Easter Next Weekend

It seems so soon, coming in March, but Easter is this coming Sunday. For a few menu/recipe guides, try checking these out:  Easter 2016 from Epicurious, Celebrate Easter from Cooking Light, and Easter Recipes from Food and Wine magazine.

Boulder A Kosher Wasteland Right Now

Happy Easter and continuation of Passover! We're planning a traditional Easter dinner today, with a beautiful ham from Whole Foods, golden potatoes with caper brown-butter crumbs from Gourmet magazine, and asparagus with balsamic tomatoes from Cooking Light. Since Easter brunch is also traditional but rarely done in the house, I started thinking about how to incorporate and easy one when a rather unorthodox idea for Easter hit me. Thinking about egg dishes, I remembered an old favorite I haven't made for many years, matzo brei, to which I was introduced by the Jewish family of a childhood friend. The basic idea is so simple, essentially a delicious riff on scrambled eggs. As I remember it, you get your raw scrambled eggs ready, then loosely break up an appropriate number of matzo crackers and lightly wet them before incorporating them, more broken up, into the egg mixture. Then just cook much like scrambled eggs, except the matzos will add so much more interest. I might add a bit of diced onion and/or Whole Foods' garlic granules to amp it up.

This idea sent me in search of a box of matzos on Friday, which was not only Good Friday but also the start of Passover that evening. At the Whole Foods on Pearl Street, I found the kosher food section completely bare, and the nice guy stocking an end-cap Passover display with what little they had left said they'd been completely wiped out. Not a matzo cracker to be seen in that store. Onward I went to the Sprouts on Arapahoe, where I wasn't able to locate a kosher section, although it might exist. Seeking help, I asked a stocker if they had matzos, and he drew a complete blank, saying he'd never heard of them (ah, Boulder). But he kindly went in search of a manager for further help, but since he couldn't find one, I struck out there too. In desperation, I moved on to the mammoth Safeway in the Meadows shopping center. There again their kosher section had been completely wiped out. A nice stocker directed me to another display near the bakery, but the only things left there were five pound packages (actually five one pound boxes wrapped together as one) of matzos. For something I haven't made in decades, I wasn't about to buy five pounds of matzos for it. Yesterday, my husband was in the vicinity of the Whole Foods in Superior, where he found a couple of boxes of matzos remaining (noting you had to be at least six feet to see them). Ironically, they were marked as not suitable for Passover, which might be why they were still there, but he fortunately grabbed one since that wasn't a guiding principle for our brunch.

So the moral of the story is that Boulder stores seem to be seriously underestimating the culinary needs of the local Jewish community and/or those of us with interests in exploring a variety of cuisines.

Market Easter Egg Hunt Tomorrow

What a time of year. It's Good Friday, with Passover also this evening. And then we have the first Boulder Farmers' Market of the year tomorrow, and it will kick off with an Easter Egg Hunt for kids at both locations, downtown Boulder and the fairgrounds in Longmont. Here's what the Market says:

Farmers Market  Easter Egg Hunt April 4 9am children's activity at Longmont and Boulder farmers markets

We'll gather on the steps of BMoCA in Boulder (right next to the tea house) and next to the info booth at the pavilion in Longmont to kick-off the Easter egg hunts. 100 paper eggs will be hidden among the vendors' displays at each market, each with a prize in it. This children's activity is meant for those 10 years old and under.

Superior Egg Hunt Saturday

Today's expected high of 80 should put you in the mood for an Egg Hunt (guess Easter Egg Hunt has gone the way of wishing people a Merry Christmas), since Saturday should be beautiful again, once we get past some rain and snow Thursday and Friday. The Whole Foods store in Superior will host an egg hunt that includes a particularly golden one, worth $100. Here are the details from them:

Kids and parents join us for our Egg Hunt at the Superior Whole Foods Market on Saturday, 4/5 from 10am-12pm. Come hunt for the Golden Egg. $100.00 Gift Card is yours if you find it!

Easter Ideas

Easter is just around the corner on April 5th, so it's time to get planning how to bring the flavors of spring to the table. Check out these guides to help you out: Easter, Upgraded from Epicurious, Celebrate Easter from Cooking Light, and Easter Recipes from Food and Wine magazine.

