Showing posts with label pesto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pesto. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Day 307 - Pizza Dough

Before I review today’s product, let me give a shout out to my cashier at TJ’s (Bailey’s Crossroads) tonight.  The whole store seemed a bit “down” tonight, maybe it is because I rushed in half hour before closing time, or maybe  because they have been super busy changing over all of their Halloween displays to Thanksgiving displays.  But no employees were smiley or friendly like they usually are, except my pretty blue haired cashier.  I didn’t see her nametag but my receipt identifies her as “R. Sydney”.  She was very sweet and friendly.  And she did something that TJ’s employees always do – when she was checking me out and noticed something wasn’t right with a product, she gave a quick shout to a co-worker nearby, held up the product, and said, “Grab me one of these, please”.  And quick as you please, without me even being aware of what was wrong with my pasta, her co-worker brought back another one and we were in business.  Isn’t that great??  They CARE.  They even CHECK YOUR EGGS, people, to make sure none are broken.

Yes, Trader Joe’s cares.  Thanks R. Sydney!

Now, onto the review!  PIZZA DOUGH!

Hey, hey, hey!  It's a PIZZA!  
We really like Trader Joe’s pizza dough.  “Why?” you ask.  Because it gives us an excuse to MAKE PIZZA!  We are one of the very few households in America that rarely consumes pizza.  Like, we eat so little pizza that if we called Domino’s for delivery, our address wouldn’t automatically pop up associated with our phone number.  I KNOOOOW – bizarre, eh??  J

But when we buy this pizza dough (which is probably ever 3 or 4 months), we make our own pizza and it is lovely!  Before we bought this dough we almost NEVER made pizza.  One other reason that I have always liked this dough is because I enjoy watching David stretch it out into a flat circle, it looks so much like a “David thing” that I thought he liked doing it.  Only the last time we made this and I mentioned that, he informed me that stretching out the dough is actually sort of stressful for him (he doesn’t want to mess it up I guess).  Oops, sorry David! 

Stretch that dough David!
One pizza, comin' up!



































Our most recent pizza invention was:  dough, homemade pesto from our garden basil, mushrooms, red onion, green pepper from our garden, tomato from our garden (end of October, end of garden season in Northern Virginia), garlic, and THREE different kinds of cheese!  We had leftover parmesan from pesto making so we threw that on, and we bought Romano recently when David made eggplant parmesan, so we threw that on, and we topped it all off with mozzarella.   Yummmmm – cheeeese…

Here it is before going into the oven - ahhhh pizza perfection!

But I digress, this is supposed to be about the pizza DOUGH.  It is a fine dough.  I have no problems with it.  It is FUN to put all of the toppings on yourself.  I am a fan!

David says:  “GREAT PIZZA CRUST.  Moreover, the CONCEPT of being able to buy a pizza crust, have it in your fridge for a few days, take it out whenever you are ready, and have a pizza crust and throw WHATEVER YOU WANT on it – FABULOUS.  Try it!  You will love it.  All you need is something on the bottom – tomato, or pesto, or I guess maybe you could even just do olive oil or you could put a cheese sauce on there!  Then throw every vegetable you can think of on there!  Maybe add some olives.  Top it with cheese.  A sprinkle of olive oil.  Put it in the oven – it’ll be FABULOUS!  The thing about this crust is that it tastes great.  It tastes like “homemade” (that is if you were an Italian in a pizza kitchen) crust!  And you can feel it, you can smell it in your hands as you are dealing with the ball of dough.  It is stretchy.  One caveat:  do not forget that you need to take it out of the fridge 20 – 30 minutes before you want to work with it.  You know, if you are hungry you are gonna feel the temptation to go, “Ya know, it is squishy, it is just outta the fridge, I can work with it…”.  But it will be so much more pliable if you let it sit at room temperature for 20 – 30 minutes.  It will make it all easier.”

HOMEMADE PIZZZZZZA - this is the "before" photo
And you will feel kind of proud ‘cuz you made it YOURSELF.  It is also a good way to get rid of vegetables that you have that might be getting ready to go off. 

We are a fan of this dough.  Find it over by the cheese at Trader Joe’s.  It makes for a fun dinner.  If you have kids you could separate the dough into little balls and have the kids make their own pizzas.  I remember doing that once at a party as a kid and I was ultra proud of making my own dinner.

David says that this dough is a gateway and the key item to the whole EVENT of being able to make your own pizza (maybe as a group!) with fresh ingredients and eat it!  It is fabulous.
This is one "after" photo....

