Day 316 - Egg Pappardelle Pasta (plus bonus news about our HALLOWEEN COSTUMES!)

Before I review today’s product, let me share some super fun news: 

WE WON 2 TRADER JOE’S HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTESTS! 

When we first went to the Bethesda Trader Joe’s on October 25th we saw this sign, which of course got me excited! 

  

We had already been working on our costumes – I was going to be a big piece of BACON and David was going to dress as a sunny side up EGG!  (Of course, ironically these are 2 things that we really like from TJ’s and got great reviews see bacon review here and see egg review here .)  We checked at the Clarendon TJ’s (very close to our house) and they were ALSO having a customer costume contest!!! 

We got the costumes all finished up (easier said than done) and went into the Clarendon store to get our picture taken.  It was a blast!  Walking around the store dressed as bacon and egg was not EASY, mind you, but very fun.  Everyone kept saying, “Hey!  Bacon and eggs!!” as we passed.  We had to wait in line to pay for our purchases and that was funny – standing there in costume as the line snaked forward.

Here we are in the underground parking garage of the Clarendon Trader Joe's - you can see David was sort of TALL...

The next day we went to the Bethesda store and got our photo taken for the contest there, too!  That store was even HARDER to walk around because it is smaller and more crowded.  But it was really cool because some employees were also dressed up (like the lovely Alison who was dressed as Carmen Miranda!). 

I wish I had a photo of the Carmen Miranda costume, but I don't, so here is another BACON & EGGS costume shot!  :)

Both stores called and said we were WINNERS!!!  We won gift cards, which of course we spent immediately on more TJ’s stuff.  J  Thanks Trader Joe’s!!!

THANKS BETHESDA TJ'S!

THANKS CLARENDON TJ'S!!

Now onto the review - Egg Pappardelle Pasta 

The package said four servings, which I thought seemed wrong because there didn’t seem to be that much in the package.  Of course, after COOKING the pasta I realized they were right – those puppies really plump up!  Four servings was indeed accurate.

Here is what the package looks like - find it in the pasta section

We served this pasta with a dollop of butter ( butter review here from waaaay back on day 49) and smothered with beef stroganoff which David lovingly prepared while I was at work, and a side of TJ’s broccoli cooked perfectly by yours truly.

YUMMY!  The broccoli was a nice side for this hearty meal

This pasta was DELICIOUS.  It balanced the beef stroganoff splendidly.  The pappardelle is noodle-y.  It is egg-y.  It is everything you would want an egg noodle to be.  It tastes “fresh” and is something different rather than rice or a traditional pasta (we eat a loooot of pasta).

Mid-bite.

David agrees and said they were good noodles.  They were rich and soft and “the noodles did their job”.  The egg noodle is a little richer than just having pasta all the time.

Note – these noodles are low sodium so if you are looking for that in your diet these might be a good fit.

Price – $1.99

Rating - 4

Day 308 - Masala Simmer Sauce

David was the more gentle reviewer of this Masala Simmer Sauce.  He said:  Mild.  Very SAUCY, which is good.  But I would prefer a more creamy or more spicy or more herby sauce instead of the tomato.  I’m a little “tomato sauced out”.  But I think it is a nicely balanced sauce and it is a quick, easy way to throw some chicken and vegetables together and get a very nice thing to put over rice.

 Susan – I think what you would actually prefer, David, is a sauce that had a TASTE to it.  This one was extremely boring and very disappointing.  There was really no flavor to it – just a color – RED.  It was RED flavored, and to me, a color is not a flavor (except in Gummy Bears).  We added salt and pepper after it was plated, those were required to give it any taste whatsoever.  The vegetables we cooked in it and the chicken were good – we put in chicken, onions, celery, mushrooms, and green pepper.  Those all tasted good, but the sauce itself was really a disappointment and I would not buy this one again.

Here is what it looked like on a plate.  Trust me, it looks more flavorful than it tasted. We served it over rice

This is really not worth buying or cooking.  I think this dinner would have been better if we just cooked all of the other ingredients in olive oil and skipped the sauce all together.  Even DAVID, who adores sauce, said this was pretty tasteless and he would have preferred something else. 

David was leery about this one when we bought it.

 Price – $2.49

Rating – 2.75

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