Blue Aprons, White Aprons... Who Cares When It's Delicious!

If you're my Facebook  or real life friend, you know that I'm soon going to be writing a blog for the White Apron, a catering company based on the seacoast. I met the owner through my boss, the owner of Madeleine's Daughter. He was looking for a blogger for his company, so she recommended me! I can hardly believe I'll be blogging about food soon!

In preparation for my new role, I decided to write a quick blog post about another "apron" company, the Blue Apron. My good friend Tim gifted me a week of their service and I'm SO glad I redeemed it immediately!

The concept of the Blue Apron is simple: Membership includes a box of food once per week, but not just any old food. The box includes all the necessary ingredients to prepare three delectable recipes, developed by their chefs. When you sign up, you're able to specify your food preferences and any allergies you may have. Since I like pretty much anything and have no food allergies, signing up was a simple process. My free week included the following meals:

Cod over Linguine
Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Forager
5-Spice Pork Buns

I anticipated the Pork Buns being my favorite meal by a long shot, but while it was my favorite of the three, the other two were extremely close seconds.

Speaking of seconds, I thought it would be a drawback of this service that they will send meals for a minimum of two people. I usually hate leftovers. However, every single meal was such a delight, I actually looked forward to eating it again.

But back to the Blue Apron service- when my box arrived, I had gotten home a little late in the afternoon. I have no idea what time the box arrived, but they assure you on their website that the box can sit outside without the food spoiling. They pack so many ice packs around the food, it would have to be a pretty sweltering day to have an impact. And it's a cute box, too.

Upon opening the box, I discovered the beautiful, full-color, easy to read recipe cards, a short description of each meal and every single ingredient needed to make said recipes. At about $60/week, this service initially struck me as expensive. After opening the box and examining the contents, I officially deem it a great value. There are lots of interesting and unique ingredients that are typically very difficult to find in your average grocery store. The time saved alone is worth the price. But even more important is that they only provide you with enough of each ingredient to make the recipe. Instead of having to purchase a whole bunch of cilantro, they send just enough. To make each recipe would actually be pretty expensive if I was shopping at the grocery store and essentially being forced to purchase a lot more of each ingredient than I would actually need for the recipe, you know?

I think the only thing that they forgot to put in my box was an actual Blue Apron. Seriously, that would have been a very cool touch on their part. As it was, I still wasn't disappointed. Check out the contents of this box:

This is everything- fresh produce, herbs, spices, meat, fish, etc. 

I love how clearly everything is labeled. So awesome. 

The recipes and explanation- I love the beautiful recipe cards. I'll probably hole-punch them and put them in a binder. It will be fun to collect them! They're like extra-large foodie trading cards! 

There was a bag of "knick knacks" for each recipe. The ones pictured above were for the chicken recipe. Basically, the little bits of weirdo ingredients needed to complete the recipe. Again, it's SO convenient that there is only enough for the recipe, so you're not left with all sorts of leftovers of one weirdo ingredient. You're not stuck at the end trying to find ten more uses for the leftover thyme. 

Ok, on to the recipes. First, I made the Cod over Linguine. I fully expected this to be a very blah dish. I don't know why. In terms of preparation, it requires the most basic skills. A monkey could make this dish. 

Does that look delicious or what? I wish you could smell it. The fresh herbs and lemon that you add right at the end were the perfect finish. The dish included red pepper flakes and since I like spicy food, I used a lot. The flavor is very bright with the perfect amount of heat and it's a surprisingly light dish overall. In terms of portions, this could have easily fed three adults, especially if you supplement with a side salad. I could not have been more wrong about this. To describe is as "blah" would be foolish. 

Next, I tackled the Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Forager. This dish appealed to me as comfort food. It's a saucy chicken with a side of garlic bread. A HUGE side of garlic bread. I made it on a cold, rainy day and it was perfect! 

I hope I can adequately describe this meal. The chicken was earthy and so flavorful, but the addition of the lemon thyme added an unexpected brightness to the earthy flavors. It is officially my new favorite herb that I will need to grow in order to have it whenever I want. Seriously, if you have not cooked with lemon thyme, do yourself a favor and make this dish. SOOOOO good! The garlic bread was tasty, but not groundbreaking or even particularly special. But that's ok. Fresh garlic on a crunchy baguette is never a bad thing, even if it is a little pedestrian. Again, portion size was extremely generous and this could have easily stretched to three meals if I had any willpower at all. I do not. 

Finally, the 5-Spice Pork Buns. I fully anticipated these to be my favorite by a long shot. However, after making the first two recipes, I was starting to think they might be a disappointment. After all, three-for-three is pretty impressive and I really didn't expect the Blue Apron to deliver so solidly in my very first week! But deliver they did. 

I forgot to snap photos of the recipe card. My bad. 

These Pork Buns are what make the Blue Apron such a good value. With exotic ingredients like hoisin sauce, fresh thai basil, cilantro, Asian steamed buns, and pork belly, I was excited to try these from the moment I signed up for this service! In the end, these buns did NOT disappoint. The red cabbage salad was just ok, but the pork buns were amazing! 

In the end, I was happy to have experienced three completely different, but completely delicious meals. While none of them was particularly healthy (all three were pretty carb-heavy), I do have to admit that they were all incredible and they definitely exceeded my expectations, which is saying quite a lot. 

If you are interested in the Blue Apron, just visit their website for a little more information! If you like the idea of reading about food in addition to fashion, head on over to Facebook and "like" the White Apron. That's how you'll find out about the blog posts I'll be writing for them! And as always, thanks for reading! 

