Updated Review: Authentic Greek Feta in Brine

Well folks, it doesn't happen often, but it is happening today.

A Trader Joe's product is getting a BUMP UP in the number of stars it got on my original review!

And not only is it getting a BUMP UP in stars, it is going from 4.75 stars to the elusive 5 STAR REVIEW!!!!  Can I get a round of applause for Trader Joe's Authentic Greek Feta in Brine please??

So excited about this feta that we are JUMPING!   (OK, that was really us jumping in front of the
Supreme Court because a decision came down that we were psyched about, but still, the jump fits...)

Here's the scoop:  We.  Love.  Feta.  As cheeses go, feta is super high up on our list.  And this Greek Feta in Brine from Trader Joe's is, as Oprah might say in her sing-songy voice, Ahh-Maahhhzzz-Zing!  The only thing that kept it from getting a 5 star review the first time 'round was the crappy packaging it was in.  Original Authentic Greek Feta in Brine review here

Our household is not divided by gender.  We are a home of 2, David and I, and we don't divide roles up by "male" and "female".  We both cook.  We both grocery shop.  We both clean...  Wait, who am I kidding, neither of us cleans...

But OPENING THE FETA, sigh, opening the feta has been a "male task" at our house since we got addicted to this TJ's feta in brine.  I could not open that dumb container for the life of me!!  It had a little plastic bit you had to bust off, I could do that.  But then the rest of the opening was IMPOSSIBLE for me.  At first I thought it was just because I had long fingernails (so sue me, I didn't want to bust a nail).  But I have also tried opening the containers when I had very short nails, and that was a fail, too. So each and every time I wanted to eat feta (which, let's face it, was often), I had to call David into the kitchen to open the dumb package.  Laaaame!!!

But Trader Joe's must have heard my frustration (ok, they likely did not read it here, but maybe they sensed it magically, or maybe I was not the only one to hate the packaging).  THEY CHANGED THE PACKAGE!

The new one is oh so nice!!!  I just opened it and made a big ol' salad, and David is not even home!  :)  I feel so liberated now that my feta consumption no longer replies on his muscles. 

Thanks Trader Joe's.  This new packaging is awesome.  I feel independent again!  Who knows, when David comes home and I show him my new discovery, he may feel a twinge of sadness that I no longer "need him" for the feta...  Not to worry - I can find another chore to give him (shhhh)! 

Price:  still $6.49 I believe
Rating: 5 STARS!

Southwestern Chopped Salad

I was a new Trader Joe's product for us.  We do not normally buy “salad kits”, because, not to brag here, but salads are one of my specialties.  I can whip up a lovely salad (if I do say so myself)!  So, if we buy premade salad at TJ’s, it is usually an already made salad in a plastic container that I eat for lunch (like my favorite, Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite, reviewed here: Mega Crunch Salad with a Bite review ), and not a kit in a bag like this one is.  But hey, I am all about trying new stuff, so I threw this in our cart.

A complete salad kit - ok, we will try it

Here are the ingredients listed on the FRONT of the bag, not in the teeny tiny mouse print on the back:  green cabbage, romaine, cotija cheese, roasted pepitas, tortilla strips, green onion, cilantro, and a spicy southwest avocado dressing.  There are more ingredients on the back, but these are the “big guns” listed on the front to get your attention.  The bag tells us, “Trader Joe’s Southwestern Chopped Salad is an homage to the bright, spicy, flavorful dishes of its namesake region.  Green cabbage, carrots, and radish have been chopped into small pieces and mixed with pepitas, tortilla stripped, green onions and cilantro.  Toss with the included cotija cheese and spicy avocado dressing for a fresh, complete salad.”

$3.29 for a bag

David put this salad together while I worked on other parts of dinner.  He reported there was the loose cabbage part in the bag, then a package that contained 3 smaller packets:  the dressing, the cheese cubes, and tortilla strips.  Here is what we thought of it:

And here is David’s take: “I think it is excellent!  I was a little concerned when I first dumped out the majority of the package - it looked like a lot of cabbage. But flavor-wise, with the added pepitas and the cheese and the dressing, it really is a very nicely balanced mix.  Also, little tiny bits of tortilla – all in very nice balance.  I gotta say – it is very nice.  It doesn’t have any of the nice tomato things that you might think of as more lush in a salad, but, that’s not what it’s trying to do.  So, I’m gonna give this a 4.5.”

Please wait until we sit down to dinner, David...

