Dish Two: Cherry Drizzled Pork Chops

MMmmmm this one was good! The best part was probably the pan sauce.

So the pork chop was served on top of a cous cous salad. Hot water is enough to turn it into something edible and they had me add lemon zest, green onions, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt and pepper. That part tastes fine, I think I went too heavy on the lemon juice because I was tasting portions that were too small so when I put a whole forkful in my mouth I was like oops.

Pan fried the pork chop 3 min each side. I could see this would be the hardest part for a newbie. I am not afraid of undercooked meat soooooo I based it mainly on the golden brownness of the outside. I also rendered the fat even though that wasn't a step.

Scallions went into the pork pan and then chicken stock and cherry jam and dried reconstituted cherries. this one was so tasty. I was afraid it would taste like burning from the burnt bits at the bottom of the pan.

Assemble and enjoy! I thought it was quite tasty. Oh I omitted the parsley cuz I didn't like it yesterday.

So far the meals are big enough for me and I don't run out of food. Will have to do a test where I eat with Tbot though cuz eating by myself is always less eating, not as much fun.

Dish One: Sausage bolognese

Man I was tired after making this and hungry. I was torn between adding little bits and dashes of things to make it taste better (like soysauce for a little umami) but in the end I went with the pure directions so I could properly evaluate,

I probably should have chosen a bigger plate.

The sausages were a bit spicy, The sauce didn't taste particularly melded, more like a little of this and a little of that taste, which of course makes sense because it wasn't cooked that long. The directions said to plate the noodles and pour sauce on top, but I think it would have been better to toss the noodles in the sauce pan. There's a bit of parmesean on top and parsley. I would skip the parsley, random rough feeling pieces  of really green taste were a bit jarring.

Overall it tasted alright. I didn't finish my plate (half the total made) which is usually an indication that I thought it was just ok vs liking it. Oh! it came with this little packet of chicken.. something., eemed like a wet paste bouillon. I tasted a bit of it to see and that part was delicious! Actually chickeny where I thought it would be just salty.

Can probably make this myself better anyhow so would not pick again. I did appreciate not really having to think about what I was going to make when I got home though.

Trying out Hello Fresh!

No posts for 2 years.... 3? but let's ignore that.

In an attempt at being healthy and eating home more, I decided to try out one of the food delivery services. I had a coworker tell me that Blue Apron didn't work well for them as the raw ingredients came at varying amounts of ripe. Another friend has tried a few and can't tell the difference between them. This one had a 20$ off coupon so I tried this one.

1 week, 3 meals for 2 people. 40$  (6.67/meal).

I'm not cooking tonight since we have leftovers >.> but here's what a delivery looks like!

unassuming box

oh good lots of insulation

Kiara is interested in the 3 dishes I chose (I opted not to get this week's chicken dish because it looked bland)

Under the boxes was a frozen gel pack the shaped of the box outline and underneath those they tucked the meat.

I didn't include the meat because I had put it in the fridge. Ground beef.

This was the fattest box because of the spinach, Sausage pasta.

This one doesn't have too many different parts but came with the fanciest meat. 

I'll make the first one tomorrow after going over the directions. The teeny tiny jars of this and that are pretty entertaining and I'm a sucker for cute containers. I wonder if there's enough food for both of us to have a meal hmm.

Plants Day 20

We ate the little alpine strawberry 2 days ago. Thomas has the pictures right now, the bite was so tiny I have no idea how it was, but the seascape strawberries keep putting out more and more flowers. I've clipped all but one developing strawberry per plants.

Blueberries seem to take forever to develop. They've had flowers since I bought them back in Feb? Jan? and then the fruit has been there since late feb/early march, I have a picture from 3/7 of them developing and they look... about the same. The sunshine blue is not putting out fruit as nicely as the bountiful blue but we shall see. The fruit is still green with a "blush" facing the direction of the sun.

All the sprouts seem to been towards the ends of the long box, I wonder if I washed all the lettuces over towards the outside of the box when I first watered. The baby sprouts are teeny tiny.

It is raining this week! Saves me the work of watering.

I want more pots so I can plant more babies. Did I mention already? I started a basil pot and a Mexican miniature watermelon plant (cucumbers) last...Friday or Tues, nothing yet.

Plants Day 13

The single baby strawberry is getting redder! I think I will get to it it soon.
IT looks like the thyme and some of the lettuces have started sprouting.
I started some basil and mini watermelon seeds today.
The blueberries on the bountiful blue are developing well, but on the sunshine blue they are little and shrivelly, I am trying more waterings as a remedy.
I plucked off more strawberry flowers today, sadness.
Going through my seeds just makes me want to grow more stuff, I think I need to buy more pots.

Plants Day 4

No notice of changes yet.
I plucked most of the flowers off the strawberries because I read that it's better to have them put down strong healthy roots first... poor flower babies ;_;
The celery has begun pushing out stalks! I cut a grocery celery for eating and placed the rest of it in water.
Kiara's catnip has also sprouted in her grass basket, she eats the grass too quick for it to grow.

Plantings

I repotted 6 seascape strawberries and a  peppermint plant today.
In box two I've scattered seeds for Marigolds on the outside, thyme beside them, and mesclun salad mix in the center.

I also flowered bombed some california poppies and snapdragons and hollyhock in the left corner of the backyard. Let's see how long they take.