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

Barrel Ax Red (California)

Our bottle of Barrel Ax was a 2013 vintage (was that a good year for wine?).  This bottle was recommended by a super friendly and informative TJ’s employee at the Clarendon, VA store.  We asked if Emma Pearl wine (Emma Pearl Pinot Noir Review here) might be coming back (sadly, he thinks it is not, as it was a limited supply, sigh).  But since he knew we like Emma Pearl, he suggested we try this Barrel Ax (it is in the “super cheap wine” category, as was dear ol’ Emma).  It is only $3.99 a bottle, so we grabbed one.  I mean, how horrible can it be, it is not a huge investment, right?

Simple, cool label

Newsflash:  I REALLY LIKE BARREL AX!!

It is a pretty good substitute for Emma Pearl (which we hoarded a case of, but the case is almost gone).  Barrel Ax has a nice, balanced taste.  It is not too strong.  We drank it with a beef dinner (and had a second glass with brownies!).  It is a California wine, and the label says it has flavors of raspberry and strawberry and is aged in oak up to 5 months.  It also says that this is the perfect wine to enjoy with BBQ or PIZZA!  This is perfect, because David just scored us FREE PIZZA FOR A YEAR from a new local pizza place!!!!  I know, right???   (Story about the big pizza win here:  Pizza Kindness )

Whaaaat??  Free pizza for a YEAR?  

Barrel Ax is a good table wine.  It is simple, seems like it would pair well with about anything. 

David says, “I like it.  it is very deep and earthy and red table wine-y.  But not table wine-y in the sense that it tastes cheap and nasty, but rather that it is RICH and full bodied.  It goes well with a hearty meal, a beef or something.  It has a lot of tannin going on.”

David being tough with a bottle of wine

Susan:  Funnily enough, I think this wine tastes neither rich nor full bodied, the descriptions David gave it.  I don’t think it would over-power any meal.  It holds its own but it is not “rich” to me.

I think I might stock up on a case of this stuff!  Heck, we can just put it in the case that the Emma Pearl was in.  

Price:  $3.99

Rating:  4.25

Tarte d’Alsace

Hi guys!!!  I AM BACK!  Well, back for this review I mean.

Man, we got this pizza at the Orlando (Winterpark) Trader Joe’s and as soon as we took our first bites we looked at each other and said, “NOW THIS IS A GOOD PIZZA!” (we might have said something similar to that, I was way too busy eating pizza to write down our exact words).  Have you tried this one??  If you have not, please take a moment now to add it to your shopping list for your next visit to TJ’s.

David misunderstanding "tarte" for "tart"...  

The box says that this is a “French style flatbread with ham, caramelized onion, and gruyere cheese”.  Here is how I cooked this puppy:  heat the oven to 450 degrees for ten minutes, then put the pizza on a baking tray and cook it between 8 – 10 minutes (I cooked it 12 minutes).

Here are our rave reviews:

David – “This is great.  Oh my God.  The HAM is really tasty in a way that makes me think, it’s not the kind of ham you think of, it might be, like, pancetta or something like that.  The gruyere, of course, is a delicious cheese that you seldom run into.  The bread itself is crispy, thin and delightful because of the oil, or butter, the cheese or something – SOMETHING is going on there.  The whole thing is delightful!  Because you think you are gonna get a piece of pizza, ok, pizza, more pizza, oh well…  But then it turns out to be this FLATBREAD!  A flatbread that is soooo tasty, without the leaden weight of an American pizza thing.  Great!  High marks Trader Joe’s!!”

Oh man, looking at the photo makes my mouth water...  I wish we had another one to eat for dinner tonight.

I was trying to figure out the taste I was loving.  I thought maybe there was a béchamel sauce under the cheese or something.  But then I looked at the box and discovered the mystery – crème fraiche!  I think, to me, THAT is what gives it the simply amazing taste.  Well, that PLUS the gruyere.  Well, those two things PLUS the flatbread…  It is the combination of those three things that makes this such a winner.

