Tag Archives: Lifestyle

It’s virtually impossible not to make a mess while cooking. After all, you’re trying to make a culinary pièce de résistance, not win first prize for a sparkling kitchen! So when spills and splatters do happen, check out some easy ways to get your kitchen counters and workspaces spick-and-span.

Clean while you cook

This is the first rule of thumb for cleaning your counters: clean up as you go. Professional chefs may look like they never make a mess, but that’s because they’re taught to wipe up spills in culinary school to avoid messiness that could later taint their food or interfere with their workspace. Be like them and keep a damp sponge, bottle of wipes or wet dishtowel handy. Wipe spills when they are made to cut down on your final cleaning time. Dried-on spills and food are tougher to clean, so get them while they’re fresh.

Even if you ignore this advice most of the time, for highly pigmented foods like berries or sauces, really  do clean spills right away–especially if you have porous countertops that stain easily, like white marble or wood. A quick scrub with dishwashing liquid gets even tough-to-remove turmeric off your counter if you clean immediately after contact.

Basic method for cleaning

If you do have dried-on splatters or stains, apply a little hot soapy water from a kitchen sponge or bowl of soapy water. Let it soak for a few minutes and wipe that mess away! The water should be as hot as you can stand it – cold water doesn’t play so nice with grease. For really stubborn stains (like rust), add a shake of Bar Keepers Friend to the offending mark, let sit for a few minutes and wipe.

Deep clean

For spotlessly clean countertops, use disinfectant disposable wipes. Or, mix a teaspoon of mild disinfectant or white vinegar with water and wipe surfaces with a sponge; rinse with soapy water. Hate the smell of vinegar? Do another rinse of water with lemon juice or a drop of eucalyptus, lavender, tea tree or lemon essential oil to freshen. Here’s one more tip: keep a spray bottle with these premixed solutions ready to avoid making each time.

All surfaces are not created equal

It’s best to follow manufacturers’ instructions to clean special materials, like copper and wood (they can require special polishes to keep them at their best). Clean stainless steel, granite, and marble with the basic method.

But–and this really is the key!–surfaces get more and more difficult to clean the longer the grime on them sits and dries. Wiping up spills right away makes your total cleaning effort when you’re done cooking much easier. And that’s good. Because you still have washing your pots and pans to look forward to.

Every month, Lori Yates from Foxes Love Lemons takes a lesson she learned in culinary school, while working with some of the country’s best chefs, and brings it into the home kitchen, where her tips will help make you a faster, better, and more confident cook. Welcome to her column, Home Chef.  Her post today is in honor of this month’s DIY take-out theme (don’t forget to enter your photos in the #DIYtakeout contest!). You may not end up with tons of take-out containers if you cook with Blue Apron every night, but there are only three meals in each box, so…we’re realistic. Here’s how to make the take-out container go to work for you, long after the chicken and broccoli is gone.

If culinary schools and restaurants buy two things in bulk, it’s butter and plastic deli containers. The butter part is obvious, as it’s basically the foundation of classic French cooking. But the deli containers? They’re just plain convenient.

Ask any chef you know – they’ll tell you they adore deli containers for many reasons. They’re see-through, making it simple to quickly find and grab what you need. They’re stackable, so they’re perfect for organizing crowded pantries and refrigerators. They’re re-usable, recyclable, freezer- and dishwasher-safe. They’re also cheap (or even free), meaning you can use them to send leftovers home with family, and you don’t have to worry about getting them back. To my friends’ amusement, I even occasionally use them as drinking water cups.

And the benefits don’t end there. Deli containers can be used as prep bowls and even as improvised measuring cups in a pinch. The most popular sizes – quart, pint and half-pint – equal four, two and one cups, respectively.

My favorite alternative use for these little containers is using two of the lids to quickly halve grape tomatoes. Place 5 to 6 grape tomatoes between two lids. While gently pressing down on the top lid to hold everything in place, carefully slide a serrated knife between the lids to quickly cut all of the tomatoes in half. Fun party trick, right?

Deli containers can be purchased at most restaurant supply stores and bulk food stores. Containers and lids are purchased separately, and prices vary based on amounts. You can also simply wash and re-use containers you receive from delis, restaurants and grocery stores.

