Wednesday, July 6, 2011
National Fried Chicken Day
So yesterday was National Apple Turnover Day per the French Culinary Institute, and thanks to Saveur magazine, I see that today is National Fried Chicken Day. Not making it onto my plate. I'm sticking with my plan of fusilli with corn, zucchini, pesto, and snap peas.
This Week's Hot New Deals (IMHO)
We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Sunflower, while last week's sales continue at Vitamin Cottage (just through the 9th) and Whole Foods (through the 12th). I suspect Alfalfa's isn't advertising any sales right now - they didn't have a flyer when I was in the store a few days ago, and they haven't put new sales up on Facebook, while they have taken the old ones down. Here's what appeals to me in this week's sales (remember, it's always IMHO):
Fresh wild Alaskan sockeye salmon update: both Sprouts (through the 13th) and King Soopers (with card through the 12th) are advertising it for $9.99 a pound.
Other deals I like at Sprouts through the 13th include chicken tenders for a very low $1.88 a pound, marinated chicken kabobs for $2.88 a pound, and I'm jumping around the room about fresh wild caught California halibut filets for $9.99 a pound. In organic produce, yellow peaches or nectarines are $1.99 a pound (matching Whole Foods on the peaches, but the ones I got from WFM last week were the most beautiful I've ever seen), cantaloupe or honeydews are 88 cents a pound, red delicious apples are 99 cents a pound, yellow onions are 77 cents a pound, broccoli looks good at $1.69 a pound, and green onions are just 49 cents each. Cheese is also looking very good, with four shapes of fresh mozzarellla at $3 for eight ounces, Rondele cheese $3.99 an 8 ounce cup, bulk hot pepper jack $3.99 a pound, and shredded parmesan or romano at $5.99 a pound.
At Sunflower through the 13th, I'm liking bone-in ribeye steaks for $5.99 a pound ($7.99 a pound for boneless), pork spare ribs at $2.99 a pound, and 93% lean grass fed ground beef for $4.99 a pound. (They're advertising a "sale" on chicken tenders for $3.99 a pound, but Sprouts has them for $1.88 a pound.) In organic produce, red and black plums are $1.99 a pound, green cabbage is just 69 cents a pound, green onions are 69 cents a bunch (49 cents at Sprouts), red onions are 99 cents a pound, three packs of romaine hearts are $2.50 each, and two pound bags of carrots are $2. I'm excited about select Chobani Greek yogurts at $1 each or Brown Cow yogurts for 69 cents each. They have hot pepper jack cheese for $3.99 a pound, matching Sprouts, and a three year aged cheddar is $6.99 a pound.
Fresh wild Alaskan sockeye salmon update: both Sprouts (through the 13th) and King Soopers (with card through the 12th) are advertising it for $9.99 a pound.
Other deals I like at Sprouts through the 13th include chicken tenders for a very low $1.88 a pound, marinated chicken kabobs for $2.88 a pound, and I'm jumping around the room about fresh wild caught California halibut filets for $9.99 a pound. In organic produce, yellow peaches or nectarines are $1.99 a pound (matching Whole Foods on the peaches, but the ones I got from WFM last week were the most beautiful I've ever seen), cantaloupe or honeydews are 88 cents a pound, red delicious apples are 99 cents a pound, yellow onions are 77 cents a pound, broccoli looks good at $1.69 a pound, and green onions are just 49 cents each. Cheese is also looking very good, with four shapes of fresh mozzarellla at $3 for eight ounces, Rondele cheese $3.99 an 8 ounce cup, bulk hot pepper jack $3.99 a pound, and shredded parmesan or romano at $5.99 a pound.
