Our experience with Blue Apron

Hey gang! Happy Sunday! This weekend was sales-tax-free weekend here in MA, so we celebrated by walking around a mall near our new place that we'd never been to before. I ended up getting some new clothes for school. I had never heard of tax-free weekends before I moved to the East Coast, but I think it's a nice idea!

So this past week we got a free trial of Blue Apron from my parents, who have been using the service for a while. Never heard of Blue Apron? Well, if you cook just for one or two people, you've probably come across this problem before: you find a new recipe you want to try, but it requires some obscure ingredient that you can only buy in large amounts, so you end up with way too much, and it eventually goes bad and you have to throw it out.

Blue Apron gets around that problem by sending you three recipes per week, along with the exact quantity of ingredients that you'll need. And it sends you ALL the ingredients; you only have to supply cooking oil, salt and pepper. They even sent me a pat of butter for one recipe! You can choose between a two-person and a family plan, and let them know your dietary restrictions.

The ingredients come in a refrigerated box via express shipping, so everything was in good shape, including the meat. The produce was all beautiful and perfectly ripe, and it looks like they try to get their products from small, local farms.

Let's check out the meals we got! (Sorry for the lame phone pics.)

Our first night I made North-African style beef meatballs with a squash salad and garlic toast. The meatballs were strongly seasoned and tasty, and made a good contrast with the raw squash, but the inclusion of lemon and mint in both components linked them together nicely. We found the meatballs to be a little too salty, but that was probably my fault, since I was adding seasoning along the way.

Day two was a Thai-style ginger and basil stir-fry with chicken thighs, eggplant and peppers, on top of coconut rice. This was deeeeelicious, sweet and gingery and not too spicy for me. But the star was that coconut rice...I could eat a pound of that stuff.

On day three we had ratatouille over parmesan polenta with cheesy garlic toast. The ratatouille had eggplant, tomato, bell pepper, zucchini and onion and was amazingly simple yet tasty. And polenta is another thing I could eat all day every day. I actually got quite a bit of leftovers from this one!


As far as the cooking goes, the recipes were all very easy; I think the hardest thing I had to do was make rice. Basically, if you know how to saute, you will do fine. Nothing took more than an hour to make.

The major downside to Blue Apron is the price: $60 per week for the two-person plan, or $10 per serving. (Note: you can pick and choose which weeks you receive recipes, so it's not every single week unless you want.) While I think that price point is totally reasonable for what you get, it's a bit beyond our budget at this point. But I'll definitely be keeping Blue Apron on our radar for later on--I think it's a great way to try a variety of food without wasting any produce!

What do you think--would you try this service?

Recipes from the past six months!

Hi all! Are we getting into the holiday spirit yet? My husband and I will be traveling soon, first to my in-laws and then my parents, so we're going to have a fun and busy couple of weeks!

Today I decided to do some catching up with the food I've cooked for the last several months. I've gotten in the habit of posting pics on Instagram, but I've been bad about blogging. Almost all of these recipes were spur-of-the-moment decisions that I made with stuff already in my pantry. That's the best kind of recipe in my opinion!

Blueberry Crisp

We happened to buy some blueberries one week back in June, and out of the blue I wondered "can I make a crisp with these?" The answer was yes, as long as you have some basic baking supplies around, like flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. The whole process takes maybe half an hour. Unfortunately I don't remember what recipe I used, but I just Googled "blueberry crisp" and got a million very similar results.

Popovers

I was inspired to make these during a Good Eats marathon on Netflix. (Here is Alton Brown's recipe.) Ridiculously easy to make. Mine are a little smaller than normal because I didn't have a popover pan, only a muffin pan. I think I just baked them for slightly less time than the recipe calls for.

Tuna Croquettes

Another Alton Brown-inspired dish! (Recipe is here.) I used white onions instead of green, and it worked perfectly fine. Usually the only thing I can think to do with canned tuna is make tuna salad (and I make a pretty damn good tuna salad), so it was nice to learn how to do something else! These get nice and crispy and golden-brown on the outside. They remind me of the salmon patties my mom used to make us.

Vegetarian Cincinnati Chili

(Apologies for the ghetto cheese slices.) Cincinnati chili is something my dad would make for us occasionally after he came back from a business trip to Cincinnati. It has a lot of wintery spices like cinnamon, allspice and cloves, as well as chocolate! It's traditionally served over spaghetti with cheddar on top. (I used this recipe.) I replaced the beef with black beans because I had a can sitting around in the pantry.

