Weekend Dinner Plans, Including Memorial Day

We're at Memorial Day weekend already, a time dominated by grilling, if the weather will cooperate. For tonight, my foray into Lucky's Market yesterday jump-started my planning, since I snatched up some of their sushi grade tuna for $10.99 a pound and organic artichokes for $1.50 each. The tuna will get seared on the grill, and a favorite sauce for steamed artichokes is this simple herb-caper mayonnaise from Bon Appetit. To dress up the rice on the side, I've recently really gotten into Lundberg's fabulous rice mixes, and tonight it will be Black Japonica, which is "a gourmet field blend of black & mahogany rice." Black it is, indeed.

Since Sunday's forecast isn't looking so great for grilling, we'll try to fit in another bbq tomorrow night, although that's when the threat of showers starts moving in. It will be another sale-driven dinner, since who could resist the chicken breast kabobs that are on sale for today only at half price, $3.99 a pound, at Whole Foods (I do love the standards Whole Foods sets for their chicken). For the veggie, we'll jump the summer gun to enjoy tomato and corn salad with marjoram from Bon Appetit. Whole Foods has fresh corn at 3 for $1, but I've seen a surprising amount of organic corn around recently for that price, at Alfalfa's a few days ago and at Lucky's yesterday. Obviously, none of this corn is local yet, but it is yummy nonetheless. Alfalfa's has organic roma tomatoes for the excellent price of $1.49 a pound, or organic grape/cherry tomatoes could be substituted, and there are good prices for those also at Alfalfa's and Sprouts.

By Sunday, we'll want a break from the grilling, and it sounds like the weather might not cooperate for it anyway. Whether or not carbo-loading for the Bolder Boulder is involved, pasta sounds good. I'm thinking of trying a recipe from the current issue of Cooking Light, pasta puttanesca. Since the anchovies don't appeal around here, I'd omit them, making this vegetarian, as well.

For Memorial Day proper, obviously we have to get back to the grill. As holidays go, Memorial Day is kind of a burger and hot dog one, not the most exciting from a culinary standpoint (unless those hot dogs morph into brats, at which point you're talking to me). Ribs make a more interesting choice, and there are some great sale options out there: $2.99 a pound for organic pork spare ribs at Lucky's, Sunflower's 25% off "rib extravaganza," and St. Louis style spareribs $3.99 a pound at Whole Foods. But I'm inclined to dress up the day a bit with the Beeler bone-in pork chops that Alfalfa's has on sale for $3.99 a pound, either grilling them as is, or in a fancier fashion as cumin-crusted monster pork chop with peach chipotle salsa from Epicurious. Lucky's already has organic peaches at a good price, and I'll take chipotle in anything. Sweet potato spears will also go on the grill, with some of that organic corn on the cob that I'm finding around town on the side.

And that gets us all the way through Monday. Best wishes for a safe and fun weekend.

Saturday update - oh great, now the weather people are flipping the days with chance of rain, now more likely this evening than tomorrow. Oh well, chicken kabobs might wind up under the broiler instead of on the grill.