50 YEAR CELEBRATION!!!

Get.  Out.

You guys - TRADER JOE'S IS 50 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!

Celebration sign at our local Trader Joe's (they also had balloons!)

Honestly, we had no idea.  I am just so thrilled to be back in the land of TJ's (home in Virginia after a long time away), so we went to the store closest to home, in Clarendon, VA.  Look what we saw before we even got on the elevator in the parking garage:

Party at Trader Joe's??  That elevator couldn't come fast enough!!!

PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I tell you, Trader Joe's Clarendon knows how to party!  For starters, they have a guy named GARY who works there who is a musician and he performs!  Like, IN THE STORE!!!  We were lucky enough to see him singing one other time and it was great.  Sadly, today we were there at the wrong time, but he was setting up as we left and he gave us a sneak peek at his set list:  all songs from 1967!!!  (Get it??  50 year anniversary, songs from 50 years ago...  Gary is clever that way!!) We are going to try and go back tomorrow and see him play.

They also are having a drawing where we miiiight win a great give bag full of TJ's merch or a gift card (fingers crossed...).

Also super cool, the employees all had 50 year TJ's t-shirts.  But ULTRA COOL was Kara, who went out of her way to totally bedazzle the hell out of her shirt!

Each letter is BEDAZZELED!  Seriously, I love it.  Adorable!

She even blinged up the BACK!

Seriously, the shininess of the shirt helped with the party vibe!!!

















And guess what??  There are items on sale for .50 cents!!!  I mean, wowsa!!!

2 days only - 50 cent stuff!

 

For .50 cents each we got:

A baguette (which we are taking with us for a pre-show picnic when we see the remarkable David Sedaris perform tonight!).

Ooooh lala - a cheap baguette!

Get it while you can!

A mango.

Now that's CHEAP!

Spaghetti.

You HAVE to have spaghetti in the cupboard at all times, right?
Get some while it is on sale!

3 avocados (.50 cents each) which David was so psyched about that he juggled them.

Wheeeee!  AVOCADOS!

Corn.

And, get this, we got a dozen eggs, normally $1.29, BUT TODAY AND TOMORROW FIFTY CENTS!

Looks like we were not the only ones grabbing eggs

BARGAIN!

Now, I can't promise you that YOUR Trader Joe's will have these same items on sale.  Apparently each store is having special deals on different things.

And I certainly can't promise you the dulcet tones of Gary (cuz there is only one Gary...) or the blingy shirt of Kara (again, only one Kara...).  But I still say - YOU NEED TO GO TO YOUR TRADER JOE'S TONIGHT OR TOMORROW (August 19th and 20th, 2017) TO CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF JOE.

Cuz you know as well as I do, that deserves a party.

Chicken Burrito Bowl

First, let me say right off, I have the flu.  It’s not the “throw up” type of flu, it is the fever, exhausted, and every inch of your body ache type of flu (it even hurt to COMB MY HAIR this morning…  Huh?)

Oh, I feel muuuuuch better than I felt yesterday, where I lie in bed ALL DAY and night long, freezing cold (with a fever) even though I was snuggled under the electric blanket.  I now have a super expensive ($117 after insurance???) prescription of TamiFlu to take (geez Louise, that works out to almost $12 per pill – I could buy 2 bottles of wine at Trader Joe’s for every pill I am taking!  Priorities, people…)

Not gonna lie...  I sat in the waiting room of the doctor's office for 45 minutes to get in to see her.  And the whole entire time I was wearing the ridiculous mask UPSIDE DOWN and INSIDE OUT.  And they never told me!  Can't they TELL I feel awful by looking at me??  When I finally got called back the nurse said, "Oh, put the PURPLE side out!  You are gonna suffocate!"  Gee, thanks.

So anyway, I am not feeling dapper.  Also, I am home alone.  David is at rehearsal for “Gogol’s Nose and Other Strange Tales From the City”, a show he is co-directing at George Mason University.  It opens March 29^th and YOU should come see it if you are in the Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC area J.  Here is a link to the university performance calendar so you can check it out:  link to Gogol's Nose!

David has been at rehearsal in the evenings quite a lot lately, which has meant a change in diet for me.  No longer are we doing “team cooking” – me focusing on veggies and him doing starch or meat…  No, now it is things like, I kid you not, a dinner of Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mints for me!  Oh yeah, steppin’ it up a notch in the cuisine department. 

