Day 310 - 313. All Natural BBQ Smoky Sweet (With Just the Right Amount of Kick)

David likes BBQ.  David likes pork.  These two things are not normally my favorites (with the exception of bacon, which is a pork product that I adore so much that I dressed like it for Halloween).  So for this review, David cooked a pork loin in the crock pot with this BBQ sauce for around 6 hours.

Here's the bottle.

As for me, I liked this better than I like most BBQ sauce.  Normally I only like spicy BBQ sauces.  This is not spicy.  I didn’t expect to like it.  I didn’t want to tell David I didn’t want to have it, because he doesn’t get BBQ very often since I am not a big fan, so I took one for the team.  But I was surprised at how “not bad” it was.  I even dipped some Trader Joe’s tots in it ( review here) and it was pretty good.

See - served with TOTS!  And green peas.

Here are David’s musings on this sauce:  “This is a little sweeter than I like… A little more tomatoe-y than I would like.  I probably would like a little bit more vinegar-y-ness and tart 'smack ya in the faceness' about it.  The flavors do not “stick out” as much as I would like.  It’s a little bit 'smushie'."

We used to live in Kansas City, a place where people go nuts for BBQ.  I think in any city where they “do BBQ” they claim theirs is the be all, end all.  I never really got on the BBQ bandwagon I guess.

Here is our BBQ lover, who ended up being "alright" with this sauce but not over the moon about it.

In this TJ’s sauce, the first ingredient listed is TOMATO PUREE, so David’s opinion of it tasting too “tomato-y” makes sense.   But really, all in all, we agree that this is not a bad BBQ. 

And there you have it.

Price – $2.49

Rating – 3.5

Day 291 - Potato Tots

We are not “food snobs”.  Really, we aren’t!!   But I think I can safely say that, in our nearly 28 years of cooking dinners together, David and I had never once made TATER TOTS.  I know that I, for one, thought poorly of the things. 

Oh call them what you will, Trader Joe's, ain't nobody gonna say "Potato Tots"...

I thought of tater tots as a mushy side dish on my elementary school cafeteria tray.  And this may not sound kind, but I also connected tater tots with the infamous Duggar Family…  They are not high on my list of “role models” and they annoy me a ton, so I do not want to do anything “Duggar-ish” and I put “eating tots” into that category.  (In fairness, if you do not have a negative reaction to the word “Duggar” and if you are curious about “one of Jim Bob’s favorite dishes” (a grown man named JIM BOB???), then here is a link to a recipe for it on their blog:  click here to read the Damn Duggar recipe

Anyway, I think David and I both had some hidden prejudice against the teeny tiny tater tot.  That is, until we had them recently at a restaurant in Cincinnati.  Oh man – those tots were heavenly!  They served them with good dipping sauce (which was a new concept to me, I had heretofore only thought of dipping a tot in ketchup).  If you are in the area, go to Revolution Rotisserie and get yourself some TOTS!

So, since we had that lovely experience with tots at the restaurant, we decided to give it a go and try the Trader Joe’s version.  And now that we have had them twice I can safely say – WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

Having recently eaten such tasty tots in Cincinnati, David was happy to get them in the frozen food section of TJ's

I cooked them by frying them approximately ten minutes in olive oil.  I kept flipping them so they would cook evenly.  They were smaller tots than I expected, which scared me.  It gave me a quick flashback to Pawnee Elementary School and the mean lunch ladies (all except for that ONE kind lady, the one who would make you TASTE the thing you didn’t like, then actually help you hide the rest of it in your milk carton so you wouldn’t get it trouble for leaving food on your plate…). 

We served these with 3 dipping choices:  wasabi mayo ( reviewed here ), Dijon mustard (not yet reviewed) and BBQ sauce (not yet reviewed).  The tots tasted good in all 3 dips!

