Dinner Plans for the Weekend

A happy windy Boulder Friday morning to you, which means it's time to settle on dinner ideas for the weekend. With sales all week at both Sprouts and Sunflower, and Wednesday's one-day sale at Whole Foods, our local natural foods stores are urging us to eat cod. We'll oblige tonight with cod chowder with saffron and fingerling potatoes from Bon Appetit. Obviously, the potatoes don't absolutely have to be fingerlings, and it's also perfectly delicious without the saffron. Don't forget organic leaf lettuce at $1 a head at Whole Foods for the side salad, and pick up one of their lovely, fresh baguettes for just 99 cents (better than half off) to go along as well.

I've previously described the dilemma of when to cook that corned beef and cabbage, since St. Patrick's Day proper on Thursday will be an awkward day to do it. I'm going to opt for the earlier side of the holiday, cooking it tomorrow. I'm praying I'll find Whole Food's own inhouse-cured corned beef by then. They didn't yet have it when I was last there a few days ago, but that's the beauty of a fresh, preservative-free product - it doesn't sit around for weeks before it's needed. Since they're doing their Taste of Ireland Celebration tomorrow at the Pearl Street store, I'd bet anything it will be available. This kind of dinner calls for turning to an old cookbook for instruction, and my venerable Joy of Cooking practically falls open to that page (for anything else, I use Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything). Or you can just google it. With a very large stockpot, it's a one-pot dinner, with veggies like carrots, parsnips, and onions in the pot, in addition to the cabbage. Make sure you have both mustard and horseradish in the fridge to add a bit of pizazz.

For Sunday, we have yet to capitalize on Sunflower's $1.27 a pound asparagus sale, so I'm thinking fettucine with peas, asparagus, and pancetta from Bon Appetit. Frozen peas are fine in this dish, and frozen veggies are on sale at both Sprouts ($2 for Cascadian Farm organic) and Whole Foods ($1.50 for 365 Everyday Value). Again, Whole Foods has the makings for the organic side salad plus the fresh baguette to round out the meal.

And that will get us through the weekend. Don't get blown away out there.