So, tonight I pulled a little something out of the freezer that I purchased with the intention of eating for a LUNCH – a Trader Joe’s Chicken Burrito Bowl.  Since David wasn’t here, I ate that whole sucker myself.  And here is what I thought of it:

Here you have it: dinner in a box.  Just add wine!

This is the first time I have had this item.  I was imagining MOE’S (a chain restaurant) when I bought it.  it was super easy to prepare – I microwaved it for 4.5 minutes, stirred it, let it sit a minute, and it was ready to roll.  I topped it off with the last bit of Hatch Valley Salsa I had (which I am kinda sorta addicted to and reviewed here:  Hatch Valley Salsa link  ).  (It is garbage and recycling night, and using the salsa means I can get the jar out of the fridge and recycle it!  But don’t fret, I have my back-up jar in the cupboard!)

My first bite of chicken in this burrito bowl was way too big, it was like the size of 3 bites!  That put me off a bit, but subsequent bites were better sized.  Sadly though, the chicken was really bland.  The black beans, corn, and peppers were much tastier. 

Ahhh, fancy dinner!!

This burrito bowl is listed as one serving, and that seems right if you are hungry.  It would make a good lunch.  It is nothing that is going to knock your socks off – it is NOT like going to Moe’s.  For some reason this Trader Joe’s bowl is just not all that flavorful.  It needs much more spice. 

Reasonably priced and NEW
                                                                                                                                                           

So, while I would rather have a bowl or burrito from Moe’s (which ironically is right next to our usual Trader Joe’s!), this is not a bad substitute.  It’ll do if you wanna just sit on the sofa, eat, and watch CNN.  I might buy one of these again to keep in the freezer for a lunch or solo dinner – it was filling enough anyway. 

Price:  $3.49

Rating: 3.5

Suzy Soup

Recently some friends invited us over for dinner.  It was great fun!!!  They made a delicious dinner (dessert to be reviewed at a later date) AND shared a recipe for a soup that they make using all Trader Joe’s ingredients!

Well, of course we had to try that out!!!  So we collected ingredients and set out to make what I have decided should be called SUZY SOUP.  Yes, I know that Suzy and Rob, the friends who had us over for dinner, like to call it Tortilla Soup, but they are wrong.  In our house it will henceforth be known as SUZY SOUP.

Wanna make it?  It is, as Suzy told me, “Easy peasy lemon squeezy!”.   Here is how to make it:

Ingredients

1 can black beans, drained (reviewed here)
1 can corn, drained (reviewed here)
1 box chicken broth (reviewed here)
1 jar Trader Joe’s Double Roasted Salsa (this was our first time having this product!)
Chicken (boneless, skinless) – sautéed

Combine all ingredients listed above in a pot to heat (after sautéing the chicken)

Can't you almost SMELL it cooking???

Now here is the fun part!

Fill little bowls with:

grated jack cheese
cilantro
sliced avocados
sour cream (or Suzy says you can use plain yogurt but we were too scared to try that)
tortilla chips (we used our favorite Blue Corn Chips (reviewed here)
chopped onion (we got crazy and added this!)
chopped tomato (again, Suzy didn’t tell us to have this, but it made the soup amazing!)

Then let everyone fill their bowl with Suzy Soup and top with whatever toppings from the little bowls they would like!!  (Of course, at our house, we each put in EVERYTHING!)

We were so excited to EAT Suzy Soup that I forgot to take a photo until my bowl was nearly empty... 

SERIOUSLY good soup.  Perfect for cold winter nights.  Super easy to make yet somehow looks fancy!

The only downside I can think of is that when you are done with dinner you not only have SOUP BOWLS to wash, you have lots of tiny bowls that were filled with toppings to clean, too.  But that is a small price to pay for such a delicious meal.  David reports that one other downside is that it is so tasty, that SOME PEOPLE (editor’s note – there was a bit of guilt in his voice when he reported this…) might eat TOO MUCH and then go to bed with a very full belly and have a hard time sleeping… 

I CAUGHT HIM eating a second (or third??) helping!!

The recipe made more than the 2 of us could eat but it was GREAT as leftovers.  I can’t really list a PRICE here, because it depends on what topping ingredients you buy.  But it is not expensive to make.