Our dip choices

David says, “These tots are a revelation!  Just like watching a David Gaines physical theatre performance* changes your nasty impression that you got from all those bad street mimes, so these light fluffy cloud-like pillows of tater (with a  lightly crisp edge) wipes away that impression of hard, crusty, tasteless “nothing going on inside” tater tots that you remember from elementary school cafeterias and bad restaurants since.  These are LOVELY!  And so quick!  You get them out, fry them up, and you have a lovely starch!  (MAY I INTERJECT – OF COURSE THEY ARE QUICK, HE DIDN’T COOK THEM, I DID…)  Get yourself a girl like Susan and you’ll be made!!”

We agreed that the wasabi mayo was the best dipping sauce, but David took it a step further and re-dipped in bbq, too!  A double dip!

I am glad that we have overcome our prejudice against tater tots. 

*Here is a link to see a blurb of a David Gaines performance.  Hopefully this will change your impression of “mime” the way these changed ours of tots.  David Gaines "7 (x1) Samurai" 90 second trailer here

Price – $2.29

Rating – 4.5

Day 272 - Beef Sirloin Tri-Tip Kansas City BBQ Flavored Recipe

Here they are in the store, just waiting to be selected to go home with someone

David cooked this for us – we usually split cooking duties with him in charge of meat (if we have it) and me doing the vegetables and salad. 

Here he is while still at TJ's, saying "MEEEEEAAATTTT!"

For me, this beef was nice and tender, and the taste was good, but there was sooo much F-A-T.   I got globs of fat with almost every bite.  Perhaps we were supposed to be smart enough to shave that off before plating it, but it seems like if we HAD cut it off we would have had one tiny chunk of meat left for dinner…   Maybe the fact that it had so much FAT is what made it nice and tender.   (As you might surmise here, I am not the meat expert in our house.  I could do fine on a vegetarian diet but my fun partner likes red meat once in a while.)

As for the BBQ sauce on it, it was okay but a little sweet for me.  I preferred the bites that were not drenched in that sauce.

The meat master slicing this up

For David – he was disappointed in the lack of sauce.  (See, sometimes we have opposite opinions on stuff.)  He thought the sauce was too “on just the outside of the beef” and not enough sauce in general.  He felt the meat was not “juicy and succulent” but not too tough.  He thought if he cut off the fat before serving, it might have been “less unpleasant”.

Wait til it is on the PLATES please, David...

This beef cannot hold a candle to the filet mignon roast we served months ago for the Trader Joe’s dinner party, that’s for damn sure.  filet mignon roast here   I don’t feel the need to buy this Tri-Tip KC BBQ recipe again. 

David gives this one a 3.5 and I concur.

Price – $7.99 lb

Rating – 3.5

Day 153 - Sriracha and Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce

Oh hell to the yes.  This is a good sauce!

19.5 oz bottle - that's quite a bit of BBQ

I am not a huge BBQ person, but David is, so when I saw this at Trader Joe’s I grabbed it.  And boy I am glad I did!

The only problem with this sauce was deciding what to make with it – chicken or pork!  So, in true David fashion, instead of choosing ONE to make, he got BOTH!  And both were super yummy.

Chicken with Siriracha & Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce, brocolli, & Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Pasta ( reviewed on day 150)

The sauce is spicy (hence the sriracha in the name…) but not TOO spicy.  It definitely has a kick to it though!  And the roasted garlic in it is great.  There is also a bit of sweet to round out the flavor. 

We have half a jar left so will be having it again soon.  Who knows, maybe I will become a BBQ junkie.  I recommend you grab a bottle and try this one.

Not a bad price!  Flyer item - it was on an end cap in our local Trader Joe's

 Note:  I just checked in with David to ask his opinion on this, and he said, “Didn’t knock my socks off.  Got the job done.  It didn’t seem all that different than other BBQ sauces to me.”  HUH??  I thought it tasted way better than most…  Oh my.  We may have to agree to disagree on this one.  Try it and comment in the comment section and let me know what you think.

Price - $2.99

Rating – 4.25