At the end of the year, a number of different programs and services I use sent me “year in review” type overviews, similar to the one from TripAdvisor I wrote about earlier this week. In terms of motivating ongoing interaction with the program or service, they vary in efficacy. One that did a pretty good job at reinforcing a sense of competence came from Blue Apron, the weekly cooking subscription service. Continue reading Cooking with Competence: Blue Apron’s Year in Review
Tag Archives: cooking
For Creative Dinners on the Fly: Plated
For the past year or so, we’ve been getting occasional deliveries from Plated, a service that sends all of the ingredients you need to execute a fast, tasty recipe (minus pantry staples like salt, pepper, and olive oil). It’s great to not have to go to the grocery store, worry about what to cook, or search for a list of ingredients. I also like that the portion sizes are controlled, so I don’t eat more than one adult human should in a dinner. Continue reading For Creative Dinners on the Fly: Plated
Recipe: Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Eggs and Greens
This is another recipe I use a lot when I want a relatively healthy dinner without a lot of cooking and prep time. These stir-fried rice noodles with eggs and greens are delicious and filling, vegetarian, and ready in about 20 minutes
I initially found the recipe on Serious Eats, courtesy of cookbook author Chichi Wang, also known as The Offal Cook. Despite Wang’s love of the lesser eaten parts of the animal, this particular recipe contains only familiar ingredients and should be palatable for picky eaters as well as more adventurous ones. Recipe after the jump, along with my tips and additions (because of course I can never leave well enough alone). Continue reading Recipe: Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Eggs and Greens
Friday Funday #4: Stephanie Izard’s Mixed Mushroom Ragu
One of my favorite reality competition shows is Top Chef. I like to cook and eat, so I find the competitions interesting and try to pick up tips as I watch. One of my favorite contestants was the Season 4 winner, Stephanie Izard, now owner of the Chicago restaurant the Girl and the Goat. One of my favorite recipes to cook at home is her Mixed Mushroom Ragu, published in Food and Wine Magazine. I’ll copy the recipe below, then note that changes I’ve made in my version. Although the recipe notes that you can spoon this sauce over meat or fish, my favorite was to serve it is over pasta. I like to use cavatappi noodles because the twists and turns capture lots of the chunky sauce in every bite. When you read the ingredients, you may have a hard time figuring out what the resulting sauce tastes like. It’s really delicious and not at all as weird as the ingredients suggest it might be. It’s salty and savory with a little bit of sweet, and as Izard promises, it will satisfy meat-eaters as well as vegetarians. Continue reading Friday Funday #4: Stephanie Izard’s Mixed Mushroom Ragu