And here is what I thought:  I am surprised that one of the adjectives used on the bag is “spicy”.  To me this salad is not spicy at all.  I am also surprised that the bag said it contained green onion, because I cannot even taste them.  For my first few bites, I was like, “I don’t know what cotija cheese is, but it sure is tasteless…”.  Then I got a better chunk of it and it had some taste…  Normally in salad we go for feta (Trader Joe's has an excellent feta that is a staple at our house, reviewed here:  Greek Feta in Brine  ) or blue cheese, both of which are extremely flavorful.  This cotija is a much more mild cheese than I am used to in my salads.  We also do not normally put tortilla strips in our salads.  I know that is a hip thing to do, so color us unhip.  The texture of that is, to me, a bit strange, but the taste of the tortillas is good.

For me, the whole salad is a little bit bland.  Everything is chopped super tiny.  It is not quite a COLESLAW, but in my book it is also not a SALAD.  It is all chopped a little bit too tiny for me.  I like to eat my salad with a FORK, and this is a SPOON SALAD.  My favorite part is the pepitas – they are really nice. 

David, the in-store TJ's salad model

Overall – I do not taste spicy, I do not taste avocado, I do not taste green onion, and I really do not taste the cilantro.  I like it – I am not saying it is BAD – but it would not be my “go to salad”.  I give this a 3.75.

Price:  $3.29

Rating (average of 2 raters):  4

Baked Figs with Bacon, Cheese, and Roasted Nuts - MAKE THIS!

This is NOT a recipe blog.  I think that is quite apparent in that, of the 445 entries I have written here, there are only a couple of recipes that appear…  But guys, I have one that I have to share!  You are going to thank me for it (if you make the dish that is).

  

The baked FIGS in the foreground is what you need to make!

But first, a little bit of background.

I like to call David and I “Urban Farmers”.  We live in an urban area, but have a coveted corner lot, meaning YARD SPACE!!  We choose to fill that yard space with STUFF TO EAT – that is, growing fruit and veggies.  We grow these items at our Virginia home:

·         Pears

Pear "in the wild" on our tree!

      ·         Peaches (on a tree named Peachy, naturally!)

Sometimes it is temping to eat peaches right off the tree, but it is best to wait until they are full grown and ripe...

·         Blueberries (this is not true anymore, because we let the bushes get taken over by weeds and strangled, but we WILL grow blueberries again, I swear…)

Don't tell the neighbors, but one year I picked the 1st blueberries of the season on my
birthday before I even had a shower and got dressed!

·         Strawberries (in an old pallet I turned into a strawberry patch!)

This was taken the first year I put in the "strawberry pallet garden" - it is more lush now

·         Figs (on a tree given to us by a stranger who came to our yard sale one year and complimented our peach tree, then went home and came back with the gift of a small fig tree he grew!  We have named it Pudding and it is thriving in our yard!)

PUDDING!  She is loaded with figs this year.  They turn brown when they are ripe.

·         Tomatoes

This is the tomato we had for dinner the night we made the fig recipe, deeelicious

·         Eggplant (pretty striped ones this year, from a plant gifted to us by a kind neighbor)

Produce from the garden, including an eggplant, from last year.  I don't have a
picture of the pretty striped one yet!

·         Hot Peppers

·         Green peppers

·         Lettuce

·         Basil (which did not make it this year…  We were not in town to tend the garden, and the automatic watering system we set up took care of a great crop of WEEDS where it should have been nurturing basil…)

Our annual PESTO MAKING DAY a few years ago - loads and loads of basil!  

·         Parsley (which, sadly, suffered the same fate as the aforementioned basil)

And at our “get-away” beach house in Florida, we grow:

·         Myer Lemons*

·         Persian Limes*

·         Tangerines*

·         Honeybells*

·         Grapefruit*

Farmer Dave with TRIXIE, the magical fruit cocktail tree

·         Papaya (The tree, named Shania, was grown from a SEED!  Our neighbor Carol sprouted several and gave us one.  It has grown really well, but sadly, hers all died…  Awkward…)

Farmer Dave with Shania

Papayas on the tree

·         Bananas (these are actually on a tree that is between our house and our neighbor’s.  We didn’t plant it, but I am not sure they did either…  It maybe just magically sprung up.  And the house is  rental, and just got rehabbed and flipped, so let’s face it, whoever ends up renting it is not gonna know if those bananas are theirs or ours, so I think it is fair that we try and eat a few, don’t you?)

Don't bananas on the tree look BIZARRE??

