foodie.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: It’s All About the Love

By Malissa Meeks

As I sit here in my kitchen after a full day of Christmas baking, I ponder the reason I did all of this baking. First let me offer a little background of why I have been baking all day.

My husband asked me if I could put together a few “goodies” for him to give to some of his co-workers. I said of course I would and started planning. (I am a total planner).

I planned out how many items I would be making for these “few” friends at work and got the shopping list ready. On Monday I asked my husband for a head count so that I would have enough Christmas tins, loaded with homemade goodies, ready for him to take to work on Wednesday. When he gave me the final number, I almost had a heart attack. I was watching him count out the “few” friends and when the fingers on both hands were used, I was surprised to say the least. He needs 15 Christmas tins loaded up with goodies.

Yesterday I shopped and today I have spent the entire day in the kitchen cooking a variety of goodies, some of traditional items and some new items. Now I am looking at the 15 empty Christmas tins and getting ready to load them up.

Why do we do this? Christmas is the busiest time of the year, yet we take time out of our busy schedules, money out of our budget and do service and good deeds for others.

I guess the answer is one of the reasons for the season. It’s all about the love. I don’t know all of the people my husband will be giving these Christmas tins to, but I know my husband loves his co-workers and this is his way of showing it. I love my husband, so I bake and bake for him.

I will be putting together a few tins for some of my friends and neighbors we really care about. So even though I am exhausted from all of the cooking that was done here today, it was a great feeling to do this and share some love.

One of my daughters was here with me helping out. What a great time we have had working together. This daughter has a one-month-old baby and her husband is deployed. He left when the baby was 8 days old. You can bet that some of these treats will be heading his direction.

So during this busy season if you have not already done so, take some time to do something for others that they will appreciate. I guarantee it will make your Christmas season better.

Merry Christmas to all of my fellow foodies.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every week. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Southern Manners and Pimento Cheese Spread

By Malissa Meeks

Being raised in Florida, I consider myself a Southern Belle. Even though it has been many years since I lived down south, I will always be a Southern Belle. You can take the Belle out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the Belle.

There are some serious rules that must be followed in order to be a Southern Belle. Here are a few of my favorites, taken from The Southern Belle Primer.

1. "Even though Princess Margaret wore white shoes after Labor Day during a visit to the United States, that doesn’t mean you should, too. (Her press secretary had to issue a "statement" to clear up that the English have no such rules). A Southern Belle never wears white before Memorial Day or after Labor Day."
2. "My dear, this is something you must always remember. Your bosom can be fake. Your smile can be fake and your hair color can be fake. But your pearls and your silver must always be real."
3. "Make sure that the punch served at your wedding reception matches the bridesmaid’s shoes. Duh."
4. "You don’t want a deviled egg plate? Well, bless your heart.” really can’t imagine anyone not having a deviled egg plate.

I was taught how to entertain by the best. My mother was known for her entertaining. If you were invited to one of her dinner parties, soirees, gatherings or shindigs, you were fortunate.

Every night, dinner was a formal event. The table was always set as if company was coming. I remember learning the "proper" way to set a table and took great pride when I was able to do this without any "reminders" from my mom. I will always be grateful for my ability to put together a great party. Thanks, Mom.

In the South, a favorite appetizer for any event is Pimento Cheese Spread. Christmas is not Christmas without it. Of course, no one makes it better than my mother, but I do try.

As the holidays approach, I hope you will be able to incorporate this recipe into your holiday entertaining. This is one of those recipes that can be made days ahead or time and actually tastes better when it has been in the fridge for a couple of days.

Pimento Cheese

1 lb. yellow cheese (Sharp, Medium, Mild Cheddar, or Longhorn, etc.)
1 or 2 large jars of chopped pimentos
½ to 1 medium onion finely chopped
Mayonnaise (enough to moisten)
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste

Preparation: Grate the cheese. Dice the onions. Mix together with the pimentos (don’t drain), a little sugar, salt (to taste), and mayonnaise. Be careful not to use too much mayonnaise; you don’t want this runny, just moistened.

After mixing by hand, I put it into the food processor and mix it again to make it finer and more like a spread.

Serve on crackers.

Keep refrigerated.

