Adventures in Cooking: There are 2 more meals

Lordy… 

I made the one meal and was quite proud of myself, but there are two more in the box.   So here I go:

Check it out:  three pots and/or pans at once.  That is more than I usually use in month.   I made my own pasta sauce (via ingredients portioned out for me and described in a glossy brochure).  I am a chef!  

All the ingredients combined to create something that appears edible.  No one in this household knows how to react.

 

WO…  It has presentation, it has style.  Someone could eat this.  It’s a real meal.  

Hello Fresh has worked some voodoo on me. 

Except that…  these two meals have taken it out of me.   There is one more from the first week, and (gasp!) today is Tuesday, delivery day.. .which means: 

Three more meals.  Three more nights of cooking.  Three more feelings of accomplishment or three more pressure to perform?    We shall see. 

I can’t wait for the autumn risotto, though

Adventures in Cooking

And I do mean adventures because… I don’t cook.  I mean my oven is turned on on average twice a year.  I could make use of the oven as storage space with no change in lifestyle. 

And yet, I’ve recently decided to make use of Hello Fresh, one of the array of companies that will deliver a box of food to you.  Your selected number of meals, all the ingredients, spices, dressings, portioned out for you.  You add the cooking.  

Right… I add the cooking.   Why am I doing this?  I don’t have an issue buying food.  I excel at buying food.  I own the grocery store.  It’s the cooking part that I’m poor at.  I lack the willingness to slice, dice, prep and wait for food to be ready for dining enjoyment. 

But maybe I should and because I know I work best on a deadline, this seems like a worthy experiment.  Food will arrive, receipes included.  I sort of have to cook them because next week more will arrive.  Surely I will not just throw out whole meals, perfected created and shipped to me in a large box.  We’ll see…. 

Week 1

I receive a UPS notification.  The food is on it’s way!  Yipee. 

I arrive home the next day to find a giant box on my doorstep.  I inhale deeply.  Cooking… will be happening. 

I open the large box.  Three smaller boxes representing three meals are enclosed.   Ok.  This doesn’t look too bad. 

 Here we go

Here we go

It’s fall, let’s go with the one with acorn squash.

Nice presentation!  Look how healthy this appears.   I feel good about myself.  

I pull out the lovely, glossy recipe cards with describe how to make the above into something.   I skim through.  I can do this!   I can!

I have to roast an acorn squash?   What does that mean?   Apparently all roasting means is cook it in the oven.   I now understand.  Just like in technology, there are cool words describing common things that people would know but can easily become intimidated due to lack of knowledge.   I’ve got this. 

I cut an acorn squash!  I did!  And it was hard.  I have knives from Ikea, just for show, not ginzu knives.  I drizzled olive oil and spices on the squash.  I don’t drizzle.  I made the little parmesan “cookies”, cut an apple and wa-la:   roasted acorn kale salad: 

I did it!  Me!  The non-cook.   And it’s not only edible, but good.   Wait…what?