*All the tropical fruits listed above with an *ASTERISK* grow on ONE TREE – a magical tree we have named Trixie the Fruit Cocktail Tree!  She is a “hybrid”, growers grafted branches of different fruit trees onto one trunk.  The end results is, voila, TRIXIE!!!

The reason I have given you all of this background on our “farms” comes down to this:  FOOD TASTES BETTER WHEN YOU GROW IT YOURSELF!!!  No lie.  That’s not “fake news”, it is true, man!!!  An heirloom tomato picked, washed, sliced, and gobbled up is the best part of summer really.

So now that we are back in Virginia and settling back into “real life”, we are reaping what we sowed.  And boy is it yummy!!!  So, for dinner the other night, we cooked:  couscous (we did not grow this…) topped with mushrooms and garlic (we also did not grow those), eggplant (from the garden, sliced and cooked in the George Foreman grill), an amazing tomato (from the garden of course) sliced and served with salt, baby broccoli (broccolini) (from Trader Joe’s – reviewed here: Baby Broccoli Review and cooked with olive oil, juice from a Meyer Lemon from our tree, and TJ's Umami Sauce (not yet reviewed) ) and an AMAZING FIG RECIPE David found online!  And that finally brings me to the point of this piece:  YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE!

Our dinner plate - the figs were the STARS!

David found the recipe on a website called whiteonricecouple.com. 

Baked Figs with Bacon, Blue Cheese, Roasted Nuts

Serves 4   Total time 30 minutes

Ingredients:

·         About 8 fresh figs, cut lengthwise in half (ours were from our fig tree, of course!)

·         4 slices cooked bacon, cut into small pieces (3 slices was enough for us, and we used the world’s most amazing bacon, from TJ’s of course, reviewed here: Black Forest Ham Review  )

·         3 – 4 ounces blue cheese or goat cheese, softened and crumbled (we used our favorite feta we have found outside of Greece, TJ’s feta in brine, reviewed here:  Feta in Brine Review )

·         2 Tablespoons finely chopped roasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc) (we used some amazing praline pecan bit we scored at “Peach World” in Georgia recently)

·         2 Tablespoons honey

Directions:

·         Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

·         Place cut figs on the lined sheet pan.  If any of the figs do not sit level, make a small flat cut across the bottom of the fit so that it sits flat when you add the toppings. 

·         Top the figs with the crumbled cheese and bacon.  Press the nuts into the cheese to help keep them from falling off.  (Note from Chef David – also try pressing the BACON into the cheese to keep it from falling off.)

·         Bake the figs for 10 -15 minutes or until they are soft, or to your desired texture, and the cheese is melted.  After removing from the oven, drizzle with honey.

·         Enjoy the figs warm or at room temperature.  Serve as an appetizer or spread them on toasted bread.  Serve with your favorite glass of wine (we served them with a lovely Trader Joe’s white wine, Monique (not yet reviewed).

You guys – MAKE THIS.  It is fast and simple, but amazing!!  So delicious!!!  It tastes (and looks) like something you would pay $40 for at some fancy schmancy restaurant, only you make it in your own kitchen and then watch crap reality tv while eating it!!  Perfect!

Enjoy these last few days of summer.  The seasons are changing far too quickly for my liking, but I will keep eating garden tomatoes and pretending it is still summer for as long as I can. 

TO SUMMER!!!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Apparently, this new Cauliflower Pizza Crust from Trader Joe’s is all the rage.

But let’s be clear – like other things that are “all the rage”, this does not mean it is a wise thing to rush out and buy.  And to prove that point, may I present, the come-back of the jumpsuit for women. Here is what H & M says about jumpsuits for women on their website:  "Jumpsuits are effortless, chic and fun. In our selection of women’s jumpsuits you can be both bohemian and classic chic – just alter your accessories and heel height."  To that I say - BWAHAHAHAHA!

A Google search for "Women's Jumpsuit" led me to this, a "bridesmaid jumpsuit".
Oh sure, she looks all classy NOW.  Just wait til she has to pee...

As anyone who has ever made the ridiculous decision to wear one of these “must have” all in one outfits on a long distance flight will tell you, DON’T.  Peeing in one of these contraptions in a public restroom, ANY public restroom, is a nightmare.  Now couple the grossness of a public restroom and pieces of your outfit scraping the pee-stained floor with the NYC-studio-apartment-sized-ness of an airplane bathroom.   You get where I am going with this, right??  Just because something is “all the rage” doesn’t mean you should JUMP ON BOARD.