There is no way that this will not be a hit at your Holiday party. I hope ya’ll all enjoy this fabulous cheese spread.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: You Can't Beat the Food, Service at Filippi's

By Malissa Meeks

Thanksgiving is already here and Christmas is just around the corner. This is the busiest time of the year, but also my favorite time of year. I love getting together with family and friends, the decorating, cooking, shopping and all of the other things the holiday season brings.

Sometimes during this busy time, I really don’t have time to cook. On those nights, we love to go to Filippi’s Pizza Grotto. They are located at 27309 Jefferson Ave, Temecula. Their menu is very reasonably priced and the food is delicious.

Monday thru Thursday, they have a "Feast for Two", which is such a fabulous value. It easily feeds 4-5 people. The feast includes their fabulous bread, two large salads, two large slices of lasagna, two large servings of spaghetti and one pizza. The feast is for dine in only.

I have had a variety of items on their menu and they have always been delicious. Their lasagna is my favorite.

It is always a good choice to top your dinner off with a dish of Spumoni. The Spumoni at Filippi’s is top notch.

We have always had great service. The servers are very busy but seem to stay on top of things. The restaurant is clean and family friendly.

I give Filippi’s 5 spoons.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Planning Your Turkey Dinner is the Key

By Malissa Meeks

As the main Thanksgiving cook at my house for over 30 years, I have often thought that the best part of Thanksgiving is that it’s over. I get very excited to plan our Thanksgiving Dinner, but by the time it’s served, I am totally exhausted. I actually have rarely eaten the entire meal.

Our family has gotten really large and I love to put on an impressive meal. A few years ago, I decided that I was losing sight of what this day should be about and not enjoying being with family and friends as much as I should. I would feel like hibernating for days after Thanksgiving was over. That being said, I decided that I needed to find ways to make this process simpler.

Here are a few things that I have done that really have helped make holiday meals more enjoyable for me.

1. Plan your table ahead of time. You can choose your centerpiece, dishes, serving dishes, linens, everything weeks ahead of time. Set your table three days before the big day.

2. Get out all of the serving dishes a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Put a sticky note saying what goes inside of each serving dish on the dish. Put the serving utensil in the dish also. I always have so many helpers in the kitchen. Doing this makes it so much easier to get the dinner on the table. If you have room, set up a folding table to put your serving dishes on.

3. Do as much cutting and chopping ahead of time as possible. Celery, onion, grating cheese, cutting some fruits, chopping nuts, etc. These are things that can be done in advance. Put them in Ziploc bags and mark on each bag what dish that item is to be used in.

4. I always make the day before Thanksgiving my baking day. It’s a fun time to invite my daughters to come and bake with me. I prepare all of the desserts and put together dips or any casseroles that I can on that prep day. Casseroles can be made days ahead of time. I just put them in a Ziploc bag and bake them on the big day. (Can you tell I love Ziploc bags?)

5. Assign out as many dishes as you can. Most guests really enjoy helping out by bringing a side dish. It is a fun thing to ask them to bring a favorite traditional dish from their family that your family may not be familiar with.

6. Write out a schedule for the big day. This will help you with the flow of things. I know exactly what time I need to start cooking the turkey, making the rolls, baking casseroles, etc.

7. If you have one oven, you really need to pace yourself. Actually, I do not even cook my turkey in an oven. Years ago, I invested $40 in a roaster oven. I can set that in any room and bake my turkey. This gives you more room to work with in your kitchen and frees up your oven. The turkey also seems to cook a little faster in the roaster oven.

Hopefully, these tips will make it so that the thing you are most grateful for is not that Thanksgiving is over!

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: One of the Great Things to Do With Apples

By Malissa Meeks

When I was a little girl, there was only one way that I would eat apples. My grandpa Boppo would take out his pocketknife and peel an apple for me. He would cut it into small slices and we would enjoy this crisp, red apple together.

Boppo would tell me that I was the apple of his eye. As a small child, I really did not know what he meant and I remember looking deep into his eyes, trying to find that apple. Boppo is gone and what I have are memories of those precious moments spent with my Boppo. Apples have never tasted as good as when he would slice them up for me.

I am out of state right now and the other day I drove past a picture perfect red barn selling nothing but freshly picked apples. I could not resist stopping and picking up a bag of apples. They are delicious. I have had so much fun trying new recipes as well as making some old never-fail recipes with these apples. I made a delicious apple crisp with that fabulous oatmeal crumb topping. I fell in love with my new recipe choice.

