Weekend Dinner Ideas

I swear the planning gets harder the more there is to choose from. Between all the wonderful, local produce we have now and the particularly great sales happening at the Pearl Street Whole Foods store, plus good deals from our other friends too, this is tough. So when the planning gets hard, I'll make the cooking easy, taking advantage of some of the great sale prices on prepared foods at Whole Foods, a departure from my usual doing everything from scratch.

We'll start that easy cooking with tonight, which will be salmon burgers, which are only $2.49 each at the Pearl Street Whole Foods through the 24th. With roasted chiles starting to make their appearance (and a few still to finish from last season in my freezer), the side will be a new one I've been wanting to try from the New York Times, creamy stovetop corn with poblano chiles. Needless to say, the corn will be Munson's. (When I was last at the Pearl Street store, they were selling Munson's corn for 50 cents an ear, matching the price at Munson's own farm stand and saving me a trip.)

I'll get more ambitious for tomorrow, heading out to the grill with a new recipe from Saveur magazine, pesto-rubbed chicken with panzanella. We have chicken sales everywhere, including whole organic Rosie ones at Sunflower, Bell & Evans split chicken breasts at Whole Foods, and even boneless skinless ones for a song at Sunflower. As for the panzanella ingredients, how seasonal could we get, and the pesto gives me a chance to whack down my thriving basil plants. I wonder if the panzanella could be made with long diagonal slices from the wonderful French baguettes on sale at the Pearl Street Whole Foods for just 99 cents each.

We'll be back out on the grill for Sunday, since we absolutely have to take advantage of the marvelous fresh wild coho salmon on sale at the Pearl Street Whole Foods for $9.99 a pound. I'll invent my own quick fruit salsa for it, mixing together some organic fruit, diced avocado, a bit of red onion, lemon or lime juice, cilantro or parsley, and a touch of olive oil. Also wanting to take advantage of the organic Black Mission figs that are just $2.99 a pound at all our local Whole Foods stores, we'll wrap some in pancetta and put skewers of them on the grill, too. For a seasonal side, we'll turn to a favorite, exceedingly simple one, tomato and corn salad with marjoram from Bon Appetit. Once again, the corn will be Munson's, and there are lots of choices for organic tomatoes, ranging from tomorrow's Farmer's Market, to sales at the Pearl Street Whole Foods ($1.99 a pound), Sunflower ($1.99 a pound), and Alfalfa's ($2.49 a pound).

And that will get us through another fine summer weekend.