Day 304 - S'mashing S'mores

This review is the work of DAVID.  He consumed two whole packages of S'MASHING S'MORES before I had one single bite. 

David says – “PERFECT.

Even before we checked out of the grocery store David was in love with these things.

These are the perfect blend of:

·         Chocolate, which is goooood chocolate.  (I clarified – milk or dark?  He confirmed – MILK with drizzles of dark chocolate on top.)

·         Marshmallows, that are not hard but not too soft and not too thick – this is kind of a “3 Little Bears” type of dessert!

·         Cookie underneath, whatever it is, it is between a graham cracker and a shortbread cookie thing, it is very nice.  (Editor's note - the package says it is graham cracker.)

They have the balance perfectly.  It is small enough to be able to pop it in your mouth if you are a “normal” person, and to provide about 4 delicious bites if you are me!  (This also called for clarification – do you mean if you are an abnormal person??  Yes…)

 I feel I must point out that as you are eating this in bites, if you eat it in bites, is that as you bite down on it little bits of crumbs fall out and you might risk dropping a crumb or two.”

Here is what the insides look like

David would pay five times
this amount for this treat

The lady in the store and the container both mentioned heating one of these S’Mores in the microwave and eating them like that.  David had been afraid to try that.  He said he was afraid that heating them would make the chocolate melt all over his hands and make the insides pour all out…  (I personally think he liked them so much straight out of the container that he could not bothered to get up off of the couch to walk to the microwave…)

I convinced him to try one heated up.  He liked it equally as well as the room temperature version.  I even got a little nibble of a heated up one and it was quite nice. 

If you heat it up it gets a bit gooey!  Yummy.

When I asked him what rating he would give this product he answered with an extremely quick and unequivocable “FIVE!!!!”.  When pressed a bit he said, “They are chocolate.  They are cookies.  What’s not to love??” .  There you have it, folks, a FIVE from the discerning David. 

Price – $4.29

Rating - 5

Day 303 - Butternut Squash and Creamed Spinach Gratin

The package of this dish says “An ideal vegetarian entrée and excellent side dish”.  For truth in advertising, I think they need to delete the words “ideal” and “excellent”.

This is a seasonal product, so if you want it go to your local Trader Joe’s NOW and get it, because they won’t have it for very long.  And not to worry, you will not have to fight us over it…

I THOUGHT it looked super tasty...

I followed the conventional oven heating directions and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees.  The end result was a dinner that was extremely boring with almost no taste.  We cut the Butternut Squash and Creamed Spinach Gratin in half and ate it as if it were a non-meat lasagna (as it is described on the back of the package).  It would be BETTER if you served this as a side dish with something else that had a good flavor that this was just trying to “play off of” instead of eating THIS as a meal. 

David agreed that it was “kind of bland.  Sort of “Midwestern” in its palate, no strong flavors.  But it is kind of “comfort foody” in its pasta-ness and the cheesiness.  When you hit a patch of vegetables those are nice (the squash a bit less interesting taste-wise). “

I should have listened to David, who was less than thrilled when I put this product in our shopping cart.

I would describe this as HOSPITAL FOOD.  The texture is soft and mushy and the taste is bland.  This is a dish I would expect someone with a hairnet to serve to me.

Host/Hostess tip:  I do not recommend that you put this out with your Thanksgiving meal and try to pass it off as something you cooked yourself.  

Maybe it is just cuz I have eaten it and know what it tastes like, but now that I look at this
photo of it on a plate it even LOOKS dull...

Trader Joe’s has a lot of seasonal products. When I saw this one I thought it looked good, so I wanted to get it and review it early while they still had it so you would have time to go get it.  But I was wrong, wrong, wrong.  My bad.  Don’t bother.  Buy OTHER seasonal products, but not this piece of crap. 

David says, “It miiiight be to your taste if you don’t like spicy or flavorful foods…”.  Sigh.  That David, always trying to put a good spin on things.  I say – IF YOU ENJOY EATING IN THE HOSPITAL, THEN GET THIS, PUT A PAJAMA SHIRT ON BACKWARD SO YOUR BUM HANGS OUT, LAY IN YOUR BED, AND EAT IT.  THIS IS YOUR DISH.

David had a perfect line for this product:  “If you want to make the argument that you don’t have to give up taste in order to eat vegetarian, this is not your dish.”

BAM!

Oh sure, it is a flyer item.  It is also overpriced and dull.