Make like a professional chef and get a stack of these for home use. Come to my house, and you’ll see them throughout my fridge, freezer and pantry. I use them to store prepped ingredients and dry grains, freeze homemade ice cream, package up homemade soup and just about everything else!

In the name of getting great dinners on the table in not too much time, our recipes often use a bunch of different cooking vessels at once: say, a pot, a pan or two, some prep bowls, a couple utensils, and a knife and cutting board. With so much going on, the kitchen can get messy, and you, the cook, can feel frantic about the various kitchen activities you’re supposed to be overseeing.

There’s one change you can make to banish this feeling. The trick? Have a place to go.

What does that mean? A few examples:

Before you pull a hot baking sheet out of the oven, clear a space on the counter and set down a folded dish towel or a trivet to make sure you have a place to set the hot pan. That way, you’re not straining your wrist, burning your hand, or freaking out about dropping the pan.

When you start stirring your simmering sauce, have a plate or spoon rest ready so you don’t plop the bolognese-covered spoon on the counter, leaving a big gloppy mess–where something clean is apt to land before the cooking is done.

And when you go to fry the cakes in next week’s recipe for Crispy Chickpea Fritters with Ratatouille, pictured above, it means having a paper towel-lined plate prepped and ready near your skillet. That way, when each fritter is finished cooking, you don’t have to search around for a place to set it, all the while dripping hot oil and losing your patience. This will never happen when you’ve got a place to go.

Do you have any simple, smart cooking tips you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments.

We love to help twosomes in their goal to cook better dinners more often by delivering recipes and all the right ingredients to help people make incredible dinners at home.

In doing so, we’ve had our ear to the ground about what really goes on in the kitchen. We’ve heard about pairs who roll sushi together for a romantic evening, twosomes who sit down to a nutritious dinner of cod with caponata after a hectic day, and chefs who serve their partners cocktails while they both cook and clean.

Here, we’re sharing an inside, anthropological look at how couples cook and eat together. Let us know in the comments how you eat with your beloved!

Yoon and Justin from The Very Berrie Life on YouTube, New York

Food lovers Justin and Yoon both like to clean the kitchen as they cook, a habit that should keep them in good standing with each other. But having two go-getters primed to cook and clean with great gusto can lead to its own set of problems. We are both ‘take charge’ kind of people,” said Yoon. “So we have to take turns letting each other hold the reins.”

That policy seems to work out for them, and nearly all their “moments” as a couple have involved food. They had their first date at One if by Land, Two if by Sea, their clam-bake wedding on Martha’s Vineyard, and their go-to date nights at home together in the kitchen, learning how to maneuver around each other as they make beet endive salad, Korean food, or pizza.

“Our life revolves around food!” said Yoon.

Ashley and Joe, Brooklyn

Though they aim to make 95 percent of meals together, Ashley and Joe don’t find that routine squashes the joy of cooking together. Splurging on ingredients together “is strangely romantic for us,” Ashley said.

The two met while working together in a restaurant at the Jersey Shore. Ashley trained Joe when he started on the job, and soon they made a habit of both picking up as many shifts as possible—so long as the other was working too.

That hard work comes across in the way they cook together. Part of the romance for Ashley and Joe is the effort that goes into an amazing dinner.

“I just asked Joe what the most romantic meal I make him is,” Ashley explained. “And he said Chicken Marsala. I asked why, and he said because I work so hard on it.”

Brian and Eric, Boston

In addition to romantic picnic suppers of cheese, bread, lobster, and wine, sushi is the meal that satisfies this duo. It’s been that way from the start.

“On our first date, I’d been pushing to just go out for drinks,” Brian said. “But Eric called me a few days before and asked if I’d be interested in going out for sushi.”

Brian said yes—he was thrilled, since he loves sushi. “Then, on our walk to the restaurant, he revealed that if I had said that I didn’t eat sushi, he was going to call off the date.”

Now, Brian, a food photographer and blogger, does most of the meal planning and preparation except for the 1% of meals that Eric throws on the grill. Still, his partner’s considerate about chipping in, texting daily to see if anything needs to be picked up from the store.

