Friday, August 26, 2011

Weekend Dinner Ideas

With our late summer cornucopia of veggies, it's hard to know where to begin planning for this week's meals, with one exception: since I picked up the excellent Alaskan true cod during Whole Food's one-day sale, tonight it will go into corn and cod chowder from Food and Wine magazine. The dish will of course have Munson's corn in it, probably freshly picked from the farm stand at 75th and Valmont, but also pretty easily available at Whole Foods, and of course at tomorrow's Boulder Farmers' Market. I'll definitely lighten up the recipe, skipping heavy cream and substituting either more milk or possibly a little half and half. A salad will go on the side, plus fresh bread (I so miss the special 99 cent sale Whole Foods had on their wonderful baguettes through this past Wednesday!).

For tomorrow, we'll want to head back out to the grill. Salmon remains an option, and Sprouts has fresh wild coho for $7.99 a pound this week. (They also have cod at that price, if you missed the Whole Foods sale for the chowder.) If it's still in stock, Alfalfa's has Kenai Peninsula sockeye at $10.99 a pound, too. A great choice at this time of year is grilled salmon with roasted corn relish from Cooking Light. The corn of course should be Munson's, and you can find the chiles already roasted for you at Whole Foods or Sunflower, making the relish super easy. Some diced yams will go on the grill in foil packages for a side (Sunflower has organics for $1.88 a pound), and since we haven't enjoyed enough of this summer's green beans, I'm also thinking about green bean and radish salad from Bon Appetit.

We'll hope to be back out on the grill for Sunday, this time going for a rare red meat indulgence, in a household that trends more towards fish, chicken, and vegetarian. Sunflower is doing a big 40% off steaks sale, while Sprouts has boneless ribeyes for $9.99 a pound, and at the upper end, Alfalfa's has dry-aged t-bones on sale for $16.99 a pound. Since I also have some beautiful tomatoes left from the wonderful Whole Foods sale, and my herb pots really need some harvesting, I'll do a spin on charred heirloom tomatoes with fresh herbs from Bon Appetit. I'll cheat by using the fantastic organic cluster tomatoes from the sale that ended Wednesday at the Pearl Street Whole Foods store, but Alfalfa's still has organic clusters for $2.49 a pound, and if you want to be true to the recipe, heirlooms abound in our stores and the Farmers' Market.

And that will get us through yet another hot weekend. No complaining, since Labor Day is just around the corner, far too soon.

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