Price – $4.99 (way too expensive for this product IMHO)

Rating – 2.25

Day 302 - (Dried) Soft and Juicy Mandarins

I had seen these dried mandarins in the store but never purchased them.  I didn’t think they looked all that appetizing.  Then a reader of this blog, Ttrockwood, commented and said they were really good and that they tasted like “natural JELLY BEANS”!  I like mandarins, and a real person (as opposed to a marketer for a product) said they were good, plus David loves jelly beans, so why not give them a try!

So many choices in the dried fruit and nut aisle at Trader Joe's...

My first bite left with me a bad impression.  They have kind of a crystallized texture.  I wasn’t sure if I could taste the MANDARIN or orange flavor, they just tasted sweet, sweet, sweet.  The second bite wasn’t all that much better.  After I ate a few – I think I ate 3 or 4 pieces that first day – I thought that they weren’t that great.  The second time I tried them I thought the same thing.

But now I have had them 4 times and guess what?  They grew on me!  I like them much better.  They are a nice, funky, bizarre little snack.  The nutrition label says that the serving size is 14 pieces.  I can’t imagine eating that many in one sitting, because they are quite sweet.  David agrees that is a bit excessive – we think maybe 5 or 6 pieces in a sitting (though he did say that given enough time (and television I presume…) he could eat 14 in a sitting). 

He likes 'em!

Now that I have eaten them more I realize that they DO taste like mandarin oranges.  They make for an interesting dried fruit.  They are not as run of the mill as, say, the dried apple (not that I hold anything against dried apples!  I like a good dried apple..).  We haven’t cooked with these or put them on a salad or anything, we just snacked on them out of the bag.

If you put one of these in your mouth and let it sit in there a bit, it “rejuvenates itself” more than other dried fruit does.  I am not saying it returns to its original mandarin orange slice shape, but it PLUMPS UP!  Other dried fruit just sort of gets soft…  Do you know what I am trying to say here?  You may need to try one of these mandarin bits to understand.

Try some.  They are, Like Ttrockwood said, natural jelly beans :)

David says, “These mandarins are very nice.  They are delightful.  They are like Trader Joe’s gummies (review here) but it is even MORE of a concentrated taste than those.  These are SWEET because of the outside, and it is tangy and fruity because of the inside.  It is nice and chewy, but it is not leathery, it is chewy like those TJ’s gummies.  I would give them a 4.5.”

Wow!  I wasn’t going to rate these quite THAT high, but I think I am going to go with David on this one.  More people should try these.  They are interesting and make for a different snack.  And they give you yet another excuse to wander down the dried fruit and nut aisle at your local TJ’s, and that aisle is indeed a place of wonder.

Price – $2.69

Rating – 4.5

Day 301 - Honeynut Squash (miniature)

This is easily the most adorable vegetable you could ever have on your plate.  They are teeny tiny itty bitty butternut-looking squash!!!!  They are so cute!!  We had never seen them before and Trader Joe’s had a couple of pretty displays of them so we grabbed one.

Opportunity Buys - LIMITED QUANTITY - go get some!

I cut the squash in half and took all the seeds out.  I put the halves in a glass baking dish and prepared each half differently.  For  David’s I put olive oil over the whole thing, salt, pepper, Kerrygold butter (review here) and brown sugar.  In my half I put olive oil all over, salt, pepper, and a special little treat – Mike’s Hot Honey (review here).  I cooked them in the oven on 350 degrees for 50 – 55 minutes.  Both halves turned out really well.

The World's Most Petite Squash

We both thought this vegetable was GREAT!  David said, “It is sweet, luscious, creamy…  It’s soft inside.  I have no complaints!  With honey or butter inside it is fabulous! What can I say??”

The hot honey half was fun – the heat of the honey had a delayed reaction so you didn’t really notice it until you were almost finished with the bite.  I liked David’s brown sugar half, too (thanks for sharing, friend).

You can't see how adorable and tiny it is here...  I served it with a side of pasta and homemade pesto
and eggplant parmesan David made the night before.  Nice combination.

These honeynut squash would be really great to serve at a Thanksgiving meal or dinner party this autumn.  Each person gets half and it makes a perfect serving!  They are pretty and look very seasonal.  I liked it so much I kept the seeds and am drying them to plant in our garden next spring. 

David is trying to be a hipster right now because his final review of these squash is “adorbs” J.  I agree – they are ADORBS.

This is a trick photo.  Doesn't the squash look freakishly HUGE? In reality, it is standing by
the world's smallest jar of  Tabasco.

