Poinsettias - Please Treat Your Mom

We are visiting Omaha, Nebraska for a week to celebrate Thanksgiving, birthdays, and an upcoming wedding with my family.  Part of my visits to Nebraska always involve visiting my mom's grave.  I wrote about this once last year, explaining how I find it sad to go visit her, yet also very necessary, and the act of bringing flowers to the grave is somehow comforting. 

This is my mom's handwriting.  I find it so comforting to see it.

I recommend that you save a card or letter from your parents - it

is lovely to have their writing after they are gone. 

Last year I stopped into the Trader Joe's at One Pacific Place in Omaha and bought a very pretty bouquet to take to the cemetery and the woman in the demo area was super sweet and helpful (that piece can be found here:  floral bouquet review ).  So this week when I wanted flowers to put on Mom's grave, I headed out to TJ's to see what they had. 

There are a lot of flowers and plants to choose from at TJ's

As you may have noticed if you have shopped recently, TJ's is now filled with holiday flowers.  They have lots of lovely flowers and potted plants to choose from.  I settled on a medium sized red poinsettia (I guess it would be considered "small" in other stores, but TJ's has some adorable teeny tiny poinsettias so I will call this 4.5" one "medium").

So pretty, and so reasonably priced, too

The red flowers are so bright and just right for this time of year.  The sun was shining when we visited my mom and I was glad to have a gift to bring, even though she isn't really there to receive it.

My mom - I think this photo was taken in the 70s.

My point in telling you this story is this:  if your mother is still alive, please visit her now while you can.  Go see her when you can still hug her, still have a conversation with her.  And bring her FLOWERS.  You don't have to spend a ton of money on them, just bring her SOMETHING pretty.  Give them to her NOW, while you can hand them to her and see the smile on her face.  Please. 

As pretty as these flowers look here, they will be a million times more

beautiful on your mother's coffee table.  Bring her some, please. If she asks

why you are bringing flowers, just tell her I sent you, and that you love her.

Price - $2.99
Rating- 5

Day 189 - Zip Line Beer

As I have done in all of the states we visited Trader Joe’s in, while in Omaha I tried to get LOCAL products.  Because Trader Joe’s stores across the country carry the same products, the department where you can usually find something different and LOCAL is the liquor department.  So off I went :).  It is RESEARCH for the blog, right??

Look - Omaha Trader Joe's has real LIQUOR!  This is only the second location we have seen with more than beer and wine - the other was LaJolla, California

Sign at the TJ's check out in Omaha - cool, eh??

I found this local beer, Zip Line.  But I searched and searched for a local WINE.  I know there ARE Nebraska wines, because my entire family lives in Nebraska and once when we went to visit they took us to a winery (Soaring Wings I believe it was called).  So I asked a Trader Joe’s guy where I might find a local Nebraska wine in the store, and he kindly pointed out (with a funny face) that they did not carry any…  It was sort of cute, really.  It felt as if he was trying to save us from having to taste a Nebraska wine…  (Note:  the wines at Soaring Wings were not bad when we went!  And the location was very pretty and nice.  It is a fun place to visit.  Sure, it is not SONOMA, but it is worth a drive out if you are in the area!  http://www.soaringwingswine.com/ )

David presents ZIP LINE - a Nebraska beer

So, no local wine, local beer it was!  We checked out with the crazily overpriced Zip Line Beer, brewed in the capital of Nebraska (Lincoln, for those of you not in the know).  It was $8.99 for a 4 pack - $2.25 per bottle.  Way more than regular beer at Trader Joe’s. 

Just because it has "limited series" written on the box doesn't mean they should overcharge for it...

This is a seasonal brew, and for a summer beer it is “okay” according to Jim, my brother-in-law who I consulted for this review.  Jim likes beer, in fact he has been known to brew some of his own up at home.  He said to really be good it would have to be colder than it was when I served it.  My bad.  Jim said it was, “Not my favorite IPA in all the world.  Peppery, smoky citrus.  There is a hint of – hold on (this is the point where he GARGLED the beer.  I liked this part.) COMPLEX.  To me, it has too much citrus.  It is kind of a summer Pale Ale actually.  I don’t know.  But that is too much for a 4 pack.”