Rating - 5

Day 352 - Soycutash AND Artistan Everything Bagels (TWO REVIEWS ON ONE DAY!)

Soycatash is another of Ttrockwood’s recommendations.  You see, when I go shopping with someone, I listen up to what they suggest!!!

Only, this suggestion didn’t go over quite as well as some of her others…  Not that it BOMBED, but it didn’t “wow” either.

Here we have exhibit A:  Soycutash 

Soycatash is a bagged vegetable blend that you find in the TJ’s frozen food section.  It is a mix of soy beans (edamame), red pepper, and corn.  I microwaved it. 

To me, the edamame was the strongest taste in the blend, which was a plus since I really like edamame.  What was also cool is that this edamame, unlike the other kind we eat, was already out of the shell so there was no work involved to consume it.  J 

I like that this is an alternative veggie to our “normal choices” for dinner.  It is simple to prepare.  I think it would be better to use to make a SOUP instead of just to heat and eat like we did.  I prefer the taste of just plain edamame to this blend, truth be told.

The soycutash adds pretty colors to your plate, that's for sure

David says he thinks it would be nicer with a sauce of some kind.  He says that the problem is, when you microwave it as long as the package says to, or even less (like we did), the corn gets “deflated”.  And can’t we all agree – deflated corn is sorta sad.  We served it with several other items on the plate and David said he couldn’t get a real “isolated taste” of this dish.  He gives it a 3.

Blurry photo of pricing sign, sorry.

 We only cooked a bit of the bag.  We will try again and use it to put in a recipe instead of just as a side dish.  I think it would be less boring that way. I really thought if we didn't like this product I would get to do the juvenille thing and call it SUCKatash in this review, but it doesn't suck so I can't.

Price – $2.29

Rating – 3

But  look, since there are only a few more days left in the “365” that are the scope of this project, I am going to give you a GIFT WITH PURCHASE today!!!  Yes, it is TWO FOR ONE today, folks!  Buy one, get one freeeee!  (I refuse to use the currently popular retail acronym “BOGO” cuz I hate it, so you will not be betting a “BOGO” here…)

Here’s the deal:  with so few reviews left to write, I feel guilty writing about products that the majority of readers won’t be able to get because they are LOCAL things.  But I really wanna tell you about the BAGELS we got in New York City, cuz I loved ‘em.  Plus, I want you to see the funny photo of David with them.  So I will do a bonus review today (first time ever I think) and tell you about them!

Artisan Bagels (with Everything)

THESE

The package states that these bagels are baked fresh daily, hand shaped, and kettle boiled.  Ttrockwood told us about how the regular TJ’s bagels, the ones we all find in our stores, don’t sell much in New York City.  That’s because there are these amazzzzing “Artisan” local bagels on the shelves.  So I grabbed a bag (they contain 3 large bagels).  I chose “everything” bagels because those are normally David’s favorites. 

I LOVED THEM!  I recorded my comments about them and when I listen to the recording now, my voice sounds different – huskier, sexier, it is as if I not only LOVED those bagels, but I was also IN LOVE with them. 

Ready to be devoured

Before cutting

Oh man – thank you for pointing those out to us Ttrockwood!  Thank you for steering us to the outside lane of the Chelsea store so we could pick up bread products!  They are the best store bought bagels I have eaten in my entire life.   They do not taste ‘store bought” at all.  Rather, they taste like you are in a noisy deli or café on a Sunday morning and people are talking and laughing around you.  Then the waitress brings you a fresh squeezed OJ and a bagel just like this on a plate.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh….

Atttractive, eh??  Morning bagel.  Ahhh.  Notes about this photo:  see MY new glasses?  The wine glasses on the table were NOT from breakfast - they were from dinner the night before and had been washed and cleaned but not put away yet. 

I do not typically choose “everything” bagels for myself.  They are too outta control for me.  I like my bagels ORGANIZED, thank you very much.  But the thing is: these bagels ARE organized!  They are not “over the top” everyhing like other store bought bagels are.  They are just the right amount of “bits” on them.

Now here is the weird part:  David, who I specifically bought these for, didn’t like them as much as I did!  What a loser!!!!  Here is what he said:  “These bagels have a great texture.  A nice taste.  But they are a little bit dense for my taste.  They have a LOT of bread, so you need to put something sharp on the topping rather than just bland cream cheese.  I went with olives and onion, yet I still wished I had some smoked salmon to throw on top as well.  These are probably better than other bagels at TJ’s but I do not remember the other ones.  I give these a 4.25.”

