Alfalfa's Previews St. Paddy's Day

Alfalfa's is celebrating St. Patrick's Day early with Irish dancers, $1 Odell beer bangers, and free samples this weekend. The Louisville store will go at it tomorrow from 1 to 3 p.m., while the Boulder store will do Sunday, noon to 2. If Thanksgiving and Christmas were any indication, Alfalfa's does the finest holiday tastings in town. They will also start offering their house-brined corned beef starting Sunday (the 13th), and I'd bet its ingredient list will be as pure as Whole Foods. Will definitely look into it, since I'll be there for those $9.99 a pound grassfed ribeyes (and maybe a tasting or two).

Alfalfa's Tasting Fair Tomorrow

The Alfalfa's store in Boulder will hold a holiday tasting fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow, the 12th. (Their Louisville store got its chance last weekend.) If it's anything like the one I enjoyed while doing Thanksgiving shopping, it will be fabulous.

Alfalfa's Louisville Tasting Fair Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the 5th, the Alfalfa's store in Louisville will offer a holiday tasting fair from 4 to 6 p.m. If it's anything like the one I went to at the Boulder store for Thanksgiving, it will be fabulous. By the way, they also have wild caught king crab for $16.99 a pound through Sunday.

Holiday Tasting At Lucky's

If you are scouting around for new ideas for your holiday table, the Lucky's Market in Boulder will be holding a Holiday Tasting Fair tomorrow, the 20th from 11 to 2.

Feast Of The Seven Fishes

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a lovely Italian tradition for Christmas Eve that I've been getting into ever since having it at I Trulli in New York on Christmas Eve at least two, maybe three years ago. (Leave it to the Italians to turn the deprivation of a meatless "fast" into a sumptuous fish feast.) As a simple home cook, I find it easiest to get most of my numbers from a fish chowder - the two fish often involved, like cod or halibut and scallops, can easily be supplemented with others like shrimp and clams, getting the fish total to four pretty quickly. Starting off with a smoked salmon dip with veggies and crackers easily gets us to five, but incorporating the remaining two can get trickier. Last year I put a bit of cooked crab meat from Whole Foods on top of the salad that went along with the fish chowder to get to six, but I don't remember what I did for the seventh. Guess it's time to start planning. And if you are more ambitious or want to read a bit of the history of the Feast, check out Epicurious' post on Mario Batali's Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Going For All Seven Fishes

Merry Christmas Eve!  For tonight's dinner, I'd planned on holding at four fish like we had last year in a NYC restaurant for the Feast of the Seven Fishes, but once it crept up to five, I decided to try to stuff in all seven.  That would be easy enough to do if you start with a fish soup, where you could put all seven in at once, but that's not my plan.  Our main course adaptation of creamy lobster pappardelle from Cooking Light will be the fish motherlode, with shrimp, bay scallops, and minced clams added to the lobster, getting us to four fish.  As we start cooking, we'll nibble on Whole Foods' wonderful smoked salmon dip, making it five.  For a more substantial appetizer, I'll pop some stuffed clams from the freezer into the oven, making it six.  The seventh eluded me until I found some lovely (and exceptionally pricey) precooked Dungeness crab that I'll add to the salads that will go alongside the pasta.  So for this year, and probably this year only, our Feast of the Seven Fishes will actually have seven fishes (oh no, unless having clams twice makes it not count???).

And an early Merry Christmas, as I don't plan on sitting in front of a computer doing blog posts tomorrow!

Weekday Dinner Ideas

And oh what a week, including Christmas.  Prior to the excesses, we'll keep it light for tomorrow.  The organic eggplants for just 99 cents each at Sprouts through Wednesday have me thinking of a vegetarian dish from an old favorite cookbook, Mediterranean Light, which therefore doesn't have a link.  The book's eggplant gratin is a much lighter version than others you might find on the web (the whole idea of this cookbook is to take an already healthy cuisine and even lighten up on that).  As written, it calls for making a tomato sauce from scratch, but using a quality jarred pasta sauce like Muir Glen Organic reduces the steps to baking a couple of eggplants at 450 for 20 minutes, layering sauce and sliced eggplant with herbs (I might sneak in a bit of cheese) and baking for 30 to 40 minutes.  A nice prelude to the rest of the week.

