Key Lime Pie

Full disclosure from the get-go:  I am not a key lime pie kinda girl.  I don’t know why, as far as I know key lime pie never did nuttin’ to me to make me hate it, but for some reason it is just not on my list of favorite desserts.  So I am recusing myself from reviewing it (that wouldn’t be fair, would it, to average my number in, since I know from the get-go I am not going to rave about it…).

We tried this key lime pie at our local Trader Joe’s one time when they were tasting it.  I thought it was good as far as key lime pie goes (see paragraph above…) but David really liked it.  Sadly, it is just the 2 of us at home, so unless it is a product we both like, it normally doesn’t get bought (which is the reason I forego okra and David foregoes lamb…). 

David hit the jackpot when my sisters came to visit us in Florida, though, cuz it turns out they like key lime pie!  And while I was out of town on a work trip and he was in Orlando picking them up from the airport, they swung by Trader Joe’s Winter Park and got a bunch of goodies, including one of these pies.  They “prepared” it by just taking it out of the freezer for a bit.  I would say that is easy peasey key lime squeezy! 

Oops - I forgot to snap a photo before the pie had basically been devoured...

 Here are the reviews:

Annette (my middle sister):  When I asked, “Annette, what do you think??” she replied, “I think I would like to have another piece, please!!  It is absolutely delicious.  It is probably the first time I’ve ever had key lime pie.  I love it!  The graham cracker crust is sooo yummy.  It is delicious!   Just when it gets a little too sour, that graham cracker crust kicks in. I give it a solid 5 stars.”

Two thumbs up from Annette!!!  :)

David:  “I agree with Annette.  I think it is a GREAT version of key lime pie!  It is sweet, it is tangy, it is sassy (editor’s note:  he likes his key lime pie like he likes his women…).  It is set up and laid out perfectly by the graham cracker crust.  It is a great balance – a great double act – at work.  I don’t usually go for key lime pie or lemon meringue (its down-market cousin…).  I agree with Annette – I give it a 5.”

The intrepid team of reviewers!!!  

Sherry (my oldest sister):  (When we started reviewing this pie I asked Sherry if she had tasted it yet so that she could form an opinion to review it.  She had to confess that she had indeed been eating a little bit of it every morning before going off to the beach for her solo walks!!  Sneaky sister!)  “I have always loved key lime pie, but I only get it when I am in Florida, where key limes are from.  I never really ate it until I lived in Florida.  I think this Trader Joe’s version is very good.  It is tart, it is a little sweet, it is not messy to eat.  I would give it a 5, but I like key lime pies.”

Bonus photos:  We worked hard to get a good JUMPING photo of all 3 sisters on the beach.  These are what I consider 2 very funny outtakes.  In photo one, Sherry is sailing in the air, eyes closed in concentration.  Me?  I am smiling ear to ear and am actually off the ground!  Annette??  Oh, she is in the middle - CRACKING UP.  Annette, you can't JUMP if you are LAUGHING!!

And here in outtake #2, again, the oldest and youngest sisters have followed instruction and jumped together.  Sherry is somber again, perhaps she cannot smile and jump at the same time...  And Annette, the middle child, looks like she is squeezing every muscle she has (including her eye muscles) to get off the ground.

Honestly, there are much better jumping photos of the sisters, but these 2 crack me up.  :)

There you have it, folks.  This pie gets a solid 5!!  You should definitely get one to enjoy on a hot summer day.

Price:  $5.49

Rating:  5

BONUS PHOTO - CHECK THIS ONE OUT!  Annette is getting some serious AIR!  Sherry, too!  I, meanwhile, have my feet firmly planted on the ground...  #TimingIsEverythingInLife

Maria Jola Sangria (Red AND White)

This is an unusual review, in that I am going to actually review TWO products in ONE review.  But I feel I must put them together, to save you the sadness that befell us.  Therefore, this review will cover:

RED Sangria

and

WHITE Sangria

Consider this a Public Service Announcement…  In my mind, SUMMER SANGRIA SEASON IS NOT OVER YET.  I refuse to believe that autumn is right around the corner.  So read these reviews, then rush to TJ’s and stock up on (red only) sangria.

BUY THIS BOTTLE!!
(Well, not THIS bottle, we already drank this one, but a bottle that looks just like this one!)

