My BlueApron Cooking Photo Journal

My photo journalling of adventure in cooking with www.blueapron.com.   I started their service last year, and I am quite pleased with it.   Some are great and tasty, some are adventurous, I am learning to eat new vegetable types every month that I would have not otherwise even paid them any respectable attention for their nutrition value and existence at the market place ... never a dull moment in cooking.  There are few Asian fusion style menus that I am finding out that it's better to prepare them the 'way we know' rather than following its cooking methods, but over all I am and my family is pleased when I share the dish with them.

The shrimp is one of the downside in their menu because of their supplier, I think.  Even though their staff inform me that it's the type of shrimps from the gulf area that give the iodine taste and pinkish color (even if they are raw).  But slimy?  come on!  Even After - adding 1 cup of wine to soak and or to cook in, it is 'fishy' and taste so iodine like.... too bad, otherwise, shrimp is my favorites, and it's a great dish.  I have to skip shellfish in my preferences.   

Homemade BISCOFF

We fell in love with this BISCOFF biscuits served on American Airline during our trip to DC.

I studied the package's ingredients, then found a couple of credible recipes to try.  This one turned out quite delicious and more flavorful than the real ones.  

The recipe I used is found at cupcakes.com... (I think...I will have to double check.). The best part of it is that there is no eggs involved.

 It is so much tastier than the ones sold at the COSTCO.  I am not sure why, exactly because the package being sold at the COSTCO is the same one as the ones distributed during the flight.  Comparing it to the San Francisco's Fisherman's Warf's BICSCOFF shop's, the ones sold at the COSTCO tasted a bit off ...  too much sugar and not enough spice??
This recipe is found at this Cupcakeproject.com and I really like the taste.
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2010/07/biscoff-cookies-from-scratch-recipe.html#/fullrecipe

 I am sure I have a bar cookie cutter somewhere, but for this tasting, cutting with sharp knife and rounding it off the edge a bit would just do the job.

 Hmm... not very uniform...

 Okay, so it expands.   For next time, I need to slice it into an 1/2 inch bar.

 Ready for delivery in my new àplat tote bag by www.aplatsf.com   It's a very stylish tote bag that comes in various size to carry 13x9 cake pan or pie pan, etc.

Cherry Quick Bread with All the Healthy Stuff

This is one of the quick bread. It looks like Scones, but it's more like a bread as you can see from the recipe.
Ingredients:
1-3/4 C Pastry flour - sifted with 1 tsp baking powder
3/4 C Butter - cut into small 1/4" squares, then, mixed into flour
Add 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
2 Tbsp of Hemp seeds - organic
2 Tbsp of Flaxseed mill - organic
2 Tbsp of Poppy seeds
3/4 C Cold Milk
1/4 C Condensed Milk - Borden's less fat
4 oz DAGOBA Chocolate bar with superberry
2 C organic Frozen cherries
1-1/2 Tbsp cane sugar - organic
Some Sour Cherry Preserves

Have 1/4 C of sifted flour on the side. Use some of the pre-sifted flour the work surface. Mix all together the ingredients in a bowl but not all the way - Add 2 C frozen cherries. Finish mixing without smashing the cherries
Transfer the sticky dough onto work surface.
Preheat the oven to 425'F Make Egg yolk wash mixed with 1 Tbsp milk.
Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper
Sprinkle some flour on the dough.
Knead the dough gently to form into disc shape. Transfer to parchment paper on baking sheet.
Brush with egg wash.
Bake until golden brown - about 35 minutes depending on your oven's BTU.
Serve with Sour Cherry Preserve (You get the sweetness from the preserve.)
Serve while still warm or serve it after toasting.
Basically enjoy mixing in anything you like.
Use the similar basic scones or quick bread techniques and basic ingredients to build your own.

 Time to share with office worker.
This reusable 100% organic cotton chic tote carrier by àplat http://www.aplatsf.com/ make my morning steps across the parking lot to the office a delight.

Boston Lobster Dinner at Legal Sea Foods at State St

LOBSTER AND STEAK

CIOPPINO

DELICIOUS!

The Tour

BOSTON TRAFFIC GRID LOCK

The lobster dinner was our main goal in our visit to the Boston. And after all the long drive up from Maryland we got our wish.  What? The Maine lobster? that will be for the next trip.  It took us 8 hours from Maryland to outskirts of Boston. The route took us through Delaware, New Jersey,  New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut.  The side drive-by tour to Manhattan took us 2-1/2 hrs to get there, drive around, and get out.

It was a good idea that I returned to the airport auto rental to activate the Turnpike Toll's eZPass.  It's like Northern Calif's Fastrack.  After reading all the materials a night before the trip, I found out that their Turnpike system do not take cash.  It saved me a lot of time driving through the toll gates.  Every few miles along the Turnpike is a nice rest stop with food services.  Wow, Burger King is popular here, while it diminished greatly in California.   The Dunkin Donut is everywhere.  Starbuck definitely got their spot going at each rest stop.  MacDonald is popular toward Boston rest stops.  And they sell Lobster Roll on the menu.

Boston Duck Tour - Amphibian tour bus - starting point at Museum of Science.  It was a great idea because the museum has a large parking garage.  But the downside, the parking fee is a highway robbery.  It costed $38 after 2 hours.

If my California's Space and Science museum membership had not expired, I could have gotten in Museum of Science free.

  Like that boots.

Hey! Fazio, Quack, quack...

 

 

Rnovating bridge towers.  Salt and Pepper Bridge.

  

OLD AND NEW

SKATE PARK

 

Signs, Signs...Signs, signs, everywhere throughout New England....more than you can finish reading within the time frame that you drive pass them.  Find a good place to park and take tour bus and metro, Uber, taxi, to get around, if you can.

 

Samuel Adams

  

 

  

Street Performances

 

Boston's original pub.

 

 I wonder if anyone kept count of how many bricks have been manufactured or being used in the past to present.

There's the Cheers Pub!

Maybe we will revisit it again in the future.