Saveur Magazine's Seafood Issue

As previously mentioned, Saveur is probably my favorite magazine on earth. While technically a popular food magazine, its slant towards the history and ethnography of food both internationally and in the tiniest hamlets of the United States, combined with photography to blow your eyes away, makes it a read far beyond your basic cooking magazine. This month, (the April issue) Saveur is going even nearer and dearer to my heart by doing a special issue on seafood. You can see some of the recipes online, but to me, Saveur has always been more about the articles, about which they are coy, sharing only a couple on the web. It's an issue that will enlighten on so many fronts, including crawfish (who knew the shellfish in Manhattan's Zabar's lobster salad was exposed as crawfish?), an appreciation (that I still lack, despite many trips to Monterey) of sardines, home cooking in the villages along Croatia's Dalmatian coast, a lesson in remoulade styles, and a primer on the fish and ales to be found on the Oregon coast. There's also an article on the seafood of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, two teeny islands off the Atlantic coast of Canada that are actually French territory, with passports stamped by French customs officials, euros used as currency, and a very native French-sounding environment in its food and drink scene. Who knew? That's why I love each new issue of this magazine. Always so much to learn while being entertained by the writing at the same time.

Weekday Dinner Ideas

On a day likely to top 70 degrees in Boulder, this of necessity will be quick. We have something vegetarian at least once a week, so for tomorrow it will be fettuccine with tomato-cream sauce from Cooking Light. Whole Foods has that big size of Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes for the quite good price of $2 each through Tuesday.

Tuesday will be our usual reheat of something big made over the weekend, which this week is tonight's New England seafood chowder from Bon Appetit. Ah, to be having it on a New England shore instead.

By Wednesday, we'll want something with an Asian flair, something involving rice, and something easy, so chicken, asparagus, and broccoli stir-fry from Bon Appetit comes to mind as a suitable dish for the season and the day. Sprouts has chicken breast tenders for a not remarkable sale price of $2.49 a pound through Wednesday, but my freezer is well stocked with chicken breasts from great sales at Lucky's Market.

Thursday will also be an easy one, doing weekday Florentine: scrambled eggs with spinach and parmesan from Bon Appetit, adjusting the size of the ingredients as needed. I play pretty liberally with this recipe, always using the spinach and parmesan and cholesterol-free Nulaid eggs, but diverge however I want from there. This week I'll probably add some ham, pancetta or bacon, since we've already done one purely vegetarian dish, maybe some other greens or veggies, and it works well done in the style of an omelet or frittata as well. Breakfast for dinner is fine, but a frittata seems more appropriate than scrambled eggs for that time of day.

Enjoy today, before those winds kick up again!

Weekend Dinner Ideas

Tonight's a no-brainer, with lobster tails $4.99 each for today only at our local Whole Foods stores. The question remains how to cook them. I've used a great recipe for creamy lobster pappardelle several times in the past for these (you can pop that in the search box at the top left of this page for the link), but it seems time to move on. In Whole Foods' own announcement of the sale, one of their suggestions is a classic lobster with lemon and chive drawn butter, but that's actually written for a whole lobster, not just the tail. We might experiment with using the butter part (no-cholesterol Earth Balance of course substituted because of the substantial butter amount involved), and maybe broiling the tails instead of dumping them into boiling water as appropriate for a whole lobster. I'll have those humongous artichokes at $2 each at Whole Foods on the side (artichokes cheaper elsewhere this week, but none so handsome and large as the ones I saw at Whole Foods).

For tomorrow, the temperatures should be around 70, and with daylight hours longer, I'm hoping our winds will cooperate to send the family griller out to do some bone-in country-style pork ribs, which I'm lucky enough to have access to at the Lucky's Market in Longmont for $1.99 a pound (sorry, still no time to check on the Boulder store, too far north for me).

By Sunday, we'll still need something that will also serve as an easy midweek reheat, and the previously frozen wild Alaskan cod fillets at Sprouts for $4.99 a pound are sending me in the direction of New England seafood chowder from Epicurious. I considered several cod recipes, but the opportunity to add a bit more butternut squash as we're ready to head into spring veggies sent me to this one, plus organic kale is just 98 cents a bunch this week at Sprouts, in addition to their great cod price. And that touch of curry is great in this.

So do enjoy what looks to be a pretty nice weekend!

Another Special Alfalfa's Sale

Alfalfa's is doing another special four-day sale (I like how they use their hyphens correctly), this one from today through Sunday, the 30th. Of the twelve items listed, the ones that particularly strike me are organic roma tomatoes for just 99 cents a pound, rainbow trout sustainably farmed in Idaho for $5.99 a pound ($4 off), Canyon Bakehouse gluten-free breads $3.99 a loaf, and our local Eldorado spring water $5.99 for a case of 24 500 ml bottles, much classier to have on hand for a group than some national brand. There's also an amusing March Madness housemade sale, where if you buy any two of their meatballs, chicken wings, potato skins or jalapeno poppers, you get a free take 'n bake cheese pizza into the bargain. Also, organic green or Lacinato kale are $1.49 a bunch, but organic green curly kale is only 98 cents a bunch at Sprouts all the way through Wednesday.

