First Weekend Dinners With The CSA

So I picked up my first CSA veggies from Red Wagon Organic Farm yesterday, and are they ever spectacular. I assumed one large grocery bag would be enough to hold them, but so glad I brought two of the large Natural Grocer size, as my delivery filled both. This week's offerings were much as outlined in my earlier post, but with a couple of surprises to spice it up; instead of a choice of lettuce or arugula (I was planning for the arugula), that one was limited to a beautiful big bag of spring lettuces, while there turned out to be a choice on the kale, as Tuscan was introduced as an option (I stuck with the original Russian red kale).

Now what to do with all those glorious veggies. This post will necessarily be quick, both because of lack of time and especially from the new world of not knowing yet just how I'll handle these veggies. General outline goes like this. For tonight, I'm thinking my idea of salmon with sorrel sauce will hold, as I got to the CSA drop off early enough to catch the sorrel option, and I hope I'll be able to get Copper River salmon later today at Safeway for just $12.99 a pound. The salmon should go on the grill, but if we get dark skies and winds like yesterday, the fish could just go on the grill pan indoors at that Safeway lure-in price. Wouldn't do that with Copper River from Whole Foods if that's still selling at $24.99 a pound. Sorrel sauce recipes seem relentlessly rich with cream and/or butter, which is probably why salmon with sorrel is always so darned good in France. I'm looking at the sorrel sauce recipe from Saveur as my likely go-to, knowing the only way I might lighten it without destroying it would be to use half and half instead of full cream. To compensate, we can have lots of Red Wagon veggies, including fresh thinly sliced raw turnips with hummus to start, and I need to decide whether the side veggie will be the Russian red kale or more likely the lovely turnip greens sauteed in olive oil with a bit of red pepper.

Okay, just writing that took basically all the time I have, so an abbreviation here. I'm thinking grill again for tomorrow, and the Longmont Lucky's Market has an excellent "flattened" marinated chicken for $2.99 a pound this week (so sorry no time to check their Boulder price). We last had that when the Longmont Lucky's first opened and it was excellent, and cleaving a chicken in half like that for the grill is in my mind better left to experts with better knife skills than ours. More of those fresh thinly sliced turnips with hummus will start, and the "grilling onions" from Red Wagon that look like humongous scallions will also go on the grill.

Sunday? I just don't know and haven't had time. The cod and sea scallop specials at Sprouts remind me of a chowder I've already made recently, so I need a bit of time to think out the options. Wish me luck with working with the remainder of this week's Red Wagon CSA bounty. New world here.

Current Vitamin Cottage Sale Ends Saturday

Just a heads up that the current, long-running sale at Vitamin Cottage ends this Saturday, the 31st, although who knows what specials they might be cooking up for the next one. Highlights of the current sale here, with the caveat that they tend to run low on sale item stock at the end of the sale.

Weekend Sales At Whole Foods

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a nice special for tomorrow only, the 30th, on organic blueberries, while yummy local Noosa yogurts will be very good at $1.50 each (eight ounces) through Sunday.

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Whole Foods stores, while the current one continues at Vitamin Cottage, but only through this Saturday the 31st. Here's what's looking good to me now.

Looking best is not actually at any of those stores, since the best deal in town right now to me is the $12.99 a pound fresh wild Copper River salmon at Safeway (see the post just below this).

But back to the stores I usually cover, at Sprouts' new sale through June 4th, boneless skinless chicken breasts could be lower than $2.99 a pound, but at least it doesn't say value pack, so that's presumably any size package. The stuffed chicken breasts are $3.99 a pound, a dollar above where the sale price used to be but still not bad, and three types of link or bulk chicken sausage are $3.49 a pound, again an increase. Bone-in ribeye steaks are $8.99 a pound, and in fish, wild Alaskan cod fillets are $7.99 a pound and 30/40 count Peruvian sea scallops are $8.99 a pound, both previously frozen. They also have previously frozen Alaskan sockeye salmon fillets for $8.99 a pound, but with fresh Copper River $12.99 at Safeway, why would you do that.

In organic produce at Sprouts, bunched carrots and red or green leaf lettuce are all very low at 98 cents each, six-ish ounce raspberries or blackberries are $2.98 each, on-the-vine cluster tomatoes are $1.98 a pound, Bartlett pears are $1.50 a pound, and yellow nectarines and black plums are both $1.98 a pound. Elsewhere in the store, I'm liking Fage Greek yogurts at $1 each, Seapoint Farms edamame $1.99 a bag, some Pamela's cookies $2.50 a box, and Westbrae organic beans just 99 cents for the 15 ounce cans.