But I digress.  Back to the TJ’s Cauliflower Pizza Crust…

It comes in a box, frozen

One of my Facebook friends mentioned how great it was, so while at TJ’s I sought one out.  Only, it was suuuch the rage that they were sold out of them…

Fast forward a couple more shopping trips, and we “snagged” a cauliflower pizza crust of our very own.  We topped ours with A LOT of stuff – homemade pesto, red onion, green pepper, garlic, TJ’s grilled balsamic chicken (which is great and I need to review!), TJ’s kumatos (which we eat a lot of, the review of them can be seen here: kumato review ), TJ’s feta in brine (which is the BEST grocery store feta you can get (outside of Greece… 😊  ) and whose review can be seen here:  feta in brine review ), and TJ’s mushrooms (plus salt and pepper).

David:  “It is nice.  What can I say?  It has got carbohydrate crunch but vegetable tastiness.  Then when you pile it high with all of the vegetable and meat and cheese and olives that we did, it’s great!  The one downside is that it is really hard to cut.  What a pizza!  I dunno – I will give it a 4.”

Photo of David BEFORE eating this product.  He looks very hesitant.
But, as you can read in his review, he actually liked it when we ate it.

Susan:  I don’t read other TJ’s blogs and reviews because I do not want them to influence my opinion before I taste and review something, but I DID get a glimpse of something before eating this product that basically said, “TJ’s Cauliflower Pizza Crust is the BOMB and you MUST get one!”.  To that I say:  I DON’T GET IT. 

It took 24 minutes just to cook the CRUST.  Then you put the stuff on it and broil it.  The taste of the crust (to me) is grainy, I guess because of the corn flour in it?  The texture reminds me of a bad polenta.  The texture definitely leaves something to be desired.

Here is our Cauliflower Crust, loaded down with goodness.  The burned bits tasted a little better than the rest of the crust.

And sadly, I do not get any of the CAULIFLOWER taste, I just get a BAD CRUST taste…  I confess that we piled ours high with too many toppings, so maybe they are masking the cauliflower?  I tried a bit of burnt crust, and I liked it better…  But still, overall, if you are not on a gluten free diet or something where you need to avoid gluten, I say go with a regular pizza crust.  Trader Joe’s has a terrific one that you roll out (which garnered a coveted 5 star review and only costs $1.19!  Review and photos here:  pizza dough review) – get that instead!  It is more fun to prepare, doesn’t feel grainy when you eat it, and is much tastier than this cauliflower contraption.  I give this 3 stars.

Price: $3.99

Rating (average of 2 raters): 3.5

Teeny Tiny Avocados (and Zechery)

Guys, you need to go to Trader Joe’s soon.  They have the most adorable thing right now – little tiny baby avocados!!! 

SHOPPING COMMUNICATION FAIL!  Me: "David, please hold a bag of those cutie patootie teeny tiny
avocados for a photo!"  David (grabbing bag of regular, NOT teeny tiny avocados):
"OK!".  Yeah - wrong avocados in photo.  The ones in this review are teenier and tinier.

I know, I know, tiny versions of stuff is usually a rip off.  You usually have to pay MORE to get LESS.  But in the case of Trader Joe’s Teeny Tiny Avocados, you don’t get ripped off!!  Au contraire, mon frere!  If you have bought avocados lately you know the price is super high right now.  But at TJ’s you can get a bag of petite cutie patootie avocados for $2.99 (each bag has 6 tiny avocados, as opposed the the regular sized ones like David is accidentally holding in this photo which come 4 to a bag).  So teeny tiny avocados come out to 50 cents each!

A medium size price for some teeny tiny avocados

 And with these teeny tiny avocados you don’t give up TASTE for cuteness, either!!!  These little suckers taste amazing!  And, like the sign says, they are perfect for a single serving!  Why, just last night I cut one open and drizzled TJ’s balsamic vinegar (and non-Trader Joe’s olive oil…) in it.  I topped that with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, then got myself a bit of TJ’s feta (which we are addicted to and is reviewed here) and a few TJ’s raw English peas (reviewed here).  It was a delicious and healthy side dish!

Here is a little glimpse of a little avocado.  My hand is included for size reference, though
the angle of the photo is a bit tricky I guess.  Sorry.  But you get the idea!

So the long and the short of it is: YOU SHOULD GO GET A BAG OF THESE ADORABLE AVOCADOS.  I wouldn’t say they are Barbie sized, cuz a Barbie avocado would be the say of, what, like a jelly bean??  These could be Cabbage Patch sized avocados. 