For Christmas Eve on Tuesday, we've recently gotten into toying with the southern Italian tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve, following a spectacular dinner at I Trulli in New York City last year (you can see their 2013 menu here, and I had the squid ink pasta and the swordfish last year - so good!).  Being in Boulder this year, my attempt will be far more humble, involving four fish at most and only two courses for the family.  The basis will be creamy lobster pappardelle from Cooking Light.  Whole Foods has very fine lobster tails on sale for $6 each through the 31st.  To increase my fish count, I'm thinking about adding a few shrimp and also bay scallops.  If we start off with an appetizer of Whole Foods' lovely smoked salmon spread on rice chips or Nut Thins, we're up to four fish.  This past Wednesday's New York Times had an article on the seven fishes that said you could also count a salad  including anchovies in the dressing as one of your fishes, but I'm not that eager to reach seven.

Christmas Day tends to be a standing rib roast in this house, a fairly straightforward dish to make (especially since the outside meat griller man gets put in charge of this inside roast).  Sides are still a bit in flux.  I'm thinking about mashed potatoes with crispy shallots from Food and Wine magazine, plus some roasted asparagus ($1.88 a pound at Lucky's in Longmont through Christmas), and also a beet salad recipe received from a friend that I think would go well with this dinner, although I think that recipe was originally intended as one for Thanksgiving.

We'll attempt to compensate for the excesses on Thursday with something ascetic like a tofu stir-fry, incorporating some of that $1.88 a pound asparagus previously purchased from Lucky's.

Which gets us through the week in a hopefully sane and relatively healthy manner, and we haven't even incorporated a bouche de Noel!

Christmas Menu Help

Happy solstice and welcome to winter!  If you're still working on menu plans for Christmas week, here's a reminder of some guides that might help you out.

Holiday Tasting In Superior Today

I haven't had time to check Whole Foods' calendar for a bit, and just saw that the store in Superior will host a Holiday Tasting today.  Here's what they say:

Holiday Tasting

Sunday, December 15th

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Superior Whole Foods Market, Free

Holiday Tasting

Get ahead of the Holidays! Join us in each dept. at the Superior Whole Foods Market for an afternoon of Holiday samples!  Enjoy music and Bell Ringers from our adopted school- Ryan Elementary in Lafayette.  Let us help you with your menu planning or Holiday Ordering!

Holiday Food Demo At Alfalfa's

Professionals from what was formerly the Cooking School of the Rockies will give you tips on holiday recipes at Alfalfa's tomorrow afternoon.  Here's what they say:

Holiday Food Demo with Escoffier School of Culinary Arts

Sunday, December 15th               3:00 to 5:00pm                     Alfalfa's Demo Kitchen

Alfalfa's is proud to welcome back the experts from Escoffier as they demonstrate a few of their favorite holiday recipes. Stop by to pick up a recipe and watch the chefs in action! 

One-Day Sale at Whole Foods Tomorrow

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a quintet of special sales for tomorrow only, the 21st, including one I'd been hoping for: Boulder's own Chocolove Bars, at a fantastic price! (Just think - stocking stuffers, little office gifts? Perfect!) Here's what they say:

One-Day Sale
Wednesday December 21st only!

Chocolove
Chocolate Bars
4 for $5
(save $1.44/ea)

Whole Foods Market®
Mustard Dill Sauce
$1.99/ea
(save $2/ea)

Fresh
Norwegian Salmon
$11.99/lb
(save $5/lb)

Metropolitan
Triple-Cream Brie Rounds
$3.99/ea
(save $3/ea)

Brioche
2 for $6
(save $2.99/ea)

Reminder Re Fun Events Today

Don't forget that you have the opportunity for holiday tastings at both the Pearl Street and Superior Whole Foods stores (and maybe others) this afternoon. If you're out at the Superior store, do also head across the street to Superior Liquor, which will be doing a wine tasting to benefit the Boulder Humane Society.

More Whole Foods Holiday Tastings

Yahoo. For those of us who missed last weekend's big round of holiday tastings, our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a second chance tomorrow afternoon. Here's what's happening at the Pearl and Superior stores, and maybe the others are in the act, too (I can't check everywhere!). And don't forget, if you're out at the Superior store tomorrow afternoon, do also head across the street to Superior Liquor for their wine tasting and bottle signing to benefit our beloved Boulder Valley Humane Society. Here's what Whole Foods says.

Pearl Street Store

Saturday, December 17th

Holiday Entertaining Tasting
1-4pm FREE

Stop by the store for a taste of the season with our Holiday Entertaining tasting. Each of our teams will be samplilng some delicious dishes to help you plan your holiday meal.

Superior Store

Saturday, December 17th

Entertaining Appetizers
3:00pm-6:00pm Free

Join us throughout our store for samples of party favorites and entertaining appetizers. Order from our Holiday Menu for the perfect party!

