Day 320 - Chicken Pot Pie (fresh)

Let's start with something FUN - Clarendon Trader Joe's (Virginia, right outside Washington DC) is where the awesome Rebekah works.  She is the only store rep who has written me back (out of the 21 stores we have visited and I have written to about this blog project).  Her store is now having THIS super fun contest:

Well, we do not have a dog or cat...  So we do not consume TJ's pet food products (this sign was hanging in the pet food aisle).  HOWEVER, we do have a couple of furry friends who like TJ's stuff, so went sent in these entries:

Ted loves TJ's honey

Ty is a fan of TJ's bananas

Aren't they adorable?  :)  Seriously though, I think it is great that some Trader Joe's store really get into the "fun spirit" and host stuff like this.  Ok, now onto today's review.

This was not a frozen chicken pot pie, but one of the “fancier” fresh ones that are in the refrigerated section (by the hummus and cheeses).  I think it is a seasonal item. 

I wish I would have grabbed the TURKEY Pot Pie right next to this...  Maybe we just got a bad one??

David loved this.  He even uttered , “Deee-licious.”

I cooked this (and by “cooked” I mean “put it in the oven which was preheated to 375 and followed the instructions for how long to cook it”.  It isn’t rocket science).  And STILL…  sigh.  It was super watery and not even HOT all the way through even though I left it in the oven longer than the instructions said.  I think the instructions need to be modified. 

David agreed that it was too watery and seemed to try to veil his suspicion that I somehow cooked it wrong (I HEATED IT UP, WHAT COULD GO WRONG??) by saying that, “Even despite the consistency it was great.  it may be possible to cook this in such a way that it was not quite this watery”. 

He looks over the moon about it and he hasn't even TASTED it yet

I was disappointed in this puppy.  When I took it out of the oven it looked like it was cooked.  It wasn’t until I had cut it in half and put it on plates that I realized it was still very chilly inside.  I had to bung it in the microwave. I thought the chicken chunks in this were too big and some had hard BITS.  There wasn’t a lot of creaminess – it could use a creamier sauce.

Here it is before I cut it.  See, how was I to know it was still COLD on the inside?  Deceptive...

Here is the watery mess of the inside.  Note:  no steam coming off of this...
Also, does it look like the picture on the front of the box?  Not so much...

I think we had this last year in the autumn and we remembered it as being good.  But maybe we had the TURKEY pot pie and not the chicken one, perhaps this is different.  This brought nothing special to the table and needed salt and pepper just to add some jazz.

The container says this dish is 3 servings.  We would beg to differ and say it is 2, maybe 2.5 if you have half a person at your dinner table.  We cut it down the middle and each ate half.  Then again, we didn’t make a vegetable to go with it.

I say skip this chicken pot pie and buy a cheaper frozen one.  it might not be “fancy” but it will be less watery.  Or better still, buy TJ’s Chicken Pot Pie Ravioli!  Now THOSE are yummy and well priced!  Chicken Pot Pie Ravioli review here

David gives this a 4.25.  I give it a 3.25 (that is being a bit generous).

Price – $6.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 299 - Tangerine Juice

Before I start this review, let me express my happiness and appreciation.  Another reader sent me a TJ’s bag and honey!!!!!!!!  Can you even believe it?  Peoples’ generosity really makes me smile!! 

  

LOOK!!!  Another box in the mail from a blog friend!!

This one came from Robert, a reader who also has a Trader Joe’s blog (something I didn’t know existed until I was well into this project – note to self:  Google before starting huge projects!!!).  He got me a bag from the Ashville, NC Trader Joe’s store and it is SO CUTE!  We have used it several times.  The other night our cashier, Carole, at the Clarendon VA store noticed it and loved it!  Carole had a great idea:  people should be able to buy and collect the TJ’s bags from all the states!  She said that she for one would start a collection.  Hey, it would be more useful than those Disney collectible pins, my collection of squished pennies, or some of the other things people collect, wouldn’t it??  She thought the NC bag was awesome, and so do I!  We have not tasted the honey yet, but it came in a delightful jar that made it look as if your Great Aunt Tilly made the honey for you instead of a store.  As soon as we finish one of the honeys we have open this one is next on deck!  Robert’s blog also reviews Trader Joe’s products and is very fun.  You can find it at: Exploring Trader Joe's blog

Look!!!  An adorable NC bag and a jar of HONEY!  

Robert recently reviewed TJ’s Tangerine Juice.  Here is his review that I saw, which piqued my interest in this product:  Exploring Trader Joe's Tangerine Juice review .  Tangerine juice was something I had not tried before, and Robert liked it, so I figured, “Let’s give it a go!”. 