I am glad that we found this little squash!  We actually have a tradition in our house of buying a regular sized squash and then leaving it on the counter forever.  We never think to cook it.  We usually have a squash on display in some stage of the decay process.  But I think these tiny ones are so cute we would remember to cook ‘em!  A regular sized squash it is just too much for two people.  One HALF of a regular sized squash is enough for two people.  So with these Honeynut Mini Cutie Patooties, cut one in half, cook, and in a two person household everyone gets a perfect sized serving in its own little nature made serving dish!

These are seasonal so get them NOW at Trader Joe’s because they will not have them very long.   Two thumbs up!

Price – .99 (so only .50 cents per serving!!)

Rating - 5

Day 300 - Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips

I MADE IT TO DAY 300 OF THIS PROJECT!!!!

And hey, we went to ANOTHER NEW TRADER JOE’S!  That is 21 locations visited so far since January 1^st of this year.  This one was in Bethesda, MD (a suburb of Washington DC).  It is an oddly set up store!  There is construction of some sort going on outside (in the parking garage I think).  The parking is free, which is nice.  Sadly, there is no real signage outside the store to draw people in.  We had to really look around to find the store (we had the address programmed into GPS so knew we were there, but where WAS it??). 

Whew, we found it!

 The store itself is also a bit strangely set up.  It just seems like it needs to be BIGGER all around.  The aisles are very narrow and we often found ourselves feeling in people’s way with our cart (which was just one of the tiny carts).  The check-out stations are very bizarre.  They are on a diagonal and seemed to be a big ol’ mess really – people waiting in line to check out blocked even more arteries of the store.  It seems like an expansion and a good, long redesign for the set up of the entire store are in order.

Outside what we think is supposed to be the main entrance of the store.  Check out the great flowers David got me!

BUT let’s ignore the physical set up of the store and focus instead on the employees - which were super nice.  We met one really great employee and I WISH I had written her name down but I didn’t.  I hope she sees this and replies!  She was back by the sampling station and was super friendly.  I told her about the blog and about this being our 21^st Trader Joe’s to visit for the project and she thought it was cool, then asked if we had tried the new Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips.

Ummmmm, that would be an n-o…

Does THAT look like a chip you see and think "Yum, I must have it"??

David doesn’t like kettle chips (too hard and crunchy) and I don’t normally like oddly flavored chips.  I want plain, simple, humble chips, thank you very much!

She saw us wrinkle our noses up after she mentioned these and grabbed a bag saying, “Wanna try ‘em??”.

I need to pause in the review here to remind you all again – you can TRY stuff at Trader Joe’s.  It is an excellent policy.  It goes beyond being “customer focused”.  Seriously, it is great!  We hadn’t even ASKED to try these, in fact I am guessing that our facial expressions were asking to NOT try them.  But she took it upon herself to grab a bag and open them.  She took the bag to the sampling station and had the lady working there put a few chips in little paper cups for us to taste. 

And do you know what?  It resulted in a sale.  That is $1.99 that Trader Joe’s would NEVER have gotten out of us.  We didn’t even see these chips before she mentioned them (display note:  those are up too high for short people to see on the rack in the back of the store, move ‘em down).  And even if we HAD seen them, trust me, we would not have purchased them if she didn’t give us a taste.  And I am guessing the one bag of open chips resulted in other sales, too, since the sample lady was going to serve the rest to other people.  My totally unscientific guess is that 7 out of 10 times when they go out of their way and open something especially for a customer to taste it results in a sale.

It turns out they are GOOD!

So here is our review of these wacky chips:

Susan – These are a good example of grocery shopping when you are hungry.  We left with a product we might never have bought.  But honestly, we bought it because of the “taste test” policy mostly.  The first bite of these chips is a little bit startling.  Even the smell of it, really!  It is a CHIP that smells like TURKEY.  That’s bizarre!!  But this chip really does capture the taste of Thanksgiving!  You can taste turkey, stuffing, and whatever herb is in stuffing (I think it is sage).  They are crunchy but not as crunchy as some kettle chips which is good.   This is a fun seasonal product!  When the lady showed us the bag David said he thought Trader Joe’s had “jumped the shark”.  I mean, like, seriously…  You are going to do TURKEY AND STUFFING CHIPS???  But he liked them, too!   He even wanted to open the bag and munch on them on the way home!

David – “It is true!  And like Susan said, they are not too “gum tearing up crunchy” like kettle chips sometimes are, which is good.  They are easy on the turkey flavor, which I don’t even know what turkey flavor would be, cuz turkey is essentially a flavorless meat…  But the whole taste is the EXPERIENCE of a nice turkey dinner.  A little bit of turkey, some stuffing, and maybe it is sage I am tasting in addition.”

