A (new to me) tool

Are you familiar with Pepperplate? It's an online recipe tool that lets you import recipes from a whole slew of sites or you can copy & paste your own recipes if you've got them either in soft copy or on a blog (like I do).

Then it will generate a shopping list, based on the recipes you select. You can arrange the shopping list so it matches the order in which you shop.

We just started using it and wow, I'm liking it so far. Although I can't import my recipes from my private recipe site, I was able to copy and paste them. It could not be easier.

I think this will replace Blue Apron for us. We liked the food and we liked trying new recipes, but it was sometimes awkward timing to get three meals' worth of food when really we had time to cook eggs. Pepperplate looks like it will give us some of the convenience we're looking for, without so much overhead.

If you try it, let me know what you think.

The rest of the Blue Apron meals

Spiced meatballs

I thought I'd go ahead and finish up my review for all three meals we've now cooked and eaten through Blue Apron. On Monday I wrote about the salmon, which was truly yummy and my favorite of the meals so far.

Tuesday night, we had the spiced meatballs with summer squash salad you see in this photo. It, too, was quite good although probably my third favorite of the three meals. It's in third place not because of any deficit of the meal or recipe but because the other two were so good.

Last night we had the chicken stir fry which Kent had cooked ahead on Sunday. We figured of the three dishes, it would probably store the best for a couple of days and we were right. The rice is cooked in water plus a little reconstituted coconut milk and that added a touch of sweetness and creaminess to the meal. It's a slightly spicy dish, and I think if we were to make it again I might want to dial the spice up just a little bit, although honestly it was yummy as made.

We've skipped delivery this week (remember, we weren't sure if we wanted any more meals) but the following week, we'll be trying these:

• Tomato-basil burgers with green bean/tomato salad
• Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken with Rice
• Whole Grain Spaghetti with Corn, Cherry Tomatoes and Mascarpone Cheese

I'll let you know what we think.

Blue Apron—a review

Warning—lots of photos ahead

Have you heard of Blue Apron? You can read about it here, but basically it’s a subscription food service that delivers the ingredients for three meals ready to be cooked. My friend Magpie was given a week’s worth of service from Blue Apron but she forgot to cancel so ended up having it for a second (maybe third) week. So Blue Apron gave her a week of free meals to give to a friend; when she asked around, I raised my hand.

The recipes this week

Kent and I have talked about the rut we tend to get in when planning meals. Neither of us have much energy during the week to cook involved dishes, even though we both like to cook a lot. So we will cook several meals on Sunday and then fill in with quick hits like omelets (which I learned to make like a champ from my grandmother) or something similarly quick. They're tasty meals and fill us up just fine but after a while, we’re bored. When we’re bored is when we order carry out sushi or just flat go out and that’s not necessarily good for either our budget or our bulges.

So the idea of Blue Apron interested us both. Our delivery came Friday and Kent’s cooked up two of the meals today—we just finished one and the other one is in the fridge for later this week. We still have a third meal to fix, spiced meatballs with garlic toast and summer squash salad.

All the food

First thing: You get everything you need to make the three dishes, and the food is fresh. The produce looked amazing as did the salmon and chicken. The Thai basil was wonderful, and the paper bags have tiny plastic bottles with screw top lids that hold the red wine vinegar and ponzu sauce.  Our three meals are:

• Spiced meatballs
• Stir-fried ginger basil chicken
• Seared salmon and panzanella

The food comes slightly prepped. For example, the salmon had been skinned and the chicken for the second dish was diced, and everything was already measured. You still need to chop, cut, etc. but that's only to be expected. Kent—who is quite handy in the kitchen—thought that some of the prep time given might be a little optimistic. The chicken dish prep time was listed as 15 minutes but took more like 20. We'll see how the meatball dish goes.

Plated!

Tonight we had the salmon and I would change only one part of it. The salad portion has croutons in with the tomatoes and corn but to my mind it wasn't needed. In fact, Kent only made half the croutons which still seemed like a lot, and we ate the rest of the bread (which had been baked with olive oil and then rubbed with a clove of garlic) as a side dish.

