Weekend Dinner Ideas

It's hot here in Boulder. It's hot now, it's been hot, and it will continue to be hot. With temps expected to be in the upper 90s today, we're going to turn back to Mark Bittman's wonderful 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics for hot weather foods tonight. I'm looking again at number two, the pesto chicken rolls, with a continuum of three ideas in mind, depending on my ambition level. With boneless chicken tenders on sale at both Sprouts and Sunflower for $2.99 a pound, it could be done as written by grilling the chicken as the first step, but there's no way I see these wraps getting made in twenty minutes if the first thing that happens is getting out the grill. Taking it down an ambition notch, the wraps could be made with the excellent Applegate Farms oven roasted chicken breast that's on sale at Whole Foods for $9.99 a pound. But if the heat sucks absolutely all ambition out of me, there's the third option of just buying the pre-made smoked turkey wraps with basil pesto that are on sale for $4.99 each at Whole Foods. Regardless of the wrap approach, it will be accompanied by a glorious mixed organic fruit salad, using the organic peaches, nectarines, plums, and strawberries that are all at excellent sale prices at Sunflower this week. I think diced organic fruit needs nothing more than perhaps a squeeze of lemon to be declared a salad.

For tomorrow, we'll definitely go back to the grill outside. If we've burned out on the wonderful fresh wild salmon we have around right now, we'll switch to beef for variety, inspired by Sunflower's sale on top sirloin steak for just $2.99 a pound. A favorite way to grill that around here is ginger-soy grilled steak from Bon Appetit. If you're looking for a good deal on soy sauce, Whole Food's own 365 organic soy sauce has a low everyday price, which becomes exceptionally low when you team it with the $1 off coupon that's in the current Whole Deal newsletter. (When I bought it, even the cashier at Whole Foods said "wow, that's a deal!")

For Sunday, we still need something big that can serve as a midweek reheat. We've also been waiting impatiently for this year's weather-delayed crop of Munson Farm's wonderful fresh corn, and since their website says it's currently expected between the 23rd and 25th, I'm going to go out on a limb and plan for it, doing a nicely seasonal summer squash and corn chowder from Cooking Light. Perhaps we'll see corn at the Munson stand at tomorrow's Farmer's Market if you get there early enough (the Market said as much in a tweet yesterday), and I'm hoping their farm stand at 75th and Valmont will be open by Sunday. The market should also supply the squash, as well as the lettuce we've had since spring, plus (I'm hoping) local tomatoes for the side salad. A local, seasonal cornucopia (ouch, I guess that's a corn joke, sorry).

And that will get us through the weekend, with fingers crossed regarding the corn.