These are a cool seasonal item.  They are a fun alternative to the plethora of pumpkin that is vomited everywhere this time of year.  We will enjoy the heck out of this one bag then call it an autumn. 

Buy these as an alternative to loads of pumpkin crap. 

Price - $1.99

Rating - 4

Day 299 - Tangerine Juice

Before I start this review, let me express my happiness and appreciation.  Another reader sent me a TJ’s bag and honey!!!!!!!!  Can you even believe it?  Peoples’ generosity really makes me smile!! 

  

LOOK!!!  Another box in the mail from a blog friend!!

This one came from Robert, a reader who also has a Trader Joe’s blog (something I didn’t know existed until I was well into this project – note to self:  Google before starting huge projects!!!).  He got me a bag from the Ashville, NC Trader Joe’s store and it is SO CUTE!  We have used it several times.  The other night our cashier, Carole, at the Clarendon VA store noticed it and loved it!  Carole had a great idea:  people should be able to buy and collect the TJ’s bags from all the states!  She said that she for one would start a collection.  Hey, it would be more useful than those Disney collectible pins, my collection of squished pennies, or some of the other things people collect, wouldn’t it??  She thought the NC bag was awesome, and so do I!  We have not tasted the honey yet, but it came in a delightful jar that made it look as if your Great Aunt Tilly made the honey for you instead of a store.  As soon as we finish one of the honeys we have open this one is next on deck!  Robert’s blog also reviews Trader Joe’s products and is very fun.  You can find it at: Exploring Trader Joe's blog

Look!!!  An adorable NC bag and a jar of HONEY!  

Robert recently reviewed TJ’s Tangerine Juice.  Here is his review that I saw, which piqued my interest in this product:  Exploring Trader Joe's Tangerine Juice review .  Tangerine juice was something I had not tried before, and Robert liked it, so I figured, “Let’s give it a go!”. 

Here's the bottle - 32 fl oz of straight tangerine juice

Ohhhh Robert, Robert, Robert…  What path did you lead me down???

OK, so at $3.29 for a 32 oz bottle, this was not a cheap drink.  It was more of a “splurge” for a bit of excitement, or a health food splurge if you will since the ingredient (singular) is just TANGERINE JUICE.  I thought this would be a nice treat.  I was wrong.

It is very BITTER.  The first drink was horrible.  Bad, bad, bad….  The second drink (this is going to sound weird I know, but I am being honest here) tasted like colonoscopy prep stuff…  If you have ever had a colonoscopy you KNOW the taste I am talking about.  I must have had orange or tangerine flavored prep one time because when the second drink of this tangerine juice hit my taste buds I had a colonoscopy flashback!  (Note:  this is not really a flashback you want to have.)  I was a bit afraid I might have to excuse myself to the bathroom if I continued to drink this juice, but I convinced myself that this was not, as my sisters and I like to call it, “Go All Nightly” (colonoscopy prep stuff).  I steeled myself to take another sip.*

Looks pretty in our juice glasses, eh?

The 3^rd and 4^th drinks got a little better.  Not GOOD mind you, but BETTER.   To me it tastes like Tang.  I don’t remember ever having Tang at our house growing up but I must have had it at a friend’s house, because this makes me think TANG!  To me, the only thing cool about Tang was the idea that actual real live astronauts up in space might have drank it.  The taste, to me, is not cool…   I wasn’t sure what the actual FLAVOR of Tang was, so I Googled it.  Consensus seemed to be that it was supposed to be ORANGE, and I was going to go along with that.  Only, in the middle of the night I had an “Aha!” moment – HEL-LO!  Tang?  T-A-N-G…  Tang.  Umm, those are the first four letters of TANGerine!  Obviously the flavor of Tang is tangerine, it is just tricky in that we pronounce it differently than you would expect!  So Tang is basically a covert astronaut drink.

First taste

Reaction....

Of this TJ’s Tangerine juice, David says, “I agree.  The taste is very bitter at the beginning.  It gets better – I guess you get used to it.  The tangerine taste itself is nice – it is very “tangerine-y”. It’s just I think they made the mistake of squeezing the tangerines a bit too hard so you get a lot of the rind taste, which is a bit bitter.”

The color of this juice is unnaturally bright orange.  It is a very pretty color!  We have a wall this color.  But I would rather see this color on a wall I guess than in my juice glass.

See, our wall is the same color!  New Year's Eve tradition - eat 12 grapes in one minute at the stroke of midnight!  (As you can see we were drinking an excellent Beaujolais Nouveau reviewed waaaaay back on day 2 of this blog!  Review here )

We both gave this juice a 2.5 rating.  The upside is that it quenches your thirst.  Then again, water can do that, too, and it is not as expensive or nearly as bitter.