And before I go, let me introduce you to one of our favorite Trader Joe’s employees.  His name is Zechery and he works at our local TJ’s at Bailey’s Crossroads in Virginia.  

BEST Trader Joe's ambassador - Zechery!

Zechery is the friendliest, sweetest, nicest TJ’s employee!!!  He smiles at us every single time we see him, and he always gives us a big hello and stops to talk.  I egotistically thought he just liked us, and that’s why he was so nice!  Then the other day I realized, it has nothing to do with US and everything to do with ZECHERY!  He is that way with all of the shoppers!  He makes everyone feel happy to be strolling the aisles and putting stuff in their carts.  Trader Joe’s is lucky to have him.

So, go get yourself some teeny tiny avocados while they still have them.  And if you live in the Washington DC/Northern Virginia area, go to Bailey’s Crossroads, pop into Trader Joe’s, and introduce yourself to Zechery.  Trust me, you will leave a happier person than you were when you went in.

Price (of the avocados, not of Zechery): $2.99

Rating (of both Zechery and the Teeny Tiny Avocados):  5

Day 269 - Southern Greens Blend

I wanted to try these.

  

Yippee - GREENS!

David did not.

Ewww - greens...

David ALWAYS thinks stuff like kale, mustard greens, and the like are gonna be gross.  But you know what?  9 times out of 10 he likes them.  (I still can’t convince him that okra is edible, but maybe someday…)

This Southern Greens Blend is a mix of collards, mustard, turnip, and spinach.  Can you say HEALTHY??  (And can you say, “Something different in our normal vegetable routine”??).  The greens were all ready to be cooked.  The package said it is four servings but for us it was more like three.  I quasi followed the directions on the package.  Normally when I cook spinach I just sauté it in olive oil and it only takes like 10 minutes, so cooking following the instructions on the package took longer (around half an hour), but was worth it.  I cooked them with celery, garlic, onions, chicken broth, and 21 Seasoning Salute (which got a glowing 5 star review that you can read here:  21 Seasoning Salute

Find these in the produce section

These were good!  They ALMOST tasted like something my Grandma Lee might have made.  I loved her cooking (as did the rest of the relatives!).  She would have taken the time to fry bacon and use the fat and meat, but I skipped that part.  Maybe next time I will plan ahead better and add bacon, too!

I adore this photo.  It is my Grandma and Grandpa Lee and their kids. They all packed into a car and
moved from North Carolina to Nebraska.  My mom is standing next to Grandma.  They look like such ragamuffins,
all except for Grandma's nice suit and hat.  I love this.  Only two people from this photo are still living.  Memories...

I served these greens over rice with black beans and topped them with fresh tomatoes from the garden and feta (with a splash of Tabasco over it all), and a garnish of radish.  The plates looked beautiful!  The greens tasted really nice.  They were not too hard or too chewy.  They were a good contrast to beans and feta.

The plates looked pretty!  Rice, beans, greens, feta, seasoning, and radishes all from TJ's.

David says the greens were surprisingly pleasant!  He said the mix “smoothed out the collard-ness” (which I do not think is a word).  He thought the feta spiced it up.  He said, “It is good at what it does, it is a MIX of GREENS.”

We ate this while watching Paula Deen “dance” on “Dancing with the “Stars” “.  That seemed appropriate, given her Southern roots.  I think she would have cooked these in lard.  And I also think she better get booted off that show soon, cuz girlfriend cannot dance.  (But on the other hand, doesn’t poor Anna, the partner of Gary Busey, look so mortified every time she and Gary do NOT get cut??  Oh my.  People are gonna vote for Gary just to see the craziness every week…  Not that I pay attention to that stupid show…  Umm…  )

Gary and Anna - I suspect this photo was taken before they actually DANCED the first time...  (Happier times)

Price - $2.99

Rating - 4

Day 245 - Fage Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is the bomb. 

Man, I have been reviewing a lot of GREEK items lately, haven’t I?  I never realized how much Greek food we consume – yogurt, olives, that recent bizarre cheese spiral (reviewed on day 212 

http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-213-5-cheese-greek-spiral.html ), tzatzaki (reviewed on day 129 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/05/day-129-tzatziki.html ), and one of my favorite cheeses FETA (reviewed on day 232 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/08/day-232-authentic-greek-feta-in-brine.html ).

  

Fage Greek Yogurt (2%) (but 100% tasty)

But man, if you like yogurt, you really need to try Fage Greek Yogurt.  It tastes more sitting on an outdoor patio having breakfast in Koufonisia than any other Greek yogurt I have had.