At Sunflower through the 13th, I'm liking bone-in ribeye steaks for $5.99 a pound ($7.99 a pound for boneless), pork spare ribs at $2.99 a pound, and 93% lean grass fed ground beef for $4.99 a pound. (They're advertising a "sale" on chicken tenders for $3.99 a pound, but Sprouts has them for $1.88 a pound.) In organic produce, red and black plums are $1.99 a pound, green cabbage is just 69 cents a pound, green onions are 69 cents a bunch (49 cents at Sprouts), red onions are 99 cents a pound, three packs of romaine hearts are $2.50 each, and two pound bags of carrots are $2. I'm excited about select Chobani Greek yogurts at $1 each or Brown Cow yogurts for 69 cents each. They have hot pepper jack cheese for $3.99 a pound, matching Sprouts, and a three year aged cheddar is $6.99 a pound.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Happy National Apple Turnover Day
Oh, the things you find on Twitter. Thanks to the French Culinary Institute for pointing out that today is National Apple Turnover Day. That calls for a celebration. In other twitter news of the weird, Saveur magazine has a thread going with strange but theoretically successful food combos being tweeted by followers. Check the hashtag #oddanddelicious. PB and J on Wonderbread with a layer of Doritos, anybody?
P.S. My own silly musings can be found on Twitter @whatscookinbldr. Includes an adventure with a raccoon in the house over the weekend!
P.S. My own silly musings can be found on Twitter @whatscookinbldr. Includes an adventure with a raccoon in the house over the weekend!
One-Day Sale at Whole Foods Tomorrow
Goodness, it's Tuesday already. That means our local Whole Foods stores will be doing another one-day sale tomorrow, the 6th. This time it will be eight ounces of Manitoba Harvest shelled hemp seed for $3.99, way better than half off its usual $8.99 price. I've never tried them, but they're evidently high in omega-3s and protein, so maybe I should.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Weekday Dinner Ideas
With dinners already covered through tonight's long weekend, there isn't much to think about for the rest of the week. That's particularly true since we always have a reheat of something big made over the weekend, which for tomorrow will be the corn and fingerling potato chowder with applewood-smoked bacon from Cooking Light. Salad on the side (good deals on organic lettuce and tomatoes at Sunflower this week), some fresh bread, and that's it.
It will be time for pasta by Wednesday, and with lots of pesto left over from this weekend's delicious chicken wraps with pesto, arugula, and sun-dried tomatoes, and my infatuation with fresh corn still going strong (even though it isn't local yet), we'll jump into the height of summer with zucchini, corn, and basil fusilli with bacon from Gourmet magazine, cutting way back on those six slices of bacon. (With the handsome in-house smoked, thick-sliced bacon at Alfalfa's or Whole Foods, that would be nearly a pound, good grief.) Since I'm expecting to have some snap peas left after making tonight's Caesar potato salad with sugar snap peas, I'll toss the rest of those in as well, kind of hybridizing the recipe with linguine with summer succotash from Bon Appetit.
We'll turn to a rice-based dish by Thursday, and with my herb pots overflowing outside, I'll improvise my own risotto with fresh herbs. It's best with fresh mozzarella mixed in at the end, and if I can figure out what to do with the rest of it, this is a great week for deals on one pound logs of fresh mozzarella (Whole Foods having the best with Crave Brothers at $5.99 a log, Sunflower following with Mozzrella Fresca for $6.99.)
And that will get us through to Friday's planning. Have a safe and happy 4th of July!
It will be time for pasta by Wednesday, and with lots of pesto left over from this weekend's delicious chicken wraps with pesto, arugula, and sun-dried tomatoes, and my infatuation with fresh corn still going strong (even though it isn't local yet), we'll jump into the height of summer with zucchini, corn, and basil fusilli with bacon from Gourmet magazine, cutting way back on those six slices of bacon. (With the handsome in-house smoked, thick-sliced bacon at Alfalfa's or Whole Foods, that would be nearly a pound, good grief.) Since I'm expecting to have some snap peas left after making tonight's Caesar potato salad with sugar snap peas, I'll toss the rest of those in as well, kind of hybridizing the recipe with linguine with summer succotash from Bon Appetit.
We'll turn to a rice-based dish by Thursday, and with my herb pots overflowing outside, I'll improvise my own risotto with fresh herbs. It's best with fresh mozzarella mixed in at the end, and if I can figure out what to do with the rest of it, this is a great week for deals on one pound logs of fresh mozzarella (Whole Foods having the best with Crave Brothers at $5.99 a log, Sunflower following with Mozzrella Fresca for $6.99.)
And that will get us through to Friday's planning. Have a safe and happy 4th of July!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Figs!
