Another Box Subscription

Those of you who read this infrequently updated blog may remember my adventure with LootCrate, a monthly box subscription of nerd toys.  Despite every month saying, "Should I cancel that?" I continue to get it, I just don't post it every month because... well, Lootcrate can do their own damn marketing.

I'm here to talk about food.  A friend of mine (hi, Jean!) sent me a free Blue Apron box for my birthday.  The only thing is, in order to get your gift, you have to sign up for the service.  So interesting that in order to get a gift from a friend, I have to input a credit card number.  Nice going there, Blue Apron.

Blue Apron sends you recipes for meals, and exactly the amount of food you need to cook those meals.  There will be no leftovers.  This wasn't quite true, because in one recipe I needed about half as much shallot as given to me, but a shallot is a shallot, and sometimes it's big and sometimes it's not so big.

Set up was simple enough, I told them what kinds of food I didn't eat, in this case red meat because of Elizabeth, and they told me they would send me six meals the following week!  Because of when I did it, it actually took a week an a half for my box to arrive.

You have a choice for your box to arrive on Fridays or Saturdays, that's it.  I chose Saturdays because we're usually around then.  

Here's what it looked like when I opened it:



It's kind of like your mother packed you a lunch, which you have to cook, and your mother thinks you don't know a damn thing about cooking. Just about everything is labeled. My favorite part:



What could be inside?



Yes. A tomato. Strangely enough, there was a second tomato in the box that didn't come with its own Big Mac box and label. I think this box was because this was a pretty ripe tomato and they were worried it get squished in transit.

When finally unpacked, it was a decent amount of stuff.



Note the olive oil and paper towels were not included in the box.

So first I made Seared Salmon and Tomato Chutney, which was pretty easy to make, and took about 40 minutes. Probably the best part of this is the fact they give you exactly how much you need. So instead of buying a bunch of cilantro just so you can use about three stalks for garnish and then you either have to make recipes with cilantro all week to use up the rest or come back to rotten cilantro in your veg bucket, they just give you three stalks of cilantro.

The bummer about this was that the promised "6 meals a week" wasn't actually 6 meals for 2 people, it was 3 meals for 2 people. 3 x 2 =6, get it? On the other hand, only three meals means I have more flexibility with my meal planning. Bottom line, this is for people who hate to grocery shop, and don't want to plan meals, but still want to cook.

Here's the salmon dish assembled:



The salmon was really good. The chutney was okay, and the stew was okay. I'd like my Indian food a bit spicier, but my wife was really happy.

At $60 for 6 servings it's expensive compared to buying groceries yourself, but it's not expensive compared to eating out.  All of the recipes are available on the Blue Apron website, so if you're inclined you can go to their website right now, buy the ingredients yourself, and make that meal, probably for much less than $20.  The way I normally cook, I would have made a much bigger pot of the stew, bought and cooked up more of the salmon, and had it a second night later in the week.

The packaging is what costs the lion's share, as there were three big ice packs to ship it here. Which also makes me wonder where this food is coming from. The box came from Brooklyn, so I guess we're paying twice-- whatever built in price of the produce and such available in Brooklyn, then to have it shipped up here to MA. 

I could have gotten everything locally grown that's in the box.

Next was BLT's and Cucumber, Avocado, and Tomato salad.  There always seems to be one "sandwich" meal in the box.  I cheated, because I had used the very ripe tomato from the Big Mac box in the chutney, the second tomato wasn't nearly as ripe and would have made for so-so BLTs.  That day we went to a farm stand and I bought some beautiful, fresh, ripe tomatoes.  I used one of these and let the Blue Apron box tomato ripen on my windowsill.  I used it later in the week for tomato eggs (Mom's recipe, tell you later) and it still wasn't nearly as good as the local tomatoes that I was also using.



Definitely the cheap meal. Perfectly fine, though.  Elizabeth thought there was too much vinegar in the salad, I thought grilling the bread in bacon fat made for soggy bread and I should have just toasted it in the toaster first.

Oh yeah, it looks like every single recipe only needs one pot and one pan, so this is definitely aiming at the young professional who wants to get started in the kitchen but doesn't know how to start.

The third one was the hardest recipe of the three: Chicken and Snow Pea Radish Saute.

I fucked up a little. First, I missed that I should have chopped the pistachios, so when it came time to add them to the caramel, I threw in what was in the bag and then said, "Hey, that doesn't look right."
Also, I couldn't find the sugar bag to make the caramel, so I got a tablespoon of sugar out of the pantry. I could spare it. I was supposed to monitor the caramel closely because it's easy to overcook. I was supposed to remove it from the heat when it was light, golden brown, except my pots are a light purple pyrex, so judging color in them is totally fucked. It said 2-3 minutes of boiling the sugar water would be about right. I went to 6 minutes, got scared, dumped in the pistachios, spread the mix on parchment paper, chopped up the pistachios there, and said, "Good enough." Instead of a pistachio brittle on top of the chicken, I just got sugar frosted pistachios.

