Weekend Dinner Ideas

Enough with the royal wedding, it's time to think about dinner at home. I'm focused on the Meyer Angus ribeye steaks that Alfalfa's has on sale for just $9.99 a pound through Tuesday and am looking for some outdoor grilling time. Since the weather this weekend is not supposed to be so great, I guess it's going to have to be tonight, if the winds hold off sufficiently. We'll grill foil packages of seasoned diced potatoes (from last week's organic russet sales) on the side, and with asparagus reliably $1.99 a pound for the next couple of weeks at Whole Foods, maybe some simple grilled asparagus from Gourmet magazine.

With tomorrow's possible rain/snow mix, we'll retreat indoors and warm up with a spin on smoky shrimp and halibut stew from Bon Appetit. Both Sprouts and Sunflower have great prices on the shrimp, and I'd substitute the sale cod at Sprouts for pricey halibut, which would be underappreciated in this dish anyway. For the side salad, Alfalfa's has organic spring mix at a stunning $1.99 a pound (and I saw the Pearl Street Whole Foods was matching that a couple of days ago, yay for the competition), plus organic on-the-vine tomatoes for $2.49 a pound, and organic green onions 50 cents a bunch. I'll grab a loaf of bread from either Alfalfa's bakery or from Whole Foods, where their own olive bread is on sale for $2.79 a loaf.

For Sunday, we need to start thinking spring again, even though it will be on the chilly side, so we'll go with pasta with peas, asparagus, butter lettuce, and prosciutto from Bon Appetit, possibly trying the organic greens mix mentioned above instead of the butter lettuce, plus more of the sale asparagus from Whole Foods (where they also usually sell cooking prosciutto at a much better price than the version thinly sliced for you). The green onions are just 50 cents a bunch at Alfalfa's, or if tomorrow's weather doesn't discourage a Farmer's Market trip, the market should be brimming with them. Another salad done as mentioned above, or with spring greens from the Farmer's Market, will go on the side.

And that will at least get us through the weekend, with more planning to do.