(One theory that I have is that, as long as they started with those 3 ingredients I just raved about above, they could have topped it off with turds and it would still taste amazing.  Not that I want to SAMPLE that if they do it, mind you, but I’m just saying, with a base of those 3 rockin’ ingredients I might just accept whatever came next.)

The HAM has a nice little bit of salty quality but it is not at all overly salty.  Normally when I eat pizza I add hot pepper or hot pepper flakes to it.  David wanted to add extra mozzarella to this before we cooked it and I convinced him not to.  That was right!  Do NOT add to this masterpiece!  It is the perfect pizza without any messing around needed!!

This flatbread is seriously worth every penny of the $4.49

One weird thing about this item is that it is branded as being made by “Maître Pierre”.  Normally any French style stuff at TJ’s is branded “Trader Jacques” so that freaked us out a bit.  What’s up with that, Joe??  Anyone from corporate reading and can comment??

Quick side note here:  so we have been luxuriating in Florida for a month now.  It is almost time for our 14 hour drive back to real life.  Yes, cold winter looms.  But so does quick, easy access to TRADER JOE’S!!  We have missed it.  We brought lots of wine from TJ’s with us when we came to Florida, but not enough to last a whole month.  We had to break down and buy wine at the local Florida supermarket (Publix) this week! 

Look!  We don't ONLY shop at Trader Joe's!  We went to Ikea in Orlando.

I wanted to show you our new exciting stuff from Ikea!  The Florida house is very “beachy” – it is a block and a half from the ocean.  Because it is a vacation home, it is painted in what we think of as VACATION COLORS!  It is bright, bright, bright!  And now there is a kitchen cabinet to match it all!  Check out the new Ikea STUVA!!! 

David, in unmatched jammies, with the flatbread, in front of the Stuva.  What a combination!

It is designed to be a piece of furniture in a kid’s bedroom, but who says it is limited to that!  We have had it in the kitchen here 2 weeks now and it is working great!  We also got the little cutting board/table thing next to it and a butcher block to go on top of it.  Yeah, we went a little Ikea crazy…

The Stuva open - David loves the pull out wire drawer.  The dining room is the same color green as the Stuva.

The new wooden stand.  This is after we put beeswax treatment on the top of it, and before David went a little wacko and covered the whole entire thing with the treatment stuff...  Note the TJ's cider!!  

If you want to see more about the beach house or consider renting it for your vacation, check it out here:  Hibiscus House website

Back to the flatbread:  granted, we were hungry when we ate this item.  But we loved it.  We both give it a rating of 5.  We will for sure be having it again when we get back to Trader Joe’s land. 

It was fun “talking” with you guys again.  Have fun grocery shopping!

P.S. - I somehow messed up the formatting/template of this blog.  Sigh.  It doesn't look the same anymore, does it??  I have tried to get it back to how it used to be but to no avail.  Is it ok like this? Still readable? 

Price – $4.49

Rating - 5

Day 354 - Pizza Parlanno (and Drive Thru Bethlehem!)

Last night David and I reprised our roles of Mary and Joseph in Drive Thru Bethlehem!!  It is held every year at the Drive In Church of Daytona Beach, FL.  We first noticed the church when we drove by it one time and couldn’t believe our eyes – a DRIVE IN CHURCH??  I researched it a bit and it is a legit thing:  people drive in, park, and stay in their cars for Sunday service, listening on the radio tuned into a specific channel.  :)  Then I found out they have a DRIVE THRU BETHLEHEM, and well, how could I pass that up??? 

Drive Thru Bethlehem family photo 2015:  Joseph holding Black 'n' White, me holding plastic Baby Jesus, and depressed donkey Forest behind me.