And the true "AFTER" photo...  
We give this pizza dough a top rating, both for the TASTE and for the EXPERIENCE that it provides of making your own pizza.

Sure, the dough doesn't have tons of ingredients, but for what it saves you in stress and effort, and for the delicious taste, and mostly for the EXCUSE TO MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA PARTY, this price is crazy cheap.
Price – $1.19

Rating - 5

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Day 246 - Shredded Parmesan

We normally buy a CHUNK of parmesan and shred it ourselves.  But I thought I would try something new this time, thought I would go the “lazy route” and buy some pre-shredded cheese.  After all, I need products to review, right?

12 Oz bag of freshly shredded parmesan
I really like parmesan.  And this was a good tasting one.  It was just a weird SIZE in my opinion.  The shreds were not big enough to munch on as chunks, yet were too big to throw on top of pasta and call it a day… 
  
The bits were just too BIG... Here they are on top of macaroni pasta (recently reviewed) and garden tomatoes
I guess the ideal use for this cheese would be on top of homemade PIZZA.  That way it would melt and, as so many people like to say, size wouldn’t matter.

We did find another use for it – we put it in homemade pesto.  Once a year we celebrate PESTO DAY by harvesting all of the pesto out of our garden, borrowing a food processor, and going crazy making pesto.  We put cheese in some of it and leave some of it “naked”.  So we used this shredded parmesan for that and it seems fine.

After midnight - the end of a very long PESTO DAY!  22 sealed bags of fresh pesto!
 Overall, an okay cheese.  I prefer to cut and shred my own so I can get the size I want, so I don’t think I will be investing in this one again. 

Price – $5.49

Rating – 3.5

Monday, August 31, 2015

Day 243 - Baronia Elbow Macaroni

Elbow macaroni is a shape of pasta we do not normally buy.  Let’s face it – elbow macaroni is a younger peoples’ macaroni, no?  Sure, it is not DINOSAUR SHAPED macaroni or anything as kiddie as THAT, but it is also not linguine or angel hair pasta. 

It does not look like normal Trader Joe's packaging
Even so, we bought it the other night to give it a whirl.  After all, when you have a project to write a new review every single day for a whole entire year, you are bound to end up with stuff in your shopping cart that might not normally be there.

This was a good choice.  It was a simple, honest, al dente macaroni.  We served it with pesto (made from our garden and frozen, not sure which year this one was from, but we will be making THIS YEAR’S BATCH this weekend!). 

Baronia Elbow Macaroni with homemade pesto
(I snapped this pic before we added other ingredients that made it hard to see the pasta)
This would be a good pasta to use to make mac and cheese (not that we ever make homemade mac and cheese, but now that I am thinking about it I realize we need to try that).  You could also use it in a soup or stew.  And of course, if you have kids, I think this is a good kid pasta.

Overall a fine little elbow macaroni.  It is a product of Italy and not in “normal” Trader Joe’s packaging.  But it is priced right and tastes fine.

Price – .99

Rating - 4

Friday, August 7, 2015

Day 219 - Spaghetti (Spiga di Pugua)

Did someone say “spaghetti”??  If there was EVER a staple food that should always be in a cupboard, it would be spaghetti (or some other shape of pasta).  You can boil up some water, heat up some sauce, and have dinner on your plate in minutes! 

We make PESTO out of the basil in our garden at the end of every summer and freeze tons of it.  Then we can just unfreeze a packet and put it on pasta whenever we want something super tasty!!  So even in the middle of winter, our garden is bringing us love.  J

Pesto making 2011
Can you say "PESTO PARTY"??


 Anyway, this review is not about our pesto (which would OF COURSE get 5 stars…) it is about this TJ’s spaghetti.  It is GOOD!  At only .99 cents I also think it is a bargain.  It cooked up perfectly and was a good base for our recent garden creation:  this spaghetti, a bit of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, green and red peppers from the garden, garden tomatoes, and garden basil – served with a side of grilled egg plant straight out of the garden!!!  It takes a hearty pasta to stand up to all that garden goodness, and this one did it!!


This is the BEFORE photo of what went on our pasta...
TADA - the AFTER!!!  There is pasta under that pile of produce, trust me...
The only suggestion I have is that somehow pasta makers get better packaging.  We cannot be the only 2 person family in this country that does not use a whole bag of pasta for one meal…  Once it is opened it is kind of hard to store in the cupboard.  I do not worry about it going stale (since it is a dried product) but I put this bag back a tiny bit incorrectly in the cupboard and the next thing  you know PASTA seemed to be falling from the sky onto my head, the counter, and the floor!  It is raining dried pasta!!!!  If the bag had a little Ziploc type closure on it that could be prevented.  Something to consider, corporate office.

