Weekend Dinner Ideas

Happy first day of fall, everyone. Does this mean I'll be diving into recipes filled with winter squash for the weekend? Quite the opposite, as we'll be clinging to our remaining weeks of glorious summer produce, and combining those with the grilling opportunities we'll still have in daylight.

To start that off, we'll hit the grill with some fish tonight, which I hope will be the fresh wild caught swordfish that's on sale at Sprouts this week for $9.99 a pound. If that doesn't work out, Sprouts also has fresh wild Columbia River king salmon at that same price, and I recently saw some beautiful swordfish at the Pearl Street Whole Foods for $14.99 a pound. We'll precede the fish with an appetizer of grilled fresh organic figs, which were recently just $3.99 a pound at the Pearl Street Whole Foods. The figs may or may not be wrapped in pancetta before hitting the grill, and as for the fish itself, I think it's best just simply grilled and served with fresh lemon. Some spears or foil packages of organic yams will also go on the grill (organics $1.50 a pound at Sunflower), and for a leafy side, I'm thinking about skillet greens with cumin and tomatoes from Bon Appetit.

For tomorrow, we'll hit the grill again (it would get a bit monotonous to do three days in a row, and Sunday is predicted to be breezy, not the best for grilling). As a deviation in an otherwise virtuous week of healthy dining, I'm thinking about grilling the bone-in country style pork ribs that are on sale at Sprouts for $1.99 a pound. We'll start off with grilled green chiles, a great two-ingredient appetizer that I need a picture of for my Whole Foods contest entry anyway. And what would be better as a side to barbecued ribs than ears of fresh Munson's corn, while we still have it?

For Sunday, we'll give the grill a rest but continue to enjoy that Munson's corn with another corn chowder, which will also serve as our quick reheat for later in the week. I've already tried two or three corn chowder recipes since our local corn season began in July, and this time I think I'll go with sweet corn chowder with hot-smoked salmon from Cooking Light. After tomorrow's rib indulgence, I like the idea of using smoked salmon instead of bacon in the chowder. A side salad dressed with my homemade salad dressing, using plenty of herbs from my herb pots, plus a loaf of fresh bread will round out the dinner.

And that will get us through to Sunday's planning for the rest of the week.