The first year I signed us up to be an angel (me) standing waaaaay high up on scaffolding and wearing beauuuutiful wings, and a Wise Man (David) pointing at the star.  Only when we got there, they had an emergency:  NO MARY!  So they asked if I would play Mary, and the rest is history (or her-story, as the case would be).  J  Last night was year number 3 for me to play Mary and year 2 for David as Joseph. 

Mary and Baby Jesus in a quiet moment, getting PHOTO BOMBED by Salt the bunny

Typical manger photo scene - camera proppped on the ground in hay and poop,
Mary runs to her seat to get there before the camera timer goes off, and the GOATS start eating the camera,
necessitating Mary to LEAP UP to save the camera and both of us to crack up.

We only do a 2 hour shift, but it is so lovely!  Cars turn off their headlights, tune into the right radio station, and drive thru to see basket and rug weavers, angels on high (scaffolding, which looked quite dangerous in high winds last night!), a baker, candlemaker, wise men, and of course, the grand finale of MARY and JOSEPH with little BABY JESUS (who is played by a doll that has really strangely demonic looking eyeballs and Elvis like hair…  Every year I want to bring my own doll but am afraid to look like a Mary prima donna so I don’t…).  Our stable has REAL LIVE ANIMALS in it and they are always hilarious.  This year we had geese, a duck (we can’t tell ducks and geese apart mind you), 2 baby lambs, 2 bunnies (named Salt ‘n’ Peppa!!), a one month old donkey named Forest who seemed extremely depressed and we suspect needed medication, a mini bull named Kai who became fast friends with David/Joseph, 2 tiny goats (one who had devil like horns that we named “Satan” but later learned was actually named Cain), and a sheep.  For someone who has not really been around animals, this is my yearly exposure!!  For 2 hours I am surrounded by farm life!!  I even pet some of them last night.  The little black and white goat (who we named Black ‘n’ White) was super cute, and the mini bull and baby donkey were so surprisingly SOFT. 

Mary in a moment of PANIC - the animals were going nuts!!

I love that evening every year.  I always suspect I get more out of it than the people in the cars driving through.  Last night we got the most genuine “God bless you” that I have ever heard directed at us, and a woman who sounded as if her breath was actually taken away by it all managed to squeak out, “It is so be-auuuu-ti-ful…..”.  We have never attended church there but are glad they let us volunteer every year.

Peace on earth, good will to man.  Joseph signing off for the year.

I am late writing today’s review (it is 4:00 pm) because I am feeling so lazy.  I finally showered (with TJ’s Refresh Body Wash, of course, reviewed here just yesterday) and am now sitting out on the patio to write.  It is 71 degrees so this is a lovely excuse to get some fresh air and write.

Let’s review Pizza Parlanno, shall we?

  

It's a frozen pizza, do look in the frozen section to find it.  Duh.

I didn’t think this pizza was great.  it was a FROZEN PIZZA, not much better than any you would get at another store.  I don’t have a lot of frozen pizza eating experience to compare this one to, but I don’t think it is much better than the BBQ Chicken one we ate the other night with our guests

(reviewed here). 

David added extra mozzarella to this one, which helped.  I added garlic powder and crushed red pepper which also improved the taste. The main taste I got out of this pizza was SAUSAGE.  I didn’t really taste the pepperoni at all (even though I could see it).  the only tastes I got were SAUSAGE, cheese, and crust. 

Just because it wasn't my favorite dinner doesn't mean I didn't eat a lot of it.

This pizza will do the job if you need a quick dinner but I could not call it “gourmet” food.

David agrees that this is a “do the job” type of dish.  He says, “It is a meat enjoyers pizza.  The sausage and pepperoni both seem like high quality meat and not gristle.  The extra mozzarella cheese is nice but may not be necessary because the crust tastes good.  It’s a frozen pizza, but it is a good quality one.  I would give it a 4.”

I would use the five bucks to buy one of TJ's better tasting pizzas/flat breads if I were you.

Neither of us could taste the peppers, but David could taste the pepperoni.  This is a fast, quick, and easy dish.  It is not one I want to eat every week (I probably won’t buy it again), but if you are a family that likes PIZZA a lot, you might dig it.  I give it a 3.

