3 Blue Apron Meals and a Review from Youtube

Hi there everyone, how you all doing? Well, it's the last day of October....Halloween and no scary people dropped by our house. Glad for that. There were lots of parents and kiddo's walking by. I didn't have the light on....maybe they just knew there was no candy being passed out at this house.

Well, today I am going to show you the 3 Blue Apron meals I made this past week. I have cut down on my orders from Blue Apron to one box every 6-8 weeks. I still enjoy doing the meals but not so many a month. Blue Apron could come every week at $60 a week...that would be $240 a month. If JP does not like a meal, too spicy, too this or too that, it's kind of a waste. I still like making things on my own and keeping things simple. But, I have learned lots of new things, new spices, vegies and techniques in cooking with Blue Apron.

Following, is a YouTube tutorial making Lemon Thyme Turkey Cutlets. I have not made this meal, but it sure looked good. I liked the way this guy cooked....sort of reminded me of me in some ways. The end result though, is always delicious.

The meal below was really good, "Baked Whole Wheat Rigatoni with Cone Cabbage and Sage" (4 stars). Did you ever use a Cone Cabbage? I didn't, and it was sure quite different from a regular cabbage, easier to cut and slice. So all the vegies had to be cleaned and chopped.

A potato chopped, onion, cabbage and sage, seasoned with salt and cooked till the cabbage wilts, water was added and stirred occasionally. Pasta was cooked. 

Then a Béchamel sauce was made with butter, garlic and flour, milk added slowly then 3/4 cup reserved pasta cooking water. Half the Fontina cheese was added and well combined with salt and pepper to taste. The cooked vegies, pasta and sauce are added together then baked. Fontina cheese and parmesan cheese topped the casserole with more salt and pepper to taste.

In the picture below is JP's meal for the night. His fruit with some yogurt, tomatoes and home-made pickles and the Baked Rigatoni and cabbage.

In this next meal, I really enjoyed this one. "Roasted Pork Steam Buns with Black Garlic Mayonnaise & Spicy Cabbage Slaw." (was a bit too much cabbage for these two nights....so I had to make this meal 2-3 days later) This was really good though (I gave it 4 stars). The pork is fried in a pan, then roasted in the oven for 20 minutes till the temperature reaches 145 degrees. The cabbage is combined with the white bottom of the scallion, sesame oil, ginger, vinegar and as much of the spicy gochugaru as liked....This would make the cabbage salad spicy and JP does not like spicy.

The buns are steamed, the roast has been resting. Cucumbers have been marinating in ginger and vinegar, salt and pepper. Black garlic is mixed with the mayonnaise and salt and pepper added to taste. This will be spread on the steamed buns, topped with the sliced pork roast and the marinated cucumbers. Yeah, I really liked this pork and steamed bun combo. The cabbage was a bit too spicy. I ended up throwing a lot out, cause JP did not touch it.

This was a good meal, "Spicy Chicken & Carrots with Harissa, Dates and Chickpeas." (another 4 star) although JP does not care for carrots that much. Rice was cooked and chickpeas roasted, then mixed together as a side dish. The chicken thighs and carrots are cooked together for 8 minutes then dates, water and harissa paste is added, depending on how spicy you want it. After cooking, almonds, parsley, salt and pepper is added. Below is a picture of the meal....I forgot one ingredient.

The sauce, labneh and vinegar seasoned with salt and pepper. I decided to add a taco shell to JP's meal....he did not eat it nor a lot of the carrots. I have to say, the meal looks better with the labneh sauce on it in the picture below.

So there you have it....3 delicious meals. I enjoyed them, which is why I am going to have to be very choosy in my next selections from now on....seems to be a waste when I include JP.

Well, time to close. I need to get some cards in my Etsy store and ride my bike yet tonight. Dinner is cooked for JP, so I don't have to worry about that. What is he having? Chicken, pasta, with cheese casserole....a simple comfort food with no spice.

You have a great day and keep looking up, better days are coming.
Cheers ~ Louise

Cards I Made Yesterday and Kimchi Fried Rice

Hi everybody....hope you had a nice Thursday. Guess I was not feeling well last night and really slept in late today, like till 1pm!!! Yikes, this will be a short, short day.

JP left for work at 4pm so I have the evening to watch the Blackhawks play (possibly their last game for the season if they don't win tonight), do this blog and maybe go downstairs and make some cards for Hospice. Oh and I may get some rice cooking for some quick kimchi fried rice.....a recipe I really enjoyed from Blue Apron.