In Whole Foods' new sale through June 17th, fresh seafood kabobs look intriguing at $7.99 a pound and they have beef kabobs at that same price, while beef shoulder steaks are $3.50 off at $4.99 a pound. Organic red, green or black seedless grapes are all $2.49 a pound, which is very good for the Whole Trade seal. I managed to resist the prepared bbq chicken in the last sale, but Market Made Sriracha fried chicken at $6.99 a pound ($2 off) might be my downfall, especially if accompanied by the Market Made smoked mozzarella pasta salad at $7.99 a pound, also $2 off. Is there a cook's night off in my future? For a treat, Whole Foods' nine inch strawberry rhubarb lattice pies are $11.99, and if you are thinking ahead to summer picnics, some Olli Salumeria salamis are $8.99 each, $3 off. Finally, Alba shampoos or conditioners (12 ounces) are nearly half off at $5.99 each.

Copper River $12.99/lb At Safeway

In today's new ads, Safeway is listing wild fresh Copper River sockeye salmon fillets for just $12.99 a pound. They also say "weather permitting" and "low price every day," so I don't know if their club card is required. When I was at Whole Foods a few days ago, Copper River was $24.99 a pound, so this is definitely worth a detour. King Soopers' ad only says "Copper River salmon has arrived," no price for it, and Sprouts is still advertising previously frozen salmon, presumably from last year.

Free Yoga/Dance Next To Farmers' Market Tomorrow

If you're headed to the Wednesday evening Boulder Farmers' Market tomorrow, you can also take in a yoga or bump and grind dance class for free from 6 to 7 at Central Park next door. With all the prepared foods and seating at the market, you can get your workout, veggies for the week, and dinner all in one stop. Details here.

First CSA Pickup This Week

So psyched that I'll get to pick up my first biweekly batch of veggies from Red Wagon Organic Farm later this week. Here's what they say looks to be on deck:

Chive Flowers

This week we hope to bring you:

Regular Share
-Red Russian Kale
-Bok Choi
-Hakurei Turnips
-Grilling Onions
-Choice: Lettuce OR Arugula
-Choice of herbs: Sorrel OR  Mint OR Thyme OR Sage OR Tarragon OR Chives OR Garlic  Chives.

E back again. This will be so fun. By posting the likely contents, Red Wagon allows the planner in me to get in gear, while the "we hope" statement adds an element of uncertainty and possible surprise. Plus there are those OR choices - I really want the sorrel, so what if everybody else does too, and they've run out by the time I get there? Will my vision of Copper River salmon with sorrel sauce be dashed? Oh the anticipation is nearly too much to bear...

Copper River Salmon At Pearl Whole Foods

The Whole Foods store on Pearl Street has Copper River salmon fillets back in stock today when I was there, $24.99 a pound. It's just the very start of the season, and that price is likely to go down, especially when King Soopers and Safeway get into the act, trying to lure us in with fresh wild salmon specials. Pearl Street is also sampling some yummy grilled corn today. Grilling dude said he was challenged to prepare great grilled corn without butter, and has he ever succeeded. He's pulling back the husks, removing the silk, applying a dry spice rub all over the corn, and replacing the husk to grill. When done, he's rubbing the corn with a cut lime. Heaven.

Grilling Guides Reminder

With the continuing threat of afternoon rains this isn't looking like the greatest Memorial Day weekend for grilling, but if you're still game and looking for new ideas, here's a reminder of the post I did a bit ago on grilling recipe guides.

Weekend Sale At Alfalfa's

Alfalfa's has gotten into the habit of doing regular four-day sales that run Thursday through Sunday, but I often don't mention them since I rarely head that far west in town and am usually too short on time to boot. But if you're headed to the Boulder Farmers' Market today before this afternoon's rain is expected to move in, you might consider also going another block for some of these specials through tomorrow. Bel Gioioso fresh mozzarella is $2.99 for an eight ounce log or ball (great if the one pound logs of fresh mozz in Whole Foods' weekend sale seem too big for you), organic cantaloupes are $1.69 each, local Callicrate ground beef is $3.99 a pound, organic raspberries look extremely good at $2.50 for six ounces ($4.98 off), Straus organic ice cream is nearly half off at $3.69 a quart, Santa Cruz organic lemonade is three for $5 (everybody does specials at this time of year), and sustainably caught wild coho salmon is $5 off at $9.99 a pound, but it's previously frozen, while we've just entered the new fresh wild season.

Stay dry this afternoon. Looks like my fresh king salmon from Lucky's Market (covered in the post below) might wind up on the grill pan instead of on the grill.