The only remaining sticking point is the dishwasher.

“I can never seem to load it correctly,” said Brian.

Sophia and Ted

For Sophia, the cooking roles changed the longer that she dated her boyfriend Ted, who “was the first one to brave the kitchen and cook a romantic dinner of stirfry vegetables, chicken, and rice.” These days, Ted no longer does the cooking.

But Sophia doesn’t mind. “I enjoy the cooking,” she said. “I think chopping vegetables can be especially soothing, especially celery.”

Ted repays her devotion to dicing by keeping the kitchen clean, a task whose monotony Sophia detests. That creates a balance for the couple and explains how Ted can be at ease while Sophia cooks, creating an insane mess in the kitchen in the process.

“He sits across from me, knowing that the only part of the mess he has to deal with is the predictable part—cleaning.”

Gail and J., New York

Gail, the owner of a thriving pastry business, deals with sugar all day long. In the evening, it’s about efficiency.

“What can I put on the table that won’t stress me out, that’s quick and nutritious and meat free?”

Sometimes the answer is soup, sometimes easy pastas like Spaghetti a la Trapanese, where a sauce made from blended tomatoes, garlic, cheese, olive oil, and toasted almonds coats hot pasta. Sure, they both love simple foods, but Gail can also usually anticipate what J. wants—they’ve been together for 31 years.

She can also anticipate what time J. will be done laying out her clothes, showering, debriefing from the workday, responding to emails, checking out the TV listings, and doing her nails.

“Miraculously, dinner is ready at the moment her nails are dry. Sound crazy? It’s not. It works for us. I love the act of preparing a meal, no matter how simple, while she scurries about. It’s the greatest gift I can give her.”

Maria and Josh, bloggers at Two Peas and Their Pod, Salt Lake City

A couple where both halves adore being in the kitchen would seem to be a couple perpetually sitting down to gourmet meals, which have come together seamlessly. But two cooks can be too many, causing occasional spats.

“We sometimes argue about what to make,” said Maria. “Since we both love to cook, we both have endless ideas of recipes to make. Luckily, there are lots of days to cook dinner, so we usually save the other person’s idea for the next night.”

Luckily, their minds often settle on the same peace-creating dish: pizza.

“Josh makes the best pizza. He loves his BBQ Chicken Deluxe Pizza, but my favorite is our Sweet Potato Kale Pizza.”

And pizza’s division of labor is ideal:

“Josh makes the pizza dough while I work on the sauce and toppings.”

Jessy and Eric, New York

Opposites might attract, but opposite-sized appetites can cause kitchen conflict.

“Erik consumes an inordinate amount of milk each day,” said Jessy. “More than a few confrontations have arisen when I reach into the fridge for a splash of milk and there is none!”

In some places this might be remedied by filling the fridge top to bottom with half gallons of milk, but in New York, where space is at a premium, it means near constant trips to the store.

Yet their most romantic meal revolves around that milk. At breakfast, Jessy “makes” Erik a bowl of cereal and sips her tea while he eats.

“I love sharing the tea with him,” she said.

In the evening, Erik reciprocates with complicated dinners so ambitious they wind up being enjoyed three hours behind schedule.

Here at Blue Apron, we love to save on waste. Just as we won’t leave you with leftover parsley destined to wilt in your drawer, if you use cloth napkins, we hate to waste tons of paper napkins every time we sit down to dinner.

And so, we’ve amassed quite a collection of lovely cloth napkins in every shade and tons of patterns. To inspire you to dig out your own cloth napkin collection and use it more often, we’re showing off five of our favorite plate-silverware-napkin combinations.

Which do you like best?

1. Orange-Wood-White Plate

2. Cows-Industrial Silverware-Black Plate

3. Batik-Rounded Silverware-Gray Square Plate

4. Green Patterned-Wood-White Square Plate

5. Blue {Apron} Floral-Varnished Silverware-Black Plate

P.S. If you’re already dreading the laundry, here’s a tip: if it’s just you eating, and your dinner isn’t saucy enough to really dirty your napkins, you can use them more than once. Store them in personal napkin rings so you remember which is yours and then whip it out for a second (or third!) use before throwing it into the wash.