Mixing Prints- How to do it Flawlessly

The trend of mixing prints has been around for quite a white, but it's one I hope sticks around for quite a while longer. I love seeing how different prints paired together can create a really interesting look. However, I've seen one technique in particular that seems to work flawlessly almost every time. It's the perfect way to wear mixed prints if you're a little afraid of doing it right. After all, there are some combinations that don't look trendy or put-together at all. Instead, they look more like you got dressed in the dark that morning. Since I don't want any of you in that position, please allow me to educate you on this simple technique.

I have not personally attempted it, there are two fashion bloggers who used this technique this week, so I figured with that kind of coincidence I just couldn't let it go unnoticed. Kendi of Kendi Everyday and Tiffany of A Reason to be Fabulous each created flawless mixed print outfits that I just have to share with you all. Hopefully, they don't mind!

Each of these fabulous style bloggers created a look using two scales and color schemes of the same print. Kendi was successful with her use of stripes and Tiffany rocked some fabulous polka dots:

See Kendi's full post here.

 See Tiffany's full post here. 

Side note: these ladies put me to shame with their photos. I really need to up my game in that department. Although, I'm pretty sure they both have husbands that help out in that respect, and I think I do pretty well with just a tripod. But I digress...

Anyway, my point is this: these mixed print outfits work really well because they have something unifying them. In both cases, it's not only the color combination of each pieces, but also the fact that it's the same type of print in a contrasting scale. The large polka dots with smaller ones, but all in black and white makes for a sophisticated combination. The stripes are youthful and retro-looking (if we can call the 80's retro), but the blue and white that is consistent in both pieces really pulls the look together. After seeing these two posts on the same day, I started to wonder if there was a style blogger club that I'd missed out on, or maybe the Every Body Every Wear trend of the month was mixing the same prints. Or maybe those two ladies are just cosmically linked. 

Have you been mixing prints these last few seasons? I've definitely done it a few times, but my favorites was this outfit from last year: 

In this case, the unifying factor was the black and white. In fact, most people complimented me on my dress, but when I pointed out it was actually a dress and a blouse, they were flabbergasted! See the original post for this outfit here. 

Enjoy your Friday and please feel free to leave a comment if you have anything to say about mixing prints, or fashion in general.  

400th Post!

I love posting about my blogging milestones for some reason. It feels like I've accomplished something somehow. This is my 400th post- not the most amazing milestone, but I am more proud that I've published 400 posts in less than a year- I like the idea of being prolific, but don't worry, I'm more concerned with quality. I really enjoying writing this blog- from the Rate My Look posts to the inspiring fashions I see around the world, and also the other types of blogs I've discovered along the way. And reading all of those blogs somehow makes any of my milestones feel somehow small and unimportant- not in a bad way, just in terms of the vast number of people blogging out there. When I see all of the creativity out there and how much people are doing- creating, sewing, cooking, designing, painting, filming, decorating, or just doing good for other people, it puts it all in perspective.

Of course I read other fashion blogs like Glamour and Lucky but I also enjoy seeing what other women like myself post on their fashion and style blogs. I've discovered a handful of unique women- all different backgrounds, ages, body types, professions and style points of view. A few of my daily every-woman fashion reads include:

Refashion, Recycle, Reuse
Kendi Everyday
Natalya's Closet
Mrs. Hall in Training
Lux vita et iocus
Daddy Likey

Some of these women are humorous in their writing. Others are simply heartfelt and open about their lives and how fashion fits in, but all are unique and I suppose that's why I'm drawn to this particular mix. In addition to fashion blogs, I love all sorts of other types of blogs, too. if it's interesting, I'll read it! Some are very well known like Go Fug Yourself, Jennsylvania and Sleep Talkin' Man (R-rated!). Others are just friends of mine who over the years have gotten into blogging for one reason or another. My friend Tim has a great blog called Three-Second Goldfish and he writes about whatever strikes his fancy on that particular day. Another friend- Kate- is a professional photographer and I love looking at her work on her studio's blog, Studio Nouveau. Other's I've started reading because they were named "Blog of Note." (Fingers crossed that someday my name is pulled out of THAT hat!) F8hasit is particularly eloquent and touching. Her tone is that of a talented writer and I love reading her posts. (Although, for the record, I stumbed upon her blog before it was named Blog of Note, and I feel especially cool about that.) Life on the Green Line is a Boston-based Blog of Note, so reading it makes me feel closer to home.

And then there are the food blogs. I could read food blogs until the end of time, taking breaks only to eat. Mrs. Humble is a personaly fave because she focuses mostly on sweets. She did an entire series on a particular cookie. What's not to love about that? And then there's One Hungry Chef whose culinary pursuits leave me open-mouthed and drooling and also baffled at how accomplished and knowledgeable he is.

Lots of the bloggers whose blogs I read are also Etsy shop artisans. The Cat and the Cow, Ruth Parker Jewelry, B.B. Bellezza and Tina Tarnoff all have unique Etsy shops and I've purchased from most of them at some point in the last year. I love when an Etsy artisan also has a blog because they often post about what inspires them, how they work, what mediums they prefer and what influenced them in the journey to become an artist. I find all of this very fascinating.

I guess my point, ultimately, is that there is a lot out there to read- a lot of people doing a lot of interesting and amazing things and writing about it for the world to see. I love the idea of being a part of that kind of community. I've met so many great people as a result of starting to blog, some of whom are my faithful readers. And it's to the readers that I am most grateful. I know first hand exactly how much is out there for you to read, so I genuinely appreciate when you choose to come here as often as you do. I love hearing from you, whether it is through comments or emails, so please don't hesitate to say what's on your mind. I love criticism and feedback, but I don't allow every bit of it to influence what I'm doing here. I know I can't make everyone happy all of the time. I can only hope that what I post here will keep my readers coming back for as long as I stay at it.

Have a great weekend, everyone!