Here's the bottle - 32 fl oz of straight tangerine juice

Ohhhh Robert, Robert, Robert…  What path did you lead me down???

OK, so at $3.29 for a 32 oz bottle, this was not a cheap drink.  It was more of a “splurge” for a bit of excitement, or a health food splurge if you will since the ingredient (singular) is just TANGERINE JUICE.  I thought this would be a nice treat.  I was wrong.

It is very BITTER.  The first drink was horrible.  Bad, bad, bad….  The second drink (this is going to sound weird I know, but I am being honest here) tasted like colonoscopy prep stuff…  If you have ever had a colonoscopy you KNOW the taste I am talking about.  I must have had orange or tangerine flavored prep one time because when the second drink of this tangerine juice hit my taste buds I had a colonoscopy flashback!  (Note:  this is not really a flashback you want to have.)  I was a bit afraid I might have to excuse myself to the bathroom if I continued to drink this juice, but I convinced myself that this was not, as my sisters and I like to call it, “Go All Nightly” (colonoscopy prep stuff).  I steeled myself to take another sip.*

Looks pretty in our juice glasses, eh?

The 3^rd and 4^th drinks got a little better.  Not GOOD mind you, but BETTER.   To me it tastes like Tang.  I don’t remember ever having Tang at our house growing up but I must have had it at a friend’s house, because this makes me think TANG!  To me, the only thing cool about Tang was the idea that actual real live astronauts up in space might have drank it.  The taste, to me, is not cool…   I wasn’t sure what the actual FLAVOR of Tang was, so I Googled it.  Consensus seemed to be that it was supposed to be ORANGE, and I was going to go along with that.  Only, in the middle of the night I had an “Aha!” moment – HEL-LO!  Tang?  T-A-N-G…  Tang.  Umm, those are the first four letters of TANGerine!  Obviously the flavor of Tang is tangerine, it is just tricky in that we pronounce it differently than you would expect!  So Tang is basically a covert astronaut drink.

First taste

Reaction....

Of this TJ’s Tangerine juice, David says, “I agree.  The taste is very bitter at the beginning.  It gets better – I guess you get used to it.  The tangerine taste itself is nice – it is very “tangerine-y”. It’s just I think they made the mistake of squeezing the tangerines a bit too hard so you get a lot of the rind taste, which is a bit bitter.”

The color of this juice is unnaturally bright orange.  It is a very pretty color!  We have a wall this color.  But I would rather see this color on a wall I guess than in my juice glass.

See, our wall is the same color!  New Year's Eve tradition - eat 12 grapes in one minute at the stroke of midnight!  (As you can see we were drinking an excellent Beaujolais Nouveau reviewed waaaaay back on day 2 of this blog!  Review here )

We both gave this juice a 2.5 rating.  The upside is that it quenches your thirst.  Then again, water can do that, too, and it is not as expensive or nearly as bitter.

If you WANT Tangerine Juice, get it at TJ's - it was much
more expensive at Safeway

Sorry Robert, we need to agree to disagree on this one.  J  It is a good example of how some things taste great to some people and “meh” to others.  But THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the gifts!  I love them!

*Note from David:  Susan has a bit of PTSD about colonoscopy prep, so expressions of her feelings on that issue may appear larger than in your rear view mirror.

Price - $3.29

Rating – 2.5

Day 271 - Mike's Hot Honey

You can’t imagine how thrilled I am. 

First off, this whole blog...  I started this as a “project” – one of many that I do.  Most of my projects are local – stuff around my neighborhood.  For example, I turned the “do not cross” red hand on the crosswalk sign next to our house into an “I Love You” ASL sign (black tape, shhhh!). 

Our crosswalk.  Shhh, it has been this way for 2 years. Sharing some love in our hood.

For another project I hung digital cameras (in Ziploc baggies to protect them from the weather) on our front and side gates for a couple of months and put up signs asking people to use them to photograph what to them was “Inspiration, Beauty, and Joy” (if you want to read about that project and see more photos from it, I wrote it up here: Inspiration, Beauty, and Joy )  Here are some of the photos that random strangers who walked by our house took, aren't they great??

Dogwood tree in bloom - mystery photographer at side gate

Mystery shoes

Selfie?  Mystery kid at front gate

Who isn't inspired by iced coffee on a hot day?  Side gate

Peace and roses - beautiful (side gate)

Night time image captured by someone who left a note for the project, too - guy from Brazil.  Cool eh?

So this Trader Joe's blog was one of THOSE types of projects.  Something to let me express my creativity and explore.  But it has turned into so much more!  Today (or tomorrow) I will hit 30,000 views!  30,000 views on my Trader Joe’s reviews!  That seems remarkable to me (maybe in this day and age of stuff “going viral” 30,000 doesn’t sound like a lot to you, but to me, the person whose projects normally only reach people who walk by my home, 30,000 is a lot J ).

