Getting Started on This Week's Dinners

Looks like this weekend will be a particularly warm one, with highs tomorrow and Sunday in the mid to upper 90s. (With little signs popping up everywhere that fall is just around the corner, we should relish the heat while we still have it.) That will mean grilling both those days, so I'll move our big double-duty chowder day to tonight.

We could do another corn chowder in celebration of our local corn season, but there's plenty more corn on deck this week, and we only recently made corn chowder, so instead, I'll opt for cod chowder with saffron and fingerling potatoes from Bon Appetit, using the cod on sale for $4.99/lb at Sprouts. I don't usually go for previously frozen fish, but the "flash frozen at sea" technique sold at Sprouts has always been surprisingly good in my experience. Also, this recipe adapts well, and is perfectly delicious without the saffron and even skipping the cream. Much cheaper chicken broth can also be substituted for one or two of the three bottles of clam juice, too.

Then, on to the grilling. While at Sprouts, I'll also pick up their fresh coho salmon for $7.99/lb, for a spin on grilled salmon with nectarine salsa from Bon Appetit. You could do it as written, with nectarines easy to find these days, but with its being the height of the peach season, I think substituting peaches would be the thing to do right now. (Don't forget the Lafayette Peach Festival tomorrow, 30,000 pounds of organic peaches.) As a side, to enjoy some fresh, local corn, we'll try succotash of fresh corn, lima beans, tomatoes, and onion, also from Bon Appetit.

With temps in the upper 90s on Sunday, some bone-in New York strip steaks for $4.97/lb at Sunflower will hit the grill. We'll experiment with seasoning them with Chef Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Steak Magic Seasoning Blend, a packet of which was in the big bag of sample I got yesterday from the Go Mambo! tour folks. (They'll be at the Pearl Street Whole Foods today from 10 to 1, undoubtedly giving out more of those sample bags.) For a side, we'll do sauteed zucchini, cherry tomatoes, olives, and basil. It's from Bon Appetit, but doesn't have a link, so just look at its name, which tells you just about everything you need to know to make it. Add a little garlic and rosemary while sauteing the zucchini, and finish with sliced fresh basil and a touch of balsamic vinegar, and you have it. Organic on the vine cherry tomatoes are $2 for 12 oz at Sunflower, and you can't turn around right now without bumping into a zucchini.

That at least gets us through the weekend, with extra chowder to take care of one midweek dinner. More planning to come.