Weekend Sales At Whole Foods

For tomorrow only, the 28th, our local Whole Foods stores will have their excellent (in my observation always either from Maine or the Canadian coast) lobster tails for just $4.99 each, the lowest I've ever seen. I know what's going on my dinner table tomorrow. Also, for the whole weekend, something called Amazing Meal from Amazing Grass is half off at $19.99. Lobster sounds a whole lot better to me.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Today

For today only, the 26th, Whole Foods has one pound containers of organic strawberries for $3 each. But if you miss that, they're $3.98 each at Sprouts all the way through next Wednesday. Here's the pretty picture from Whole Foods:

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have a new sale starting today at our Boulder Sprouts stores, while the current ones continue at Whole Foods through April 1st, and Vitamin Cottage through April 5th. Here's what's looking good to me now, IMHO as always.

Sprouts' new sale through April 2nd is placing a big emphasis on sales within its own brand. I've tried their own pasta sauce, which was quite good, but otherwise have little to no experience with the various Sprouts items on sale, so this week leaves me a little stuck. In meat and fish, I do like previously frozen wild Alaskan cod fillets for a very low $4.99 a pound, boneless New York steaks $7.99 a pound, chicken sausage (pork also) $2.99 a pound, and fresh Atlantic farmed salmon $9.99 a pound. It's nice to see first of the season fresh Alaskan halibut being advertised, but at $8.99 for a pre-cut six ounce portion (multiply that one to your price per pound), I'm not jumping on that.

In organic produce at Sprouts, pints of grape tomatoes are very good at $2 each, green curly kale is just 98 cents a bunch, red, green or rainbow chard are all $1.50 a bunch, red or green leaf lettuce is also $1.50 a head, four pound bags of Valencia oranges are just $2.50 each, and five pound bags of carrots (what's a "table carrot"?) are $2.98 each. In conventional produce, asparagus is now $1.98 a pound, still a good price. As for the rest of the store, as I said, this week's emphasis in on Sprouts' own brand, and while I'm sure many of the products are great, I don't have experience and therefore can't speak re them.

Finally, the hard copy of this week's Sprouts ad has a $5 off coupon for a purchase of $30 or more (good at both Boulder stores and a bunch of others, but Longmont isn't listed) through April 2nd, but the coupon doesn't appear in the online version.

Congrats To Cured!

Wonderful Cured, Boulder's one-of-a-kind purveyor of fine cheeses, meats and wine, has another addition into the Boulder community. Owners Coral and Will welcomed their son Holden into the world on Saturday, and they've shared beautiful pics of him in their email. Reflecting the quality of what's found in their store, you know when a couple still sends out their weekly email with store highlights in such a week, those are people who are passionate about everything they do.

Blood Sugar And Hormone Talk

At 6 pm tomorrow, the Lucky's Market in Longmont will host a talk on the blood sugar and hormone connection. They say "The single most important step to becoming healthier is to learn how to be more energy efficient. In this talk, we will learn how the body uses fuel and how we can use food to help the body heal naturally. For questions or to sign up, please contact Jeslynh@luckysmarket.com."

Weekday Dinner Ideas

With a little bit of snow on the ground this morning, it's a good day to have slow-cooked Tuscan pork with white beans from Cooking Light cruising along in the slow cooker on the counter. But there's still the rest of the week to contend with.

To celebrate the arrival of spring, for tomorrow we'll do a spring favorite, sausage risotto with spring greens from Bon Appetit, even though it's too early to be getting those beautiful mixed spring greens that Cure Organic Farm offers. In the meantime, the braising mix that the Pearl Street Whole Foods offers in bulk makes a suitable substitute.

Tuesday will be our easy reheat of a big weekend dish, which this week is the slow-cooked Tuscan pork currently underway in the slow cooker. I got a really handsome pork loin roast from the Lucky's Market in Longmont ($2.99 a pound through Wednesday and also that same price at Sprouts) for that one.

We'll be ready for something along the seafood lines by Wednesday, and having already had a pasta dish on the weekend and a rice one for Tuesday, we'll mix it up by doing smoky shrimp and grits from Food and Wine magazine. Sprouts has very large 21-25 count raw shrimp for $8.99 a pound through that day.

For Thursday? I just don't know yet. Salmon burgers from Whole Foods or some pork chops (good prices at both Sprouts and Longmont Lucky's through Wednesday) are our later in the week fall-backs, but you just never know. I'd planned on doing those salmon burgers this past Friday, but when I got to the Pearl Street Whole Foods to get them, they were sampling a Dover sole that was so delicious, I opted for that instead.

So enjoy our early spring day. Snow on the ground in the morning, mid-50s by afternoon. Lovely.