Thanksgiving Dressing

This Thanksgiving at the in-laws', everyone contributed something to dinner. My husband and I volunteered to do dressing (well, I always call it stuffing, but this was technically dressing!). We used a very simple recipe (here) because we had to keep it kosher and dairy-free. Also, his family doesn't normally eat dressing at Thanksgiving (what???) so we didn't want to overwhelm anyone! This photo is halfway through the cooking process, so it got all crispy and browned after this. It tasted just how a traditional stuffing should taste, lovely and herbacious!



Not Pictured: I made Martha Stewart's chocolate chip cookie recipe and they were AMAZING! Soft and chewy, just the way I like them! I don't know why I forgot to take pics!


That's all for now! Have you cooked anything fun lately? I'll have to write another post all about the ice cream I've made this year!

Review: Influenster Surf's Up VoxBox!

The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.

Hey there! I was really excited to get my first box of products to review from Influenster. The Surf's Up VoxBox is full of items that are perfect for a fun summer! Read on...

1. Sinful Colors Sage Rose

Sinful Colors Sage Rose. One coat with Out the Door topcoat.

Yep, I got a nail polish to review! It's like they read my mind! Sage Rose is a metallic fuchsia that was opaque in one coat. Buuuut...holy brushstrokes, Batman. My photo makes the brushstrokes look worse than they are, but this still isn't my favorite finish. The color is pretty though!

2. First Aid Shot Therapy Pain Relief

First Aid Shot Therapy would be great for the morning after a big party! The bottle contains one dose of choline salicylate (an NSAID) with caffeine in liquid form. It's berry-flavored, but it still tasted kind of medicinal to me. I took it when I had a headache. It definitely got rid of the pain, but it didn't seem to be any faster than taking a pill would be.

3. Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration

Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration after-sun lotion soothes and hydrates your skin and is also supposed to help preserve your tan. Although I feel I have to point out that tanning is NOT healthy (it's a sign your skin has been damaged) and you should always wear sunscreen outdoors! Maybe a better use for this lotion would be after you go swimming, since chlorine makes your skin feel icky.

The lotion is very light and non-greasy and definitely made my skin feel soft. It's sticky for a few minutes after you apply it, but that feeling goes away. The coconut-papaya scent isn't very strong, so it probably won't bother those with sensitive noses. This lotion contains some natural ingredients, like shea and mango butter, but they're waaay down the list of ingredients.

I think I'll take this stuff with me on vacation!

4. Not Your Mother's Beach Babe Texturizing Shampoo and Conditioner

I was disappointed to get these in my box, since I've tried a texturizing product before and it definitely didn't work. My hair is just too fine and straight for this kind of product--it does NOT want to be wavy! But of course I had to try these two anyway.

Not Your Mother's Beach Babe shampoo and conditioner are supposed to give your hair beach waves and volume. You use them like regular shampoo and conditioner, then towel-dry your hair. It seems to be a trend that you aren't supposed to blow-dry when using texturizing products...too bad, because my hair looks like crap unless I blow-dry it. Flat and frizzy, yuck! So I didn't look great when I tried this shampoo and conditioner. Plus I didn't really see any extra waves.

On the bright side, they worked perfectly well as a shampoo and conditioner; my hair felt clean and soft afterwards. They also make your hair smell like coconuts, if you like that sort of thing (I do!). And they're sulfate-free, which is great! So if you've had success with other texturizing products, you might have good luck here.

5. Jamba All-Natural Smoothies in Orange Dream Machine

I saved my favorite product for last! I got a coupon for a free package of Jamba All Natural Smoothies, which contains chunks of frozen fruit and yogurt. All you have to do is add a cup of apple juice and blend everything together. The Orange Dream Machine flavor has peaches, orange and vanilla yogurt.

One package makes about sixteen ounces of smoothie--enough for me and my husband! This flavor is reminiscent of creamsicles, but with extra peachy flavor. The smoothie was nice and thick, with a perfect amount of sweetness! We were both big fans! I'd like to see this sold in bigger packages that you can use more than once.


That's that! I loved the smoothies and the lotion best, although I'm always happy to get a new nail polish too! Have you tried any of these products? Which would you take on vacation with you?

The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.

