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

Campfire S'Mores Bar

I am guessing that this is a seasonal item, for s’more season.  The package says a serving size is 1/3 of the bar.  Here is what we thought when we tried it for dessert after a late night dinner while watching the very disappointing final episode of the Amazing Race on DVR (the wrong team won):

David when we bought this treat.  He looks not 100% convinced, which surprises me!  He loves chocolate stuff.

David:  “Very good.  The chocolate is good.  The marshmallows are very good.  I would just say it could use more graham cracker to set it off, to give it substance.  As it is, it is kinda more a “chocolate bar with marshmallows with a little bit of graham cracker”, and if it had more graham cracker then I think it would be a nicer balance.  I’m going to give this a 4.0.”

Here is the TJ's Campfire S'mores before David dove into it.

My take on it: The thing that makes a S’MORES special is a campfire.  I think Trader Joe’s knows that, or they wouldn’t have named this product CAMPFIRE S’mores Bar, eh?  The whole concept of a s’mores brings to mind camping, sitting around a fire, smelling the smoke from the flames, laughing or singing with friends, and roasting marshmallows.  On the contrary, this “s’mores” from Trader Joe’s has us open a box and cut open a little bag.  Let’s just say that, in my mind at least, that destroys the “magic” of the s’mores.  Not making it yourself around a campfire defeats the purpose.

Also, this bar is weird.  Its base is a layer of mini marshmallows coated in chocolate, where a S’MORES base is a GRAHAM CRACKER.  Am I right here??  Can I get an “amen”???  This TJ’s s’more has no graham cracker bottom, let alone graham cracker top (yes, in my world a s’mores both begins and ends with a graham cracker.)  This TJ’s product is false advertising, man!!  It is calling itself something it is not 😊 .  There are only a few wimpy pieces of graham cracker scattered on top to make it look pretty.  I’m telling you, in a REAL S’MORES, the graham crackers serve a function, to hold your treat together!!   This is a campfire fail.  Why, if I was camping and someone handed me one of these puppies and said, “Would you like a s’more??” I would say, “Are you out of your frickin’ mind?  That is no s’more!  Where are the graham crackers?”. 

David pigging out

The taste of this treat is okay.  It is not amazing.  I am not a calorie counter, and even I say this is not worth the calories.  It is not that it tastes gross or anything, it just isn’t mind blowing and it is not a s’more. 

Price tag - see, it is NEW

Pretty packaging - doesn't it look like you would
 find graham cracker as a base??

One thing this has going for it is the packaging – the faux s’more is displayed nicely.  Though that display is also part of the trick – it makes it look like there is a traditional graham cracker base (which, I know am beating a dead horse when I mention this again, there is not…).   But dude, David even went through our cupboards looking for spare graham crackers to ADD to this treat (alas, we had none). 

Lest you think we are real CAMPERS, I must confess:  we do not camp.  Growing up my family "camped" in an RV (sorta faking it I guess, I mean, we had a little tv with us (though I am so old that it WAS black and white if that makes it sound more like "roughing it"...).  David hates bugs, so therefore hates tents.  However, we went GLAMPING a few years ago and it was insanely fun and cool.  We went to Yellowstone Under Canvas and loved it.  Here are a couple of photos - there was even a campfire!  (Link to the glamping site here:  Yellowstone Under Canvas Glamping

Oh, don't mind us.  We are just enjoying morning coffee on the "deck" of our "tent".  

See, a real live CAMPFIRE!!

Gorgeous set up and stunning surroundings 

Despite all of my misgivings about this Trader Joe's Campfire S'mores, I guess I will give this thing a 3.25. 

Price:  $2.99

Rating (average of 2 raters):  3.5

Day 304 - S'mashing S'mores

This review is the work of DAVID.  He consumed two whole packages of S'MASHING S'MORES before I had one single bite. 

David says – “PERFECT.

Even before we checked out of the grocery store David was in love with these things.

These are the perfect blend of:

·         Chocolate, which is goooood chocolate.  (I clarified – milk or dark?  He confirmed – MILK with drizzles of dark chocolate on top.)