We got to try some things we haven't been able to get here before, like the Thai basil. The peppers in the salmon dish were shishito peppers, which neither of us have heard of and they were perfect for the dish. Also heirloom cucumbers, which we've wanted to try but can't get here.

More photos:

Chicken stir fry

Salmon dish ingredients

Salmon dish salad

Net/net, we like this well enough to try a few more weeks. Thanks, Magpie!

Food rut

Do you ever get in a food rut? Where you’re eating and/or cooking the same things day after boring day? We are in such a rut at The Little Yellow House. Our current boring dinner rotation includes pizza, baked potatoes and eggs. At least we aren’t eating delivery pizza, Kent makes our pizza from scratch.

Lunches are boring right now too as we come to the very end of winter. We’ve been eating spicy vegetable soup or lentil soup for lunch almost every day. While we love the soups, they are most definitely winter lunch staples and with luck, winter weather will soon be a thing of the past.

But all of that adds up to boring meals. You’d think that breaking out of the rut would be fairly easy – we are decent cooks and we enjoy cooking. But for some reason, we’re both just flat out of cooking inspiration. Couple that with our various pickinesses (I am far more picky than he is about the food we eat, I fully own that complicating factor) and the lack of interest and what do you get? Why, you get pizza, baked potatoes and eggs, that’s what you get.

So I’m scrounging through our cookbooks and favorite online recipe places to find one dish meals or super-fast and easy meals that we will like and eat. Got any suggestions? If so, just remember I won’t eat any strong tasting dark green vegetable (looking at you, kale, spinach and the like) and he hates sweet potatoes and liver, and isn’t very fond of carrots or Brussels sprouts (which I also detest). But don't be afraid to suggest recipes that do use the dark greens. I'll just leave them out.

A tale of two dinners

About 11 years ago, my brother and his wife came over for dinner. Because Kent and I like to cook and experiment with new recipes, we’d decided to try a Food & Wine barbecued chicken recipe that sounded different and intriguing.

The recipe called for the chicken to be baked at 500°F, which is pretty freaking hot. In fact. it was so hot that the glass baking dishes were smoking like crazy and the house was starting to smell smoky. So I thought hey, I’ll just put a little water in the pans so maybe it won’t smoke so much.

You see where this is going, right?

As the water left the measuring cup I belatedly realized that room temperature water in a glass pan that was 500°F was probably not a good idea. Fortunately, the oven door was mostly closed because that pan just exploded. I mean it blew up. And of course the oven got even smokier, and so did the house.

Kent and I started throwing open doors and windows to let the smoke out, and pulled out the non-exploded pan to see if the glass had gotten into it (somehow it had not). In the middle of picking glass out of the bottom of the still incredibly hot oven, the doorbell rang. Doug and Barb had arrived. Barb took a look around and said, “Well I think it’s time to open the wine.” And we did.

Last weekend we had them over again for dinner with my parents, who were visiting us from Idaho. We made chicken again, a dish we’ve made before – only this time we doubled it.

Our pan wasn’t quite large enough to contain all the sauce and chicken, so as it baked (at just 350°F this time), the liquid bubbled up under the edges of the lid and fell to the bottom of the oven where it smoked like crazy. Once again, we had windows open trying to clear the kitchen and the house of all the smoke.

I think the moral of this story is that we should never again make chicken for my brother and his wife.

A matter of taste

Shortly after Kent and I started dating, we started cooking together a lot. We love doing that, especially when we try out new recipes and then deconstruct them afterwards. Part of our foodie ways included trying all sorts of higher-quality versions of the staples we use every day. Some were organic, some were imported, and all cost more.

But we’re not willing to pay for something just because a so-called expert says it's a better item. For us, taste is king and if we can taste the difference, then we might spend the money.

