Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Vitamin Cottage Mini Sale Hiatus
Since Vitamin Cottage's very long lasting sale ended on the 28th, I stopped by to see if a new sale might be in place. The nice folks in the Boulder store told me the next sale flyer will be out on the 5th, not too long from now.
One-Day Sale at Whole Foods Tomorrow
For tomorrow only, our local Whole Foods stores will have delicious Grafton horseradish cheddar for $5.99 a pound, which is a whopping $7 off. Try it in a roast beef sandwich or topping a burger, yum.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Happy Memorial Day
While remembering the somber purpose of today's holiday, I hope you're also enjoying yourself, whether running the Bolder Boulder or kicking back with a beer in the backyard (or more likely both). If you're still contemplating what to put on the grill for today, look back a couple of posts to the grilling guides. Enjoy!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Weekday Dinner Ideas
Well, we already have through the holiday tomorrow planned out, but might as well finish off the rest of the week's plans, since time permits.
We usually make a big casserole or chowder over the weekend that serves as an easy weekday reheat, but somehow with all this grilling, that just isn't happening this week. So since Tuesday's dinner will have to be made from scratch, I'm thinking of an easy rice dish of my own invention (or perhaps it was from the back of a can!), that's kind of a clam risotto. Basically, saute some onion and a fair number of sliced mushrooms, and use that as the base to cook a cup of rice. However, for part of the usual broth for the rice, substitute a can of clam sauce, such as Cento. Add some fresh parsley at the end, and if you don't follow the rumored Italian proscription against combining seafood and cheese, finish it with a grating of parmesan.
For Wednesday, I'm thinking of returning to mushroom and sausage ragu with polenta from Cooking Light. Sunflower has all chicken sausage on sale through Wednesday, and Sprouts has their Italian chicken sausage on sale. I love polenta, but this makes a great sauce to serve with pasta as well. Not sure which way we'll go with it.
By Thursday, I'll be in the mood for an experiment, an intriguing recipe from last month's Cooking Light, paella with soy chorizo and edamame. Edamame are a freezer staple staple around here, and this doesn't look too complicated for weekday cooking.
And that will get us through until Friday's planning. Happy long weekend!
We usually make a big casserole or chowder over the weekend that serves as an easy weekday reheat, but somehow with all this grilling, that just isn't happening this week. So since Tuesday's dinner will have to be made from scratch, I'm thinking of an easy rice dish of my own invention (or perhaps it was from the back of a can!), that's kind of a clam risotto. Basically, saute some onion and a fair number of sliced mushrooms, and use that as the base to cook a cup of rice. However, for part of the usual broth for the rice, substitute a can of clam sauce, such as Cento. Add some fresh parsley at the end, and if you don't follow the rumored Italian proscription against combining seafood and cheese, finish it with a grating of parmesan.
For Wednesday, I'm thinking of returning to mushroom and sausage ragu with polenta from Cooking Light. Sunflower has all chicken sausage on sale through Wednesday, and Sprouts has their Italian chicken sausage on sale. I love polenta, but this makes a great sauce to serve with pasta as well. Not sure which way we'll go with it.
By Thursday, I'll be in the mood for an experiment, an intriguing recipe from last month's Cooking Light, paella with soy chorizo and edamame. Edamame are a freezer staple staple around here, and this doesn't look too complicated for weekday cooking.
And that will get us through until Friday's planning. Happy long weekend!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Memorial Day Dinner Guides
Looking for ideas for barbequing, grilling, smoking for your Memorial Day festivities? Check out these guides for expert help: ultimate grilling and barbeque guide from Epicurious, Bon Appetit's Memorial Day menus, and American barbeque side dishes from the ever regionally sophisticated Saveur.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Weekend Sale At Whole Foods
Hard on the heels of today's one-day chicken breast kabob sale, our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a quartet of special sales for tomorrow and Sunday. Organic mini-watermelons will once again be just $1.50 each, a great price for organic. Lobster tails (4/5 ounce) will be $10.99, $2 off (the tails won the Facebook vote contest to get an extra 50 cents knocked off). Their own, very delicious cowboy burgers will be $3.99 a pound, $2 off. And finally (attention all you herb gardeners out there), the handsomely huge one gallon pots of organic basil that they've had on sale the last couple of weeks for the very good price of $5 each will be practically given away at $3.33 each.
Weekend Dinner Plans, Including Memorial Day
We're at Memorial Day weekend already, a time dominated by grilling, if the weather will cooperate. For tonight, my foray into Lucky's Market yesterday jump-started my planning, since I snatched up some of their sushi grade tuna for $10.99 a pound and organic artichokes for $1.50 each. The tuna will get seared on the grill, and a favorite sauce for steamed artichokes is this simple herb-caper mayonnaise from Bon Appetit. To dress up the rice on the side, I've recently really gotten into Lundberg's fabulous rice mixes, and tonight it will be Black Japonica, which is "a gourmet field blend of black & mahogany rice." Black it is, indeed.
Since Sunday's forecast isn't looking so great for grilling, we'll try to fit in another bbq tomorrow night, although that's when the threat of showers starts moving in. It will be another sale-driven dinner, since who could resist the chicken breast kabobs that are on sale for today only at half price, $3.99 a pound, at Whole Foods (I do love the standards Whole Foods sets for their chicken). For the veggie, we'll jump the summer gun to enjoy tomato and corn salad with marjoram from Bon Appetit. Whole Foods has fresh corn at 3 for $1, but I've seen a surprising amount of organic corn around recently for that price, at Alfalfa's a few days ago and at Lucky's yesterday. Obviously, none of this corn is local yet, but it is yummy nonetheless. Alfalfa's has organic roma tomatoes for the excellent price of $1.49 a pound, or organic grape/cherry tomatoes could be substituted, and there are good prices for those also at Alfalfa's and Sprouts.