If you WANT Tangerine Juice, get it at TJ's - it was much
more expensive at Safeway

Sorry Robert, we need to agree to disagree on this one.  J  It is a good example of how some things taste great to some people and “meh” to others.  But THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the gifts!  I love them!

*Note from David:  Susan has a bit of PTSD about colonoscopy prep, so expressions of her feelings on that issue may appear larger than in your rear view mirror.

Price - $3.29

Rating – 2.5

Day 298 - Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc

Wow – I have gone through 10 whole months of reviews, almost 300 days, and only reviewed ONE Charles Shaw wine??!  That seems impossible, since TJ’s is pretty famous for their “two buck Chuck”.  But, like I mentioned when I reviewed the Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio way back on day 43 (see review here ), we really do not buy Charles Shaw wine very often since there are soooo many other great wine choices at Trader Joe’s.

Hey look!!!!  A bunch of Charles Shaw wine!  

But recently David threw this bottle of Chuck Shaw Sauvignon Blanc in our cart.  Heck, at only $3.29 a bottle you can’t really complain even if it tastes horrible, right?

But guess what?  It was really good!!  Like, surprisingly good.  Like, “WHY haven’t we been buying this wine all summer?” good.

Simple label.  Cheap price.  Tasty wine.

This is a 2013 California wine (it sounds funny to me to look at the vintage as if this were some hoity toity $75 bottle at a restaurant…).  It was extremely fruity.  If I had to call the fruits out I would guess grapefruit and peach.  It was very good!  We drank it cold and paired it with a crispy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie J.

David said he felt it was “Remarkably well balanced.  It doesn’t have as much high notes, zingy acidity fruit sparkely-ness as some Sauvignon Blanc might, but I think they got the BALANCE just right.  The only complaint I might have it that there might be a hint of mustiness or earthiness in the aftertaste.  Let me try again…”

Editor’s note:  I feel this was a ploy by David to let him drink more of the wine…

He continues, “It is CERTAINLY acceptable and even delightful.  It is a great all-around simple, white, slightly fruity wine.  I like Sauvignon Blanc and this is a good example of it.”

Could it BE any cheaper??  Not much.

This would be a nice spring/summer wine.  Sit out on the porch or deck and eat dinner…  Sit around a fire pit and talk…  David says you could even turn your heat up during the winter and drink it inside while pretending it was summer…

This is a good wine!  And crazy cheap.  Heck, if you decanted it into a fancy bottle and served it at a dinner party I bet your guests would never know it only cost you $3.29.  Try it!

Price - $3.29

Rating – 4.25

Day 297 - Honey Crisp Apple Cider

I have an announcement to make.

Honey Crisp Apple Cider is THE BEST AUTUMN PRODUCT at Trader Joe’s.  Hands down.  The BEST.

My newest love, Honey Crisp Apple Cider (it's an affair rekindled from last autumn...)

Oh sure, you may think, “But Susan!!  What about pumpkin this, or pumpkin that…  Trader Joe’s is chock full of pumpkin flavored stuff this season!!”

Well here is what I have to say about that:  PUMPKIN FLAVOR IS THE KARDASHIAN FAMILY OF THE GROCERY STORE.  It is over-exposed.  It’s toooo popular.  It has become passé and boring.  (Plus it has a big butt, but perhaps I am taking this metaphor too far…)

Butt seriously...

HONEY CRISP APPLE CIDER IS WHERE IT’S AT, MAN!

This is the one you want.  Put some in your cart.  Buy it.  Then DRINK IT.

This stuff is insanely delicious.  It is crisp, simple, and delightful.  You can drink it cold for breakfast and it is great.  Or you can heat it up and drink it warm – but if you do that I must warn you that you may well become addicted and “need” it every afternoon or evening…  I speak from experience… (She typed, then paused to take a sip of the steamy hot beverage…)

We went through two bottle of this variety of Honey Crisp Cider and then I decided that, to be fair, we ought to try a bottle of TJ’s Spiced Cider.  The Honey Crisp blows the Spiced stuff out of the water.  I may review the Spiced Cider at a later date, but for now let’s just say, it tries too hard.  Honey Crisp, on the other hand, doesn’t need to try, cuz it is already all that!

Don't pass up a little sample of it if your TJ's has it on offer, but it's even BETTER at home! 

One evening I heated some Honey Crisp Apple Cider up and added a bit of Puerto Rican rum!  That was also good.  Not BETTER than just the plain cider, but good in a different way.  It will be fun to drink it like that on cold winter nights when we have the fireplace going.