I made Salted Carmel Apple Hand Pies. This crust is so amazingly delicious. It is flaky and light. This is the kind of treat you and your family will not be able to get enough of.

Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
½ cup cold sour cream

Filling:
2 cups small diced (peeled) apples
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
8 caramels rough chopped

Crust: Mix together all dry ingredients. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add sour cream. Form a ball with the dough. I had to add a few drops of cold water to give the mixture more moisture. Handle crust as little as possible. The more your handle pie crust, the tougher the crust gets.

Filling: Put diced apples into bowl. Don’t cut them too small; you want to bite into them and not have mush. Mix lemon juice on apples. Add the remaining ingredients and toss until all apples are covered with the spices.

Roll out crust and cut into circles. I like them a little on the large side but still small enough to hold in your hand. You will need to cut 2 circles for each pie. I was able to get 12 pies total out of my crust.

Put bottom circles on baking pan. Spoon apple mixture on top, leaving enough room to put the top crust on and seal. Make sure each pie gets some caramels.

Put crust on top. Seal the edges by going around each pie with your fork prongs.

Make a slit in the top of each pie.

Make an egg wash by mixing together 1 beaten egg and 1 tablespoon water. Brush this on top of each pie.

Sprinkle the top of each pie with large flake sea salt. Don’t go overboard on this. If you don’t like the sea salt, you could use sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Bake until golden brown.

This recipe is so tasty. I guarantee your family will love these little gems.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Chinese Bistro Gets Mixed Reviews

By Malissa Meeks

I have a grandson who loves trains. We have had many train experiences together and they have been so much fun. We have taken the Metrolink to Union Station at Christmas and looked at the beautiful decorations at the train station. That little field trip took us across the street to Olivera Street for some fun shopping and a great lunch.

We have taken the Surfliner up to Paso Robles. For that trip, we got our own private train car and ate lunch in the dining car. That was so much fun for both of us. We have ridden the train at the park in Poway, and had many other train adventures.

When we moved out to this area, I saw a train that was a Chinese Restaurant. It's the Chinese Bistro, located at 28490 Highway 74 in the Romoland community of Menifee. I was so excited as I saw another possible train adventure for myself and R.J.

Recently, I decided to give this restaurant a try.

Eating at a restaurant is about the food, but also the surroundings. The outside of the train is well kept and really cute. The inside needs updating. I am sure it was really pretty when it opened 20 years ago, but they really need to update the inside.

The menu is quite large. They offer just about anything you would want to see at an Americanized Chinese restaurant.

We ordered a chicken, shrimp, vegetable dinner with fried rice.

The food was very eye appealing. The broccoli, squash and other vegetables were cooked to perfection. The color was brilliant and they had just the right amount of crunch.

The fried rice was very disappointing, in fact, I felt it was a little on the stale side. The fried rice did not have any vegetables mixed in with the rice. The flavor was not good at all.

The chicken and shrimp were very bland. I did not enjoy this part of the meal.

I feel like this restaurant has so much potential with the train car theme, but I was really not impressed with much once I walked through the front door.

Bottom line, I will not be going "chew chew" on this choo choo again.

I give this restaurant 2 spoons.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Five Tips to Make Food Preparation Easier

By Malissa Meeks

When we had seven little ones running around the house, life was so busy. Through the years, I have picked up foodie tips I really wish I had known when I was raising my kids. Life was mass confusion with school, church, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, football, cheerleading, swim team, a house full of hormonal girls (have I mentioned six of my seven kids are girls?), helping my hubby establish his law practice, etc, etc, etc.

Now I watch my own kids raising their kids and the busy lives just get busier. I have shared these tips with my kids and now I pass them on to you.

My top 5 foodie tips:


Write out a weekly menu. Use this as your template for the entire month.

Choose a theme for each day of the week. For instance, Monday could be pasta night, Tuesday could be crock pot night, Wednesday could be Mexican food night, etc.

Select a vegetable to go with each day of the week. Example: Monday-green salad, Tuesday-squash, Wednesday-Broccoli, etc. Select a fruit to go with each day of the week. Example: Monday-peaches, Tuesday-pears, Wednesday-applesauce, etc.

