LAST MINUTE DINNER PARTIES + OVERCOMING BAD HABITS

I am not a terrible cook. I make a mean pot of curry. But I pretty much suck at cooking anyway because I am a horrible meal planner. I have lots of excuses I like to tell myself, they're always entertaining and very, very valid. We are sort of emotional, spur of the moment type eaters, I like to say. Some days we crave red meat and set out for a burger, some days I'll get an idea at 3PM and it's on the table by 5, other days we snack on apples, cheese, radishes, salami, popcorn... mini Snickers... more popcorn... we go through a lot of popcorn. I guess we're an eat-to-live family, is the optimistic way to put it. And me, well I'm just an undisciplined homemaker with a heart of gold. I have yet to earn my pearls. 

We do eat pretty healthfully. You gotta keep up with the pace of life out here on foot, with nothing but ya grit and an expensive collection of shoes to get you through. We do a lot of moving and a lot of schlepping, and I don't just want my family to have the energy to manage it, I want my family to thrive. So I take what my body craves seriously and believe in eating pretty much exactly what my body tells me it wants to eat, when it wants to eat it, and I try to pry my kid's mouth open and shove all kinds of cruciferous vegetables in there when I can, it's practically a hobby. But there's no rhyme or reason to any of it and I struggle with structure and consistency. 

So I initially said no to partnering with Blue Apron. I've heard so many good things from so many friends who use the service and really, genuinely love it, but I didn't think there was much I could add to the topic and plus, y'all would see right through me so fast. I ain't no June Cleaver over here. Not even--but then--wait a minute--do I feel a personal growth opportunity coming on? .....Maybe, just maybe, if I make learning to be a structured cook into a work project, and thus actually have to do it... maybe this would be the time I'd finally get myself in there and make myself into a proper dinner-on-the-table type already, because probably it's just a matter of doing it, right? These days I do have a school kid or whatever. Hells bells, Holbrook. I think we have a challenge here!

So I chose the vegetarian plan (we aren't big meat eaters). I will say this immediately because it's true: I've loved having consistently fresh, sometimes weird ingredients to work with, that haven't been bruised bouncing against my legs in their bags by the time I get home. (The packaging for these meals is solid.) The other day I got to hang out with an eggplant, such a cheeky little vegetable. Eggplant has always intimidated me. We had a good chat, I gave her my best shot, she still freaks me out. Funky texture, weird seeds. We've made peace with it.

Hey Huck took these, impressed?

So your box arrives every week and it's a little like unwrapping an edible birthday present. You have no idea what'll be inside there and it's kind of fun to try and guess what all the ingredients are going to add up to make before you peek at the recipe cards and see what fate has in store for your dinner plans. The recipe cards are seriously great, though I still struggle to follow recipes and always end up missing an ingredient or obvious step anyway. It's a special skill.

Huck's was up for trying all of it, even the spicier dishes. His favorite was the whole wheat pasta + corn in a browned butter sauce. I told Huck those whole wheat noodles were worms, he was aaaaall over that.

Huck, ya cute. 

So I'm gonna level with you. Three weeks in and I haven't made much progress. Like, any progress. Dinner time is still erratic and unpredictable. I still open the fridge in the evening to make some delicious tostadas for dinner and then think, "no but what I really want is pad Thai." I'm still cheating on my kitchen with my Seamless app pretty regularly. I guess I'm a slow learner. But I have enjoyed the consistently delicious outcomes I get when I do get in the kitchen and cook. Confidence booster. There hasn't been a single dish that hasn't caused some slight disbelief that *I* actually made it. I do recommend the vegetarian menu full stop. But I haven't discovered my inner June Cleaver yet, and sometimes I worry I never will. 

But that's okay because I DID discover my inner [insert famous party hostess here] and she's pretty rad.

(Why it is I can not think of any famous party planners right now aside from Martha Stewart? Help!)

Here is how that happened: One hectic week during my 3-week trial with Blue Apron I managed to amass such a backlog of meals that every time I opened the fridge an avalanche of perfectly portioned Blue Apron ingredients would tumble all over me. This made me rather uneasy. Here I am failing so spectacularly, thinking to myself, I am the worst, as well as, I'd need an army to eat all this food, when suddenly! Ding ding ding ding! Lightbulbs and all that. Sparklers.

So I texted a few friends ASAP and invited them for an impromptu dinner party. Army = check! 

I prepared five Blue Apron meals in quick succession that afternoon. It took me about three hours, and since it was all there and measured out and explained to me in very clear steps, it was pretty easy. Enjoyable even. I felt pretty capable, too. Go me! I've always really loved hosting parties. I kind of consider it a skill on my short list of special resumé skills. What I really excel at is the last minute party. I love to scrounge up what all I got at the moment and turn it into something super low-key yet still really special. Working with Blue Apron on a last minute party was such an epiphany. No menu planning or hectic morning spent hitting every market in town means I have extra time to spend on the playlist and some flowers and on running the dishwasher one last time so I can make sure I have enough clean plates for everybody. Throw on a dress and some lipstick, your guests arrive, hurrah! One of the easiest and most relaxed parties I've ever thrown, and seriously fun dishes to try out. Some paneer, a watermelon farro salad, a friend of mine brought over bacon-wrapped dates and then it was a party! Brandon gave the sweetest toast that made one of our guests get teary-eyed.  I'm telling you. The greatest night.

Thankfully my girl Isabelle thought to snap some photos of the night on her phone, because way to go, blogger, forgetting to take pictures. Good one.

We ended the night on the roof making s'mores. After I put Huck to bed (mostly around his bedtime ;), we stayed on the roof talking and laughing way too late into the night. After they'd left and once the house was quiet, I caught myself humming while doing the dishes. At 2AM! That's a real party success. Like I was saying, all this led to a slight epiphany, steel yourself for this truly unique moment of self reflection.

When you're in the kitchen for that many hours and you're starting to think you'll never not smell like garlic, that's when it really dawns on you what a demonstration of love the act of cooking can be. I'm not just making a salad, I'm creating physical, edible form of my affection. Cooking isn't something I love to do but loving on my favorite people is, and so... Duh. This is obvious to the entire world and I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before, but now that it has, I'd especially like for cooking for my family to become a daily habit, because of course loving your people should be a daily habit! Meanwhile, here was my other good idea: a recurring Blue Apron delivery just for parties. Right? I love the idea of a few refrigerated boxes arriving on my doorstep every now and then, filled with enough food to feed my small army, a physical reminder to get outside my immediate self, reach out to my peoples, get into that kitchen, and celebrate the most delicious parts of life.

Thank you Blue Apron for partnering with such a slow learner, and thank you to my readers who often introduce themselves on the street, sometimes become close friends, but always turn out to be the raddest people on the planet. It is so humbling to me to have such rad, smart, cool people reading this dorky blog. Way cool, it makes me feel pretty great. The first 100 of you who'd like to can sign up HERE to receive two free meals on your Blue Apron order. I hope you cook them in good health for all the people you love who love you back. Heart eye emojis and stuff.