My mistakes may have been because I had gotten cocky after the last two meals, or because I was sipping scotch while cooking. I will leave that as an exercise for the reader.



And a better picture of a single plate:



This was still pretty tasty, but that was mostly because it was a really nice piece of chicken that I cooked well. Basic cooking there.

What I have learned: I am not a candy maker.

My second box arrived today, and I've got to say that I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. Instead of feeling like it's freed me from shopping, I feel like it has committed me to cooking. Instead of one longer shopping trip for the week last week, I ended up going to the store three times to pick up single ingredients for what I was making that night. 

 
I canceled it today. Hopefully. They don't exactly make it easy for you to cancel. I had to google it, that got me to an email address, the reply from that email address sent me to a link, which made me fill out a little form telling them why I was cancelling, and now hopefully I've cancelled.

The Last Day

So naturally after we return from Seattle I don't blog. I am a lazy bastard.

The last day was "My Geek Day" which meant that I could plan anything I wanted. I considered a movie at Paul Allen's Cinerama, but The Dark Knight was playing and we've already seen that. Alex said that it was the best movie theater in Seattle and I would've liked to see a movie there, but no joy was to be had.

So I opted for Seattle's Underground Tour, which Elizabeth had expressed an interest in. I didn't want to totally alienate her on the last day. It's an interesting story of a big fire that had city planners wanting to raise the level of the city by 10 feet or more vs. property owners who just wanted to rebuild and get back to business as quickly as possible. What you end up with is blocks of the city where the streets are 10 feet above the front doors of the businesses.

I didn't take any pictures, because it basically all looks like a dilapidated basement. I would give it a "Meh" on the excitement meter.

There is a cool toy store there with Bacon flavored dental floss. Yes, bacon flavored:


Then off to Pink Godzilla Games. This is a small store in the international district (because Seattle is too cosmopolitan just to have Chinatown, they have a large Japanese population too) that specializes in import games. I picked up Dragonquest Monsters: Joker for a lot more than Amazon is selling it, but hey, I like the idea of the store, and there are rumors that they're going to open a Boston store. Fingers crossed!

We picked up a late lunch a a little hole in the wall hot-pot place, then went over to Uwajimaya Market, where we should have eaten. This place was like an Asian version of Whole Foods, only cheap. As it was, I picked up some manga called iDeNTITY. If it's good I can pick up the rest online, and if it's bad, I've tried to expand my horizons a bit.

Then we had an argument about whether to go to the hotel during rush hour or just go to Safeco Field. Safeco Field won, since we were right there anyway. Y'know, once you get to a ballpark, everyone is great. You're there to watch baseball and have a good time, and even the parking attendants were nice.

Safeco Field is gorgeous, and they have a much bigger selection of foods than Fenway. On the other hand, Fenway has that moment, where you've been walking around underneath and it's cool and a little damp, with all the food smells. It really feels like you're in an alley or something, then you walk up the ramp and out into the stadium where it's green and bright and magical. Safeco didn't have that magical moment, but it did have some damn fine sushi. And kettle corn. And bratwurst. And ice cream.

The panorama:


We had tickets right at third base. You can't buy these tickets at Fenway. Also, they have booths around that you can take your DS to, and Nintendo will load up a suite of baseball applications. You can follow the game and get the jumbotron feed on your DS, you can order food (at hugely inflated prices) delivered right to your seats, or you can follow another game being played that night. I ended up following the Red Sox game in Kansas City while watching the Mariners get pasted by the Minnesota Twins.

Because everyone sitting around me told me that the Mariners suck this year. Who am I to argue? I said what I always say, "I root for the Mariners whenever they play the Yankees."


At least until the seventh inning, when, after being behind 6-zip, they scored 10 runs and took the game.

Here is Elizabeth getting excited during the amazing rally:

Oh, and they gave us hats too, but they were in Japanese because it was Japanese Baseball Appreciation Night. Notice the kid behind Elizabeth with the Twins jersey and the Mariners cap. He was a winner that night.

Though now that I've unpacked, I think I lost my hat. Oh well. Easy come, easy go.

Then it was off to the crappy airport hotel for our last night, and the day of flying.

We are now back in Watertown, and expecting Elizabeth's parents anytime. More touristy crap around Boston to come!!