Update on the Broadway Whole Foods Closure

With its July 2nd closure hard upon us, what little is left at the Broadway Whole Foods store is now 70% off. Today it's the place to go if you're in the market for instant mashed potatoes or a dog collar. I did snag a few more good birthday cards and a bag of 365 mesquite wood chunks, of which they had quite a few. Sad to see the Whole Foods store go, but I'm still very much looking forward to the reincarnation of Alfalfa's.

A Pleasantly Hot Farmers Market Scene Today

Today's Boulder Farmers Market is a hopping scene, well attended but not intolerably crowded. As one might expect, the beer garden seems to be a particular hit, and today it's featuring beer from Twisted Pine. At my favorite organic farm stands, as I recently reported, there is now so much on offer that it would take all day to list what's in season. While we still have a wait for local tomatoes, corn, and zucchini, if it has green leaves, it's there. Of note this week, fava beans were available at several of the stands (for cooks more adventurous than me - I think anything so labor-intensive as to require two shellings should only be eaten in a restaurant). Cauliflower has made an appearance at Red Wagon farm, adding white to the sea of green, and sugar snap peas were so abundant, it seemed like all the vendors were sampling them. The market's open until 8, so there's still plenty of time to enjoy!

Update on Shrimp Skewers at Whole Foods

For today's great one-day sale on shrimp skewers for a buck, the Pearl Street Whole Foods has them available unseasoned, and you can then select from six seasoning choices for the fish staff to season your skewers on the spot. Most of the choices are dried, but I went for fresh garlic and parsley. They also have peach glazed shrimp skewers, which will remain on sale for $1 all the way through the 13th. P.S. The Pearl Street store also has huge bunches of organic kale on sale for $1.50.

Mark Bittman Does It Again

Just in time for our 4th of July barbeques, Mark Bittman has released another in his fabulous "101" ideas series, this time 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling in the New York Times. I'll be referring to this one again and again. Way to go, Mark!

New Deals Are Up

Highlights of new sale prices starting today at our Boulder Sprouts, Sunflower, and Whole Foods are up on the left. As usual, it gets a little crowded over there on Wednesdays, when both Sprouts and Sunflower have two sets of sales going on (last day for asparagus for $1.69/lb at Sprouts!). Don't forget that Vitamin Cottage has its own post for sales going on through 7/10, too. Dinner ideas to follow shortly.

About the Antibiotics in Our Food Supply

Interesting baby steps from the Food and Drug Administration toward reducing the antibiotics in agriculture are being reported by both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal today. I'd be happier too if our "natural" grocery stores were more forthcoming about antibiotics in the meat they sell; we know some are very strict in their policies, while others seem to play looser with the word "natural." You can read the NYT article here.

One-Day Shrimp Sale Tomorrow

Here's something easy to put on the grill during this hot week. Tomorrow only, our local Whole Foods stores will have shrimp skewers for just $1 apiece, half off. Wrap some fresh figs in pancetta and add them to the grill while you're at it!

6/30 update - if you like their peach glazed variety, they'll remain on sale at $1 each through 7/13.

A Toast to King Tut

With the blockbuster King Tut exhibit opening today at the Denver Art Museum, let's welcome him with some suitable foods from ancient Egypt, like the figs in the post just below this, and toast him with beer, reportedly the Egyptians' favorite beverage. Smart people.

Fresh Fig Sighting!

Yahoo, yahoo, I've seen my first fresh figs of the season at Whole Foods, both the Pearl Street and Superior stores. Last year, I was introduced to what has to be one of the greatest foodstuffs in the world, grilled pancetta-wrapped figs. Its name says it all; just wrap a fresh fig (maybe cut in half if it's big) in pancetta, skewer it, and grill until the pancetta is done. Eat before, during, or after a meal, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, as often as you can.

Rushing to Complete the Rest of the Week

Good thing tonight's dinner will be so easy, as I might not have time to get anything together to do any more than the simple reprise it will be. The sausage with lentils and spinach from Bon Appetit that I made a few nights ago made a truly epic amount of food. We'll do a quick reheat of it tonight with an easy salad on the side, but I'm afraid it's hardly going to make a dent in that bowl of leftovers in the fridge. I swear what's in that leftover bowl is growing.

After two purely or nearly vegetarian meals, we'll then capitalize on some of this week's chicken breasts on sale at Sprouts, Sunflower, and Vitamin Cottage, as I'm in the mood for chicken burritos with chiles and corn. This would be even better soon, when the corn will be local, but we're officially into summer and ready to eat corn now. At least the cilantro will be beautifully local and fresh.

Then we'll do a rice dish to combine two of our themes of the week: stocking up on asparagus at Sprouts for $1.69/lb while the sale lasts through Wednesday, and continuing to use the fresh mozzarella I picked up at the Whole Foods one-day sale last week. That spells some sort of risotto with mozzarella and fresh herbs from my herb pots, with the asparagus either cooked into the risotto itself, or served as the side veggie. The big caprese salad I made over the weekend only used two of the mozzarella balls I bought at the sale, when I thought it would use up three. This rice dish will make use of the third, but that still leaves me two more to go (I got a little enthusiastic about the deal). At least I have a couple more weeks before their expiration date.

Finally, we'll round out the week with some sort of stir fry, serving it over soba noodles, since we've just had rice the night before. Incorporating broccoli sounds appealling, since local broccoli has just made its appearance within the past couple of weeks. Bon Appetit has a recipe that would be perfect, adding in asparagus yet again, plus the sale chicken: chicken, asparagus, and broccoli stir-fry. Sounds like its name was concocted directly from this week's shopping list. I have a couple of other possibilities too, but no time to continue with them now - maybe later in the week, as we get closer.

And that's all she wrote, folks.