All it is, is 4 ozs. of cabbage, sliced thin, 1 Tbs. rice vinegar, 1/4 onion and a kimchi spice blend of gochugaru, sugar garlic powder, ginger, black and white sesame seeds. Drizzle with olive oil and toss thoroughly to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside to marinate for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. As the rice has been cooking, it will be added to the cabbage and cooked, salt and peppered till the cabbage is well cooked. Then serve with whatever meat is going along with the meal. Tonight it is Burgundy Pepper steak. (yeah, we eat well, I guess)

So here are some cards I made yesterday at Betty's house. We did a lot of Copic marker coloring and shading....I am not too good at it. I liked the way the flowers turned out. But, my frog did not turn out too well, he should have been a little bit more lighter on the bottom. The back ground is just pattered paper, but adds to the flowers and frog.

Liked the way this card turned out....the little flowers are glued with a tweezers and toothpick...was a very putsey little card to put together, but turned out very nice.

I loved this card. Betty has these markers that don't dry quickly, so you can ink the stamp and stamp it on the card stock and it keeps the color....usually you have to "huff and puff" the stamp to keep moisture on the ink....these stamps, you don't have to "huff and puff" this pretty stamp.

Well, it is always fun to go to Betty's house to learn and get a few new ideas in stamping....it's just a "once a month" meeting, but enjoyable and gets me out of the house.

Pretty soon it will be time to work outside.....and get the pond going and weeds pulled. I think we might order some mulch and mulch the heck out of the front and back yard.....maybe that will keep the weeds at bay.

Well time to close here and get my rice and cabbage chopped as it is the intermission between 1st and 2nd period. I will let you know who won....I am sure you are really interested in knowing....lol!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Cabbage and Rain

Hi there everyone. How has your week gone....I am not sure where mine went...but it went fast!!! I still have not gotten any pictures of my house and all the improvements that were made...still working on that. BUT I am thoroughly enjoying everything Rebuilding Together did. Pat still has to come back and finish up a few things. He is waiting for a warmer days to paint the front door, put the fan up and finish some electric work.

In today's post is a cabbage dish I made....this maybe on the agenda to make more of this tasty yummy dish. My stepfather made this all the time. He called me last week to let me know he had been in the hospital for 3 weeks....he fell off his mobile chair and broke his neck.....gosh that is so hard to believe for me. The Doctor wants to put him in a nursing home....but he does not want to go.
Pops has always been stubborn that way. He lives in Las Vegas....so it is not like I can go see him and talk sense....he wouldn't listen to me anyways....I am just the step-daughter.

So in these two pictures are the cabbage dish he would make. Fried cabbage and onions in bacon grease. Added some frozen tomatoes and crumbled bacon a little salt and pepper and in the bottom picture I chopped up some spinach....something Pops would never add. All in all, it was really very delicious!!!

In the picture below.....there was so much rain on Sunday the street flooded in front of our house......sure hope the sewer is not plugged up.....As the cars passed....they all made sure they went through the water spraying it up on the sidewalk!!! Watch out, children at play.

Yep....lots of rain and lots of puddles and it looks like more rain is coming for the Memorial Day weekend. One good thing though, with all that rain that fell.....

I am so glad to say our ceiling DID NOT LEAK!!!!!  Yay!!!! I am still moving things back into the kitchen a little at a time.....but maybe less things will enter the kitchen to clutter it up. I bought some new curtains and want to get some tiles for behind the stove...to make it easier to wipe the walls which get so greasy.

Well time to close here...have to go do some dishes and get dinner ready for JP....pork spare ribs in the crock pot and potatoes, salad and fruit. Have a great day and keep looking up!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Made a Few Things Last Night ~ 4 Sanity's Sake

Hi there everyone, hope you are all doing good this lovely last Wednesday of October. Where did this month go??? I know, I am always asking that question. The older I get, it seems the days zip by so quickly, I wish I could get a handle on this retirement part of life. After working for over 40 years, I guess I feel I must be doing "something", cause if I am doing nothing I must be lazy and sitting on my thumbs. Oh well, so yesterday about 3pm I gathered myself together and started making things.

I made a pot of "winterland" Roobius tea (sipping on it right now). I usually send JP to work with a large cup of hot tea. So he received this tea yesterday and today. Do you notice the Popsicle stick trivet?? I made that years and years ago. I am almost thinking it is over 55 to 60 years old and that I made it when I was in either Brownies or Girl Scouts.....My mother kept it for a long time, then I inherited when she died. I have kept it in the china cabinet for these last 13 years. Cleaning the drawer out, I thought is was time to start using it. What am I saving it for????