Let me say this right off the bat – we loved the red Maria Jola sangria (which I shall review first!).  We loved it so much, that after we drank it, the next time we were at Trader Joe’s and saw the WHITE version, we thought, “Hey!  The red was soooo tasty, the WHITE kind has to be delicious too, right?”.  Oh man, were we suckers.

First review – RED Maria Jola Sangria

We lugged a bottle of red sangria with us from Virginia down to Florida (land of “no Trader Joe’s near where we stay…”).  One lovely Florida day we swam in the ocean, rehearsed David’s show on the back patio (which makes a great “stage”), then I capped off the day by making a pitcher of SANGRIA!  I put the bottle of red sangria in a pitcher and added fresh orange slices, fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries, and a little bit of Meyers lemon from our very own fruit cocktail tree (whose name is Trixie!).*  I refrigerated the whole shebang for a while to let it chill.  My opinion is that the longer the fruit is in the sangria the better the whole thing gets (though our opinions might have been skewed by the increasing amount of sangria we put into our systems as the night wore on…).

Us on the BEACH!  (This was pre-sangria, we were not day drinkin'...)

And speaking of the fruit, it tastes super delicious to munch on after it has stewed a while!  When you pour this make sure everyone gets fruit in their cups!  It is like a healthy (??) little serving of fruit with your drink.    

Anyway, this red sangria is really good, especially if it is very cold.  It is a great summer time drink. 

Trixie the Fruit Cocktail Tree loaded down with Meyer Lemons

It may LOOK like a lime but it is a Meyer Lemon

David’s take on it: “I agree with what Susan said completely.  This is much better than I expected.  I have had a lot of sangrias that just take like not very good wine with fruit thrown in them, but this is (maybe because of how Susan prepared it!) very, very nice and fruity.  It is the way I think a NICE sangria you might get somewhere in Spain or Europe somewhere would taste, or at a nice restaurant.  It tastes very summery – the strawberries and lemons taste fantastic, too!   I like that it isn’t too strong – it lets you drink more of it!!  (Editor’s note:  the label says the alcohol content is 7%.)  I give this red sangria a 4.25.”

Susan:  I agree with that score – a 4.25.  It is not too sweet, it is not chemically tasting…  It tastes a bit PUNCHY (and, we both agree, if you drink enough of it, YOU GET A BIT PUNCHY!).

Price – $6.99

Rating – 4.25

* If you do not a fruit cocktail tree to pick your own Meyer Lemon off of, you can find them in season at Trader Joe's!  Excellent review of them from day 3 of this blog here: Meyer Sweet Lemons 

Second review – WHITE Maria Jola Sangria

I added raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and orange slices in this sangria.  As you just read above, we really dug the red sangria, so I was excited to have this white one!   I like white sangria when we order it at restaurants!  We thought this bottled version of white would be juuuust as tasty as the red one.

(I hate to keep bringing up the RED SANGRIA, but geez Louise,
it is yummy!  We brought it to a dinner the other night...)

We were wrong.

When David first tasted it he said it was “perfume-y”, and I think that is the right term.  There is too much “perfume”-like scent to it.  When you raise your glass to take a drink, it smells too much like PERFUME, and then you TASTE the perfume…  And somehow, to my “sophisticated palate”, that “perfume-y” taste makes it takes like BATHROOM CLEANER.

To be perfectly transparent here, I have never drunk bathroom cleaner.  And I am not saying this product tastes TOXIC or anything…  It just tastes too much like it smells…   Do you know what I mean?  It is hard to describe.  I would say you need to taste it to understand what I am trying to explain, but that would mean you have to actually taste it, and I don’t want you to have to do that!

I give this a 2.25 rating.  I MUCH PREFER the red version.

Obviously I get excited over the red version....

David’s opinion: “This white sangria is too sweet and too perfume-y so it overpowers the fruit.  I can’t even really taste the fruit as much as I would like.  I think would be a better sangria if it were made with a more “transparent” white like a vino verde or something.  It is WINE, and it is not UNPLEASANT, but if I went shopping for sangria again I would get the RED instead of this one. I would give this white sangria a 3.5.” 

Price – $5.99 (a dollar cheaper than the red, but spend the extra buck, trust me!)

Rating - 3

Day 365 - FINAL OFFICIAL DAY and review of Blason de Bourgogne Brut Reserve Crement de Bourgogne Burgundy

THIS IS IT!!  I can seriously say, I DID IT.  365 days.  1 product EVERY.  SINGLE.  DAY.  A whole year!  Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!

