The Rest of This Week's Dinner Ideas

With temperatures heading to 95 today, we all should be thinking salads for dinner, but salad as a main course has never been too appealing to me. Instead, I'll take advantage of this week's chicken sausage sales and do a simple pasta with sausage, onion, bell pepper, bottled pasta sauce, and maybe some chopped fennel, relegating the salad to its rightful place on the side.

As predicted, the cod chowder made enough for a second appearance on Tuesday, with another salad on the side, with my own buttermilk dressing.

Midweek is for quick and easy dinners, like the chowder reprise. Another quick one is pork chops on sale at Sunflower, accompanied by potatoes "baked" in the microwave, with something nice and green, like chard sauteed with a little garlic and red pepper flakes, on the side.

Time to incorporate something with rice, and with chicken breasts $1.97/lb at Sunflower, I'll go for kung pao chicken from Cooking Light. There's always a bag of edamames in my freezer, a quick side for anything with an Asian influence.

That was easy, and we're done for the week.

A Savings Tip From Sprouts

Here's a tip I heard this week from one of the cashiers at Sprouts. Evidently, if you spend $100 in one trip on items from their vitamin and health and beauty department, you get 10% off your whole bill that trip. With their entire vitamin and health and beauty department 25% off this week, that would mean actually getting 35% off all your vitamins, shampoos, and the like, plus 10% off the rest of your purchases. Think this would work only for the uber-consumer who uses a lot of these products, or for somebody who is totally organized, and I'm neither, but the woman checking out ahead of me did it.

News from the Saturday Boulder Farmers Market

The biggest news from today's Boulder Farmers Market is probably the crowds, and I'm ready to hit the individual farm stands, rather than fighting again through an immobile mass of gawkers with dogs, strollers, and who knows what else. Kind of like the Yogi Berra quote the Pearl Street Whole Foods has in front of its entrance, "That place is so crowded, nobody goes there anymore." As for organic veggies available, the offerings of course are similar to what I reported Wednesday, with a few expansions in the greens varieties. Isabelle Farm has red cardinal spinach, a lovely green that looks like baby red chard. Red Wagon has added green garlic, and they still have the Walla Walla onions, both being sort of scallion-like, plus baby kale and broccoli rabe that I hadn't noticed before. Cure Organic Farm still has pea shoots and fava bean leaves available (plus lots more, of course). Abbondanza has added pea shoots, and still has the gigantic red radishes, "crunchy royal" variety, that I mentioned Wednesday. Full Circle has the best price I noticed on organic spinach, at $6 a pound, and they also have Napa cabbage and spring garlic, among other offerings. Finally, the Boulder Green Building Fair is happening in the adjacent park, so if you're looking for a crowd, come on down!

Update on Copper River Salmon

If you're looking to buy Copper River salmon in Boulder this weekend, I'd suggest calling ahead before making any special trips. The Pearl Street Whole Foods is sold out of Copper River sockeye until next week. They're expecting a delivery of Copper River king tomorrow, but it will be selling for about $30 a pound. The Baseline Whole Foods is also sold out. The Superior store had one Copper River fillet left, but I didn't ask them to hold it, and in the 15 minutes it took me to get to the store, it had been sold. Don't know what's happening in the rest of Boulder's stores, but I imagine it's a similar scene. I know the river is periodically closed to fishing to protect the fish, and one guy told me this recently happened and is what's affecting its availability this weekend. Meanwhile, as an alternative I bought a beautiful piece of fresh salmon from the another Alaskan river, that had just been delivered to the Superior store this morning, but at a price so high, I felt I should take out extra insurance on it for the trip home. I should have gone back to Sprouts, where Columbia River king is $14.99/lb, but was just too burned out at that point.

Burgers For A Buck At Sunflower Tomorrow

If you'll be running your errands in the vicinity of the Boulder Sunflower and looking for a quick, cheap bite for lunch tomorrow, the 5th, they say they'll be offering burgers for just $1 from 11 to 2.

Getting Started on This Week's Dinners

Time to get to work on a plan for this week. I've been thinking about the cod that Sprouts has on sale for $4.99/lb (we've had really good fish from them), and am considering another round of cod chowder with fingerling potatoes. I skip both the saffron and the cream, and substitute chicken broth for one or two of the clam juice bottles, and it's still delicious, plus less expensive and healthier. Perhaps this would be considered more of a winter dish as we head towards summer, but think about the pleasure of eating fish stews and clam chowders by the beach, and it becomes totally appropriate. Now if we could only get the beach...

Saturday is uncertain, as I might throw caution to the wind and see what creation might come out of the offerings at the Boulder Farmers Market. As an alternative, we could always do sausages and polenta, using the chicken sausages on sale for $2.99/lb at Sprouts, possibly doing them on the grill if the breezy forecast doesn't get too breezy.

With a less breezy forecast for Sunday, we'll indulge in some of the first fresh, wild salmon of the season out on the grill. You'll find a comparison of local fresh, wild salmon prices here. Rice with fresh herbs would be nice on the side. It's guaranteed that there will still be spinach at the Farmers Market, so sauteed spinach or braising mix and mushrooms with a pinch of garlic would be good as well. Maybe a little stewed rhubarb with vanilla frozen yogurt to round it out as dessert.

More thinking to do, although I know the chowder will turn up as a reprise later in the week.