I made food: vanilla ice cream

Good morning everyone! Mr. ALIQUID and I are big ice cream fans, so you can imagine how excited we were a few weeks ago when I finally made my first homemade ice cream! We got an ice cream maker attachment for our KitchenAid mixer as a wedding present but only just now decided to take the plunge. And it was definitely worth it!

So ice cream isn't something you can make on the spur of the moment, because it does require special equipment. But I'm going to show you how easy it is, so if you've been thinking about getting an ice cream maker, maybe this post will convince you! The actual process isn't technical at all and takes maybe an hour of active cooking (plus lots of waiting...but the anticipation makes the final result taste better!).

The recipe I used comes from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, which is full of amazing and unusual flavors (like chamomile chardonnay ice cream or cucumber, honeydew and cayenne frozen yogurt!). But for my first try I decided to go with a classic vanilla. I won't tell you the exact recipe because I encourage everyone to go out and get this amazing cookbook, but I'll show you how the process works!

Jeni's ice cream recipes use seven basic ingredients: light corn syrup, sea salt, heavy cream (duh!), whole milk, cornstarch, cream cheese (in place of the more usual eggs) and sugar. In addition, I used a vanilla bean, although vanilla extract would of course be fine too.

The ingredients start out going into three separate bowls...

...the cornstarch is mixed with a little bit of the milk...

...the cream cheese is whisked with the salt...

...and everything else goes into a big pot. This mixture gets boiled for a few minutes, then the cornstarch is mixed in (this will thicken the batter), then everything is boiled for a minute more.

Finally you whisk the hot batter into the cream cheese, and you're done with the cooking!

The batter goes into a Ziploc bag in an ice bath, or you can put it in the fridge. Either way, it's very important that the batter is nice and chilly before you put it in the ice cream maker, otherwise it won't freeze!

Now it's time to turn the batter into ice cream! As you can see, the KitchenAid ice cream maker consists of a double-walled bowl with liquid in between the walls, as well as a churning attachment. The bowl must be completely frozen before use; we kept it in our freezer on the coldest setting for 24 hours. 

So you put the batter in the bowl and turn the mixer to its slowest setting. The frozen bowl starts freezing the ice cream, while the mixing process adds air, so you get nice fluffy ice cream instead of a solid block of ice.

After 20 minutes or so, the ice cream will have the consistency of soft serve, and that means it's done. You scoop it out into a container, lay some parchment paper on top, and stick it in the freezer for a few hours, where it will turn into beautiful ice cream!

Whaddya think? Not bad for my first try! The vanilla flavor is way more intense than your average storebought ice cream, and it's sooo rich and creamy...you can feel your arteries clogging as you eat it. I'm not sure we can ever go back to grocery store ice cream now! This week I made cookies 'n' cream flavor--it's just vanilla ice cream with crushed Oreos added near the end of the mixing process.


Have you been inspired to make your own ice cream? For those of you who already have an ice cream maker, what's your favorite recipe?

He made food: chicken with shallots and Dijon

Tonight Mr. ALIQUID offered to make dinner, because he saw this recipe on the New York Times website and wanted to try it. If he wants to cook, I'm certainly not going to say no! Before we even started eating, he asked, "Are you going to blog about this?" I said sure, so here we are!

This is a great easy one-pot dinner: chicken thighs in a white wine and Dijon mustard sauce with shallots, tarragon and cherry or grape tomatoes. It's soooo flavorful, with a nice balance of savory and acidic! Mr. ALIQUID's chicken didn't come out quite as pretty as the picture in the NY Times, but we didn't care. Definitely give this one a try!

2014 Blogger Challenge #6: Frittatas!

Hi all! Hope you had a nice weekend! It's time once again for the 2014 Blogger Challenge, and this week's theme is food. I've been really busy lately getting ready to release my next polish collection, so I was actually thinking about skipping the challenge this time; luckily Mr. ALIQUID provided me with an easy topic when he asked me to make something eggy for breakfast this morning.

What I ended up making is a frittata (basically an open-faced omelette), which is practically foolproof and a great way to use up leftover veggies or meat. I started by roughly chopping half an onion and half a bell pepper, which I cooked on medium-high heat with some olive oil, salt and pepper until the onions turned golden brown. Be sure to use a nonstick skillet.

The type and amount of filling is totally up to you, depending on what ratio of eggs to filling you want. The important thing is that the filling is fully cooked and that any water in the pan gets cooked off (otherwise you'll have watery eggs, ew!).

