Planning a Weekend of Grilling

In spite of this weekend's forecasts for breezy, if not downright windy days, I'm in the mood for barbequeing, so here are the current plans.

Sunflower has quite large 26/30 count shrimp for $4.97/lb this week, and those would be a nice big size to put on skewers for the grill, alternating with some bell pepper pieces, scallions, and perhaps some chicken breast. On the side, we'll have buttermilk mashed potatoes (Sunflower sells buttermilk in a convenient one cup package, unlike most stores where you have no choice but to buy a quart). The side veggie will likely be corn and summer vegetable saute, using corn from Whole Foods (3 for $1) or Sunflower (4 for $1). We might end with some grilled organic peaches, a fabulous $1.69/lb at Vitamin Cottage.

Continuing with the grilling, it's been eons since we've had grilled beef short ribs, and Sprouts has boneless ones this week for $2.99/lb. Accompaniments will be grilled yam spears (99 cents a pound at Sunflower) and a saute of shrooms, garlic, and organic spinach, with the spinach coming either from the Farmers Market or from Whole Foods, where it's $1 a bunch through Tuesday.

In honor of the Bolder Boulder, even though it's not going to be run, we of course have to have pasta Sunday night. Those big shrimp on sale at Sunflower are almost certainly available in the frozen section in 2 pound packages, so that's how I'll buy them for both the shrimp skewers above, and as a substitute for the scallops in linguine with bay scallops, fennel, and tomatoes from Bon Appetit. We'll make it with whole wheat pasta, and Sunflower fortunately has Luigi Vitelli organic whole wheat pastas perpetually "on sale" at $1.39 a one pound package.

For Memorial Day itself, will do something in a classically relaxed vein, like grilling burgers. A bunch of grilling possibilities are on sale at our natural food stores, as I've listed here. We'll try to keep the sides healthy, and will probably try a new vegetable slaw from Bon Appetit and maybe sweet potato salad with mustard viniagrette, originally from Gourmet. Sunflower this week has good sale prices on organic yams and cabbage for these recipes. Finally, some ears of corn from Whole Foods or Sunflower will make it onto the plates.

That will get us through a long grilling weekend. Since Cure Organic Farm has opened their wonderful farm stand at 75th and Valmont, I might not make it to the Farmers Market Saturday. But pea shoots probably have about one more week of availability, and they're on my mind for another experiment later this week. More to come.