If you can only buy one seasonal product this year, get this one.  As a matter of fact, you might wanna just pick up two jugs when you go, because you will get through that first one really quickly. 

This sign didn't match the rest of the signage.  My theory is the stocker was so ecxited to put it out on the shelves
(cuz it is so yummy) that he/she couldn't wait for an official sign to be made.

Price – $2.99 (and worth every penny)

Rating – 5

Day 296 - Mini Hold the Cone

Today’s product, Mini Hold the Cone, was recommended to me by Elizabeth, age 5 (AND A HALF, apparently the half is uber important!) and her mom.  Her mom said Elizabeth thought these were great and they thought we should try them.  So of course WE DID.  I mean, Elizabeth is so stinkin’ cute I think I would do anything she said, wouldn’t you?  (Side note – she is also really smart.  This girl is the whole package, friends.)

Elizabeth, the world's cutest reviewer, in action, carefully tasting a cone to prepare for her review....

Here is what our little friend, age 5 ½ had to say about these little ice cream cones:  “I give these a FIVE, because there is chocolate around the edge of the cone!!  And they’re TINY, so you can eat BUNCHES of them!!”.  Ahhh, I am sure this makes her mother so proud…  (Her mom tries to feed her healthy stuff, I wonder if Elizabeth snuck these in the shopping cart…)

David, our second adorable reviewer

Here is what David, age slightly older than 5 ½ had to say about these:  “The chocolate ice cream is good.  The chocolate around it is good, although somewhat thin as a coating.  The waffle cone is kind of chewy to get a bit of, but it does taste just like a very nice sugar cone.  The portion size is a little bit small – I recommend eating 4 or 5 of these for a portion…  And I guess I am usually – I like a cone once the ice cream has MELTED INTO IT a bit more to soften it up, but there isn’t really time for that with these.  I would give it a 3.75.”

The box of cones

Ours were chocolate

And here is what I think (again, I am coming in at a “more mature” age than Elizabeth):  The bottom of the cone has some chocolate dribbled in it to make it solid so that the ice cream can’t dribble through, I like that.  I think the ice cream is good.  The chocolate on the top is fine.  But to me the cone tastes like cardboard.  I love a good sugar cone and this one doesn’t cut it for me.  It is hard to bite and not all that tasty of a cone.  I agree with David that the portion size is small.  I think these would be good if you had little kids and you wanted to control their sugar intake.  I think you could give them one of these and they could eat it and not be bouncing off the walls.  The idea of these pre-made tiny cones is really good, I just wish there was a method to make them without turning the cones into cardboard.  I give them a 3.

David thinks you could serve these at a cocktail party, but I disagree on that one and would instead serve them at Elizabeth’s 6^th birthday party.

A shot of our guest reviewer hamming it up for the camera

Overall, I think if you have KIDS this is a good thing to pick up at Trader Joe’s.  They are pretty yummy, fast, and a cute petite size.

I almost forgot to mention what a SWELL NAME this product has.  Trader Joe’s is excellent at puns – Hold the Cone, adorable. 

Not a bad price - there are 8 cones in the package.  The recommended serving size is ONE, but I think both
David and Elizabeth would laugh at that as they each ate half a box of cones.

Sooooo, we have 3 reviewers with vastly different scores.  We have a 3, a 3.75, and a 5…  Since Elizabeth is a kid, and since this is her first review with us, I think HER SCORE should count more than the adult scores.  So I will “blend” the 3 together instead of doing the math and getting an actual average.

P.S. - NEWSFLASH!!  This just in from Elizabeth's mom, DeeLayne, "My PSA for the day:  Beware the mini or fun sized food!  I've recently discovered mini ice cream cones, but they work on the same premise as fun sized candy bars:  you eat about 40 of htem, because, hey, they're tiny!"
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...

Price – $2.99 (works out to .37 cents per tiny cone)

Rating – 4.25 (thanks to Elizabeth :))

Day 295 - Mayonnaise

David is the main mayo eater in our house.  He loves mayo.  Specifically, he loves HELLMANN’S.  But he was willing to experiment and try TJ’s mayonnaise for the sake of this blog.  He is a good sport.  After trying it, here is what he said:  “TJ’s mayo is a GOOD mayonnaise; it is just not to my taste.  I grew up on Hellmann’s mayo and I like the lemony, fresh ZING flavor in it.  The TJ’s is not quite as lemony, not quite as zingy of a flavor.”

David pre-taste test - a nervous man afraid he may have to give up his mayo....

