Weekend Dinner Ideas

Funny how the week's dinner plans are sometimes determined. Tonight's are born of frustration. Early this week, I'd wanted some of that very reasonable Canadian swordfish the Whole Foods on Pearl always has in its fish freezer case for about $10.99 a pound for an easy midweek dinner, only to find they were down to one little half pound package. Fish guy checked a list and told me they'd have it back in stock by Thursday. I therefore went yesterday with the idea of it defrosting for tonight's dinner, only to find yet again it is still out of stock. Fortunately just yesterday morning I'd read in the current Cooking Light about an intriguing method for broiling fish in a good old fish shack style without drying it out (my broiling skills definitely could use improvement), which they call their cooking class for moist, flavorful broiled fish. Without my reasonably priced swordfish option, I grabbed more of the fresh Icelandic cod we'd had a week ago, which is still $12.99 a pound, and that will be our broiling experiment for tonight.

The rest of the weekend is also coming from unusual inspirations. I should be looking toward using the freshest of spring greens from tomorrow's Farmers' Market, but yesterday's cold, dreary, sometimes drizzly weather in Boulder as I was considering dinners got me thinking more along the lines of one last round of winter comfort foods instead. With antibiotic-free boneless skinless chicken breasts $1.98 a pound at the Longmont Lucky's Market this week (sorry, no time to check the Boulder Lucky's), that got me wanting to make quick coq au vin from Bon Appetit.

With Sunday I'm also looking toward comfort food prompted by our one day of cold weather yesterday (and the forecast for Sunday looks like more of the same). I'm leaning towards kale and white bean stew from Food and Wine magazine, thinking about the organic kale for 98 cents a bunch at Sprouts and really wanting to get back on a healthy track after some recent indulgence in very rich dairy products for several days. But that stew is still currently competing in my mind with the possibly equally virtuous spicy tilapia and fennel stew from Cooking Light, but that one just seems too easy for a weekend night.