In this picture is my cranberry water. I have been buying a bag of cranberries every time I go shopping. I rinse the berries, then put them in a microwave glass pot with one cup of water and some organic coconut sugar, cover and cook in the microwave for 5-6 minutes. Let them cool a bit then mushed them with my pastry masher and Wah-Lah! Cranberries!!!! Then I take a couple of large tablespoons of cranberries, a packet of stevia and pour filtered water in the bottle, mix together and I have some wonderful cranberry juice. Sometimes I even add this juice to my smoothies in the mornings IF there is any left, as the husband likes this also.

So I am still working on those two large cabbages  I received about 2 weeks ago. This last cabbage, I cut up and made this awesome cabbage dish. My stepfather used to make this all the time and now I do. Fried some onions in bacon grease till the onions are translucent. I added some garlic to the pot too.



In this picture I have added the cabbage that I had soaking in a little salt water so it was already soft and easy to work with. Cooked it down a bit and added some caraway seed and pepper. (no need for salt as the cabbage is already salted) Then I added some of my tomatoes from the garden (yes, I still have a lot of tomatoes from my garden which are slowly turning red for me.) I should have taken a picture of all my tomatoes. It was a very good year for them....so I was pleased.

In this picture is the almost finished cabbage dish. Added some fresh and frozen tomatoes and red peppers from the freezer, and some already cooked bacon from the freezer, mix it all up and you have this wonderful cabbage dish. MMMM I think I shall have a bowl of this tonight.


So while I was doing the cabbage I decided to cook up my small spaghetti squash in the microwave. 10 minutes was all it took and I was able to cut the squash up like in the picture below. Why did I cut it like that? I read someplace that cutting it length wise causes the strings of spaghetti to be short. If you cut it like I did in the picture below the strings of spaghetti will be longer. Honestly, I did not notice a difference. After I seeded them and stuck them in the oven to roast, I then was able to scoop out the squash..........now what to do?????

Well, I did not take any pictures, but I made some tomato sauce with my Roma tomatoes, nope, no pictures. I par boiled them, then dunked them in cold water, peeled them and squeezed  the seeds out. Mushed them up, added spices, water, garlic, onion and then added the spaghetti squash. I turned it into Italian sauce.

Today's lunch for JP was the Italian tomato sauce over macaroni and hamburger patties along with some fruit and salad. He eats well, as you can see.

Well, time to go walk Kylie before it gets too dark. It is 5:39 pm. Daylight Savings starts this next Sunday (Nov 2nd). So this time next week it will be DARK OUT!!!! Gosh, I wish there was no Daylight Savings....I like the light!!!!!

Have a great evening and keep looking up. Tonight I will be working on making some cards. My next post will be a few cards I have been making....yep.....I like to make things I guess. This keeps my Sanity!!!!! LOL!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That!!!

Hi there everyone. Hope you are enjoying these fall days. They are going by way too fast. Been a little busy at this end. Winterizing our little place. Gathered in all my tomatoes and cut the bushes down. Put my ceramic creatures away in the shed and cleaned the garage so I would have more space for the outside garden furniture. I guess in the next few days I should empty the water fountain (sniff and sigh). Then rake the leaves into the street and cut down all the flowers....a sure sign that "fall is over and winter is coming". Brought some of my plants in from outside...my hibiscus, that has been blooming like crazy and JP brought in the begonia plant today.

Our roof still has not been fixed. The scaffold was put up on Monday....but it's been raining everyday just about. The roofer said he would not open the roof till the weather was better. That might be next week. My life seems so un-organized what with this roof. Be glad when it's finished and the ceiling no longer leaks.

Been busy cooking. This is my last batch of potstickers. I cooked the meat first (this time) then placed the meat mixture on wonton skins. I think I will use the wonton's the next time I do these....and most likely cook the meat before stuffing the dumplings. Seemed to work out better.

JP came home with 2 large cabbages Tuesday night, they both measure about 10x10....pretty large!!!. So Wednesday I made sauerkraut, this was my first attempt....I think it will turn out pretty good and I can hardly wait to try some along with a pork roast. Here is the site I went to .

The 1st jar in the above picture is day one......this same jar in this picture is day two. Can you see how much more liquid there is in the jar....if the cabbage stays under water we will be good to go and the kraut should be good. I probably will tap it down again tonight....it is smelling very sauerkrauty.