Let’s look at a few stats:

·         I took at least 1,850 photos for this project. I say “at least” because I do not have an exact count.  I tried to keep them organized in a folder but sometimes life just got too out of control, so some are thrown about in other places on my laptop.  Many of them were featured in the blog, some were total duds and never saw the light of day, until now…  J

Florida Lager - scary in the store for some reason, but never reviewed...

"Scary Clown" wine - never reviewed

English Breakfast Tea - never reviewed

·         Each entry took an average of 45 – 50 minutes to write (I think).  If we add all of those together, I spent around 304 hours this year writing this blog.  That is ALMOST THIRTEEN FULL DAYS (if I worked round the clock) just to WRITE the blog (not counting taking photos, cooking, tasting…)

·         55 guest reviewers participated (counting each guest reviewer only once even if they tasted on more than one day)

Guest reviewer Elizabeth

·         Of the 55 guest reviewers, at least 8 of them were complete strangers before I asked them to participate  J

·         One review was in ASL see it here

·         I reviewed 29 wines (that is almost a full month of wine!) (30 wines if you count today's review!!)

Wine is Fine

·         One review was via Skype see it here

·         35 products got coveted 5 star reviews!

·         Only 2 products got 0 star reviews – Cranberry Juice (here) and Pumpkin Scones (here )

Poopy Pumpkin Scones

·         The blog keeps a running tally of the 10 most popular posts.  I am proud that as of the moment I am writing that list is really varied!  It contains 1 pasta, 1 fish, 3 toiletry items, 1 snack food, 3 wines, and one chocolate!!  The bottom 1 or 2 entries change frequently.

·         The entry with the most views BY FAR is the one about Head to Toe Moisturizing Balm.  It sucked as a product (1.5 stars) but people must really like that review cuz it has 1,843 views.  J  You can see it here:  here.

For some reason this review is super popular

·         We visited 24 Trader Joe’s stores this year

OMAHA Trader Joe's

·         We visited Trader Joe’s stores in 11 states (plus one District) this year

·         Of all of those visits, only one store (Clarendon, VA) and TJ’s corporate replied to letter I sent to each one (except Jacksonville Beach – your letter is coming)

·         I met one reader in person this year – Ttrockwood, in Chelsea, NYC (see her here)

·         I did reusable bag and honey exchanges with 2 other readers this year (a 3^rd was tentatively scheduled but cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control).

A reader SENT me these!!!  So nice!!!

·         I gave away around 120 business cards for the blog (I am not a great marketer…).

·         One review featured a video of an original song about bacon

• And final stat - as of this morning, the blog has surpassed 75,000 total hits!!!

And now, with n further ado, drum roll please…  May I present, with a couple of tears, the FINAL REVIEW for this year long Trader Joe’s 365 review project!!!

I decided to close out this amazing project with a bang - well, with a BUBBLY!!!  We went to Trader Joe's to get a champagne to have a double celebration:  making it through the year of reviews, and NEW YEAR’S EVE!! 

David making his fancy pants hoity toity face with our "champagne" purchase

Only, we ran into a slight glitch...  The blog technically finishes TODAY, December 31, 2015, and New Year’s doesn't really happen until MIDNIGHT, making it January 1, 2016...  I couldn't wait until midnight to pop open the bubbly to review, because then I would have missed a day on the blog!

So we did the only sensible thing - WE MOVED NEW YEAR'S UP A NIGHT!  Yes siree, we celebrated New Year’s (and the blog) last night!!  (Of course we will celebrate AGAIN tonight, but for you, gentle reader, we will sacrifice and celebrate twice...) 

BREAK OUT THE BUBBLY - it's faux New Year's Eve!!

The "champagne" we chose has to have quotation marks around it, because in actuality it is a sparkling wine and not a champagne (which can only come from a specific region in France).  But hey, champagne without quotation marks was out of our budget, and maybe it is out of yours too, so we got this sparkling wine which I shall refer to as "champagne".  

After a day at the beach and an evening of putting together an Ikea Stuva (see here - who says it is just for a kid's bedroom? It screams "kitchen storage unit" to me!!) we busted out the "champagne" (Blason de Bourgogne Brut Reserve Crement de Bourgogne Burgundy) with our friend Kathy. 

Beach kindness - David "saving" a jelly fish/man o' war (he was a tiny bit alive but still floated back to the sand.
RIP little fella)

Wheee - THE BEACH!!!!

