On the Menu this Week

I write my weekly menus on Sundays and get most of my groceries on Mondays. I usually know what day we'll eat what - certain days I don't have as much time to cook, so those nights dinner needs to require less prep time. For example, we don't have a ton of time on Wednesdays, so this week I'll pop a tri-tip steak into a Le Creuset French oven in the morning so that we can have a quick Italian Beef Sandwich that evening. Also Wednesday I'll swing by the Green City Market for Bennison's Ciabatta - definitely the best in Chicago - and more white corn. I made Ina's Fresh Corn Salad today and it was perfect in every way. I can't wait to have it again and there's not going to be many more corn days this fall.

We'll have gyros at the end of the week, when my dad and step-mom are in town - that's a great meal for a crowd. Not a lot of instruction on that one - all I do is roast or grill leg of lamb, make pita bread and taziki sauce and let everyone pile on the fixins (red onion, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper).

I also plan our fish days around shopping days. Assuming it looks good, I'll swing by Whole Foods tomorrow for trout, and again on Thursday for salmon. And if the trout or salmon doesn't look good I'll change the menu to include something different that does.

Pizza is a great weekend meal since it's more labor intensive. I've been experimenting with a lighter crust, which is pushing the limits of my patience a bit. I followed a pizza dough recipe that called for cake flour (at the opposite end of the gluten spectrum from bread flour) but wasn't too impressed. It was impossible to work with and wasn't appreciably lighter in texture than my standard crust.

Here's the whole menu:

• Hometown Trout and Gruyere Potatoes
• Cantonese Pork with Jasmine Rice and Broccoli
• Italian Beef Sandwich and Ina's Fresh Corn Salad
• Asian Grilled Salmon Salad
• Roast Lamb Gyros with Pita Bread, Taziki and Greek Salad
• Taco Party with Spanish Rice, Guacamole and Pico de Gallo
• Pizza Margherita with a Big Salad