·         Marshmallows, that are not hard but not too soft and not too thick – this is kind of a “3 Little Bears” type of dessert!

·         Cookie underneath, whatever it is, it is between a graham cracker and a shortbread cookie thing, it is very nice.  (Editor's note - the package says it is graham cracker.)

They have the balance perfectly.  It is small enough to be able to pop it in your mouth if you are a “normal” person, and to provide about 4 delicious bites if you are me!  (This also called for clarification – do you mean if you are an abnormal person??  Yes…)

 I feel I must point out that as you are eating this in bites, if you eat it in bites, is that as you bite down on it little bits of crumbs fall out and you might risk dropping a crumb or two.”

Here is what the insides look like

David would pay five times
this amount for this treat

The lady in the store and the container both mentioned heating one of these S’Mores in the microwave and eating them like that.  David had been afraid to try that.  He said he was afraid that heating them would make the chocolate melt all over his hands and make the insides pour all out…  (I personally think he liked them so much straight out of the container that he could not bothered to get up off of the couch to walk to the microwave…)

I convinced him to try one heated up.  He liked it equally as well as the room temperature version.  I even got a little nibble of a heated up one and it was quite nice. 

If you heat it up it gets a bit gooey!  Yummy.

When I asked him what rating he would give this product he answered with an extremely quick and unequivocable “FIVE!!!!”.  When pressed a bit he said, “They are chocolate.  They are cookies.  What’s not to love??” .  There you have it, folks, a FIVE from the discerning David. 

Price – $4.29

Rating - 5

Day 282 - Dark Chocolate Covered Honey Grahams with Sea Salt

David was excited to get these treats.  He thought they sounded amazing and bought them on a shopping trip when I was not with him.  Therefore, he had opened the package and eaten a great deal of them before I got around to tasting one.  He is way more into snacking than I am.

I packed some of these as “Pope Snacks” and brought them with me to the “Pope Parade” to munch on while waiting for the Pope to whiz by in his Pope Mobile in Washington DC.  (That was a WHOLE LOTTA “Pope”s in one sentence!)  We had to leave home to get to the parade area around 5:45 am and I knew snacks would be required since we would be waiting around a few hours.

Pope card game!!

Pope snacks - gotta have 'em!

So these Dark Chocolate Covered Honey Grahams with Sea Salt were taste tested while sitting on a blanket on a very crowded DC sidewalk.  For me, the chocolate part of these graham crackers was a little bit too hard.  I cannot fully blame that on the product though, since David HAD opened the package a week or two before I ate them, so maybe they were not quite as hard when they were freshly opened.  The sea salt (in my opinion) was the best part.  There was not a ton of sea salt – just a tiny bit – but when you got a hint of it with a bite it was a nice zing of “savory” in with the sweet. 

The chocolate was quite THICK.  In the center of the cracker there is an equal amount of CRACKER and CHOCOLATE – making it thicker than it needs to be.  They taste much more like CHOCOLATE than graham cracker.

Multi-tasking - snacking, reviewing, and waving a teeny tiny Vatican flag.

David says, “These are very good.  Good chocolate.  The sharp sea salt bits that you encounter are delightful as a counterpoint.  I recommend letting the chocolate M-E-L-T, not rushing it in your mouth so that the smooth chocolate can floooow all around your mouth.”

These would be good to pop in your lunch bag before heading to the office.  Or in your kid’s lunch bag for school.  They are hearty so not as melt-y as some other chocolate items might be.  I think they would be a good dessert served with a nice espresso. 

Look!  The Pope went right in front of me in his Pope Mobile!!!!

