Day 348 - Gnocchi al Gorgonzola

Guys, we visited ANOTHER TRADER JOE’S!  This one was remarkably close to home – when I check Google maps it is only 7.7 miles away, but we had never been there.  How embarrassing… 

We went to the ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA Trader Joe’s.  We had gone to The Little Theatre of Alexandria to see their production of “A Christmas Carol” (note:  we had seen another production of the same show the night before at Ford’s Theatre, and a production of “The Nutcracker” the night before THAT!  Christmas, Christmas time is here!!).  After the show we really wanted a Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite (very recently reviewed here - http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/12/day-342-mega-crunchy-salad-with-bite.html ) so we stopped into TJ’s.  Sadly, they were out of that salad L.  But it was a fun chance to check out our 23^rd Trader Joe’s for the year. 

Look - another Trader Joe's visited!  #23 for the year.  (And look - I got new boots!)

The Alexandria store was nice.  We visited on a Sunday evening and it was very quiet and calm.  The main aisle of the store near the registers is really wide and uncluttered, which was cool.  We met a great employee in the wine section named David (he would have to be nice with a name like David, right??).  He helped us pick out a bubbly wine for New Year’s (we are heading to Florida where the nearest TJ’s is 90 minutes away so we were THINKING AHEAD!).   He walked us through the difference between actual champagne (which is pricey, even at TJ’s) and bubbly wine.  I will let you decide which of those we chose (look, you know we live on a budget, so spoiler alert, we are drinking BUBBLY WINE for New Year’s J ). 

He also talked about wines that get “corked” (sounds sorta nasty, doesn’t it???) and suspected the bad bottle we had of Grand Reserve Meritage that we hated (the worst wine we reviewed - it got only a 1/2 star:  wine that tasted like petrol reviewed here ) had indeed been “corked”.  He was just finishing up doing a tasting that included a Grand Reserve Pinot Noir and, though I was nervous to get back on the Grand Reserve band wagon, we tried it and liked it.  Color us the proud owners of a bottle of that, too.

It says "Amazing as a side!" right on the sign, yet we ignored that.

Now, onto a review.  This is for Gnocchi al Gorgonzola, which we did not purchase at the Alexandria location.  You can either heat this on the stove top or the microwave, but both methods take 7 minutes.  Weird, nuking stuff is normally faster.  The bag has 3 servings.  Some of the ingredients listed include:  Emmental, gorgonzola, hard grating cheese (wonder what variety that is??), and nutmeg. 

David – “These gnocchi are nice, they have a very good taste.  The sauce is nice but this dish needs to have MORE SAUCE.  More sauce, and more “cheese-ness” – more gorgonzola in the cheese tastiness.  For that reason I give it a 3.5.”

Find these in the frozen department.  The GNOCCHI, not David.  Usually you can find David with me.
I just noticed that David is getting photo bombed in this shot.

I agree with part of what David said.  I like the TEXTURE and the TASTE of the gnocchi.  I think, quantity wise, there was enough sauce, I just don’t think it has enough taste.  It needs to be more cheesy. 

This is how it looks when you dump it in your pan - the cheese blobs are sorta gross looking

I think this would be a better side dish than a main dish.  The sign mentioned that and we foolishly ignored the advice.  J  It definitely needs green veggies or something else with it to give it a taste counterpoint.  Without that it is too bland.  We had it with asparagus and shredded Brussels sprouts (reviewed here -  http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/05/day-123-shaved-brussels-sprouts.html   - I cooked them differently this time and did not do the recipe on the package as I did in that review.  This time I just made them with olive oil and lemon juice and they were much nicer).

See, it looks tastier after it is cooked.

I agree with David’s score of 3.5.  This tastes like a winter dish.  It is heavy.  This would be good to eat if you were out skiing all day and came in for a hot meal.  Or, say, if you were a LUMBERJACK and had been out chopping wood (in your flannel shirt) all day. 

Price – $2.99

Rating – 3.5

Day 345 - Farfalle with 4 Cheeses and Spinach

Here’s the thing: I am stressed.

This time of year is STRESSFUL.  There are so many gifts to buy and wrap.  And we always make our own Christmas cards and that takes a ton of time and creativity (we haven’t even STARTED yet…).  We are heading out of town soon and I need pack for that…

Last week, which somehow wasn't as stressful of a time....  This is a big ass Christmas ornament, isn't it pretty?

But on top of all of that “normal” stuff, a good friend who we help care for has been injured and so we have jumped into “care taking” mode.  We are her only friends really, and have the responsibility to make sure she is okay.    So the past couple of days that has meant bringing her home from the hospital, advocating for her to get in-home health care people who speak Spanish and can communicate with her, and trying to help clear out her apartment to make it safe for her to navigate with a walker.  (She is a hoarder…  Two and a half years ago she was on the verge of being evicted and we had to do a major clean-out of her apartment – it was very hard.  Now, with health care workers going into the space, we are worried they might report it as being “unsafe” for her since she has begun to re-accumulate stuff.  Sigh.  It’s an ongoing battle.)

Again, from a less stressful time just a few days ago, David "plugging in" a huge ass string of Christmas lights in NYC.

SO, with all of THAT going on, I am stressed and haven’t written a review yet today!  It is 4:30 PM my time and I try to have my reviews posted much earlier than this every day, but I am sure that you are super busy, too, so I hope you will forgive my tardiness.

Onto today’s REVIEW. 

This Farfalle with 4 Cheeses and Spinach is a typical frozen meal.  I used to eat this type of thing allllll the time for lunch.  You know the drill:  small box of frozen something-or-other than you grab out of the freezer and bung in the microwave.  I used to buy whatever varieties were on sale at the grocery store and just keep a freezer full of them.

Here's the box - it looks prettier on the front of the box than it does when you open it and cook it.