Laid Back Week For Dinners With Leftover Ham

Happy Easter, all. On Sundays I often post dinner ideas for the rest of the week, but tonight's ham will kind of give me a week off from thinking, since we'll be dealing with ham leftovers during the week, interspersed with something like a vegetarian pasta or a stir-fry with my new favorite flavoring, Korean gochujang sauce for variety. One preferred option around here for leftover ham is to do a frittata full of veggies, with ham either diced into it or sliced and browned to go on the side. If you're looking for more ambitious ideas for leftover ham, here are some ideas from Saveur, one of my favorite magazines.

Holiday Foods From Boulder Farmers' Market Today

With both Passover and Easter occurring at the same time this year, the Boulder Farmers' Market, 8 to 2 today in downtown, is inviting you to complete those meals with something fresh from the market. Here's what they say:

Complete Seder and Easter Meals from BCFM!

 

Spring has sprung at the Markets!!! 

Come and stock up on Lamb, Chicken, Beef, Spinach, Eggs, Breads, Potatoes, Fresh Cheeses, Flowers, Desserts, Carrots, Onions, Bitters, Honey, Wine and Greens galore!!! 

  

 

 

 

Easter Recipe Guides

On this snowy, icy Boulder morning following two days in the 70s, it's time to start thinking about Easter, less than a week away. To help with the planning, here are a few guides for ideas: Easter Recipes, Gifts and Egg Decorating from Epicurious, Bon Appetit's Easter Recipes, Celebrate Easter from Cooking Light, and Easter Recipes from Food and Wine magazine.

Weekday Dinner Plans

Happy Easter on a beautiful Boulder morning.  I covered our Easter dinner a couple of posts below, and with much to do on this gorgeous day, looking at the rest of the week will be quick.

We'll want something vegetarian tomorrow after tonight's ham feast, and pasta hasn't been on deck for a while, so it will be linguine with spicy leek and tomato sauce from Bon Appetit.  Sprouts has organic on-the-vine tomatoes at $2.49 a pound through Wednesday for the sauce and the side salad (not as good as last week's fantastic $1.99, but very good nonetheless).

I previously mentioned I'm going very easy on myself this week (I seem to be burning out on cooking, and don't have enough time to devote to it either) by doing two reheats of big weekend dinners, instead of the usual one.  So Tuesday will be a reprise of last night's delicious New England seafood chowder from Bon Appetit.  It's packed with kale and one of our last hoorahs for butternut squash as we enter spring, plus the cod that's a great price at Sprouts through Wednesday.

Wednesday will be our second easy reprise of tonight's ham, along with the potato gratin experiment (see post below) that I hope will be a success.  All we'll need is a fresh veggie on the side.

Expecting to still have a tad more of that beautiful Whole Foods ham left to finish off, Thursday will be a quick ham and veggie frittata, the veggies likely including spring-inspired asparagus and baby spinach.

Which quickly gets us through to Friday's planning.  Enjoy our beautiful Boulder day today!

Easter Dinner Plans

Just a reminder that if you're still angsting about aspects of your Easter dinner menu tomorrow, here are a few planning guides to help you out.

Better Brunch Cooking Class

The Whole Foods store on Pearl Street will host a Better Brunch Cooking Class this Saturday, just in time for sprucing up your Easter plans.  Here are the details from them:

Better Brunch Cooking Class

Saturday, March 30th
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Whole Foods Market Pearl Street, FREE

Join our Healthy Eating Specialist Steph, and our Cooking Coach Dana for a lesson in all things brunch. Just in time to plan and shop for your Easter spread! Space is limited, please RSVP to boulderevents@wholefoods.com.

