Our Local Box - June Review

I loved this box so much last month and couldn't wait to receive June's edition! Our Local Box released a couple of spoilers on Facebook to leak that this month's box would be a collaboration with Edward Lee*, a Louisville chef who has gained fame through various ventures including a stint as a contestant on Top Chef! I was intrigued and couldn't wait to see what he picked out!

This subscription features only products that are made/grown/etc. solely within the state of Kentucky. Since the box is based in my hometown of Louisville, mine gets hand delivered! How cool is that? :)

The box was HEAVY! Heres first looks:

This subscription has some of my favorite information cards. Big and glossy and thick stock. The items are individually described and the retail prices are given (it's nice as a blogger not to have to go look them up! First world problems! ;). This box included the regular info card attached on the underside of the lid plus an additional recipe card that is an excerpt from Lee's upcoming cookbook, Smoke & Pickles. The recipe is for "braised beef kalbi with soft grits and scallions." I'm not gonna lie. This recipe scared me a little. When I realized the ingredients went over into a second column, I kind of mentally checked out.... Hubs gave it a go, though (see below)!

The box contained four items, all four are included in Lee's enclosed recipe. The first three items are from Bourbon Barrel Foods. Hubs and I have friends who are investors in this company and we've been BIG fans for years, long before it got picked up by the likes of Williams-Sonoma! Every single thing we've tried has been PHENOMENAL. Seriously. The bourbon smoked salt and pepper are pantry staples for us so I was excited to get more pepper ($9). I bought my mom a subscription to this box and she was JUST telling me that she had used the end of the pepper I gave her a couple of months ago, so that timing is perfect! My hubs has wanted the soy sauce ($6) for a while and he's been putting pure maple syrup in his bourbon lately, so he loved the pure cane sweet sorghum ($12, says its a 2x sweet sorghum national champ!). He was all about these two items!! It's so fun to get a box that we can *both* enjoy! ;)

The last item was a bag of grits ($5) from Sunflower Sundries Farm, a major selling point being that the one pound bag has only ONE ingredient. Pretty amazing really. But, um...... How do you prepare grits?? I'll be looking that one up online.

Hubby got a little excited this last weekend and attempted the recipe. It took MULTIPLE trips to the store, including four different places to find beef short ribs! He figured out hours into it that there were no instructions on where/when/how to use the 1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar called for on ingredient list?? He winged that part and said it turned out great! Only problem was the recipe called for the WHOLE BOTTLE of soy sauce, so he still has NONE! LOL!

prep

MORE prep.... all good recipes make a mess, right??

Dinner is served! (no grits... still no clue... LOL)

This box cost $30 with my three month subscription and had a retail value of $32. I love that this box was all edible but what's really cool is how DIFFERENT this box was from last month's and from the inaugural month in April. I'm so proud to be a Kentuckian and it's really neat to think about this well curated, high quality box showcasing our awesome state's resources to people all over! My 9 year old asked, "does EVERY state have a box like this??" Wouldn't that be cool if they did?? But, nah, only bad ass Kentucky! ;)

* We have a hard-to-get reservation at Lee's 610 Magnolia on 6/21. I've wanted to go for a while and it's supposed to be quite the experience! Can't wait to check it out!  

** UPDATE: You can read my review of our experience at 610 Magnolia HERE!