This blog has given me a sense of a wider community.  Visiting Trader Joe’s in 10 states (and one District…) so far has been a blast!  We have met cool people in all of those locations.  And so many people are reading this blog - people from all over the world, which is insane to me!  There is someone reading in Bangladesh, in the Ukraine, places that certainly do not have a Trader Joe’s (blog analytics show me the countries which is how I know).   Maybe those readers just end up on the blog through a Google search, maybe they have a friend shipping them TJ’s stuff from the USA, who knows.

And some people take the time to COMMENT on my blog posts.  I LOVE THAT!  Whether they agree with my review or have a different opinion, I love when people comment!! 

One person comments frequently.  I do not know them.  I did not know where they lived.  Just knew that they were reading, enjoying the blog, and sometimes commented.  And every time they DID comment, it made me smile so big.  Well, when I published the review of Turkish Honey (Turkish Honey Review ), they commented:  “  I don’t have this at my Trader Joe’s!  L  Honey on Greek yogurt with fruit is like the perfect breakfast.  I’m sure you’ll use it in hot tea and oatmeal this winter.”  

This stuff is delicious!

Well, I replied to that comment and told them I would be happy to SEND THEM some Turkish Honey!  Heck, I felt like we had commented back and forth so much on the blog that we were friends of a sort!  Cyber friends. 

So we switched the comments over to email and guess what?  THEY OFFERED TO DO A HONEY SWAP!!  If I sent them Turkish Honey, they would send me a special honey that only their Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn carries – Mike’s Hot Honey!  Well you didn’t have to ask me twice!  They could have offered to send me a lump of dirt in exchange for the Turkish Honey and I probably would have accepted cuz I was so excited!!

Mike's Hot Honey, infused with Chilies...  Intriguing, no??

Fast forward – the Turkish Honey arrived in NY, they love it!  J  And the Mike’s Hot Honey arrived at my house this weekend.  I was SO EXCITED!   I opened it last night.  Guess what?  Not only did they send HONEY, they sent a TRADER JOE’S NYC BAG!  You may not know this if you do not shop often at TJ’s, but most states have their own reusable BAGS. They feature something special about that state/city.  This NYC one is great!!!  I love it and will feel very fancy carrying it this afternoon to my local TJ’s.  (Note – the Ohio stores do not have special bags, and their staff was sad about that when we were there.  Corporate, I said it before and I say it again, OHIO NEEDS BAGS.  Please get on that.  J )

Awww, there is a TJ's CARD in the package!

What the what???  A cool NYC TJ's bag, too????

Honey that is HOT??  I am a little worried...

So I opened the Mike’s Hot Honey (honey infused with chilies).  Let me just say that from the get go, before even tasting it, I loved this product.  I loved that it is LOCAL – most Trader Joe’s have one or two local items (often local beer, sometimes wine) but the rest are standard across the stores.  I love finding the local stuff.  I think it is SO COOL when local companies get their products into Trader Joe’s.  I think it must be a great move for them.  I like the PACKAGING of this product – the artwork on the label is really good and the sort of old fashioned plaid pattern on the bottle is so in conflict with the concept of mixing HONEY with CHILIES – definitely NOT an old fashioned thing to do…  I love the COLOR of this honey – it is a golden amber.  And last (but probably most importantly) I loved that it was given as a gift from a reader of this blog!  A cyber friend!!!

So all that was left to do was TASTE it!

Isn't is a gorgeous color??

I made (not from scratch) pumpkin cookies this morning.  David and I both have the day off and we are in slow motion, so breakfast wasn’t until 11 am.  Grapefruit, kefir (to be reviewed soon), espresso, and pumpkin cookies.  But wait – how about PUMPKIN COOKIES DIPPED IN MIKE’S HOT HONEY??  I thought the spice (like nutmeg spice, not hot spice) of the cookie might be a perfect combination with the SPICY spice of the honey.

Please let this mystery Honey Swap Honey be good...  (This is me in the morning, got my hair pulled back and robe on...)

And I was right!

IT IS GOOD!!!  What a combo!

Oh man! 

This is a 12 oz bottle of awesomeness.  The first taste you get when eating this is HONEY.  Followed shortly by spice…  After that you get a huge kick in the ass of CHILI.  It is; HONEY, WARM, ON FIIIIRE all within a millisecond.

