A Green Bean Salad From Frasca

Local chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson of Frasca Food and Wine is getting national press again (certainly nothing new for him), this time appearing in an article in the August issue of Cooking Light magazine on cooking with the bounty from our local farmers markets. The market in question is of course our Boulder Farmers Market, and Lachlan's recipe is green bean salad with mustard crema. Hey, so that's what I'll do with all the green beans I bought at the Whole Foods one-day sale! Nice pics in the article, and my favorite Cure Organic Farm gets a shout-out as well.

Quick, Cheap, Boozy Pizza

If you're looking for a fast but fresh meal, maybe before heading out to one of Boulder's fine summer evening events like the Colorado Music Festival or Shakespeare Festival, you might consider the coupon Modmarket is offering through MoneyMailer. Through 8/10 (but it tends to continue), you can get either a pree pizza with purchase of a full size item costing the same or more, or you can get a full size salad or M'rita pizza and a bottle of Barefoot wine for just $10, with the coupon. The printable coupon can be found here (click on the dining category to hone in), along with some other good deals, like $5 off at $10 ticket at the Southside Walnut Cafe.

Getting Started on This Week's Dinners

Sunday's looking like our best grilling day of the weekend, with a better chance of storms tomorrow and Saturday, so this week we'll postpone the grilling a couple of days. That's fine, since there are other things I want to do, starting with another celebration of the arrival of our local corn crop.

Just a week or so ago, I said that I missed our winter habit of doing a big soup or casserole on the weekend that made a quick midweek reprise dinner as well. Thinking about more ways to enjoy our local corn crop, duh, it hit me: corn chowder. There are tons of recipes out there, and one we particularly like is corn and fingerling potato chowder with applewood-smoked bacon from Cooking Light. Corn and a touch of bacon, yum. Seems to me I also have a recipe around that uses smoked salmon for that smoky flavor instead, with better fats. I'll have to find that one for a second chowder round before our corn season is done.

Then, carbing up the family members for an expected long run on the weekend, we'll turn to linguine with bay scallops, fennel, and tomatoes, substituting the big shrimp that are on sale at Sprouts for the scallops. Sunflower has organic hothouse tomatoes for $1.77/lb this week, and if you frequent north Boulder, Lucky's Market has an even more appealing deal, organic on the vine tomatoes for $1.49/lb.

Then we'll finally get to our grilling, opting for the fresh wild salmon that's a fabulous $7.99/lb at both Sprouts and Lucky's this week. With fruit so gorgeous at this time of year, a little fruit salsa will go on the side (a concoction of whatever suits your fancy - mine usually contains fruit of choice, diced avocado, some diced tomato and onion, some parsley or other fresh herb, and splashes of olive oil and lemon juice or vinegar). Potato packages will go on the grill, plus maybe ... corn? I also have a ton of green beans to use from Wednesday's one-day sale at Whole Foods, when they were just 99 cents a pound for organic one.

More thinking to do for the rest of the week.

New Sale Prices Are Up

This week's new notable sale prices are up on the left, including the new two-week sale from Whole Foods, all crowding in with the specials ending today. If you're a steak eater, note that while both Sprouts and Sunflower are advertising specials on non-organic boneless ribeyes for $7.99 or $8.99/lb through this coming week, today is the last day you can catch organic, grass fed boneless ribeyes for $8.99/lb at Sprouts (that goes for the rest of their organic beef sale as well). Both Sprouts and Whole Foods are advertising specials on fresh salmon and frozen mahi mahi, but at least purely by price, Sprouts is way the winner (mahi $2.99/lb at Sprouts, $6.99 for 12 oz at Whole Foods for instance). If north Boulder is your territory, Lucky's Market is matching the great Sprouts price on fresh wild sockeye at $7.99/lb, plus great specials on organic blueberries and on the vine tomatoes. Also, don't forget today's one-day sale at Whole Foods, especially organic green beans at 99 cents a pound, just for today. Shop till you drop, then head to this afternoon's Boulder Farmers Market, too.

Wine and Cheese Tasting Tomorrow

The Superior Whole Foods store will be hosting a free wine and cheese tasting event tomorrow evening, but you have to sign up in advance for this private event. Here's what they say.

"Thursday, July 29th
Wine and Cheese Tasting
6:30 pm-8:00pm Free
Whole Foods Market and Superior Liquor invite you to a Cheese and Wine event featuring Summer Fresh Cheeses with a twist paired with light summer wines! In order to receive an invitation to this private party, please stop by our Customer Service desk or Specialty Department and sign up today!
This event is for ages 21 and older."