Easter Dinner Ideas

Snow's on the ground, but we're less than a week away from Easter, so it's time to get planning.  I need to do some investigating myself, since unlike my traditional Thanksgiving dinner that hardly changes, Easter is wide open, except for the ever-present ham.  (I tried doing a leg of lamb one year and found it too gamey, not to mention the mental images it evoked that just don't seem to accompany a ham.)  So here are a few guides to help with the planning:  Easter Recipes, Gifts, and Egg Decorating from Epicurious, Celebrate Easter from Cooking Light, ham and lamb recipes from Food and Wine magazine, and the rather ecumenical Spring Gatherings from Whole Foods.  Let the planning begin!

Saturday Is For Easter Eggs

Our local natural grocery stores will really be egging it up this Saturday, the 23rd.  Both the Pearl Street and Superior Whole Foods will host Eggstravaganzas.  Pearl Street's will be from 11 to 1, and promises "a celebration of all things egg with samples, games and kid's activities!"  The one in Superior will run from 1 to 3, and has this much more detailed description:

Join us at the Superior Whole Foods market for a fun filled day for everyone!
•Tastings in each Department featuring Cage- Free Egg focused produts and recipes. Customers can vote on thier favorite dish, submit their voting form for a chance to WIN a Basket filled with goodies

•For the kids: at 1:00pm we will be hosting an egg toss and egg race. Please sign up at Customer Service to join in the fun

•We will also have a hidden Golden Egg. Kids can search for the egg, go to Customer Service, tell our Front End Team Member where they found the egg and receive a prize and fill out an entry form for a chance to WIN an Easter Basket.

•Customers listen for our Trivia questions- first Customer who comes to the Customer Service Counter with the correct answer will WIN a $5.00 Gift card

Alfalfa's will also get into the egg theme Saturday with a Natural Egg Dyeing Demo in their Community Room from 1 to 3, when they invite you to "Learn how to skip the chemicals this Easter as we show you how to use fruits and vegetables to dye eggs!"

Easter Sampling At Sunflower

Our Boulder Sunflower plans to do an Easter sampling today from noon to 2 pm. They invite you to "hop on over to enjoy some Easter treats!"

Weekend Dinner Ideas

Happy Friday, and best wishes for celebrants of Passover starting this evening! Time just seems to be increasingly short, so here's a quick lowdown on the weekend plans. I'm thinking of salmon for this evening, and since that means farmed as we await our new fresh wild season in a few weeks, it will be either the Atlantic on sale at Sprouts for $8.99 a pound or the esteemed Norwegian on sale at Whole Foods for $14.99 a pound. I'm hoping it will go on the grill, but with a forecast including some winds, the fallback will be a baked recipe I've been wanting to try, wasabi salmon with bok choy, green cabbage and shiitakes from Bon Appetit.

Tomorrow is our very first Boulder Farmers' Market of 2012, and I'm planning to celebrate with by doing a pasta with lots of spring greens, something like peppery pasta with arugula and shrimp from Cooking Light, probably using both arugula and baby spring spinach. The more fresh spring greens, the better.

Easter Sunday will be a ham in this house, and I've already picked up a fine one at Whole Foods. On the side will be golden potatoes with caper-brown butter crumbs from Gourmet magazine. The capers will be a subtle tangy counterpoint to the ham, and making it with Earth Balance rather than butter takes out the cholesterol whammy. For the potatoes, Sprouts has organic russets for just $2.99 for a five pound bag. Since we also need a spring-like veggie, I'll get some of the asparagus that's $1.99 a pound at both Sprouts and Sunflower, either steaming it and serving with my own light mayo/herb mix, or doing something like asparagus with balsamic tomatoes from Cooking Light. And I recently saw an attractive recipe I need to track down for carrots with olive oil and lemon, which would capitalize on the organic baby carrots that Whole Foods has for $2.50 for a big two pound bag.

Easter Dinner Planning Guides

We've already covered Passover, and with Easter also rapidly approaching, here are a few guides to help you out with recipes and menu ideas: Bon Appetit's Easter Guide, Easter Menus from Cooking Light, and the quite comprehensive Easter Menus, Recipes, and Egg Decorating from Epicurious. Those should be enough to start those Easter eggs rolling.