Price – $4.99

Rating (average of 2) – 3.5

Day 341 - BBQ Chicken Pizza

As  mentioned elsewhere in this blog, we do not eat a lot of pizza.  When we DO, we often make it ourselves using TJ’s dough ( reviewed here).  But because I wanted to try a product we had not eaten before, I picked up a frozen pizza – TJ’s BBQ Chicken Pizza topped with tangy BBQ sauce, chicken, mozzarella, Gouda, and red onions. 

 

Here's the box.  It is in the frozen food section.

I popped that sucker in the oven the other night when we had some friends from Kansas City staying with us.  They were on a cool quest – Tracy decided she wanted to see as many Christmas trees as she could this holiday season and Vince works for an airline (which means free flights!) so off they went!!!  I had tickets to the White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony so they put DC on their list to visit!  They had been outside for a few hours waiting for the tree to be lit, then had stopped in a pizzeria on the way back to our house (unbeknownst to me, or I would not have tried to feed them PIZZA!).  Anyway, of course I made them try it and help review it even though they weren’t hungry.  J  Cuz that’s  what friends are for, right?

David was the "limo driver" to pick up the guests at the airport.

The box said it was 3 servings of pizza.  We had 2 hungry people (David and myself) and 2 full people (the guests).  After a couple of bites I brought out the Trader Joe’s Green Dragon sauce for those who were interested.  Here is what people thought of the pizza:

After cooking, before eating.

David – “I like it.  It is nice.  I like the sauce and items like the chicken ratio in the middle.  As it gets toward the ends there is quite a lot of CRUST.  Thank God someone recommended Sriracha sauce and that makes it ok in the crusty area, otherwise it would be a little barren.  This could be a dinner.  It is convenient and it is tasty.  I would give it a 4.” (Editor here:  it was not sriracha, it was TJ’s Green Dragon sauce (not yet reviewed), and “someone” did not recommend it, I (Susan) went and got it out of the fridge and walked it allllll the way to the dining room (like 15 steps maybe!).  But TJ’s DOES do a good sriracha sauce, it was reviewed here .

Guest reviewer Vince (married to Tracy, from a small town that loves to shoot off fireworks near Kansas City, where they KNOW their BBQ sauce) – “I enjoyed it, it was very tasty.  But the sauce was lacking and it could use a little bit more BBQ sauce.  I give it a 3.” 

Guest reviewers VINCE and TRACY!

Guest reviewer Tracy (a very fun woman) – “I would give it a 4.5. I REALLLLLY liked it for a frozen pizza.  I am most impressed with the cheese ratio because I always have to add additional cheese to my frozen pizzas and this one I didn’t find lacking in that area at all.  The BBQ sauce was a little sweet for my taste but I got over that pretty quickly and the sriracha sauce was a nice tip!”  (Editor again:  IT WAS GREEN DRAGON SAUCE, PEOPLE!  J )

Me – I thought there was too much CRUST around the edge.  I wish the cheesey part would have spread out further so there was less naked crust.  I could have used more SAUCE on it, too.  I thought the chicken was good, but overall I thought the pizza was a bit boring.  The Green Dragon hot sauce helped a lot, but I do not think you should have to add hot sauce, I think the pizza should be able to stand on its own.  I give it a 3.5. 

Not a bad price.

Well, scores were pretty varied – from a 3 to a 4.5.  I will average them together and give it a final number.

Tracy on her quest to SEE MANY CHRISTMAS TREES - this one is at Union Station, Washington DC.  

Price – $4.99

Rating – 3.75

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

Day 278 - Pizza Al Pollo Asado

This product is brought to you by “Trader Jose’s” J.  It is, as it states on the box, a “corn masa crust with grilled chicken breast, refried beans, jack cheese, and tomatillo salsa”.  The package says it is one serving, but we are sort of small people and we split it in half, which was plenty.   I didn’t think David would like it, he sort of wrinkled his nose up when I put it in our shopping cart.