Readers from last year might remember I'm a little fig-crazy. So I'm very excited to report that I had my first fresh organic fig sighting (and buying, of course) of the season yesterday at the Pearl Street Whole Foods store. There is nothing better than a fresh fig wrapped in a thin slice of pancetta then skewered and grilled. It's a perfect appetizer, or even a savory dessert, for your 4th of July grilling weekend.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Boulder Farmer's Market Today
From the Boulder Farmer's Market weekly newsletter, here's the super-fresh produce you'll likely find at the market today (and I wonder what makes "holy basil" holy?):
This Week's Fresh Produce
Greens
Arugula, Bok Choy, Braising Mix, Broccoli Raab, Chard, Collards, Lettuce Mixes, Lettuce, Kale (Curly, Lacinato, Red Curly, Red Russian, Violet Wave), Mesclun Mixes, Mizuna, Mustard Greens, Pea Shoots/Tendrils, Spinach (Green Space, Red, Ruby, Tyee)
Herbs
Apple Mint, Basil, Holy Basil, Burnet, Catnip, Chives, Chervil, Chocolate Mint, Cilantro, Dill, Garlic Chives, Italian Parsley, Lemon Balm, Marjoram, Mint, Oregano, Sage, Sorrel, Tarragon, Thyme, Violas
Vegetables
Asparagus, Baby Fennel, Beets (Chiogga, Golden, Red Ace), Beet Tops, Broccoli, Cone Cabbage, Carrots (Hoophouse), Cauliflower, Fava Beans, Green Garlic and Garlic Scapes, Mini-English Cukes, Kohlrabi, Mushrooms, Peppercress, Pinto Beans (dried), Radish (Cherrybell, Daikon, Easter Egg, French Breakfast, German Beer), Rhubarb, Scallions, Shelling Beans, Spring Onions (Cipollini, Purple Bunching, Super Star), Strawberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Sunchokes, Sweet Bell Peppers (greenhouse) New Potatoes, Summer Squash, Turnips (Japanese Salad, Hakuri, Scarlet Queen), Tomatoes (all greenhouse)
Fruit
Cherries, Strawberries
This Week's Fresh Produce
Greens
Arugula, Bok Choy, Braising Mix, Broccoli Raab, Chard, Collards, Lettuce Mixes, Lettuce, Kale (Curly, Lacinato, Red Curly, Red Russian, Violet Wave), Mesclun Mixes, Mizuna, Mustard Greens, Pea Shoots/Tendrils, Spinach (Green Space, Red, Ruby, Tyee)
Herbs
Apple Mint, Basil, Holy Basil, Burnet, Catnip, Chives, Chervil, Chocolate Mint, Cilantro, Dill, Garlic Chives, Italian Parsley, Lemon Balm, Marjoram, Mint, Oregano, Sage, Sorrel, Tarragon, Thyme, Violas
Vegetables
Asparagus, Baby Fennel, Beets (Chiogga, Golden, Red Ace), Beet Tops, Broccoli, Cone Cabbage, Carrots (Hoophouse), Cauliflower, Fava Beans, Green Garlic and Garlic Scapes, Mini-English Cukes, Kohlrabi, Mushrooms, Peppercress, Pinto Beans (dried), Radish (Cherrybell, Daikon, Easter Egg, French Breakfast, German Beer), Rhubarb, Scallions, Shelling Beans, Spring Onions (Cipollini, Purple Bunching, Super Star), Strawberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Sunchokes, Sweet Bell Peppers (greenhouse) New Potatoes, Summer Squash, Turnips (Japanese Salad, Hakuri, Scarlet Queen), Tomatoes (all greenhouse)
Fruit
Cherries, Strawberries
Weekend Sale At Whole Foods
Our local Whole Foods stores are giving us a duo of special sales for today all the way through the Monday holiday, 7/2-4. Fresh wild sockeye salmon fillet is $14.99 a pound. You can find it for $9.99 a pound at several places around Boulder, but I've never met a Whole Foods fish I didn't like (actually, love). Also, Stacy's pita chips are $2 a bag, a third off. Happy 4th weekend!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Alfalfa's Hometown Throwdown
I hope you've been exercising those jowls, because as part of its Hometown Throwdown from noon to 4 tomorrow, Alfalfa's will feature a cherry pit spitting contest! Cherries will predominate, with a staff cherry pie contest (you get to sample and vote), fresh organic cherries for sale, and award winning cherry bread pudding. They'll be serving up salmon, chicken or duck confit tacos (all cherry-influenced) as $5 lunches, and there will be face painting from 1 to 3. They'll also have free antioxidant testing and live music. What more could you want, just a block away from the Boulder Farmer's Market, which will run until 2 tomorrow.
