Day 268 - White Ribbon Semillon (white wine)

First, let’s try saying “Semillon”.  Apparently it is pronounced “Seh-meh-YON”.  Say it with me – “seh-meh-YON”.  You’ve got it!  (Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know, I totally had to ask.)

The label says “It has been called Australia’s unique wine gift to the world.  It is a crisp and refreshing wine, perfect with seafood, white meats, and salads.  It is from Australia’s oldest wine region.  It is the OTHER white wine…”

Ahhhh – clever!  I see what they did there!  They ripped off PORK’s big ad campaign about being the “other white meat”.  Clever buggers! 

Simple label.  Australians don't need no stinkin' artwork on their wine.

Ok.  So I was going to use “crisp” as my adjective to describe this wine, too, but now that I read the label to you, you are gonna think I just copied that from the bottle!  I did not.  I wrote down “crisp” before I read the label, I swear.  Of course, I say that about the majority of white wines that we drink…

It is nice.  It sets off whatever it is in your mouth that gets your saliva glands going…  Is that citrus?  It is not TOO DRY – we had it with Chicken Quesadillas (reviewed yesterday) and we also had it one night with a vegetarian meal and it was a good match for that, too.

Check it out - the wine peeps at TJ's also used "crisp" :)

David also used CRISP.  He said, “Nice, fine.  Good.  Crisp.  Pretty dry white wine.”

Oops – I said it WAS NOT all that dry…  Well, if you average our “dry” ratings together it is MEDIUM DRY!  J  And if I read the label better I would have seen that it bills itself as a “Classic Dry White”.  Hahaha!  OK OK IT IS DRY.  (But not tooooo dry, in my opinion.)

It has a screw top so it is easy to open.  We used to think screw tops were a bad thing, but the older we get the more we realize that screw tops are easy!  We would buy and drink this again.

G’day Australia!

Dublin, OH Trader Joe's FOUND GROCERY LIST board!

Bonus photo – I don’t have an “action” shot of us drinking this wine, so I will include a photo of this AWESOME bulletin board I found near the bathrooms of Trader Joe’s in Dublin, Ohio.  LOOK!!!  They pin up shopping lists that people leave in shopping carts!  Isn’t it great??  I would love to stand at the bulletin board and examine them.  What exactly were people coming to the store to buy?  Even more fun would be to compare those LISTS to the RECEIPTS to see what stuff they bought that they didn’t come in for!!  Anyway, I thought it was super cool.

Price – $6.99

Rating – 4.0

Day 267 - Chicken Quesadillas with Seasonal Vegetables

These hit the spot perfectly!!!

Found in the frozen food section (a tasty area of any Trader Joe's!)

David cooked them – he followed package directions to microwave them, press them, then fry them quickly for a “crisper finish”.  He thought he overcooked one side but I thought they were DELICIOUS!

I topped them with just picked cherry tomatoes from our garden and the super delicious Trader Joe’s Hatch Valley Salsa (Hatch Valley Salsa review here).  We served them with leftover rice, black beans, and Southern Greens from the night before.  I thought it was a PERFECT combination.  Maybe I was just super hungry, but I really enjoyed it.

Delicious!  The wine served was White Ribbon Semillon - to be reviewed soon

The quesadilla was not too dry but not too mushy.  I think the beans in it hold it together well.  The chicken was awesome – not huge chunks, very nicely sized.  The corn in it was a nice touch.  I did feel that the corners of the quesadilla could have used a bit more filling, but David thinks perhaps he squished them too hard when doing the “pressing” and might have caused that.  Even if David didn’t cause it, that is a minor technicality.

David says, “Very good.  A nice, quick, complete meal even if you do not add the sides like we did.  I think it would be nice to add some SOUR CREAM to the top to give it some sauciness, in addition to the lovely tomatoes that Susan threw on.  I hardly notice the Hatch Salsa, I am not a salsa guy.”

My rebuttal is:  I AM NOT A SALSA GUY EITHER BUT I LOVE TJ's HATCH VALLEY SALSA! And it went great on these quesadillas.

Super cheap.  The signage says "A great late night snack" but for ME, these are too big and filling to fit that bill.
They are more of a meal.

These were so easy and really felt like a complete meal.  They are almost like a Hot Pocket, but 100 times better.  There are two quesadillas in the package and serving size is one quesadilla. They are priced CHEAP – it works out to only $1.85 per quesadilla.

We both agree that this product deserves a high rating and a place in our freezer again.

Price - $3.69

Rating – 4.75