Holiday Gifts From/For The Kitchen

Are you burned out after a weekend of commercialized holiday shopping, possibly with nothing even to show for it? Consider the personalized touch of making a gift from your kitchen instead. Whole Foods has a nice Gifts From The Kitchen recipe guide, complete with festive gift tags to go with each idea. Bon Appetit magazine also offers a Gifts From The Kitchen Slideshow. If you'd rather purchase a little something for the foodie on your list, check out the Foodie Stocking Stuffers from Epicurious. Our local Boulder natural grocery stores have also piled up tempting gift displays, or consider something from our wonderful local shops Cured or Peppercorn.

Hanukkah Recipe Guides

Looking for some ideas for sprucing up your Hanukkah treats? Check out some of these menu and recipe guides: Hanukkah Recipes, Menus, and Gifts from Epicurious, Bon Appetit's Hanukkah Food, Saveur magazine's Happy Hanukkah, the New York Times' Hanukkah Recipes, and the Hanukkah Recipes Guide from Food and Wine magazine.

Saturday Is Holiday Tasting Day

This Saturday, the 10th, is shaping up to be our Boulder natural foods tasting day for holiday ideas. Here, at a minimum, is what is going on.

Alfalfa's

Alfa la la la Holiday Tasting Fair
Saturday, Dec. 10th
Alfalfa's Inside and Outside
11am-3pm
FREE

String the lights, bundle up, and come on down to Alfalfa’s for a bit of holiday cheer. We’re kicking off the season by sampling holiday foods both classic and new. Outside we’ll have piping hot chocolate and snowflake cookies. Inside there will be tastes of everything that makes the holidays, well, the holidays.

Oh, and come a little early if you can. At exactly 11 am, we'll unwrap and reveal Boulder’s newest and biggest citizen — Alfie! Our gift to Boulder, our gift to you.

Sunflower

"Holiday Tasting Fair! 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm. We will be sampling items from our holiday platters and delicious desserts. Yum!"

Whole Foods, Pearl Street

Saturday, December 10th

Holiday Entertaining Tasting
1-4pm FREE

Stop by the store for a taste of the season with our Holiday Entertaining tasting. Each of our teams will be samplilng some delicious dishes to help you plan your holiday meal.

Whole Foods, Superior (they're also doing a holiday kids club event that afternoon)

Saturday, December 10th

Holiday Tasting- Holiday Meals and Sides
3:00pm-6:00pm Free

Join us throughout our store for tasty samples of items from out Holiday menu and more. Let us do the cooking for you.

Holiday Tasting At Sunflower

According to the Boulder Sunflower calendar, from noon to 2 pm today, they'll be offering "Cheers to the holidays," for which they say, "While you are shopping, stop by for a special treat!"

Thanksgiving Recipe Guides

Like a lot of people, my Thanksgiving table tends towards traditional, with the turkey, dressing, and gravy being sacred unchangeable recipes. I do experiment with the sides, increasingly lightening them, and this year am looking forward to trying a beet salad recipe from a friend. If you're looking for some ideas for those parts of the feast you're willing to play with, there are a number of Thanksgiving guides to help you out. Check out Bon Appetit's 2011 Thanksgiving HQ, Thanksgiving recipes from Epicurious, Cooking Light's Magnificent Thanksgiving Menus, Saveur magazine's Thanksgiving guide, and Thanksgiving Menu Ideas from Whole Foods. There must be something perfect for your table within them.

More Whole Foods Holiday Tastings

Both the Pearl Street and Superior Whole Foods stores (and possibly the others - I can only check on so many, so I go for the largest!) are continuing their string of tastings to tempt you with new ideas for Thanksgiving and beyond. Pearl Street will focus on sides and desserts both today and Saturday, while Superior will go for the whole meal on Saturday.

Here's the news from Pearl Street:

Thursday, November 10th

Holiday Tasting- Sides and Desserts
4-6:30pm FREE

Stop by the store for a taste of some of our delicious Holiday side and dessert offerings. It's never too early to start planning the perfect Holiday meal!

Saturday, November 12th

Holiday Tasting- Sides and Desserts
1-4pm FREE

Stop by the store for a taste of some of our delicious Holiday side and dessert offerings. It's never too early to start planning the perfect Holiday meal!

And here's what the Superior store has to say:

Saturday, November 12th

Holiday Tasting- Holiday Meal Items
3:00pm-6:00pm Free

Join us throughout and enjoy samples of Holiday items that you may have never tried. What a great way to make your Holiday Meal choices!

Gluten-Free Sampling At Sunflower

According to Sunflower's calendar, they'll be doing a gluten-free sampling tomorrow, the 9th, from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm in their Boulder store. They promise "lots of delicious items for your holiday meal!"