By Sunday, we'll want a break from the grilling, and it sounds like the weather might not cooperate for it anyway. Whether or not carbo-loading for the Bolder Boulder is involved, pasta sounds good. I'm thinking of trying a recipe from the current issue of Cooking Light, pasta puttanesca. Since the anchovies don't appeal around here, I'd omit them, making this vegetarian, as well.
For Memorial Day proper, obviously we have to get back to the grill. As holidays go, Memorial Day is kind of a burger and hot dog one, not the most exciting from a culinary standpoint (unless those hot dogs morph into brats, at which point you're talking to me). Ribs make a more interesting choice, and there are some great sale options out there: $2.99 a pound for organic pork spare ribs at Lucky's, Sunflower's 25% off "rib extravaganza," and St. Louis style spareribs $3.99 a pound at Whole Foods. But I'm inclined to dress up the day a bit with the Beeler bone-in pork chops that Alfalfa's has on sale for $3.99 a pound, either grilling them as is, or in a fancier fashion as cumin-crusted monster pork chop with peach chipotle salsa from Epicurious. Lucky's already has organic peaches at a good price, and I'll take chipotle in anything. Sweet potato spears will also go on the grill, with some of that organic corn on the cob that I'm finding around town on the side.
And that gets us all the way through Monday. Best wishes for a safe and fun weekend.
Saturday update - oh great, now the weather people are flipping the days with chance of rain, now more likely this evening than tomorrow. Oh well, chicken kabobs might wind up under the broiler instead of on the grill.
Since Sunday's forecast isn't looking so great for grilling, we'll try to fit in another bbq tomorrow night, although that's when the threat of showers starts moving in. It will be another sale-driven dinner, since who could resist the chicken breast kabobs that are on sale for today only at half price, $3.99 a pound, at Whole Foods (I do love the standards Whole Foods sets for their chicken). For the veggie, we'll jump the summer gun to enjoy tomato and corn salad with marjoram from Bon Appetit. Whole Foods has fresh corn at 3 for $1, but I've seen a surprising amount of organic corn around recently for that price, at Alfalfa's a few days ago and at Lucky's yesterday. Obviously, none of this corn is local yet, but it is yummy nonetheless. Alfalfa's has organic roma tomatoes for the excellent price of $1.49 a pound, or organic grape/cherry tomatoes could be substituted, and there are good prices for those also at Alfalfa's and Sprouts.
By Sunday, we'll want a break from the grilling, and it sounds like the weather might not cooperate for it anyway. Whether or not carbo-loading for the Bolder Boulder is involved, pasta sounds good. I'm thinking of trying a recipe from the current issue of Cooking Light, pasta puttanesca. Since the anchovies don't appeal around here, I'd omit them, making this vegetarian, as well.
For Memorial Day proper, obviously we have to get back to the grill. As holidays go, Memorial Day is kind of a burger and hot dog one, not the most exciting from a culinary standpoint (unless those hot dogs morph into brats, at which point you're talking to me). Ribs make a more interesting choice, and there are some great sale options out there: $2.99 a pound for organic pork spare ribs at Lucky's, Sunflower's 25% off "rib extravaganza," and St. Louis style spareribs $3.99 a pound at Whole Foods. But I'm inclined to dress up the day a bit with the Beeler bone-in pork chops that Alfalfa's has on sale for $3.99 a pound, either grilling them as is, or in a fancier fashion as cumin-crusted monster pork chop with peach chipotle salsa from Epicurious. Lucky's already has organic peaches at a good price, and I'll take chipotle in anything. Sweet potato spears will also go on the grill, with some of that organic corn on the cob that I'm finding around town on the side.
And that gets us all the way through Monday. Best wishes for a safe and fun weekend.
Saturday update - oh great, now the weather people are flipping the days with chance of rain, now more likely this evening than tomorrow. Oh well, chicken kabobs might wind up under the broiler instead of on the grill.
Good Deals At Lucky's This Week
North Boulder is unfortunately out of my usual travel territory, but I was in the neighborhood yesterday and stopped in at Lucky's Market to see what was happening, finding some very good deals, of course. Perhaps most notable is an excellent Memorial Day bbq possibility, organic pork spare ribs for $2.99 a pound. Lucky's always seems to have great deals on organic produce, this week including cantaloupes or seedless watermelons at three pounds for $1, broccoli or zucchini for $1.50 a pound, peaches $2.50 a pound, and artichokes for $1.50 each (beating Sunflower's current price of $2 for organic artichokes). While I was there, I picked up sushi grade tuna steaks for $10.99 a pound and those organic artichokes, so I have a good start on dinner for tonight.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Ribs Grilling At Sprouts
Don't feel like doing your own bbq this weekend but still want to get in the mood? Sprouts will be grilling full racks of baby back ribs over mesquite tomorrow and Saturday from 11 to 6 pm (or while they last), selling them for $9.99 a rack.
One-Day Sale at Whole Foods Tomorrow
Our local Whole Foods stores are kicking the Memorial Day weekend off right with a one-day sale for tomorrow, an unusual event for a Friday. Tomorrow only, all varieties of their own Market Made chicken breast kabobs will be half off at $3.99 a pound. What an easy thing to throw on the grill on a weekend dominated by grilling. I can see part of my weekend dinner plans shaping up, indeed.
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