Jim doing a taste test

My favorite part - Jim gargling the beer.  This makes it fancy.

David and Jim tried to come up with the best pairing for this beer and decided on HOT DOGS.  Classy.

David’s review was this, “This beer would best be poured over the pavement by a police officer who has stopped you”.  Umm, I take it this was not David’s favorite beer on the planet.  Maybe because he was drinking it at Jim’s house and was wishing he had some of Jim’s home brew instead.

Price - $8.99

Rating – 3 (that is the rating Jim gave it and I gave it the same, so it averaged out to a 3)

Day 174 - Kono Sauvignon Blanc

OK, this is an odd review.  Because this was an ODD SITUATION!

We went to Omaha, NE for a quick 4 day visit.  I grew up there and all of my family still lives there.  There were lots of events happening over the weekend – my twin nephews’ birthdays (happy birthday Trevor and Jordan!), getting to meet my just born great niece, Father’s Day, and a dinner at a Mexican restaurant to celebrate my birthday, which was a week ago.  So it worked out great to go at this particular time.

I, of couuurse, planned to pop by Trader Joe’s while there since I had not visited that location since I began this blog.  Omaha was the 12^th Trader Joe’s in the 7^th state (well, one is a District) that I have checked out this year!  My family was planning a weenie roast and s’mores making evening on our last night in town, so I picked up some supplies for that – graham crackers (to be reviewed soon), Triple Ginger Snaps (aye carumba I just checked and those haven’t been reviewed yet???  That sure surprises me!!!  They will be soon.) which I thought would go well with the roasted marshmallows, beer brewed in Nebraska, and wine.  I had asked my nephew and his partner if they would help me write a review and they said it sounded fun and would do it, so I thought using those products we could do a tasting during the s’mores night and write something up.

Omaha Nebraska Trader Joe's (at 1 Pacific Place) - very nice store

Boy was I wrong…

It turns out it was not an intimate family night around a campfire – it was a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY for me with around 40 people.  And there was not a campfire to be found!  It was sure fun and a big surprise.  And it turned out I showed up at my own party with a Trader Joe’s bag full of groceries!! 

Some of the friends and family waiting to SURPRISE me with a big sign!

But my sisters had planned all the food out, and I was having too much fun seeing people I hadn’t seen in years and chatting to think about a review, so we didn’t get to tasting until after the guests had gone.  Then we sat down and had some of this wine (and a Nebraska beer which will be reviewed later).  Contributing to the review is me, my partner David, and my sister Sherry.  I invited my other sister Annette to contribute, too, but she didn’t feel qualified J. 

My sisters and I - me, Annette, and Sherry - at the party

So here is what we thought:

This Kono Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) is very citrus tasting.  Sherry identified the citrus as GRAPEFRUIT.  The label mentions gooseberries and passion fruit, but we will just call it CITRUS, ok?  The signage in the store says it serves up “lemon-lime and green apple flavor”, so heck, maybe it is a mix of a whole bunch of fruit flavors.  I think it needs to be well chilled to be enjoyed.  David described it as crisp, light, and mentioned that “it has flavor”.  Umm, doesn’t all wine have flavor?  I do believe this particular comment was a bit vague…

Kono Sauvignon Blanc (Omaha Trader Joe's signage)

I realized after a few sips that it would pair well with Triple Ginger Snaps, so I busted them out and I was right!  It seems sort of an odd pairing in that the wine tastes distinctly SUMMERY and the cookies have a bit of a WINTER taste, but together they complement one another.

The label tells us it is a New Zealand wine – Maori.  It seems to me that those Kiwis often make a nice wine.

So, it could have been the post party glow, but we all enjoyed this wine.  Each of us rated it a 4, so it was easy to average the ratings out.  I did the math, no calculator required.  J

Price - $8.99

Rating – 4

(Rating of the surprise birthday party – a solid 5)