Create your shopping list off the menu you have created.

Using this method shopping and planning becomes so easy. You would need to come up with four different pasta main dishes a month (or alternate two), four Mexican main dishes a month, and so on. Doing this, you know that on Monday you will be having a pasta main dish with salad and peaches as your side dishes. You will know exactly how many packages of spaghetti or cans of peaches you will need a month. This even makes easy to shop the ads.

Do your shopping once a week and any food prep on the same day. Make this your shopping/food prep day.

Since you have your menus complete and know how much of everything you will need for the week, take advantage of that knowledge. Cut down your work.

Clean your fruits and vegetables when you bring them home. Do as much food prep as possible when you are putting away your groceries. For example, if you are going to need grated cheddar cheese for three of your meals this week, then grate all of the cheese you will need for that week on your food prep day. You could even put the amount you will need for each recipe in separate ziploc bags so you can just grab the bag you need when you are creating your recipe. Why wash a cheese grater three times when you can do it once?

Get the family involved.

Kids love "helping" in the kitchen. It is a great time to have conversation with your kids. It is also a great time to teach kids how to work and learn to have fun working.

Keep a sink filled with soapy water while preparing your meals.

When I do this, it minimizes clean-up after dinner. It’s so easy to wash dishes while you cook if you just have that sink of soapy water ready to go.

Start every day with an empty dishwasher.

This will help eliminate that sink of dirty dishes none of us like to have staring us in the face.

Give these tips a try. I promise you they will make life so much easier. Sometimes we make it more difficult than it needs to be.

If you have some favorite tips, please make a comment on Menifee 24/7 and let’s help each other out.

I will be doing another feature with more tips at a later time, but for now I need to go and practice what I preach.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Delicious Treats With a Pumpkin Flavor

By Malissa Meeks

Pumpkin: What a tasty, wonderful squash. What child in America does not want to go to the pumpkin patch and select the perfect pumpkin with his or her imagination going wild, thinking about the masterpiece that could be made out of this awesome representation of Autumn and Halloween?

Pumpkins are rich in Vitamin A, Potassium, fiber and fun. They represent part of American history; they were a main food source for American Indians and were around long before they discovered corn. Pumpkin was a major food source for the Pilgrims. Pumpkins are magical, as they can turn into a beautiful carriage to take a perfect princess to a life-changing ball. Hey, I have even been known to call my chubby granddaughter Saylor a pumpkin.


That being said, I dedicate this column to the pumpkin.

When you cut into your pumpkin, do not toss out the seeds. What a fun and quick activity to roast those seeds and share this healthy treat with your kids! Try this recipe:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:
Pumpkin seeds
Olive Oil
Salt

Cut open the pumpkin and scoop out all of the seeds with a spoon -- or your hand, if you dare to feel the creepy, web-like stringiness of the pumpkin guts. When you cut the top, cut with your knife at an angle so the top can be placed back on the pumpkin and not fall into the pumpkin.

Place in a colander and separate the seeds from everything else.

Place seeds in a medium saucepan and for every two cups of seeds, add 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat bottom of cookie sheet with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Spread the seeds out in a single layer. Bake for 5-20 minutes (depending on the size of the seeds). When nicely brown, remove from oven and pour out onto a paper towel to cool. Once cool, eat up.

Now that you have a cleaned out your pumpkin, why not create a dinner in a pumpkin! This is a really fun family dinner.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

1 Medium pumpkin cleaned out (the size of a volleyball).
1 ½ lb. ground beef
2 T. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. brown sugar
½ cup sliced mushrooms
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups cooked rice
1 can water chestnuts (drained)
½ cup grated cheddar cheese

1. When removing the top of the pumpkin, cut in at a slant so the lid will not fall into the pumpkin once it is placed back on the pumpkin.

2. In skillet, heat oil. Brown ground beef. Once brown, add onion and sauté until onion is soft. Add remaining ingredients.

3. Place ingredients into pumpkin.

4. Place on 9x13 pan or cookie sheet.

5. Draw a fabulous face on your pumpkin.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 2 hours. It is done when the mixture inside is bubbling and the pumpkin is soft.

7. Once done, top with cheese.

8. Serve.

Remember, the pumpkin is a squash and the meat of the pumpkin is delicious with some butter and brown sugar on it.