One-Day Sale at Whole Foods Tomorrow

Our local Whole Foods stores will be doing another trifecta of a one-day sale tomorrow, this time offering salmon, salad, and green beans. The best part of it to me sounds like the fresh organic green beans, which will be only 99 cents a pound for the day (regularly $2.99/lb, and I just saw them for $5/lb at my favorite organic farmstand, but they had the advantage of being just picked at the farm). Also on sale for the day will be fresh sockeye 6 oz salmon portions for $3.99 each, and 7 oz mini Caesar salads at $1.99 each.

An Organic Corn Sighting?

I was surprised to see ears of sweet corn at my favorite Cure Organic Farm stand today, as I don't recall ever seeing it there last year. Since the stand is self-serve (except when they replace it with their new store on Wednesdays and Saturdays), there was no one to ask about it, so I'd have to assume it's their own, and therefore organic. Much as I love the corn from Munson's just north of the Cure stand, Munson's is pesticide free, while something from Cure would be even better if it's really organic (and at the same price, 50 cents each, as Munson's). Hmm, something I need to confirm. Meanwhile, the Cure stand also had my first bean sighting of the season, both green and yellow (aka wax to some of us) beans, yum.

P.S. We had welcome proof last night that Munson's corn remains truly pesticide-free, since a couple of friends had to be removed from the ears before the corn went into our shrimp and corn pilaf. If your corn has been treated with so much stuff that no other creature is interested in it, you have to wonder why you would be, too.

End of Snap Pea Season Already

I never realized how short the season for local sugar snap peas is. Seems it arrives in a burst of glory, then quickly departs. It was only a week or two ago that every vendor at the Boulder Farmers Market was pushing them hard, with somebody in front of every stand giving out samples. I was just out at my favorite farmstands at 75th and Valmont, and neither Cure Organic Farm or Munson's had any. The lady at Munson's told me she thought they were done for the season, and it's now too hot for them (I'd agree with that today!). Looks like I'll need to make an adjustment for tonight's linguine with summer succotash, substituting zucchini (plenty of that around) or maybe just some defrosted peas for the sugar snaps. Darn.

Countdown Reminder

Just a reminder of the deals at our natural grocery stores that will be ending today and tomorrow, if you find any of them particularly appealing. Today is the last day of our local Whole Foods' current specials, including shrimp skewers for $1, organic lettuce a dollar a head (red or green leaf or romaine), and organic zucchini a buck a pound. You'll have through tomorrow for the current sales at Lucky's, Sprouts and Sunflower, with their double deal Wednesdays. So two days left for organic beef at 40% off at Sprouts and organic strawberries for 99 cents a pound at Lucky's.

More Dinners For This Week

So what's with this heat today? Where's the cooling thunderstorm we were supposed to get? We nearly ditched our plans for pizza tonight, morphing the sausage into a cooler Italian saute of sausage, fennel, peppers, and tomatoes, but the pizza idea eventually won out. Besides, I want leftover pizza for later in the week, and leftover sausage saute just doesn't have the same cachet.
So moving on to tomorrow, and keeping with our theme of celebrating the arrival of local corn, we'll opt for shrimp and corn pilaf from Bon Appetit, using the shrimp on sale at Sunflower for $3.97/lb. Our corn will be fresh from Munson's farmstand. Don't know what you might find, but yesterday the display of California corn for 10 cents each at Sunflower had been decimated.

Continuing with the summer corn theme and looking for a pasta dish, we'll follow with linguine with summer succotash, also from Bon Appetit. That will give us at least one vegetarian dish for the week as well. The side salad will come from the most huge head of organic green leaf lettuce I've ever seen, which I just picked up at Whole Foods for only $1. Even the cashier commented on how big it was.

Then for an easy midweek reprise, we'll have all that sausage pizza waiting for the quickest of reheats. And another set of salads still won't make a dent in that head of lettuce.

Finally, I'll grab some organic steaks from Sprouts while their sale on organic beef goes on through Wednesday. Midweek isn't our usual grilling time, but they would do find cooked in a grill pan also, accompanied by baking potatoes zapped in the microwave, and, dare I suggest it, maybe more sweet corn. Can't get enough of the stuff.

And that does it for the week.