David and the infamous NYC bagels - this is one of my favorite photos of him for this project.  

So David calls these bagels DENSE??  Well, my friend, I call you dense (I call you that with love in my voice) for not giving these a 5.

If you live in NYC and you are buying the regular bagels at TJ and not THESE BAGELS, please re-examine your shopping list. 

Cheaper than a deli but just as delicious

David’s score is rejected in this review and these bagels get a 5.  J

Price – $1.99

Rating – 5 (so there!)

Day 339 - Roasted Corn (frozen)

I have mentioned this before, but we tend to buy fresh vegetables as opposed to frozen.  And for CORN, we sometimes buy CANS.  But when I saw this bag of frozen ROASTED corn at Trader Joe’s, I was intrigued… 

Hmmm, doesn't it look interesting??

And I was right to be intrigued!  We served it up and YUM, what a good idea. 

David: “This is nice!  It is grilled tasting.  It’s easy eatin’ – you don’t have to chew it off the cob.  And it tastes like GRILLED CORN.  Nice.  The taste is great but the texture is a little bit limp in the way that frozen or canned corn can be.  I give this a 4.”

Does it look tasty in this photo?  Because in real life it is.

Me:  I think this is a grand idea!  Usually when it is not summer time (i.e. not corn on the cob season) I buy canned corn.  I always feared the frozen corn would be mushy when it was cooked.  But this is not mushy at all (to me anyway).  I really like the GRILLED aspect of it.  Very nice! 

I just put some in a bowl, added a bit of water, and microwaved it.  It is really good!  It is very satisfying.  It tastes like you are eating corn on the cob from the guy who sells it at a fair but it is even better – you are not eating it off the cob so it doesn’t get stuck in your teeth!

FIRE ROASTED CORN.  Yum.  And look - the sign says it is a perfect ADDITION to stuff.
Geez, all we did it eat it straight!

File this one under, “Why didn’t we think of that??”.  This is a good invention and I plan to keep some in our freezer.  I give this a 4.25.  And since this is MY blog and not David’s, I am going to go with MY SCORE for the final one.  J

Price – $2.49

Rating – 4.25

Day 336 - Corn Pudding

I think this Corn Pudding is a seasonal TJ’s product.  We found it in the refrigerated section.  It looked interesting so we gave it a go.  The box says that this dish is, “Yellow and white corn baked in a creamy corn puree with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.”  It is 2 servings.  Here is what we thought:

Sort of an odd name, eh?  It was displayed by the turkeys.  

David:  “This dish has a pleasant texture and mouth feel.  It is quite “comfort food-ish” – it is like a cross between scrambled eggs and mac and cheese.  It is a little bland for my taste.  I would put a little bit more of a spicy cheese in it or something to up the taste level.  But because we are eating it with spicy shrimp, it is a nice compliment.  It is like creamed corn with a bit of breading-ness in it.  I guess I would give it a 3.75.”

As for me, I also would call this COMFORT FOOD.  It tastes like something your grandma would have made.  However, in my case, it is something GRANDMA THOMPSON would have made, not GRANDMA LEE (may they both rest in peace…).  Not to dis Grandma Thompson, but she wasn’t known for her cooking.  Grandma LEE however, that girl could COOK!  She was from the south and she made a mean okra!  And a stuffing that no one can replicate (not that some relatives have not tried, mind you…).  But to give props where they are due, Grandma Thompson could make Swedish pancakes in the shapes of stuff you requested, but she totally took advantage of our lack of geography knowledge by calling shape failures state names.  I mean seriously, even as an adult I could not tell you if my Swedish pancake is the shape of Maine…

Here is Grandma Thompson (on the right) holding my cousin Kristine.  Aunt Edie is holding me on the left.
Doesn't it look like I am laying on a torture board of some sort??  Circa 1966.
I was too young at this point to know that the grandma on the OTHER side was the amazing cook.  :)
But Grandma Thompson let us ring her front door bell for hours and come in and play "Avon Lady", which was super fun.

Here is Grandma Lee with my mom, fixing her wedding veil.  Looks like Grandma was wearing a hankie on her head...