Here is a picture of the other cabbage......oh I have some plans for this one. Stuffed cabbage, cabbage, tomatoes and bacon. cabbage and sausage, cole slaw....yeah and probably freeze some cabbage which I will use in soups and stuff. I went to Pinterest and typed in "cabbage recipes" oh my goodness so many ideas for cabbage. My all time favorite though is stuffed cabbage.....yummy. Reminds me of my step-grandmother, her stuffed cabbages which were awesome, were called "ho-lip-she's" (I am sure that is not how they are spelt, and probably have a different name depending on the country) Gram's came from the Ukraine but called them by their polish name.

Here is a picture of both the cabbage and sauerkraut.....yep it's been a busy week with still more to come.

You all have a great rest of the week. I will let you know how the sauerkraut is going in about 7-10 days, when it should be done fermenting.

See you in the next blog and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Comfort Food....Yummmmm!!

Hello everyone....how you all doing today??? Well, this is the last day of January, now where did this month go??? Onward and forward to February and possibly a bit of a warmer month???

In the midst of all this cold and snow and stuff, I made some "Comfort Food" today. Don't ask me why this is comfort, but it is something that was made alot when I was growing up. Mostly in my teen years, when my mother married into a Ukranian family. Not even sure what this is called....but I sure did like it, and now it tastes even better.

Umm....I will just call it "Fried Bacon and Hot Cabbage Slaw" So today, this is the way I made it: (I say today, because the recipe changes from time to time, but this is the basic recipe.
1 Tablespoon bacon grease (or fry some bacon and use that for this dish)
2/3 cup broken up pieces of bacon
1/2 head of shredded cabbage
1 small onion sliced (this can be optional)
1/2 cup marinara sauce (I used the rest of my left over vegie marinara sauce)
1/4 cup of water

So I fried the bacon and grease in a Dutch Oven. When hot added the cabbage and onions and mixed with the bacon and grease. After the cabbage is cooked down a bit add the marinara sauce and water (you can also omit the marinara sauce and just do the bacon and cabbage alone and it is goooooood). Turn down the heat to simmer and cover. The heat from the dutch oven will keep the cabbage cooking. Ready to serve right away. It didn't take long to make cause I was dishing it up for JP's lunch in no time, along with fish and potatoes and a smoothie.

Boy this was a good recipe. Yummy and very comforting. I am not sure what the calorie content is, but it is good and filling. Well, I am going to close now and go finish my dishes. Tonight I am going to make some cards for my Etsy store....maybe a set of 6 birthday cards. Talk to you later and keep warm and cozy with some of your favorite comfort food. Cheers ~ Louise

HERE'S MY COOKBOOK~~~~YAY!

Here it is .................pretty cool huh? Was thumbing through it and found a neat cabbage recipe, have not tried it yet but when I do, will certainly report on it. So here is the first recipe from my new cookbook:

1 cup cabbage, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1 package diet sweetner (I will use splenda), 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 package IAW chicken or IAW beef soup (you can use boullion cubes), Caraway seed to taste.
In a small sauce pan combine all ingredients: cook over medium heat until cabbage is tender. (Approximatley 10-15 minutes) Serves 1 person 92 calories, 6 gram carbohydrates, 0gm of fat, 17 gms protein. Note: The cooked cabbage was very good, I would cut down on the splenda and not so much pepper......totally forgot the parsley. I better try it again, as we have alot of parsley growing and I still have some cabbage in the refrig.

Bad news for the day, the husband just got home from his trip to Green Bay. The car broke down.....alternator problems he thinks, plus the bearings are going out. Sometimes I hate old cars cause they just drain you of all your money. We still have a big bill at the service station where we have our cars fixed. Both of them are old, mine is a '96 and husbands is a '94. I wish we had the money to invest in a new car but that is just not in the budget. Oh well, "se' la vie'" what will be, will be.

Getting kind of nervous about these swine flu shots that just may become mandatory to take. Have you been keeping up with all the different ingredients that are included in this vaccine? I have a deep concern as to why they are forcing this on us and want to pump all these poisons into our systems.............hummmmm.........I wonder if the president and his family and "all the kings men" will have to take the swine flu vaccine or is it just "US SUB HUMANS" Sorry, I have been reading alot of stuff lately that makes me wonder. Just how really free are we????????? Go to http://www.freedomfighterradio.net/ for the ingredients for the Swine flu.

I am going to close this blog for now and find that website you can go to that actually has all the ingredients in the swine flu vaccine...............you will be shocked!!!! To say the least.
Louise