I think that the TJ’s variety tastes a little sweeter (which is ironic, in that it has no added sweeteners…  Go figure…).  We did a blind side by side taste test.  I put a cloth over David’s eyes and had him taste blobs of each brand of mayo.  I even tried to TRICK him and give him two samples of the TJ’s one in a row, but he KNEW.  He could totally taste the difference. 

This is a good example of name brand loyalty.  David grew up on one brand, Hellmann’s.  The taste of Hellmann’s is, to him, the taste of MAYO.  The Trader Joe’s brand just doesn’t taste “right” to him.

It is not BAD, it really isn't!!  It just doesn't taste like the mayo he grew up slatering on his sandwiches

Before I began this year long project, I thought that store brands (plain label brands) were “beneath” name brand goods.  I felt that name products were superior.  But this year of eating so many Trader Joe’s branded products has opened my eyes to the fact that my preconceived notion about plain labels was often WRONG.  The vast majority of TJ’s brand things we have tried have been equal to and often times BETTER than more expensive “fancy brands”. 

But every once in a while, there is a name brand product that you just can’t bear to give up.  The store brand just tastes DIFFERENT.  That is not to say it is BAD, it just doesn’t taste like what you are used to.  And in those instances, it is worth paying a little bit more to have the taste you love.

Very good price

Here is the price comparison between the TJ’s brand and Hellmann’s:

Hellmann’s - $5.29 for 30 fl oz

Trader Joe’s - $3.99 for 32 fl oz

David did some math for me and figured out that the Trader Joe’s brand is about .5 cents cheaper per ounce.  That is a good cost savings if you like the taste!

All that being said, we will go back to Hellmann’s.  We will spend a bit more to keep my main squeeze happy.  Cuz if David ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.  J

Price – $3.99

Rating – 3.5

Day 294 - Chicken Piccata

This was a very nice dinner!  It is a new product for Trader Joe’s.  I bought it in the refrigerated, not FROZEN, section (near the salads).  But when I came home and unpacked the groceries, oops, I accidentally popped it in the freezer…  So when it came time to cook it, we had to cook it longer than the instructions said. 

New!  The sign SAYS capers, but don't get your hopes up on that part.  I am just trying to keep you from getting crushed.

The chicken was succulent and reasonably tender.  The coating, as David said, was “Light and a bit delicate.  And the SAUCE!  The sauce is LOVELY and there is plenty of sauce!  So I am a big fan of this chicken picatta.”

David is the biggest fan of sauce of anyone I have ever met.  He adores sauce.  If he weren’t already married to me I am sure he would find a way to marry sauce.  And this dish has TONS of sauce – even more than you can put over the two pieces of chicken included!

Would you LOOK at all of that SAUCE???  It was great!  However, one cannot overlook the fact that there are ONLY 4 CAPERS on this plate...  That was half of the capers in the package.  Who votes for more capers?  THIS GIRL!  (Note - we also had tots, served on a differnt plate, cuz this plate was so SAUCY!  :)  )

The packaging says this has 3 servings, but when you open it up you see it is only 2 actual pieces of chicken.  If I was cooking for a family of 3 I think I would expect there to be 3 PIECES of chicken in this container.  The 2 pieces were BIG – for us it would serve 3.  But many Americans eat larger servings than we do, and it just seems a little awkward to have to cut a piece of chicken to make the servings.  Do you know what I mean?

Here is the package.  This one is worth a try - it is good.

I think the meat was good, the breading was good, and the lemony creamy sauce was really nice.  My only beef with this dish (a BEEF with a chicken dish!!) is the lack of CAPERS.  I mean, it SAYS there are capers…  But there were literally, like, only EIGHT teeny tiny capers…  And TJ’s capers are crazy cheap – we go through lots of them!  See the glowing 5 star caper review here  So would it kill them to quadruple the amount of capers they put in this dish?  Note to corporate:  ADD.  MORE.  CAPERS.

We served this with tots, which will be reviewed soon. 

Price – $5.99

Rating – 4.25 (would have been a 4.5 if they would have not been so damn stingy with the capers)

Day 293 - Mini Pumpkins, Gourds, and Mary Day

October 20^th is a holiday on my calendar.  It is a day known as MARY DAY.  Mary was my mom, and October 20^th is the anniversary of her death.  2015 marks 13 years since she died.  Every year I spend Mary Day celebrating her life – remembering her – by doing things she loved to do.  Mostly I SHOP.  I head out to the big local mall (the one that I usually go to once a year on, you guessed it, Mary Day…).  I shop All.  Day.  Long. 

