Blue Apron: The $20 mashed potatoes

[thistlechaser]

Swedish Meatballs & Braised Kale
with Lingonberry Jam & Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Recipe here.
Time: 20-25 minutes (I left the kitchen for a few minutes in the middle of things)

Almost as if Blue Apron could go back in time and react to me canceling their service, this meal was a disaster.

1) The flour was missing.
2) The container of lingonberry jam came open in the bag and made a mess.
3) The pork had gone bad.

I had been looking forward to this meal for a while. I wanted to try making meatballs, I like Swedish Meatballs, and this looked like one of the simpler things to make -- only three things to chop up!

I got the potatoes going, no problem. Then I opened the pork. It smelled off. At first I didn't trust my nose, so I continued on with the recipe. But the longer I smelled it, the more sure I was that something was wrong with it. I wish I had trusted myself off the bat, since then I could have saved the spices and breadcrumbs and tried again some other time with my own meat.

I didn't bother trying to make the kale, becasue without the meatballs there was no meal, and kale isn't a new food for me to try.

$60 for three meals = $20 per meal = I paid $20 for two small potatoes, a pat of butter, and a splash of milk. Go team me. The mashed potatoes were good, but not $20 good, plus that's a lot of potato for one person.

I don't want to tell them about it and try to get my money back, since they'd likely think I was doing it just because I canceled and was trying to get more out of them. My time with them is done, I don't want to continue to deal with them.

Comments

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Seconding the Kudos for eating to not be ill. I come from a family of very large people, and I manage to be around normal ranges. I hate most exercise (still hit the gym a few days a week, but hate every second) so food is very much the major factor in keeping me from the slew of family history health issues - high BP, cholesterol, heart disease, strokes, etc.

I also have some GI issues - some of the organs contributing to digestion had to be removed because my body is stupid and thinks crystallizing is a valid thing to do. So the amount of fat and certain vitamins has to be controlled. These issues started back in junior high, living with a family that ate horribly unhealthy food. So I quickly had to learn how to cook food separately such that I wouldn't be in agony or stuck in the bathroom.

Thank the gods for Alton Brown. Good Eats taught me the basic framework for cookery, and my cooking definitely helped secure my spouse.

Given the topic at hand - I highly recommend the Good Eats meatball recipe. I make those in batches of about 20, and the wife&I eat them in various incarnations for a week - swedish, pasta with arrabiata sauce, sandwiches, etc.

I'm really lucky with ingredients sourcing though. I live in the downtown area of a medium-sized southern city. There is the Ghetto grocery store 2 miles away (prefer to drive - not safe neighborhood), a rich people grocery within a 1 mile walk (good for produce, everything else overpriced), a full-service butcher/charcuterie on the way, a marvelous bakery next door (fresh croissants are at least as good as sex), and farmer's markets 2 days a week within 1.5 mile walk. Start to see why we moved there? This is the South. Everyone drives instead of walks. Everyone sits on their ass. If you go to a restaurant, there is a high chance everything is fried. The neighborhood was a huge reason we moved (built a house, actually). Gigabit fiber internet is pretty awesome too. To the person from NYC - our neighbor is from there. She shat a brick when she saw home prices here. Apparently the price of a 2000 sq ft custom-built house here is the cost of a small apartment there. I can't take much credit for planning all these awesome reasons to live where we do - my wife is the planner, I deal with emergencies (she loses her shit).


I know not everyone has the freedom to live wherever they want...but if you get the chance, you can use that to carve out almost exactly the lifestyle you want to have.

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

I hear you - I have to be a little careful too since I have gall bladder issues. Or did have until homeopathy cured me, but I'm still careful.

Thank you! I was in the mood for Swedish meatballs, and that sounds like a great recipe.

Start to see why we moved there?

Definitely, it sounds like grocery heaven.

I know not everyone has the freedom to live wherever they want...but if you get the chance, you can use that to carve out almost exactly the lifestyle you want to have.

Amen to that. I added you, I hope you don't mind?

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Don't mind at all! Though my presence on LJ is almost entirely limited to chatting with Thistle - maybe I need to broaden my horizons some (ok, really enjoying the religious discussion going on in your LJ -- living in the South, I basically have to keep my views to myself unless I want to lose friends/make enemies/get lynched).

If you don't mind, can I ask what helped the gall bladder issues? I don't have mine anymore - mine was one of the things that is/was bad about crystallizing.

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Well, chatting with Thistle is fun and I enjoy it too, so I don't blame you. :D

A remedy called menhorridium or something like that helped me (I don't recall the exact spelling, it was years ago I took it). It not only eliminated the gall bladder issues, but also the constant migraines I'd been having since I was a small child. My gall bladder issues didn't even have an organic cause, i.e., no stones or crystalizing so far, and every doctor check-up I had revealed nothing. But I still had colics that felt like I was being sawed in half by a rusty saw. You know that pain if you've had it. I mostly had them when there was some aggression or emotional upset going on, or when I ate the wrong food (too fatty, for example, or too much coffee). I haven't had a twinge in four years now, and I can eat and drink whatever I want.

The thing with homeopathy, however, is that the remedy has to be tailor-made to fit you, and what helped me might not help another person. The remedies are made to fit the person, not the illness like in standard medicine. A homeopath will ask you hours of questions having to do with all aspects of your person, not just health questions, but general questions, and then think of the remedy that best suits you. It's a pretty complicated process - lol. I'm lucky that one of my two loves is a trained homeopath, knows me inside and out, and shot a bull's eye with that remedy.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love Alton Brown. I don't watch anywhere near as much as I used to, but he's still great when I do.

You're right about the prices though. My sister pays less for a four bedroom home in the south than I do a small one room apartment here. "Less" being a quarter of the price. It's insane.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Alton really is a nice guy too. He's from Atlanta, but he hangs out in our city a good bit, so I've bumped into him in a few places - farmer's market especially. He seemed quite eager and happy to just chat with a fan.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that's great to hear! I hate it when someone's nice on TV but ends up being an ass RL.