Meanwhile, I whisked four eggs in a bowl and added some salt, pepper, and torn up slices of cheddar and muenster cheese. You can get fancy and add herbs too.

Once the veggies were cooked, I turned down the heat to low and poured the eggs into the pan:

Now you just let the eggs sit until they're cooked all the way through (firm and opaque), but only just; the eggs should still be tender and moist. (You can also do this part in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes.) Slice it up and enjoy!

I made food: nachos!

Yep, another cooking post this week! Mr. ALIQUID has the week off from work, so we decided to mix it up a little with our dinner plans (normally we have very similar dinners from week to week). My craving for Mexican food hit me again, so I made nachos! I got the basic procedure from my dad, who's been making awesome nachos for years.

Nachos are one of those great dishes that you can make virtually any way you want as long as you keep the basics the same: chips + toppings + cheese. Here's what I did...

I heated up a mix of refried black and pinto beans (plus a little water) on the stovetop and added a packet of taco seasoning; if you want to avoid the prepackaged stuff, I imagine a blend of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and salt would do the trick. You can of course use any combo of meat, beans and rice for your topping, just make sure the meat is fully cooked before you put it on your nachos. About 1 to 1.5 pounds of topping should be enough.

I put down a layer of corn chips on a large rimmed baking sheet; make sure to fill in all the gaps, but don't overlap them too much or you'll end up with the dreaded topping-less chip. Then I added my beans on top. Don't be too heavy-handed with this part, or the chips will get soggy and collapse under the weight.

I sprinkled chopped onions and cherry tomatoes all over, plus fresh jalapenos on my husband's half (I'm still a wuss). Finally, the cheese! I used a whole two-cup bag of shredded "Mexican blend" cheese.

Stick the nachos in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. This will melt the cheese, soften the veggies and remove sogginess from the toppings and chips. One large tray will feed four regular people or two very hungry people!

We ate our nachos with homemade guacamole (just avocado, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper). Oh so delicious...

I made food: cranberry banana bread

On Friday I decided to surprise my husband by baking something for him. Friday is his toughest day at work, and we had run out of ice cream to eat for dessert, so I knew he'd appreciate something sweet! We had two spotty brown bananas left, so of course I thought of banana bread.

I got this recipe a long time ago from a grad school colleague. It makes perfectly moist, sweet bread, and it's incredibly easy. Give it a try sometime!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 5 1/3 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• optional: 1/2 cup mix-ins, like chocolate chips, nuts, etc. I used craisins to add some tartness

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Then beat in the dry ingredients.

Mix together the eggs, bananas and any mix-ins, then fold into the rest of the batter until just combined (you want to stir the batter as little as possible).

Butter up your loaf pan (or if, like me, you can't find your loaf pan, any bread-shaped dish) and pour in your batter. Stick it in the oven for 50-60 minutes.

While you're waiting, feel free to lick the bowl.

"Hmm, maybe if I lie down very nicely, I'll get a little batter too..."

"SCORE!!"

The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Try to resist eating it until it cools down a little!

I made food: Cheesy white beans with kale and a fried egg

Not to brag, but I made something really good for dinner yesterday. Bask in the glory of this image, then I'll tell you all about it...

Here is the recipe for this bowl of deliciousness. The base is white beans with garlic and scallions, thickened with cream, cheddar and Parmesan into a smooth, rich and flavorful porridge; it's topped with kale sauteed until crispy with lemon juice, and a fried egg for good measure! I can't express how fantastic a comfort food this was. The beans are pure distilled wintery goodness, and the kale, raw scallions and lemon add a nice contrast in taste and texture. And the egg...well, it's just an extra bonus.

This dish seems to be intended for breakfast, but I think it fits any meal. We were both loosening our belts by the bottom of the bowl. I won't comment on the fat content, but at least it's low carb and high protein!

Mr. ALIQUID suggests this would make a good dip too (without the egg)!

I made food: chai from scratch

When it comes to caffeinated drinks, I'm definitely a tea person. And my favorite kind of tea is chai. But I've never had "real" chai before, just teabag and powdered versions. Until the other day! For my birthday I got a make-your-own chai kit, and I finally got a chance to try it out this week.

This kit is really cute (and smells heavenly)--here's what's inside:

It's got three kinds of black tea (two tins each): cardamom tea, earl grey and ceylon tea. It also contains star anise, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and black peppercorns. You can mix up your own blend of spices and teas, but the kit includes a recipe to get you started.