Price Comparison Smackdown - Fresh Wild Salmon

*Friday update - see the post above regarding Copper River selling out quickly this weekend.*

It's always exciting to see the arrival of fresh, wild salmon in our stores this time of year, although it is of concern how it's becoming so popular (and with a focus on a particular river) that overfishing could be a real threat. That said, here's a rundown on what's being offered in our local Boulder stores this week (including the big chains for a change), in alphabetical order, as usual.

King Soopers (Table Mesa store, seen 6/2) - $24.99/lb for Copper River sockeye.

Safeway (Meadows shopping center, seen 6/2) - $19.99/lb for Copper River sockeye with Safeway card.

Sprouts (seen 6/2) - $14.99/lb for Columbia River king.

Sunflower (seen 6/3) - no fresh wild salmon this week, and they're hoping for some next week.

Whole Foods (Pearl Street, seen 6/3) - $19.99/lb for Copper River sockeye. Earlier this week they had Copper River king (I think at $29.99/lb), but the fish counter staff report they're having problems getting the king salmon in.

If they discount like last year, we might see some big sales from King Soopers and Safeway as we get further into the season. Some emphasis on alternative rivers, as Sprouts is doing this week, would also be a good thing.

Wednesday Boulder Farmers Market - What's Happening Today

The Wednesday Farmers Market, an afternoon mini version of the Saturday market, is hopping with prepared foods, veggies, starter plants, meats, breads, chocolate, and flowers galore. The big news is the opening of the beer and wine garden, today featuring Oskar Blues, so you can grab a brewski and listen to a great guitarist while taking a break from the market stalls. All my favorite organic farm vendors were there, and here's a quick lowdown on what I saw. Isabelle has good looking lacinato kale, in addition to the usual salad greens and radishes. At Pachamama, asparagus joins spinach, scallions, and salad mix. Red Wagon has a nice variety, with another week of pea shoots (yeah!), plus rhubarb, mizuna, Walla Walla onions, lettuce mix, and braising mix. Pea shoots are also on offer at Cure Organic Farm, in addition to salad greens, braising mix, spinach, and I was happy to see, turnips. Turnips are also making an appearance at Black Cat, where they also have radishes, spinach, and an unmarked interesting mix of greens with something yellow in it. Abbondanza has the hugest red radishes I've ever seen, plus spinach. Finally, Full Circle has rhubarb, radishes, parsley, cilantro, asparagus, spinach, and salad mix. The Wednesday market is open until 8, so there's still time to get on down, grab a brew, some veggies, and maybe even dinner from the food court.

New Sale Prices Are Up

My favorite highlights of new sale prices at Boulder's Sprouts, Sunflower, and Whole Foods are up at the left. I'll need to check with Vitamin Cottage to see if they've come out with a new sales flyer yet after their hiatus. The exciting news is that Sprouts is advertising fresh wild salmon (Columbia River king for $14.99/lb) and I've seen Copper River at Whole Foods for considerably more (waaaay more for king). I hope to do a survey of our stores shortly, including King Soopers and Safeway this time, comparing availability and prices. Fresh, wild salmon, yum.

More Dinners For This Week

We've gotten through the holiday, so it's time to get the rest of the week planned. We need a break from all the grilled burgers, ribs, and shrimp we had over the weekend, so I have a family request for twice-baked vegetarian potatoes to give the meat a rest tonight. I make my own invention, variously involving shallots or scallions, plain nonfat yogurt or lowfat sour cream, parsley, and maybe a bit of shredded cheese. I haven't tried them, but for a prepared version, Sprouts has them on sale in their deli for $2.99/lb through tomorrow.

So we've had one night's vegetarian break, then it will be back to grilling, this time with a surprise gift of some very nice Coleman ribeyes. We have lots of leftover salads from yesterday to go along. For a fresh addition, I might add a tomato and peach salad while organic romas are 88 cents a pound at Sunflower through tomorrow, and I have some peaches left from the Vitamin Cottage sale. This is a real harbinger of summer, as it's the first time I'll invoke one of Mark Bittman's wonderful series on 101 things for summer, the tomato and peach salad being number two in his 101 simple salads for the season.

Then, to get away from all these potatoes and salads, it's time to move on to a rice dish. I'd hoped to get in one more recipe using pea shoots before they're done for the season, and had my eye on chicken and shitake stir fry with peas and pea tendrils over rice, but that idea met with resistance from the family. Guess last week's two dinners involving pea shoots were enough, and perhaps I should have trimmed the stems more than I did as they approach fin de saison. Will look forward to next year and experimenting with pea shoots the moment they hit the market, presumably a little more tender.

Looking for another rice dish, I've liked the nice big size (26/30 count) of the shrimp on sale for $4.97/lb at Sunflower through tomorrow, so I'll pick up another two pound frozen bag for one more dinner plus a future use. If I'm lucky, the stand at Cure Organic Farm will have spinach in stock (if not, store-bought will be fine), as we'll have shrimp risotto with baby spinach and basil from Bon Appetit. Interesting that this recipe pairs seafood and cheese, and comments that Italians actually do this, contrary to popular belief. I never saw it happen while there, although I find it usually a delicious combination, so I wonder just how prevalent the pairing might actually be in Italy. Anyone with experience of cheese in a seafood dish there?

And that will do us for the rest of the week.