UPDATE – Before I could post this review, we popped into a Trader Joe’s to get photos.  Remember, David purchased this one when I was not with him, hence NO PHOTOS of the price tag or the packaging.  But when we looked for them last night, we could not find them.  Frightened that they had been discontinued (common at Trader Joe’s), I asked an employee, who went to check then remind me that they had been RECALLED.  I remember seeing a sign about that in the store when it happened.  DRAT!  Apparently there was milk in them and it was not listed on the ingredient list, so they recalled them.  Boo!  (But better THAT than if, say, a salmonella scare…)  I called Trader Joe’s Customer Relations Department to ask when we might expect to see them again and they had no estimated time.  But they ARE getting them back.  I mean, think about it.  A really yummy snack.  A reasonable price.  Loads of people begging for them.  And the supplier just need to delete a line on the ingredients list!  I can’t imagine it’ll take TOO LONG – this is a total guess on my part but I would think they would want htem back on the shelves before the holiday season.  Here is a link to info on the recall:  http://www.traderjoes.com/announcement/recall-undeclared-milk-in-dark-chocolate-covered-honey-grahams

Flag flying in the sunshine - Washington DC, Vatican, and USA

When I see them on shelves again I will comment here to let you know – GO GET ‘EM!

Price - $3.99

Rating – 4.25

Bonus photo for anyone who scrolled down this far - POPE-A-POTTIES.  There were LOTS of them.  :)

Day 174 - Kono Sauvignon Blanc

OK, this is an odd review.  Because this was an ODD SITUATION!

We went to Omaha, NE for a quick 4 day visit.  I grew up there and all of my family still lives there.  There were lots of events happening over the weekend – my twin nephews’ birthdays (happy birthday Trevor and Jordan!), getting to meet my just born great niece, Father’s Day, and a dinner at a Mexican restaurant to celebrate my birthday, which was a week ago.  So it worked out great to go at this particular time.

I, of couuurse, planned to pop by Trader Joe’s while there since I had not visited that location since I began this blog.  Omaha was the 12^th Trader Joe’s in the 7^th state (well, one is a District) that I have checked out this year!  My family was planning a weenie roast and s’mores making evening on our last night in town, so I picked up some supplies for that – graham crackers (to be reviewed soon), Triple Ginger Snaps (aye carumba I just checked and those haven’t been reviewed yet???  That sure surprises me!!!  They will be soon.) which I thought would go well with the roasted marshmallows, beer brewed in Nebraska, and wine.  I had asked my nephew and his partner if they would help me write a review and they said it sounded fun and would do it, so I thought using those products we could do a tasting during the s’mores night and write something up.

Omaha Nebraska Trader Joe's (at 1 Pacific Place) - very nice store

Boy was I wrong…

It turns out it was not an intimate family night around a campfire – it was a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY for me with around 40 people.  And there was not a campfire to be found!  It was sure fun and a big surprise.  And it turned out I showed up at my own party with a Trader Joe’s bag full of groceries!! 

Some of the friends and family waiting to SURPRISE me with a big sign!

But my sisters had planned all the food out, and I was having too much fun seeing people I hadn’t seen in years and chatting to think about a review, so we didn’t get to tasting until after the guests had gone.  Then we sat down and had some of this wine (and a Nebraska beer which will be reviewed later).  Contributing to the review is me, my partner David, and my sister Sherry.  I invited my other sister Annette to contribute, too, but she didn’t feel qualified J. 

My sisters and I - me, Annette, and Sherry - at the party

So here is what we thought:

This Kono Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) is very citrus tasting.  Sherry identified the citrus as GRAPEFRUIT.  The label mentions gooseberries and passion fruit, but we will just call it CITRUS, ok?  The signage in the store says it serves up “lemon-lime and green apple flavor”, so heck, maybe it is a mix of a whole bunch of fruit flavors.  I think it needs to be well chilled to be enjoyed.  David described it as crisp, light, and mentioned that “it has flavor”.  Umm, doesn’t all wine have flavor?  I do believe this particular comment was a bit vague…

Kono Sauvignon Blanc (Omaha Trader Joe's signage)

I realized after a few sips that it would pair well with Triple Ginger Snaps, so I busted them out and I was right!  It seems sort of an odd pairing in that the wine tastes distinctly SUMMERY and the cookies have a bit of a WINTER taste, but together they complement one another.

The label tells us it is a New Zealand wine – Maori.  It seems to me that those Kiwis often make a nice wine.

So, it could have been the post party glow, but we all enjoyed this wine.  Each of us rated it a 4, so it was easy to average the ratings out.  I did the math, no calculator required.  J

Price - $8.99

Rating – 4

(Rating of the surprise birthday party – a solid 5)