See - only .99 cents!
Good pasta.  Good price.  Get it.

Price - .99

Rating – 4.25

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Day 209 - Girasoli Ricotta and Lemon Zest (Ravioli)

Yum!  We served these ravioli with homemade pesto (we grow basil and try and have a big pesto making event at the end of every summer then freeze it in heat sealed bags.  It takes quite a few hours but it is well worth it – the pesto we unfroze tonight was from 2013 and it was fantastic!).  Our side dish was baby bok choy (reviewed way back on day 38).

Yummy dinner!
First impression – lemon zest!  Not overpowering though, very calm, well behaved lemon taste.  Then ricotta.  For David, there was a bit too much ricotta, so he added more pesto to balance things out.  But for me, good ricotta level. 

These make for a good, simple dinner.  They only take 3 minutes to cook.  I think they would be fine to serve if you have guests over.  You do not want a heavy sauce with them – I would like them with just olive oil but I fear my date would not. 

Even before we brought them home and cooked them, David guessed these would be Italian good
Speaking of my date, here is what David has to say about these ravioli:  Tasty.  Great mouth feel.  Filling filling (that is adjective then noun – see what he did there?).  Serve with a flavorful sauce because ricotta doesn’t have much taste on its own (see!  I TOLD you he wouldn’t want these with just olive oil!).  They cooked just fine following the directions and that is good, none exploded.

Hard to spell name...
 The package says this is 3 servings.  I would say it is 2.5 servings.

I will buy these again.  Good summer dish.

Price – $2.99

Rating – 4.25

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Day 178 - Spaghetti

I guess, in the grand scheme of things, pasta is pasta.  I mean, if we are talking about just a bag (or box) of dried pasta that you are gonna throw in a pot of boiling water, drain, then throw sauce over.  Oh sure, you might find some FANCIER fresh pastas, but in the dried pasta department all the brands seem pretty much the same to me.  (Maybe it is because I have a cold today and am a little bit cranky…)

Anyway, we recently served this Trader Joe’s Spaghetti at a dinner with guests.  It was fine.  It is spaghetti.  It was no better or worse than the other brands of dried pasta that we cook.  (I will say that the sauce, homemade pesto made with basil from our garden, was tasty J ).

Product of Italy, so it can't be a bad pasta, right?  :)
Here are the reviews of some of the guests who ate it (not all guests wrote reviews, I assume their take is like mine, pasta is pretty much pasta):

-          3 - “Pasta noodles could be a bit larger and less stail (I believe this means stale) but overall pretty good”(written by a kid whose parents probably usually serve fatter pasta J )
-          4 - “A basic spaghetti that goes with everything” (also written by a cute kid)

So if you want to eat pasta and you are at TJ’s, just pick up some of theirs.  It will do just fine.  My rating if I did it on my own would be a 3, but I will average that with the 2 guests who rated it to come out with a final number. 

Front porch dinner party (one of the reviewers took this photo of the adults)
P.S. – sorry this review is not that great…  I promise more inspired ones to come.  I just do not feel well.  L

Price - .99

Rating – 3.25

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Day 161 - Alfredo Pasta Sauce


Another cute Florida Trader Joe's sign - flamingo!
I don’t often think of ALFREDO when I think pasta.  I always think of red sauce or pesto (we have a freezer full of little pesto packs we have made from garden basil, so it is an easy thing to make when we want pasta).  But we recently had Trader Joe’s Chicken Pot Pie Ravioli (reviewed yesterday, day 160, on this blog) and we wanted a non-red/non-pesto sauce to go over it.  Enter TRADER GIOTTO’S ALFREDO SAUCE.  It has Romano and Parmesan cheeses – yummmmm.

Grab a jar of this on your next visit to Trader Joe's
It was great on the ravioli!  All we did was heat it and pour it over the pasta.  Ahhhh – almost no work at all to have a tasty, creamy meal!!!  All I added to the sauce was freshly ground pepper.  We used half the jar on this meal which means we have another half jar to enjoy later!  It would be tasty on fettuccine, so maybe that will be the next pasta it goes over.

Alfredo being poured over ravioli - can't you almost TASTE the goodness?
I am going to broaden my sauce horizons and remember ALFREDO in the future.  It is nice to mix things up a bit, and this cheesy creamy sauce deserves some love.

Price - $3.29

Rating – 4.75