David feeding his buddies

Here is what we all thought:

Kathy - "This is light and refreshing.  It is quite nice.  I don't really know much about champagne, so I can't compare it.  So I am not comparing it to anything else, I am just taking it on its own face value.  I would give it a 4.5."

Nothing says fancy like plastic flutes.

David - "I like this better than many fancy champagnes that I have drunk.  (Editor’s note:  I think David must have drunk fancy champagnes in a former life before he was reincarnated as himself, cuz I have been hanging out with him for quite a few years now and “fancy champagnes” are not normally on his list of drinks…)   I think it is tasty in the sense that it is, as my wife says when she is referring to me, FRUITY!  And it has a lot of taste and it tastes like WINE, which is better than CHAMPAGNE, which usually to me just tastes like bubbles and effervescence, which I am sure is what it is supposed to do, but I like WINE.  So there ya go.  I will give this a 4.75."

The fancier the people are, the higher the pinky is raised.  Proven fact.  :)

Me – I like champagne.  I don’t normally have it often, and now I realize that probably what I have drunk before at places that tell me they are serving me champagne is really “champagne” (sparkling wine like this is).   I mean, if they just put it in a fancy glass and tell you it is champagne you go with it, right? 

I like this TJ’s “champagne” better than many champagnes or “champagnes” I have been served in the past because this seems lighter, fruitier, and not soooo dry.  Sometimes champagne/”champagne” has a weird thing where you are more thirsty after you drink it than before you drank it!  It is just so dryyyyy.  But this one doesn’t feel like that, and I enjoyed it. 

This “champagne” was a nice celebratory way to ring in the “New Year”.  I GIVE IT A 5.  (But I have to admit that the 5 is as much (perhaps more even more so) for the completion of this project as it is for the taste of this particular drink. 

After hearing my rating of a 5, David changed his to a 5, too! And after hearing David raise HIS score, Kathy raised HERS, too.  J  So in the end it was unanimous – A FIVE FOR THE “CHAMPAGNE” AND A FIVE FOR THE BLOG!!!  J

A TOAST TO TRADER JOE’S!  AND TO THE NEW YEAR!!!

TO TRADER JOE'S!!!!

Price – $9.99

Rating - 5

Thank you again for reading this year.  I will post infrequent reviews from this point forward, probably mostly TJ’s products that we find that we adore or make us gag.  J

But I would love to keep in contact with you and perhaps inspire you to spread some kindness with my NEW PROJECT – Kindness Activist.  Find it here:

·         Blog – KindnessActivist.blogspot.com

·         Facebook – Kindness Activist

·         Email – kindnessactivist@gmail.com

·         Twitter – @kindactivist, Kindness Activist, pw Kindness Activist 1

See you on the new kindness blog.  And in the meantime, keep shopping at Trader Joe’s!!!!  (And if you happen to see David and I shopping at a TJ’s, pleeeeease come over and say hi!!)

New year, new project :)

Day 359 - Handfuls of Happy Trekking

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!  I hope that your day has been memorable, joy filled, and all around HAPPY.  We have had a beautiful day here in Florida – the sun has been shining and the holiday spirit is all around.  J  It was over 80 degrees today, so we HIT THE BEACH. 

MERRRRRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

And MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAUXMAN!!

Do you wanna build a fauxman???

If there is one thing you need after a couple of hours at the beach, it is a SNACK.  So we were thankful that Paul from the Jacksonville Beach, FL store had gifted us that great TJ’s bag full of stuff, which included HANDFULS OF HAPPY TREKKING trail mix.  I put a bag of those into the beach bag before we hit the sand.

Bit blurry photo - my camera had sea salt/air on it by the time I took this :)

This big package contains ten SMALLER individual packages of trail mix.  Ingredients are almonds, cashews, pistachios, chocolate, cranberries, and cherries.

Cute sized little package of trail mix!

I would have to say that they are perfect beach snacks!  The little packs are sealed so no sand can get in, and each pack is a great size for one person (I only packed one, my bad, so David and I had to share that).  Actualllllly, it wasn’t just David and I who shared.  Beach birds have an UNCANNY skill to know when you have busted out something to eat!  The second I opened this bag of trail mix THIS fellow showed up to get a bit.

SNACKS???  DID SOMEONE SAY SNACKS????

I experimented with the bird a bit and it turns out that birds (this particular bird anyway) does not like chocolate or cranberries.  But he/she DIGS cashew bits!!!  Sadly, so does David, so the two of them had to fight it out for cashews. 