Weekend Dinner Ideas, Including July 4th
It will be a busy Friday, so here's a quick summary of what's on deck for the long, hot holiday weekend, which will empasize grilling and cooling foods for hot temps.
We'll start it off with grilling tonight, going back to the fresh wild salmon that's $9.99 a pound at Sprouts, King Soopers, and Safeway. To dress it up a bit, we'll do it as grilled salmon with nectarine salsa from Bon Appetit, using the beautiful organic peaches Whole Foods has on sale for $1.99 a pound instead of the nectarines. Packages of diced organic yams will also go on the grill, and the side veggie will probably be some of the mountain of corn I got at Whole Foods' one-day sale this week.
With temperatures up across the weekend, by tomorrow we'll be thinking about picnic style dining, which brings to mind Mark Bittman's useful 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics from the New York Times. The pesto chicken rolls (number two) are a favorite, that we'll accompany with the tomato and peach salad (number four), using more of the gorgeous organic peaches from Whole Foods.
We still haven't made something big that will do for a midweek reheat as well, so on Sunday, we'll finish off the rest of the mountain of fresh corn from the Whole Foods one-day sale by doing a corn chowder, which will probably be corn and fingerling potato chowder with applewood-smoked bacon from Cooking Light. Both Whole Foods and Alfalfa's have their own in-house varieties of wonderful bacon to purchase in just the right number of slices you need.
For Monday, the 4th of July (yahoo!), we'll of course turn back to the grill, this time with the boneless Harris Ranch New York strip steaks that Sunflower has for $4.99 a pound. A potato salad will go on the side, and with radishes and snap peas in abundance in stores and the Farmer's Market right now, a good one to do is Caesar potato salad with sugar snap peas from Bon Appetit. In addition to being seasonal, I love how light this is for a potato salad, with those extra veggies and the olive oil/Dijon dressing.
And that will get us through the long holiday weekend. Enjoy!
We'll start it off with grilling tonight, going back to the fresh wild salmon that's $9.99 a pound at Sprouts, King Soopers, and Safeway. To dress it up a bit, we'll do it as grilled salmon with nectarine salsa from Bon Appetit, using the beautiful organic peaches Whole Foods has on sale for $1.99 a pound instead of the nectarines. Packages of diced organic yams will also go on the grill, and the side veggie will probably be some of the mountain of corn I got at Whole Foods' one-day sale this week.
With temperatures up across the weekend, by tomorrow we'll be thinking about picnic style dining, which brings to mind Mark Bittman's useful 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics from the New York Times. The pesto chicken rolls (number two) are a favorite, that we'll accompany with the tomato and peach salad (number four), using more of the gorgeous organic peaches from Whole Foods.
We still haven't made something big that will do for a midweek reheat as well, so on Sunday, we'll finish off the rest of the mountain of fresh corn from the Whole Foods one-day sale by doing a corn chowder, which will probably be corn and fingerling potato chowder with applewood-smoked bacon from Cooking Light. Both Whole Foods and Alfalfa's have their own in-house varieties of wonderful bacon to purchase in just the right number of slices you need.
For Monday, the 4th of July (yahoo!), we'll of course turn back to the grill, this time with the boneless Harris Ranch New York strip steaks that Sunflower has for $4.99 a pound. A potato salad will go on the side, and with radishes and snap peas in abundance in stores and the Farmer's Market right now, a good one to do is Caesar potato salad with sugar snap peas from Bon Appetit. In addition to being seasonal, I love how light this is for a potato salad, with those extra veggies and the olive oil/Dijon dressing.
And that will get us through the long holiday weekend. Enjoy!
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