So we’ve tried imported Irish butter (didn’t care for it any more than Costco butter), all manners of organic fruits and vegetables (can’t tell the difference and according to this recent study, the health benefits aren’t all that), organic milk from a local farm (AMAZING difference but the milk comes in glass bottles and require a significant deposit – storing and returning them was a huge pain for as little milk as we drink), and free range chickens (another HUGE difference but man they are so expensive).

This week I added another item to the “worth the money” list: canned corn. Specifically the Whole Foods store brand 365 canned corn. Folks, it’s got texture and taste. I use corn in my spicy vegetable soup and I’ve tried name brand, store brand and frozen and this was the first batch where the corn was an active, welcome participant in the flavors. Now I’m wondering if I would like my corn chowder recipe, which has been relegated to the “don’t bother cooking” category, if I made it with this corn. 

Oink

Kent and I have been feeling a little pudgy lately. Yesterday morning, I woke up wondering how bad the calorie counts are for Smashburger (which we have been enjoying frequently lately), the pizza from Whole Foods (because sometimes it’s nice to just pick up a pizza), and also Unforked (a new local favorite of ours).

I looked up two of them, and really that was enough. No wonder we feel pudgy. We’ve been undoing all our healthy eating at breakfast and lunch with these dinners.

Spicy Baja (Kent’s favorite): 761

Smash fries (also his favorite): 520

Total: 1281

Spicy Baja Black Bean burger (my choice): 670

Fries (also my choice): 460

Total: 1130

Ouch.

Unforked is better. I get two Cali tacos (250 each), and Kent gets two of those plus a Conquistador (247). So my dinner is a more reasonable 500 calories and his clocks in at 747. But then we usually have a small bowl of ice cream . . .

I couldn’t find a reliable count for Whole Foods pizza that they bake but I know it’s not good news. Not with the richness of the crust, all that cheese and of course the pepperoni that's liberally sprinkled all over the top. 

So at least we know. We have a good idea on what’s making the pudge and now we can make better choices. I’m sure I’ll still have a spicy black bean burger from time to time, but I think I’ll ditch the fries. They aren’t all that good anyway. 

I want a new drug

True confession time. I am completely addicted to Kettle Brand jalapeno potato chips. I love them, I have no self-control or restraint and well sometimes it just gets kind of ugly.

I’ve tried just not having them in the house but then I go buy them in the so-called single serving bags which indicate they are actually two servings, only of course I eat the whole bag. So it’s truly better for me if I buy the big bag and divvy them up in the mornings for my lunch. Although—again, true confession time—if you ask Kent, he will tell you I complain about the serving sizes he gives me. That’s the addiction talking.

My mother loves Thin Mints, although I don’t know about her self-control with them. My brother used to love ice cream, enough that he broke the lock our folks installed on the deep freeze to keep him out. But that was many years ago when he was a feisty and impulsive teen. And Kent can do real damage on a batch of salsa—just give him some chips and away he goes.

I’m sure you have a similar confession. Right?

Also here's a bonus hilarious cat video. My friend posted it on her blog and I laughed out loud watching it. I think you will too. 

Food, glorious food

Kitties have a new post-dinner routine. They will come to whatever room we are in and then assume various languid positions on the floor. Last night Wally was actually lying flat on his back, something Chloe and Eddie do all the time but I'd never seen Wally do it before.

You won't see him doing it here either. As soon as I turned the camera on, he rolled over. Stinker.

Christmas meals

What do you have on Christmas day? Are your meals tried and true favorites? Are they foods you’ve always had?

For breakfast, I’ve served Victorian Tea Pastry (called Pea Tasty by my sons when they were little) plus a fruit salad made of diced pears and apples tossed with a bit of vanilla yogurt. We'll have that this year because it's just so good. Lunch is normal, whatever we’ve been eating lately. That means it will probably be my spicy vegetable soup plus some chips.

