Day 360 - Salted Caramel Bread Pudding AND Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Guys, it is DAY 360!!!  And the year only has 365 days!!!!  I will leave you to do the math, but suffice it to say that this year long daily project is closing in on the finish line!!!  So with that in mind, today I will review not ONE but TWO, count ‘em, TWO bread puddings!!  You’re welcome.  J

Let’s start out with Salted Caramel Bread Pudding – we bought his because our favorite Trader Joe’s employee Cecilia recommend it on the very first night we met her.  She told us how amazzzzing this bread pudding was, and that it, “Might be even better than her mom’s, but don’t tell her mom…”.

Let's try it!!

Neither David nor I grew up with bread pudding so we do not have a homemade recipe to compare this to.  I think the only time I have ever had bread pudding is at restaurants, so in my mind it was always something “fancy” because I associated it with dessert carts being pushed around in restaurants.  However, Cecilia explained that it is actually a mother’s way of using up EVERYTHING, including bread that is stale, hard and going off, so as not to waste anything.  I like that idea!! 

Cecilia told us that the BEST bread pudding at Trader Joe’s is the Pumpkin one, but when we were shopping to get this it was not yet pumpkin season so we settled on the Salted Caramel one (and went back later to get a Pumpkin one!). 

Find it in a box in the frozen section

The Salted Caramel Bread Pudding was really, really nice!  The preferred heating method listed was the microwave:  take the pudding out of the box, take the little paper wrap off, and let it thaw a bit on the counter, then nuke it.

The first night we had this I thought I followed the directions, but I forgot to take off the paper.  The result was super hard bread pudding.  We put the rest of it in a plastic container and stored it in the fridge.  Then we heat up slices for like 30 seconds (they were defrosted but refrigerated) and it was super good!  It was soft and yummy!  It tastes like “comfort food” even though it is not something that brings up childhood memories for me. 

The flavor is not at all overpowering, but there is enough flavor that it is not bland.  We didn’t even drizzle Dulce de Leche sauce over it as I suspected we would (reviewed here).  It didn’t even NEED sauce over it!  Not that it would HURT it, but it doesn’t beg for it.  We ate it for dessert AND for breakfast J. 

David said, “It is like the soft interior of French Toast.  The whole pudding thing is like a number of pieces of French Toast that have been mushed together and sort of mashed potato-fied themselves.  I would give it a 4.  I think I would like it better if we added a sauce, maybe even maple syrup!!”

I would agree that a 4 is a good score for this one.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding - arrives at TJ's in the autumn when everything magically changes to PUMPKIN flavor!

Now let’s examine the PUMPKIN BREAD PUDDING!  Two reviews in one day, whew!

David:  “This is very nice.  I typically think of bread pudding as something that will be tasteless and bready and dry, but this was nicely moist and tasty, perhaps because we plopped whipped cream and/or ice cream on top.  This is bad for your health, because over the course of last night and this morning I think I have probably stuffed about a pint of whipped cream into my face because of this stuff.”

I would add that eating this is also a good excuse to also drizzle Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce on top – reviewed here .

This is a BIG loaf for only two people to eat (it is the same size as other flavors of TJ’s bread pudding).  We served it at a birthday party, but sadly it turned out that not many guests like PUMPKIN so not a lot got eaten (oops, host and hostess failure on our part there…).  

The good news - we hosted an early birthday party for Joan.  The bad news - she doesn't really like pumpkin...  Lucky we had several other desserts for her, including the Montezuma's chocolate you see that used to have a birthday candle in it!

Like the other bread pudding reviewed, this one is also good for BREAKFAST!  It is very decadent.  I served it with an AFFOGATO, which sounds like avocado yet it is not green with a pit inside.  We had one recently in NYC and I thought, why not make one at home!  I just put ICE CREAM in a cappuccino cup and topped it with espresso.  It was tasty and a good compliment to the bread pudding.  Though with the ice cream it was one more thing to add to the “heart valve clogging ingredients” we consumed that weekend…  Here is a recipe for affogato that I just looked up.  :)

Chocolate gelato, David's choice :)

Affogato in NYC - tasty!!!

We both agreed that the Pumpkin Bread Pudding should get a 3.75.

Price (for either variety of bread pudding) – $3.99

Rating – Salted Caramel Bread Pudding – 4

               Pumpkin Bread Pudding - 3.75

Day 284 - Blueberry Kefir

I have a friend who loooooves kefir.  I don’t think she reads this blog, so I doubt she will see this.  J  But she told me about kefir.  Her kids like it a lot, too.  I had never had it, and since this friend also likes KOMBUCHA, to be honest with you I was skeptical to take any sort of food/drink advice from her… 

But then one night we were in Trader Joe’s and met Cecilia, the remarkably knowledgeable, friendly, and professional sample lady I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  Well Cecilia went down a litany of products that she thought we “just had to try!!” and blueberry kefir was mentioned.  She must’ve seen my nose wrinkle up slightly at the mention of it, so she walked herself right over to the dairy department, grabbed a bottle of it, and cracked it open to share!  Cecilia was going to make a kefir fan out of me if I liked it or not!