I can imagine this TJ’s corn pudding being served at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner as an accompaniment to mashed potatoes, turkey, green veg…  It has that sort of feel to it – a “down home” feel.  It tastes a little bit southern (but not as southern as Grandma Lee).  It is creamy but there is not a lot of taste to it.  I spiced it up by adding some hot oil from my Margaritaville Jammin’ Jerk shrimp to it. 

I think this would be a better side dish if it was not the only side dish.  It needs broccoli or kale or something else beside it to help it succeed.  It is the sort of dish that kind of blends in with whatever you are pairing it with.

It even LOOKS a bit bland, doesn't it?  

It is not a stand out dish where I cheer “you muuuust go get this and try it!” but it is definitely not bad.  It is just a little bit boring.  It is sort of like old fashioned home cooked food, but the bland kind of home cooked food.  Perhaps if they added little bits of BACON on top of it, it would be more exciting.  As is, “exciting” is not a proper adjective for this dish. 

This is not a bad dish, it is just not thrilling.  J

Price – $4.49

Rating – 3.75

P.S. – one night we took our empty Margaritaville Jammin’ Jerk shrimp box to TJ’s with us to show it to them and ask if they have anything like it.  They said they do not.  Drat.  Corporate – if you are reading this, that is something to explore!  I think you would sell a lot of it!  It is delicious!  We buy it whenever we see it on sale at Safeway and keep it in the freezer.  Here is a link to it (again, it is not a Trader Joe’s product):  Jammin' Jerk Shrimp can be seen here :)

Day 203 - Giant Peruvian Inca Corn

In our house we have a word for when something is not interesting.  It is not bad, per se, but it is not good.  The word is BOF.

And after eating these Giant Peruvian Inca Corns, I say BOF.

Bof.

They are corn nuts on steroids if you ask me.  Crunchy but a bit “empty” – just a shell of a crunch.  They are NOT good to snack on while you watch tv, I will say that.  The crunch is so darn noisy in your head that you cannot hear the television. 

The bag talks about how they are from Peru and there are llamas involved – yada yada yada.  I say – these are big ass corn nuts, nothing more.  Less salt than corn nuts, too.

  

Here is what they look like in a small glass bowl.  See - nothing special.

If you want a really yummy treat that is reminiscent of corn nuts but actually tastes amazing, get Trader Joe’s Partially Popped Popcorn (Day 74).  Now that is good!  It is worth the loud crunching!  These, not so much…

Here is one with a penny so you can see the size.

David is sick with a bad cold.  He just tried these too, and I asked him what he thinks.  He said his opinion may not be objective right now, what with being sick and all, but here is what he thinks: 

·         These are big corn nuts.

·         Nice.

·         Crunchy.

·         Kind of like natural fried/crunchy Cheetos (not the puffy kind), but without the cheese.

·         Roasted corn taste and salty.

·         Nice. (He said that twice. See, he is sick.)

·         I am not sure I can taste the Peruvian provenance, but good corn.

·         I would give it a 3.5

No thank you.  I will keep my $1.79.

So David gives them a 3.5, but I think his illness is confusing him.  I give them a 2.5.  I think instead of averaging the two scores exactly, mine should count a biiiit more (I mean this is my blog after all, and achoo, he just sneezed again so can he be trusted??).   So the final rating is higher than I would have given, but lower than a mathematical average.  Fair?

Price – $1.79

Rating – 2.75

Day 84 - Whole Kernel Corn

Basically, a can of corn is a can of corn, no???

And yet…  At SOME grocery stores, I choose to buy the name brand corn (Green Giant and the like) instead of the plain label store corn.  “Why??” you ask.  Well, I am sure it is psychological, but I sometimes think the fancy brand MUST be better, right??

Wrong.  And Trader Joe’s brand just proves it.  This can of corn at Trader Joe’s tastes equal to any fancy brand you see advertised on tv.  I have eaten this corn as a side dish (just warmed with butter on top) and I have eaten it cooked into main dishes (most recently in a chicken chili that was supurb!).

Simple can, simple vegetable, tasty

Trader Joe’s corn is good.  It should not be dismissed just because you do not see commercials for it on television or coupons for it in your Sunday newspaper. If you are going to eat a canned vegetable, this one is worthy of your spoon (or fork, I am not judging).  Get it.  Eat it.  If you like corn you will like it.

Price – $.89

Rating – 4.25