Dinner will be different from what I usually make. I’ve made my mother’s pork recipe for years and I do love it but I’m ready to have something else. So I found a recipe for Cornish game hens in Nigella Express cookbook that sounds good and mostly hands off. The recipe calls for putting sweet potatoes right in the roasting pan with the hens. I will put in one for me and a couple of small red potatoes for Kent since he despises sweet potatoes. I’m also making an autumn salad (romaine, diced pears, toasted pecans, feta cheese, dried cranberries plus balsamic vinaigrette), and creamed onions. I already made a pumpkin pie this week and if it’s still around, we’ll have some of that. If not, we’ll have peppermint ice cream.

Back to cats

I thought I'd already posted a video of their feeding frenzy but maybe not. So here's a video of the nightly food ritual, complete with their pathetic cries.

Chloe is the worst offender. She starts sounding off a good two hours before feeding time with her monotone meow, which is fairly annoying. Wally doesn't stir until the can has been opened. Then he'll saunter into the kitchen and wander around. He rarely meows while we get the food ready and when he does, it's cute. He's got a little meow for having such a big personality. Eddie's meow is both loud and expressive, which is exactly how he is.

A wadder

What’s a wadder? I’ll tell you at the end.

Last night I made a pasta recipe from a pin I found on Pinterest (if you want an invitation, let me know in the comments). I was intrigued by the balsamic reduction and hey, you can never go wrong with butter. I even thought it might be something to add to my son Ben's food blog.

It looked so yummy.

I always follow the recipe the first time I make it because I figure I won’t know how it was supposed to taste if I run around altering things right out of the gate. The one exception is that I will cut a recipe in half—there are just two of us and unless I’m positive we will love a new dish, I don’t want to risk having a lot of food we don’t like sitting around in the fridge.

And I had my doubts while making this dish. Partly it’s because the vinegar smelled awful while reducing, even though it was good vinegar. I was a little worried too that the combination of vinegar and brown sugar would lead to a sweet and sour taste, which I don’t care for in the least.

It didn’t taste like sweet and sour, I’ll give the dish that much. But it was awful. I asked Kent for his take on the dish and he said all he tasted was a thin sweet taste plus a very sharp bitter taste. I was less eloquent and said it was gross.

We always talk through dishes we’ve made for the first time, looking for ways to improve them or create alternatives so the dish is even more versatile. In my opinion, this dish would have been better served to have no vinegar or sugar, stick with the butter and put in a few hot pepper flakes. But then it’s changed beyond recognition from the original recipe and has become something else entirely. Something I might actually eat.

And here’s your weird word for the day: a wadder is what you call a ruined sewing project. You just wad that sucker up and move on. That’s what I’m doing with this recipe.

My mother will be so proud

Last night Kent and I celebrated our anniversary by having dinner at Tremont 647. We opted for the Chef’s Tastings (five course) with the wine pairing. As Kent said, there was remarkable freedom in not deciding what we were going to eat or drink. All we had to do was inform the chef of any allergies. Given my recent throat closing experience with shrimp and my previous, known, issues with scallops, shellfish aren’t in my diet anymore. Otherwise we didn’t put any restrictions on what we were served.

My mother (and to be honest, my husband) will tell you I’m a picky eater. It’s true, I’ll own that label, although I do my best not to inflict my pickiness on anyone else. So I put a lot of trust in the chef's selections and to be honest, I wondered if I would regret it.

I’m pleased to say I ate—and liked—almost everything we were served. I gently pushed the braised spinach with garlic aside (I cannot abide spinach in any form or at any stage in the growing process). I also gave Kent all the bananas in the banana cream pie—I grudgingly eat bananas but they have to have a fair amount of green on each end and not taste like bananas. Honestly the only reason I do eat them is because they are a cheap, readily available source of potassium. Otherwise I find them vile and can’t understand why anyone would eat them or put them in banana bread.

Anyway.

The best part of the meal, aside from being with Kent (and I mean that so don’t roll your eyes), was the wine pairings. We are not particularly good at pairing wine with food; we tend to drink big, bold reds with everything even after reading Food & Wine for years. The pairings worked for me for all five courses although Kent didn’t think the port with the banana cream pie worked. It’s probably because he actually ate those bananas, silly man.