Nice container

And she did!  I drank a little paper sample cup of the stuff and liked it!  Which led to BUYING a bottle of it.  Seeeeee how effective the sampling program is???*

Hard decision - strawberry or blueberry???

Anyway, I decided that for THIS product I would do (drum roll….) the FIRST EVER BI-COASTAL SKYPE VIDEO REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Les and I pre-Skype review - getting our Kefirs ready!!!

My friend Les Kurkendahl and I only get to see each other in the summer – he is a touring performer and so is David.  So sometimes Les, David, and I all end up in the same city at the same time, and that is fun!  

Here is a cute photo of Les

Les likes Trader Joe’s, so we worked and worked to find a time when he and I were both home (him in L.A. and me in D.C.) to Skype and review blueberry kefir.  Here is how that went:

I must clarify that in the Skype review I incorrectly stated to find this product in the produce department.  That is wrong – it is with dairy.

And I forgot to mention YOP!  “Yop!” was a drink in Paris that we loved.  It came in little bottles and it tasted like liquid yogurt.  Meeeeaning – maybe I HAD DRUNK KEFIR A LONG TIME AGO AND DIDN’T KNOW IT!  I bet Yop! was kefir!  We could never find anything really like it in America but now we have.  J

Hey - it's NEW!

*If you do not know this already, you can sample ANYTHING in Trader Joe’s – well, any pre-cooked thing.  Just ASK!  They will OPEN it for you and share!!  They WANT you to try stuff.  Cuz look what happens when you do – you might buy it!!!  (Note – they are NOT going to open a raw hunk of beef and cook it up for you, so don’t ask.  But in store personalized tastes are what got me hooked on Partially Popped Popcorn!  read review here    And that is totally what got me to buy this blueberry kefir!

Price – $2.99

Rating – 4.5

Day 262 - Spelt Risotto with Vegetables and Chickpeas

It looks good enough in the bag, eh?

We served this with left-over pre-roasted Brussels sprouts (reviewed 2 days ago here http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/09/day-260-brussels-sprouts-roasted.html) and zucchini cooked with TJ’s 21 Seasoning Salute (a product we discovered this year and really like, reviewed on day 184 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-184-21-seasoning-salute.html ).

Strangely, this dish has both the SCENT and the TASTE of BACON, yet bacon is not listed on the ingredients.  It is a bacon-less, bacon-tasting product.  I guess that that flavor comes from the smoked cheese.

Doesn't it look sorta gross cooking?  The cheese looks like individually wrapped slices of Kraft American!
(It was NOT American cheese, I am just sayin' it looooks like it when you take it out of the bag.)

I like chickpeas, but I admit that they do have a BLAND TASTE.  Let me say this – the CHICKPEAS ARE THE TASTIEST THING IN THIS SPELT.  And that’s not sayin’ much.  Again, this is from someone who likes chickpeas.

The COLORS are pretty – a bit of pumpkin and some greenery.  It is easy to make.  I ate it with a big spoon (David forked it). 

Here it is on our plates.  It looks better than it tastes.

David said, “If you like brown rice – this is your guy.  The flavors are quite nice.  The consistency is great.  Even the al dente-ness of the spelt is quite good.  It is just that it is SO FIRM and so, soooo – healthy…   It’s just not my cup of tea.  I cooked it longer than it says to cook it to make sure that the spelt would be soft but it’s still…  It’s not RICE – let’s not kid ourselves…”

We both agree that we will be fine if we do not eat this one again.

If you still want it after reading this review you can find it in the freezer section.

On a happier note – after visiting 18 Trader Joe’s stores in 10 states (plus one more in a District) so far this year (in only 9 months folks!) we have FOUND THE BEST EMPLOYEE WORKING AT A TJ’S FOOD SAMPLING STATION!  Yes siree, I can safely say that CECILIA, who works at the Trader Joe’s store at Bailey’s Crossroads in Falls Church, VA is the friendliest, most knowledgeable, and honest TJ’s employee we have met.  She steered us away from one product (not to worry, manager, she just replaced it with a BETTER one in our cart!), gave us tips on other products, served us something we had never had (Kefir, to be reviewed soon!), and we ended up with at least 3 products in our cart that we would NOT have purchased had it not been for Cecilia!!!   And get this – when I told her I was doing a blog, she KNEW ABOUT IT!  Yup, she made me feel like a rock star for a second.  (But that is NOT why I am calling her out as the best tasting sample employee ever.  Nope.  She totally deserves that title on her own merit.)  Management of the Bailey’s Crossroads Store – please take time to pat Cecilia on the back, tell her she is appreciated, and give her a raise.  Heck, give the lady a PROMOTION.  She is a great ambassador for your store.  I wanted to include her photo here but she wasn’t keen on that idea.

Back to the spelt.  Sadly, it was not nearly as amazing as Cecilia was. 

Price – $2.99

Rating – 2.75