Some Dinner Ideas For The Week

This weekend's ideas are weather-driven, with the wacky June forecast we have coming up, with rain and highs in the 60s, maybe not even out of the 50s on Saturday. Tomorrow won't be quite so bad as we transition into it, but I'll stay inside with my grill pan, doing grilled sea scallops and tomatoes with olive vinaigrette from Bon Appetit. Sprouts is featuring the sea scallops, and we have such beautiful greens available at the time of year for the bed, be they the arugula the recipe calls for, or some other baby greens mix.

Then with a high of maybe 59, after the mid-90s we're having today, it's time to take a last look at some cooler weather favorites, hot from the oven. With organic fennel on sale at Sunflower, I'm torn between two possibilities. There's a fennel and leek gratin that I love (that doesn't have a link), which would be a great accompaniment to the pork tenderloin on sale at Sprouts. I'm also tempted by cod, potato, and fennel casserole from Gourmet. Finding the fish for that one might be the challenge; Sprouts has some nice frozen fish and might have it, and they also have rockfish fillets on sale as a possible substitute, although I've never tried it.

Then with another chilly day on Sunday, we'll jump on one last pizza for the season. Again there are a couple of favorite possibilities. I'll most like do a sausage pizza (pizza alla salsiccia) from Cooking Light, since this fits in another fennel from Sunflower, and Italian chicken sausage is on sale at Sprouts. The other temptation is barbeque chicken pizza from Bon Appetit. Again, Sprouts has the best price this week on chicken tenders (although don't forget Vitamin Cottage's ongoing sale on some very fine boneless, skinless breasts), and they probably have some smoked gouda included in their 40% off bulk cheese sale.

Will continue to think about the rest of the week, and fennel will likely be making another appearance.