But after a while, they all sorta tasted the same and felt, well, kinda crappy.  So I stopped eating them.  But I picked this one up at Trader Joe’s to eat and review for the blog.  J

This one is pretty bland.  That surprised me, considering the fact that the title boasts of not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 cheeses (they are listed as:  hard cheese (what the hell is that?  “Hard cheese” sounds like a rubric of cheese…), emmental, mozzarella, and gorgonzola !  Somehow, even with all four cheeses, this dish doesn’t taste all that CHEESEY.  The spinach in it is nice and the bow tie pastas are cute. The meal definitely requires the addition of salt and pepper. 

This was my view as I ate this lunch - I was eating with my CNN friends.

This box is one serving.  It is quick and easy to make.  It fills you up if you eat it for lunch.  Basically this is not amazing, but it gets the job done.  If you just “need some lunch” this is fine.  I wouldn’t write home about it and I wouldn’t put it as a “must buy” on your shopping list.  But if one somehow jumps in your shopping cart you don’t need to throw it out. 

See, it doesn't look nearly as pretty as the box made it out to...  And it kind of tastes as bland as it looks here.

Ok, it’s time to continue with the holiday “do do do” s and go watch the little neighbor girl in “The Nutcracker”.  J

Price – $1.99 (I think)

Rating - 3

Day 106 - Gorgonzola Chicken

From the description on the box, this meal sounds like a HOME RUN – white chicken meat, bowtie pasta, asparagus and peas in a Gorgonzola cheese sauce.  Each of those items is high on our list of “delicious foods” (no, we do not have an actual physical list titled” Delicious Foods”, but you know what I mean, our theoretical list…).  Anyway, it sounded delicious, so we were psyched to try it.

Doesn't the description sound good?

And a reasonable price for 2 whole servings, too

Sadly, we were a wee bit disappointed.  I cooked it using the microwave method, because it is packaged like a microwaveable meal (there was another cooking method listed, too, which I have not tried).  And it smelled really nice as it cooked!  The Gorgonzola scent filled our kitchen – yum!  But the TASTE was a bit dull.  Somehow the SMELL was stronger than the TASTE.  Sure, all the things listed on the package were IN there, but they tasted so dull.  I am not even sure how in the world GORGONZOLA can taste dull, but it did.  Even salt and pepper didn’t jazz the dinner up enough to make it worth purchasing again.

I am not sure why David looks so skeptical about it in the store, but turns out he was right!

Gorgonzola Chicken in action - I served it with baby broccoli (reviewed on day 55 of this blog)

So, while this particular meal won’t be on our shopping list again, the Trader Joe’s we bought it at WILL BE!  We went to the U Street Trader Joe’s in Washington DC (1914 14^th St NW) and were very happy with the experience!  It was a Friday night, and not just any Friday night, a Friday night when WASHINGTON DC CHERRY BLOSSOMS were in PEAK bloom!  So we knew the U St corridor would be crazy busy, and indeed it was.  We wondered how in the world we would find a parking spot, then were happy to see that Trader Joe’s has an underground parking garage with FREE PARKING!!  And boy did they have a FANTASTIC parking lot attendant!  He danced a bit and JOGGED around telling cars to “wait” or “go”.  He was super fun, friendly, and efficient.  I mean, if you can make parking in a crowded underground lot exciting, you have MAD SKILLZ.  Trader Joe’s in La Jolla, CA needs to come study this man and clone him for their insane, headache inducing parking lot.

Parking lot guy - he ROCKS!  Here David takes a little jog with him

And the U St store is great!  Right off the bat I noticed how friendly the shoppers were.  I got into a conversation about kale with people in the produce section and ended up telling them how amazing kale sprouts are (reviewed on day 36 of this blog).  They put a bag of regular kale and kale sprouts in their cart and off they went! 

This store has the best artwork of any Trader Joe’s that I have seen – check it out:

Isn't this GREAT???  So fun and inviting

Isn’t it amazing?  I am guessing it is by a local artist, but I do not know for sure.  If someone from the U St location reads this can you tell me in the comments section?  I love that piece!!

I was also very impressed by this sign near the check-outs:

This kind of community action makes me happy to give Trader Joe's my business

It is concrete actions like THIS that make me even happier to shop at Trader Joe’s.  I bet lots of TJ’s stores donate food – I wish they all had clear signs like this telling everyone about it. 

More reviews coming from items purchased during our visit to the U St Trader Joe’s coming!

Price – $5.99

Rating – 3.25

Day 44 - Roasted Gorgonzola Flavored Oven Crisp Crackers

Keep reading, even if you hate gorgonzola. 

I am not a cracker person.  When I think of a snack or a nibble, crackers don’t come to mind.  But I am glad these ended up at our house, because they are yummy!

These are some fine crackers

At first glance, there are many things that could go wrong with these crackers.  First off, lots of people hate strong cheeses like gorgonzola.  I personally am a gorgonzola fan, so that was a plus for me.  What worried me was that they are “gorgonzola flavored”.  I feared that the quotation marks around “flavor” might mean some fakey sort of flavoring.  I also anticipated a powdery goo that would stick to my fingers when I munched on these.  And the last possible thing that could have gone wrong (in my humble opinion) was “oven crisp” – as in – kinda sorta healthy instead of just SNACKY.

Very reasonable price!

But nope, nope, and nope – these are good!  The flavor is NOT strong.  In fact, I would bet if you put some of these in a little dish on the coffee table and hid the box, even your friends who “hate gorgonzola” would like them!  There is not a powder that flakes off onto your fingers.  And they do not taste all bland and flavor-less like some “baked” snacks do. 

Roasted Gorgonzola crackers for the win!

Price – $2.29 (a good price for a lot of crackers)

Rating – 4