Weekday Dinner Ideas

Sorry, folks, but it's just too nice a first Sunday of fall to linger too long in front of the computer, so this will be quick. In thinking about dinners for the rest of the week, the first thing that comes to mind for tomorrow has nothing to do with current sales, but everything to do with seasonality: whacking down my basil plants. I think I need to get ruthless, even though the forecast for the next few days looks forgiving. For that, I'll do a big batch of pesto, using some on pasta tomorrow night and probably freezing the remainder in ice cube trays. I just wing the pesto by feel, since it consists of just basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, and parmesan. In the past, my finished product has often been too rich for my taste, and in my recent experiments, using a lighter touch with the olive oil and almost eliminating the pine nuts has produced more satisfactory results. For an entertaining and enlightened discussion of how to make a fine pesto, you can check out Pesto By Hand, from The Atlantic. Me? Sorry, I'll be making mine in a food processor.

For Tuesday, we always have our quick reheat of something big made over the weekend, which this week is sweet corn chowder with hot-smoked salmon from Cooking Light. A salad, some fresh bread, and that's it.

For Wednesday, I'm thinking about the freshly roasted green chiles so widely available right now. Those, in conjunction with our fresh corn season nearing its end (although Munsons says they'll make it into October!!), and the chicken tenders that are just $1.99 a pound at Sprouts through that day, spell chicken burritos with poblano chiles and corn. I do this with roasted chiles rather than raw, which is perfect for right now, and of course you can use any of the roasted Hatch chiles available in the stores, if you don't have the roasted poblanos available from Full Circle Farms at the Boulder Farmers' Market.

Thursday will be an easy dinner of pork chops, since I've been impressed with the new line that Sunflower is carrying that promise no antibiotics, in addition to the usual suspects. They're on sale for $3.99 a pound through Wednesday, and are already in my freezer, ready to be moved to the fridge Wednesday night to defrost. Since our cooler temperatures are making it possible to use the oven again, the sides will also come from the sale that runs through Wednesday at Sunflower: organic yams baked in the style of russets, and organic cauliflower (just 99 cent a pound!) roasted while the oven is going. While my roasted cauliflower will never match the dish I've had at The Kitchen, it comes reasonably close. Again, this is something I just wing, but for a recipe, you can check out this one from Gourmet. Love the way they call it "vegetable candy." Indeed, veggies, even cauliflower, can be addictive.

And that will get us through to next Friday's planning.