Weekend Dinner Plans, Including Easter

If it's Friday, it's time to get going on some dinner plans. For tonight, I'm hoping to do an "Alfalfa's surprise," some impromptu idea I expect to get while surveying the goods at the grand opening of the new Alfalfa's sometime today. Failing that (which I doubt), I'm also thinking about the haddock that's on sale for $5.99 a pound at Sprouts. It would make a fine scrod, and with so many runners in this town returning from the Boston Marathon earlier this week, scrod strikes me as a suitable way to fete them. It could be done in a pretty classic New England style, such as scrod with herbed breadcrumbs from Bon Appetit. I'm also intrigued by a heretical spinoff from Gourmet, scrod with chipotle butter and black beans baked in parchment, which is a hilarious play on the classic fish with a side of baked beans.

Moving on to more solid plans for tomorrow, I'm doing a preemptive strike against a potentially heavy Easter dinner Sunday by going vegetarian with Cooking Light's much lightened, yet very delicious version of fettuccine Alfredo. With a quick side salad, you have a wonderful dinner.

For Sunday, we're thinking of going with a classic ham, although where it's coming from I haven't decided yet. (I'd love to do a price smackdown across stores on hams, but that might not happen, between time constraints and the number of choices each store will offer. Just remember to check the labels for potential preservatives, if that's a concern for you, as they can be found in some of our natural stores.) Cooking the ham should require no further guidance than checking the label or consulting a basic cookbook like Bittman's How To Cook Everything or even my antique Joy of Cooking. For the sides, I'm planning on golden potatoes with caper brown-butter crumbs from Gourmet magazine. This is equally fabulous with organic russets instead of the Yukon Golds called for, and you can find russets on sale at both Sunflower and Whole Foods this week (cheaper by the five pound bag at Sunflower this week, details here). I'd never (sigh) make it with the stick of butter called for either, substituting Earth Balance as a great no-cholesterol alternative to lighten it up. I'm also considering asparagus with balsamic tomatoes from the current issue of Cooking Light, and radish, arugula, and red onion salad with tangerines from the current issue of Bon Appetit. Arugula will certainly be available at tomorrow's Farmer's Market, and maybe radishes will have made their appearance as well (failing that, the stores will serve just fine for them). Since dessert doesn't figure much into our plans (see this post for help in that direction), that will get us through the weekend.

More to come soon for weekday ideas.

Earth Day And Easter At Pearl Whole Foods

Lots of doings at the Pearl Street Whole Foods store tomorrow through the weekend, first celebrating Earth Day, then moving on to Easter. Here's what they say:

"Friday, April 22nd
Earth Day Celebration
Join us on our favorite day of the year; Earth Day! -We will be giving away fabulous reusable shopping bags and more! -Join us for live music and a cool recycled kid's activty! -Our friends from Boulder B-Cycle will also be on hand for the fun.

Saturday, April 23rd - Sunday, April 24th
Easter Weekend
Bring your family together for a fun Easter Weekend at the Pearl Street Whole Foods Market. On Saturday, April 23rd we will have live music throughout the day and the Easter Bunny will be roving around 10-6 giving away Easter treats! Join us for a fabulous Easter Brunch 7:30-1pm from our Hot Bar venue. We will be featuring Eggs Benedict, Crab and Spinach Quiche, Banana French Toast and many more of your Easter favorites! The Easter Bunny will be on hand 10-2 giving away treats!"

Easter Celebration Ideas

Planning an Easter brunch, dinner, egg decorating party? Epicurious.com's Easter Eggs-travaganza will give you loads of ideas, including recipes for those leftover eggs! Also check out Bon Appetit's extensive Easter Guide and the Easter recipes from Saveur magazine.

Lots of Fun Choices Today

So many fun natural food-related events happening around Boulder on a beautiful day today. Of course we have the Boulder Farmers' Market from 8 to 2 -- get your organic spring greens fix. We also have two holiday tastings to choose from, with the Boulder Sunflower doing a "Hopping Holiday Sampling" from 11 to 1, and the Superior Whole Foods planning a "Spring Tasting" from 1 to 4. And don't forget about Whole Foods' attempt to break its own parmesan cracking world record at 1. Check with your local store for potential tastings and festivities surrounding the event. A fun day for the foodie.