Since I'm a chai newbie, I followed their directions. Here's what they recommend:

Two pieces of cinnamon (I used three because I'm a cinnamon nut), 8 cardamom pods, 8 cloves, 6 peppercorns, 1 anise pod, and 3 teaspoons of tea (I used one of each kind).

You add the spices to 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. (It was already smelling delicious at this point!) Then you add 3/4 cup of milk, 6 teaspoons of sugar, and the tea. Lower the heat and let the tea steep for a few minutes (depending on how strong you want it).

Then you strain the chai and you're done! The recipe makes about two servings.

The chai was delicious! Just sweet enough, very smooth and not bitter, but with a spicy kick at the end. It was a great drink for a rainy afternoon. And I love the fact that I can keep refilling the tins as I run out of ingredients.

The process of making chai from scratch is not as scary as it sounds, so give it a try!

I made food: black bean soup

Before I get started, it's time to announce the winner of the Indigo Bananas giveaway!! And the winner is...

...drumroll please...

Entry #40: Kathryn T.!

Congratulations! You have 48 hours to let me know which polishes you'd like!

Thanks to everyone else who entered, followed and liked--it's great to have you here!

Now on to the food. It's soup season again, so the other day I made this really simple and tasty black bean soup. I got the recipe from How to Cook Everything (gotta keep pimping this cookbook, it's just so good). Here's my not-so-great picture:

Like I said, it's very simple (and quick too): chop up two medium onions and a few cloves of garlic. Cook the onions in a little bit of neutral oil  (I used grapeseed) until they're soft, then add the garlic and a tablespoon of chili powder and cook a minute longer. Add 3 cups (about 2 cans) of cooked black beans, 4 cups of any kind of stock, and salt and pepper (also, if you're not a wuss like me, you can put in a chile pepper). Bring everything to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes. If you like, you can puree some or all of the soup to thicken it up--I used my immersion blender but didn't puree the soup completely, so there were still some chunks of bean and onion in there. Add 2 teaspoons of lime juice and you're done! We ate it with cheese, sour cream and cilantro.

This soup is very hearty (especially if you add sour cream) and flavorful, with just a little bit of spiciness. Plus it satisfies my neverending craving for Mexican food. I'll definitely be making this one a lot over the winter!

I made food: enchiladas

Yay, it's Mexican food time again! It's been a while...I've missed you. Tonight I made enchiladas with homemade sauce. Like so many Mexican dishes, enchiladas are versatile because you can put just about anything you want inside them. As long as you use cheese, of course.

I started by making the sauce (recipe here). It's very easy--basically just tomato paste with seasonings. This sauce has a little heat, but it gets diluted enough once in the enchiladas that it doesn't bother sensitive people like me.

Once the sauce is done, you assemble the enchiladas in a baking dish. I used brown rice, black beans, cheese, and of course the sauce.

 

When you've filled the tortilla, fold over the sides and flip it over--it should stay closed that way. Then spread some more enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle with more cheese. Bake them at 350 for 20-30 minutes, basically until the cheese is melted and the tortillas get a little crispy on the edges. (I've seen some recipes tell you to add more sauce halfway through, and you can do that if you like your enchiladas extra saucy.)

Enchiladas are one of those foods that look kind of gross and yet delicious at the same time, aren't they?

We made food: baked penne

Today's dinner was a team effort: my husband is a sucker for baked pasta, so he suggested what to make and even helped cook it! What a good boy.

Here he is giving his seal of approval to the finished product:

And here are the beautiful cheesy insides:

Oh yeah. This was very easy to make, just needs a number of ingredients and some time.

I made the tomato sauce by first sauteeing half an onion and some garlic in olive oil. Then I added a large can of tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, some dried basil and oregano (I just eyeballed the amounts) and salt and pepper. I let that simmer while I boiled a pound of  whole wheat penne until it was almost fully cooked.

Meanwhile, Hubby was mixing 15 oz. of ricotta with a chopped head of broccoli, an egg, some grated parmesan, and salt and pepper. When everything was ready, he greased a large Pyrex dish and added the sauce, pasta and ricotta mix in layers, starting with sauce. He topped everything off with some mozzarella. It went into the oven for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

So, so good and filling, and it's gonna last us for a few days!

Edit: my husband just calculated that this cost us only $1.61 per serving!