Ben & Jerry's Benefits Humane Society Tonight

Here's an excuse to indulge: the Pearl Street Ben & Jerry's will be donating 30% of proceeds to the beloved Boulder Valley Humane Society from 6 to 8 tonight. Here's what the Humane Society says:

Humane Society of Boulder Valley

Treat yourself tonight and help our animals at the same time! Stop by Ben & Jerry's - Boulder on the Pearl Street Mall between 6-8 p.m. and have a cone or dish of deliciousness, and they'll give 30% of proceeds to us.

Wine/Cooking Class At Whole Foods

The Pearl Street Whole Foods store will host a combo French wine and cooking class on December 15th at their wine and spirits store next door. These classes are incredibly popular and space is very limited, so if you want in, I'd suggest jumping on it immediately. Here's what they say:

Thursday, December 15th

Wines Around the World Cooking Class
6-7:30pm $10 per person

Come join Cooking Coach Beth and Wine Specialist Ben for the third monthly class series: Wines Around the World. The next stop is France. Beth will demonstrate a few classic dishes and how to prepare them, while Ben will be discussing and pouring some French wines that pair perfectly. Come taste and learn at our Wines and Spirits store. Cost is $10 per guest and space is limited.

Weekday Dinner Ideas

Following so much cooking and feasting for Thanksgiving and beyond, all I'm looking for is some simplicity and lightness for our midweek plans. That will start with tonight, when we'll do our customary reheat of something big made over the weekend, which in this case is the lovely sweet potato and butternut squash soup, a "Recipe for Health" from the New York Times.

Tomorrow will be a total cheat, since I want one of Whole Foods' large pepperoni pizzas that are on sale for $8.99 each, and tomorrow will be the last day to get it at that price ($3 off). Salad with my homemade buttermilk dressing will ease the guilt.

Wednesday will be last call for what little is left of the turkey, and it will be a green chile, turkey and white bean soup that unfortunately doesn't seem to be online, coming from an old issue of the newspaper in Taos, NM. Given that it includes roasted chiles and chipotle, longtime readers (thank you!) can imagine my enthusiasm for such a way to finish off the turkey.

Thursday again will reflect simplicity. My current five pound bag of organic russet potatoes from Vitamin Cottage (only $1.69 for the bag!) has the rare occurrence of some very large baking potatoes in it, which suggests to me stuffed baked potatoes. This is something that can be completely improvised, with my favorite base additions being Straus plain European yogurt, scallions or shallots, fresh parsley, and a bit of grated cheese. A touch of diced Black Forest ham or smoked salmon adds considerable interest.

And that gets us through a very simple weekday plan following a few Thanksgiving excesses.

Post-Thanksgiving Sale At Whole Foods

I'm a little late to this party, since Whole Foods didn't send an email about it and I haven't needed groceries for days, but I just discovered that Whole Foods is doing a three day After Thanksgiving sale, of which today is the last day. Highlights to me include Ducktrap Kendall Brook cold smoked salmon $4.99 a package ($4 off), 85% lean ground beef $2.99 a pound ($2 off), Market Made fresh hot breakfast burritos half off at $1.99 each, and Greenlees cinnamon bread $4.99 a loaf (it's so good). I was at the Pearl Street store, but the flyer I picked up doesn't mention location, so maybe it's everywhere.

Shop Small, Shop Local

So today is Shop Small Saturday is support of local businesses, much more to my liking than any Black Friday madness. From a food point of view, I guess that could mean supporting our local farmers and food shops, something that's a good idea year round. It's ironic that Shop Small Saturday falls on the first Saturday without our Boulder Farmers' Market, but you can still look for local farms in our stores, or head out to the Cure Organic Farm store, which should still be open this weekend, according to their website. Shop local!

Weekend Dinner Ideas

Sales on organic and natural meats and produce usually motivate my menu planning, but with a fridge full of Thanksgiving leftovers, this weekend I'm thinking about two things: finishing them off, and escaping from them. After yesterday's excesses and turkey sandwiches on deck for lunch today, we'll start our dinners for the weekend by getting away from the whole turkey thing. We'll keep it seasonal and lighten up from yesterday with a lovely, vegetarian soup, sweet potato and butternut squash soup. A "Recipe for Health" from the New York Times, it will be the perfect antidote to yesterday.

But then there's still that fridge full of turkey, dressing, gravy, and assorted veggie leftovers, so Saturday will be round two of Thanksgiving dinner, minus the wine, and approached with a more abstemious attitude.

By Sunday, I'll be looking for ways to transform that turkey, and I'm currently considering Asian turkey-noodle soup with ginger and chiles from Bon Appetit. The light approach and Asian spin will take it miles away from the Thanksgiving plates.

So that quickly gets us through the weekend, probably with more turkey yet to finish off.

Best Thanksgiving Wishes

As holidays go, one devoted to being thankful and to cooking has to be right at the top. My best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving, with great food and hopefully no culinary disasters (or at least fodder for a good laugh), and lots for which you are thankful.

This Week's Hot Deals (IMHO)

This week's hot deals are actually also last week's hot deals, as our natural Boulder grocery stores are coasting through Thanksgiving with the specials they already have in place. So all the specials I reported on last week will still be good through next week's ads, at the earliest, with the exception of Sprouts. Sprouts' current sale runs through Thanksgiving tomorrow, at which point they enter some sort of sale void, with a note on their website to "stay tuned for 11/30 specials."

By the way, if you find yourself in some sort of ingredient crisis tomorrow, most of the stores are offering some hours open on Thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving Eve Sale At Whole Foods

Despite the crush of business that will be happening tomorrow, our local Whole Foods stores will still manage to offer us a one-day sale for Wednesday, as usual. To help with your Thanksgiving entertaining plans, this one will be a seafood trio at nearly half price. Here's what they say.

Entertaining this Thanksgiving? Well, excite your guests with our show-stopping seafood trios, perfect for celebrating with others! Five flavors to choose from: Hot Mild Shrimp Trio, Southwest Shrimp Trio, Mild Shrimp Trio, Cocktail Shrimp Trio and Arancini Platter. Flavors worth sharing, free of preservatives or additives!

Market Made
Entertaining Trios
$9.99/ea (save $8/ea)

Community Food Share Needs Your Help

Perhaps a sign of the horrid economy, with the need for food way up, donations to Community Food Share's Let's Bag Hunger drive, which runs through Wednesday, are way down. Cmon guys, let's get going. You think you're a smart shopper? See how much bang for the buck you can find on behalf of Community Food Share. The receipt for my donation at Safeway shows me I saved $13.81, which was 29% of my purchase for them. Who can beat me in smarter shopping for Community Food Share? Come on, I challenge you!