Yummy - Fage toped with loads of pomegranate seeds

I like it with pomegranate seeds (reviewed on day http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-12-pomegranate-seeds.html but if you are cooler than me you can buy a whole pomegranate and get your own seeds out).  It is also good with peaches or nectargines cut up in it.  And look – here it is with just plain HONEY on it (from a new bottle we just opened that will be reviewed soon!). 

Fage drizzled with honey....

You can also use Greek yogurt in smoothies or recipes.  We buy the one with the most fat we can find (2%) but if you are not into fat you can buy the lower fat one. 

So by this point in the review you must understand that this particular Greek yogurt is really good (you can compare it to my review of Trader Joe’s brand Greek yogurt that came out the very first week of this blog on day 6 - http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-6-greek-yogurt.html ).  But here is the kicker:

On a shopping price comparison trip FAGE YOGURT WAS A WHOLE BUCK CHEAPER AT TRADER JOE’S THAN A NEARBY SAFEWAY GROCERY STORE.  A dollar!!!  For the exact same product.

Rip Off ALERT - if you want to spend an extra dollar on the same product,
make sure to get it at Safeway instead of Trader Joe's

Either Safeway is royally ripping shoppers off, or Trader Joe’s is being ultra kind.  Either way – you know where I am going to grab my yogurt!

P.S. – the container tells you how to pronounce this brand.  It is pronounced Fa-Yeh! (exclamation point theirs – they obviously are as excited about their yogurt as I am).

Price – $3.59

Rating – 4.75

Bonus photo for anyone who scrolled down this far!  Me snorkeling in Greece in 2007!

Day 232 - Authentic Greek Feta in Brine

 I’ve said it before and I will say it again – I am not ashamed.

I LOVE ME SOME FETA.

I am home alone – I had to come home and work a few days and leave my main man in Indianapolis.  So tonight I decided to splurge and treat myself with some really nice feta.

Here is the packaging for this fancy feta

At least, what I presumed would be nice feta.  I fell for the “it’s expensive so it must be good” trick (I like to think I do not usually fall for that…).  The feta we normally purchase at Trader Joe’s is $2.99 for 8 oz.  This feta was $6.49 for 10.5 oz – see – comparatively it was PRICEY!  (You can see the review of our normal TJ’s feta on day 105 of this blog.)

What the hell- put it on a credit card!

So this afternoon I was craving feta.  I neeeeeeeeeeeeded feta.  And really, as far as cravings go, if you are going to crave something, I think FETA is a mighty healthy craving, don’t you?  So I went straight to Trader Joe’s in Clarendon, VA to hook myself up!

Now, earlier in the day I was stuck in traffic.  Like, BAD Washington DC traffic.  So I had time to hear the news on NPR not once but two or three times.  So I kept hearing about the Prime Minister of Greece resigning today.  And you know, Greece is in a boat load of financial trouble.  That poor country is a messy mess!  So I guess what I am saying is, yes, I splurged and spent way more on feta than a girl needs to spend, but it was AUTHENTIC GREEK FETA from GREEEEEEEECE for heaven’s sake!  And if anyone needs my money, it is Greece, right?  So there.  Not only did I satisfy my craving, I helped out an entire economy with my purchase.  (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

David taking the plunge in Koufonisia, Greece (2007)

Me swimming in Koufonisia, Greece - isn't the water beautiful???

So, was my splurge on this feta worth it?

Uh-huh.

This cheese is amazing!  It is a kick ass feta.  It comes in brine, which seems to ensure it is not dry and blecky like some fetas are.  However, the brine also means it can be MESSY, as evidenced by when I tried to pick it up after “closing” it (oops, it was not closed) to read the bottom of the container…  I splashed brine all over the counter. 

It has 2 chunks of feta in it - here I stood them up for you to see

This is what it is like when you open the tub

The thing I need to ding the rating on a bit for this product is the packaging.  It is super hard to OPEN.  You pull off a little hard plastic bit, then theoretically you can pull the lid off.  Maybe it is because I currently have long nails and need to cut them, but I had a really hard time getting the lid off.  I resorted to jamming a fork around until I could squeeze it open a bit.  And of course the whole time I was trying to rip the lid off, I was afraid the lid would POP off and give me a brine shower.

This totally satisfied my craving for feta.  Ahhhhh....  

I am glad I splurged.  Greece needs our help – go buy this feta.  J  Just be really careful opening and closing it. 

Price - $6.49

Rating – 4.75