My mom holding me - 1966

I try to buy a complete outfit – socks, pants, shirt, sweater, shoes...  A complete outfit just like she used to get me.  Other Mary Day activities could include getting a massage, playing a slot machine, getting your nails done, playing racquetball, drinking wine, for sure wearing lipstick, perhaps making a dessert and give it to someone else, vacuuming the house, going water skiing, sending people greeting cards – the point is, I spend the day doing things SHE would have done.  It gives me a day to remember, to grieve, to think of her, and to celebrate.

My mom and dad.  He is probably doing his famous move where he raises his hand and shouts "Tradition!" from
"Fiddler on the Roof", and she is cracking up because for some reason that move always makes us laugh

I never work on Mary Day.  It feels sacrilegious to work on this holiday.  And I typically spend the day alone.  I talk to strangers all day as I go about my celebrating and I always blurt out hugely inappropriate things that make them feel very awkward…  Nary a Mary Day goes by that some make-up counter lady doesn’t hear my blurted, “Hi.  I need a new lipstick.  My mom is dead, and this is the day I celebrate her.  She liked lipstick.  Can you help me find one??”.  Those are the things that fly out of my unattended mouth on Mary Day and unsuspecting sales clerks really have not been training to handle them. 

Trip to Las Vegas after she was sick.  I had shaved all my hair off (as had David and my sister Sherry)
to "go bald with her", only WE looked bald and SHE looked good with a wig.  :)  She was lucky at slot machines.

I think a ton about Mary Day for the entire month leading up to it.  What should I do this year?  Where should I go?  I think maybe my mind thinks about the specific DAY, October 20^th, for the preceding month so that it doesn’t have to think back to the month leading up to her death, when my family and I took care of her in her last days.  Those times are too hard to remember and not the images of her I want to have in my head. 

I am much more deliberate on Mary Day.  I feel like I can sense everything – my steps, my breathing, my tears.  And the weeks leading up to Mary Day every year I notice my actions becoming more and more deliberate.  This is the only year I have had this blog review project, and I have been wondering (worrying really) what to review on Mary Day.  But last night I decided:  MINI PUMPKINS (and gourds).

I like these two photos side by side - they are both old, but it shows
how much I look like her, don't you think?

Old headshot - I look like Mom :)

My mom never set foot in a Trader Joe’s.  She lived in Omaha, Nebraska (where I grew up) and died before TJ’s came to that area.  So it’s not like there is a specific product at TJ’s that I look at and think, “That’s my mom!”.  But she was really good at decorating for holidays and always made sure I had a great Halloween costume, so when I saw the pumpkins I smiled and realized they were the right fit for Mary Day.

Here we go:  Trader Joe’s mini pumpkins (all varieties) and gourds. 

GET THEM. 

Teeny tiny adorable pumpkins

They are adorable.  Trader Joe’s displays them soooo well.  At our local TJ’s they were outside displayed spilling out of wooden tubs in the crisp autumn air.  They are lovely!  They sell a ton of them so there is a fast “turn over” and you never see old junky mushy ones.

So prettttty

Look how tiny!

You can find any style of pumpkin you like – white ones, orange ones, striped ones, big ones, teeny tiny ones…  You can get your fill of PUMPKINS this time of year at Trader Joe’s!  There are all sorts of gourds, too!  Ugly warty ones, nice smooth ones, different colors… 

And they are PRICED RIGHT.  TJ’s isn’t going to rip you off just because you want some gourds on your dining room table!  Why, check out the price difference on mini pumpkins when I compared Trader Joe’s prices to those at Safeway right across the street!!

                                                                      Regular ones only .69

Fancy ones - .99 at TJ's

Gourds also cheap!

Safeway rip-off - $1.50!

Look a gourd!

Gourds look like AUTUMN

Look, in my humble opinion Trader Joe’s goes way too coo-coo over pumpkin spiced this and pumpkin flavored that every autumn.  But PUMPKINS, actual real live cutie patootie tiny pumpkins, now THOSE are worth your investment.

So go get a tiny pumpkin or two.  They will make you smile.

But more importantly, hug your mom if she is still around.  And if she lives far away, CALL HER.  And send her a greeting card!  A real, honest-to-goodness-have-to-use-a-postage-stamp greeting card.  Tell her you love her.  Trust me on this one. 

Cuz she isn’t going to around forever.  So make sure you enjoy her while she is here.

Oh, and Happy Mary Day.

Price - .69 to .99 (for mini pumpkins and gourds, larger pumpkins also cheap)

Rating – 5 (that’s a “5” for the mini pumpkins and gourds, and a 5 for having a day set aside to remember my mom)