COOKING LESSONS

I just did something that I never ever thought I would do: I signed up for Blue Apron. Unfamiliar with Blue Apron? Well . . . it’s a meal delivery system that plops a box on your doorstep every week with perfectly portioned ingredients to cook dinner for two or four. Sadly, there’s no single I-live-by-myself-and-my-two-cats option. Sigh.

When I signed up, I had to answer a few questions about when I wanted food delivered (Saturdays) and what I would/wouldn’t eat (i.e., am I a vegetarian or do  I eat everything except pork or shellfish). Then, from six options, I chose the three that I wanted to cook that week. Lastweek, my menu included three cheese calzones, winter squash and baby kale quesadillas, and curried cauliflower steaks with black rice and Thai basil. I cooked them all and found them quite tasty, fairly easy to prepare (I mean, if you can’t read the beautifully photographed, step-by-step instructions, you can always go online and watch videos on how to properly chop an onion) and plenty filling.

So why did I sign up for Blue Apron? It pops on my Facebook feed continuously so it’s buried somewhere deep into my subconscious and then a few weeks ago I heard a friend discussing how much her mother loves it, piquing my curiosity. I co-own a restaurant and have access to wonderful ingredients, but taking from the mise en place or even from the walk-in has to be done subtly and without disrupting the fine balance of things in the kitchen. And (full disclosure) while I love to bake, I find cooking a whole meal for myself is a little uninspiring because, well, cooking for one can be quite boring. But now someone has done the planning and shopping for me and I am learning how to make new, interesting meals.

My only complaint is that I don’t have total freedom to pick any three meals I want from the selection of six. That is, the selection of one dish automatically eliminates one or two options, forcing me to pick from the remaining. But it’s a small complaint and I’m looking forward to trying out this week’s recipes. I’ll keep you posted!