I would give this trail mix a 4.5.  It has a good mix of ingredients.  I personally would prefer more ALMONDS, but David and the bird really liked the cashews.  J

These would be good treats to put into lunch bags, beach bags, hiking packs, and the like.  If you are snow skiing these would be GREAT in your jacket pocket to eat while going up a lift.  I am not usually a fan of pre-packaged tiny treats, I always feel like you must be paying MORE for the convenience of buying stuff pre-sorted into tiny bags and that I should just make my own little snack bags.  But this sure was easy to just grab and go!!   And when I do the math, these are only .69 cents per little bag, which doesn’t seem outrageous at all to me.

Here is what David thought:  “I thought these were good.  I liked them.  They were a nice mix.  They were not very salty – maybe they could have been saltier for me.  But it was a nice balance between the sweetness of the fruit and chocolate and the nuts.  It felt substantial enough to allay some hunger, yet light enough to be just a casual snack.  I would give these a 3.75 (the nuts could be roastier and saltier).”

David had to share with the bird, but at least our Fauxman didn't want any trail mix.

Here is what the bird who ate cashews thought:  “Chirp chirp chirp.  Peep chirp.  Peep peep peep peep.  Chirp!  Peep chirp peep 4.”

Here is a link to Trader Joe’s article on this product:  TJ's article on Handfuls of Happy Trekking. 

Price - $6.99 (so .69 per pack of trail mix, the cost of a candy bar or cheaper and just as tasty, plus healthier!)

Rating (average of 2 humans and 1 bird) - 4

Day 355 - Gaetano d’ Aquino Chianti Riserva

TEN DAYS LEFT.

Ten more days of 2015.  Ten more days for this massive project!  Ten more reviews!!

Before we start today's, let's just have a quick "Moment of Zen", shall we?  This is from my walk on the beach this afternoon.  Enjoy (I sure did).

Now - CHIANTI!!

Italian Chianti, normally one of my favorite types of wine.

Here is what David thinks of this wine:  “Nice.  Tasty.  Full flavored wine.  It really gives you a lot of “red wine” taste.  It goes well with a big meal.  I give it a 4.”

I do not like this Chianti as well as our usual Chianti, which I presumed I reviewed much earlier this year.  There I go again, presuming…  You know all that does is make a “pres” out of you and me…  I just looked back and see that I never reviewed it!  But now that I look at photos of it, why I do believe it is the SAME maker as this Chianti Riserva, only skip the RISERVA!! 

Here is the one we often buy, this is NOT what is being reviewed here

So our “go to Chianti” is Gaetano d’Aquino Chianti, which is a buck cheaper than the Riserva I am reviewing here.  To my taste buds, that “non-Riserva” is better – more “clean” tasting (yes I realize that is probably not a “wine reviewer” word…) and delicious.  I wish I had a bottle of that Chianti to place next to this Riserva, and you KNOW if we were still in Virginia I would run to Trader Joe’s right this very moment and pick one up to do a blind side by side taste test!  But alas, the nearest TJ’s at the moment is 90 minutes away, and we still have to put decorations on the Christmas tree and make the Christmas cards…  I do not think a road trip for Chianti is in the cards right now…

We served this Riserva with a “breakfast for dinner” – eggs, toast, bacon, hashbrowns, and a TJ’s Mega Crunch Salad with a Bite ( reviewed here ).  So maybe part of the problem was that we were essentially drinking WINE with BREAKFAST (even though it was 10:00 pm – man when I write that I see how screwed up we really are!!!). 

David, remote control in hand, wearing "shorts" he "made" by cutting off pants.  Sexy.

All in all, this wine just doesn’t taste as full-bodied and delicious as the non-Riserva bottle.  The non-Riserva one wins for me and it is a buck cheaper.  Heck, I am a cheap date.  Maybe that is why David sticks with me.  J

Sometimes you don't even grab a proper wine glass...

Cheaper and better

A bit more money without a better taste

I give this Riserva bottle a 3.  I say that TJ's has loads of wines that are better than this that you should choose from.  David, however, says he thinks we should all just learn to get along and live in peace and harmony.  I think the spirit of the season (or the SPIRITS of the season??) may have gotten to him...

Ok, we must decorate our Christmas tree!  It has stood here naked long enough.

Price – $5.99

Rating – 3.5