The label says you can enjoy it on “pizza, chicken, ribs, salads, cheese, yogurt, fruits, ice cream, roasted veggies, in cocktails and many other foods”.   I can imagine if you had chicken for dinner and had hot biscuits – put a glop of butter and some of this hot honey on the biscuit.  Oh and dipping fried chicken in it would be amazing.  Or drizzling it on CHEESE – maybe a hard cheese.  But I cannot imagine putting it on yogurt, that doesn’t sound yummy to me.  But PIZZA crust dipped in it I think would be good!  The person who sent it to me told me that a local pizza place has this honey for just that use. 

David, a careful dipper

Here was David’s take on it:  “Nah.  This is an example of cramming two things together that don’t belong together in a desperate effort to create a new product to sell.  You need this as badly as you need a formal ball gown that comes complete with a parachute harness.  I will take my honey sweet, thanks.  I like my honey like I like my women – nice and sweet.  I give this honey a 1.”

Not a fan.

Susan:  THIS IS FUNKY AND COOL.  I, as the author of the blog, completely override David’s lame review and give this a 5. 

David:  “Now you are just being spiteful…”

So this entry was a bit long, but I wanted to share with you the joy I get from writing here, from meeting people in the stores, and “meeting” some of you virtually.  Thanks for being so supportive of this blog.  And if you want to get this Mike’s Hot Honey (you should try it!) and do not live in Brooklyn, you can order it online at:  http://mikeshothoney.com/

Price - $6.99 (which is crazy, cuz ordering the same size bottle from the company that makes it is more expensive…  I guess this is a deal TJ’s cut with them to sell it at a discount and do a high volume)

Rating - 5

Day 256 - Turkish Honey

We bought this honey in early 2015 in a LaJolla, CA Trader Joe’s.  As sometimes happened early on in this project, we would see a product in another state at a Trader Joe’s and think, “Wait!  We do not have that at our LOCAL Trader Joe’s!”.   We would be envious!!  And we would BUY said product, thinking we had scored a special gem.  Later, upon returning home and going to our local Trader Joe’s, we would inevitably find the same product on the shelf there…  In truth, most Trader Joe’s carry the same products.  There are a few local items at some stores, but 9 times out of 10 you can find the same products in different states.  (Local BEER is an exception, and some local wines as well.) 

La Jolla, CA Trader Joe's signage - cool lettering, eh?

So though we BOUGHT it early on in this project, we only recently got around to opening it.  Yes, we flew with it in a checked suitcase (couldn’t carry it in our carry on, honey is liquid) from California, put it in the cupboard, and waited months to open it.  We do not get through a ton of honey in our household so this one waited for us until another bottle was empty.

It was worth the wait!

Here is the bottle - can you see the pretty color of the honey?

I served it the other morning over Greek yogurt and peaches.  Here is what we thought of it:

David – “GREAT.  HONEY.  Smooth.  Rich.  Sweet, but not overly sweet.  And with the fabulous lingering afater-taste – no, it is really a taste at the “back end” of the experience like a Crème Caramel Brulee.  I have had many honeys, this is my favorite.  (I clarified here- your favorite of ALL THE HONEYS YOU HAVE EVER HAD IN YOUR LIFE, or of the Trader Joe’s honeys you have had, or what??)  Of all the honeys I can REMEMBER, which severely limits the field (this concept cracked us both up, because David, though he has an amaaaazing memory for the physical work in his solo shows, in general has a pretty crappy memory).   It is nice.“

Susan – This honey comes in a larger container than most honeys (1 lb 8 ounces), which worried me because, as I mentioned above, we do not get through a ton of honey.  David eats the majority of honey consumed in our house.  The last year or so I have taken to putting sugar on my yogurt (I know, I know, spreading SUGAR on yogurt immediately negates any and all health impacts the yogurt may have had…).  The “sugar on yogurt-y like food” thing is something I learned in Paris when we used to cover these little Petit Suisses with sugar.  Yummmmmy. 

Isn't is BEAUTIFUL?  Look at it pouring out - ahhhhh....  

Anyway, I was worried the container was too big for our use, but I think we will get through this one.  David loves this one so much he swears he will get through it.  We usually buy the cute little Honey BEARS, you know the ones.  But this honey is muuuuch tastier than those bears.  It is a darker, more golden color, too.  The cheaper honey bear honey is more yellow and see through.

The label says that the honey bees making this honey primarily foraged Rock Rose, Citrus, Wildflowers and Turkish Pines.  Maybe it is the PINES that give it that different taste.  It almost tastes a little bit burnt, but burnt in a GOOD WAY – a warm, nice, toasty way.  It is SWEET, but with a warm, toasty taste. 

Ahhhh- yogurt, fresh peach, and this golden  honey, what a tasty breakfast!

I like this a lot better than other honey we have had.  It is a good product and we think you should try it.

Price – $5.99

Rating - 5

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!