What a fun dinner for your family. Life is about creating memories. Enjoy creating some pumpkin memories with yours.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: BBQ Trio Offers That Southern Smoked Flavor

By Malissa Meeks

Shortly after I moved to the area, my good friend took me out to lunch. Knowing that I am a Southern belle and that Southerners enjoy good BBQ, she chose to take me to BBQ trio. We had great conversation, plenty of laughs, and good food. It was the perfect afternoon until we went out to her car and realized she had locked her keys in her car.

That didn't dampen my enthusiasm for the visit to BBQ Trio, the subject of today's restaurant review.

BBQ Trio is located at 30024 Haun Road in Menifee in the Countryside Marketplace. When I walked through the door, I was greeted with a hearty welcome from the employees working there. The restaurant was very clean and kid friendly. The menu is pretty typical of a BBQ restaurant.

The meats are smoked for 12 hours, using avocado wood for that extra smoky flavor. Everything on the menu is made fresh every day. The sauce is a sweet BBQ sauce and is delicious.

The Sweet Baked Beans include a couple of different types of beans and a great BBQ flavor. The corn bread was moist. The pulled pork was delicious. The fat had been removed and the meat was lean with that wonderful smoked flavor.

I ordered both the Baby Back Ribs and the Texas Long Horn Ribs. The meat was "fall off the bones" tender. The Long Horn Ribs had the perfect amount of char. I began eating the ribs like a true Southern belle, not wanting to get my fingers dirty, but after a few bites, I decided that these ribs were worth getting my hands and face messy.

I probably would not order the Sweet Potato Fries again. I felt they lacked flavor.

The menu offers a good combination of choices as well as Family Packs and a catering menu. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give BBQ Trio 4 spoons.

Malissa Meeks is a mother of seven who knows her way around the kitchen. By her estimate, she has prepared more than 42,000 meals over the years. She also knows what she likes in a good restaurant. Her column appears here every Tuesday. Leave comments here or email them to menifee247info@gmail.com.

Menifee Foodie: Let's Appreciate the Value of Food Together

Editor's note: Please welcome our new food and restaurant columnist, Malissa Meeks. Each Tuesday, Malissa will share with our readers her love and appreciation for good, healthy food. We'll let her introduce herself:

By Malissa Meeks

Calling all Menifee Foodies...

Menifee 24/7 is now adding a Foodie Feature. Awesome! So all of you Menifee Foodies join me as I start on my adventure in this weekly column.

Some weeks I will critique a local restaurant. Some weeks I will share one of my favorite recipes. I am a kitchen gadget freak, so there may be weeks I share with you information about my favorite gadgets. I’m very interested in making life in the kitchen easier.

As a way of introductionm I am a mom, just like many of our readers. I have seven children, so I know my way around the kitchen. I have packed approximately 16,380 school lunches, prepared 42,705 meals, and eaten in restaurants approximately 2,308 times. I do believe that all of this experience will help me to pass on some valuable information to you.

My favorite season is Fall. I am so excited with the change of weather and love to drive up the mountain and look at all of the beautiful changing leaves.

This week I want to share with you one of my favorite recipes. As soon as the weather gets the least bit cool. I love to make my Chicken Noodle Soup. It is a favorite in our family. In fact, my grandkids request this soup. The best part is, it’s super simple.

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 lb. skinless chicken breast filets
1 lb. skinless chicken thigh filets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup diced onion (I like white onion)
1 cup diced carrots
3 cups uncooked wide egg noodles
½ cup diced celery
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon minced parsley

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Saute chicken 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned on both sides and cooked through. Remove from skillet to cook for a few minutes.

Reduce heat in skillet to medium/low, add butter and sauté the vegetables for about 10 minutes, stirring often until veggies are beginning to get soft.

Cut chicken into small pieces and put the chicken, veggies, chicken broth, water, salt, pepper and 1 teaspoon of the parsley into a large soup pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add noodles and simmer for 15 minutes.

Prior to serving, garnish with the remainder of the parsley.

Make a pot for your family and let me know what you think of this recipe. See you next week!

Malissa Meeks, the Menifee Foodie, welcomes your comments. Leave a comment on the website or our Facebook page or email menifee247info@gmail.com.