Will it be DRY?  Will it be TASTY??  

Surprise - we both liked it!  Looking at the photo on the box, we had a fear that it might taste a bit “cardboard-y”, but we were pleasantly surprised that it didn’t.  The crust, called “corn masa crust”, was a bit moist and yielding.  David says, “It looks like it might be dry, but the masa and the refried beans on it makes it MOIST enough.  And it has a little cheese on it!  So it is sort of like refried beans in a tamale.  There isn’t a lot of chicken taste goin’ on but that’s alright.  It’s a nicely balanced dish.”

The corn meal-y crust is the thickest part.  I like it – it is interesting.  It is a different TEXTURE than most foods.  We do not eat a lot of refried beans so that was a nice change of pace to have those.  I put Hatch Valley Salsa on top of my pizza (that salsa being my latest TJ’s obsession…  I talked a couple into buying a jar last time we were at Trader Joe’s!  I hope they liked it).  The salsa on top made the pizza a bit more moist.

Winner winner pollo dinner!  It was good!  (It tasted better than it looks in this photo)

The photo on the package shows the pizza with cilantro on top – I wish we had done that.  I think cilantro would make another nice flavor to add to this combo.  The box says you could top it with lettuce, guacamole, and sour cream, too, but that sounds like a lot of work to me…  We used this as a “quick, heat it for 14 minutes in the oven and let’s have dinner” kind of meal.  We served it with left over tater tots and chicken picata from the night before.

Cheap, unique, tasty frozen food - a Trader Joe's speciality!

This isn’t something I would want to eat every night, but does add variety to our diet.  I will get it again.

Price – $2.29 (which is really cheap)

Rating - 4

Day 204 - Organic Woodfired Sicilian Style Pizza

Look, we pulled into home around 1:15 AM.  When we got here, our grass was a mile high (we had been gone three weeks) and the fence in our front yard had been hit by a car and knocked over.  We unloaded the car, futzed around in our hot and musty smelling house, and finally got around 5 hours sleep before getting up and working a very hard day.

So FORGIVE ME if I wasn’t in the mood to actually cook something for dinner tonight, ok???

We went to a local Trader Joe’s (the Clarendon store in Arlington, VA) to get something easy to make for dinner.  This pizza seemed like just the thing.  The box boasts of red pepper, provolone, and pearl mozzarella.  Sounds good, no?

Here's the box.  Looks good, doesn't it?

Sounds good, but doesn’t TASTE good.  It tasted like a cracker with some crap on it.  Not literal CRAP, mind, you, but crappy food.  The tomato sauce was not luscious.  The red peppers were not amazing. Heck, even the two types of cheese were blah. 

Ready to cut and eat.

This pizza came with a little packet of olive oil with red pepper.  The box explains, in large letters, “Unlike a Sicilian Summer our signature style pizza let’s* (sic) you choose your level of hot-ness.  Drizzle the pizza with all of the oil for a spicy boost or use just a little for a milder flavor.”

HOWEVER, if you read the very fine print on the little olive oil packet, you are supposed to drizzle said olive oil on half way through cooking the pizza.  OH SNAP!  I wish the box would have told us that so we were have done that.  Instead, we drizzled after cooking.

Good ingredients, bad pizza

Crust – super duper hard (cracker-esque)

Sauce – boring

Red peppers – dull

Cheeses – not inviting

Half way through one piece David gave up and went into the kitchen to remake his pizza into something more edible.  He added olives (from another store), fresh tomato from the garden, and mozzarella balls (from TJs).  He says, “The “pearls” were smaller than oyster pearls, given the effect on the original pizza”. 

David, before he gave up and totally doctored his pizza trying to add flavor

I say - If we wanted to make our own pizza we would have done that from the get go!

Crappy, dull pizza.  Not worthy of the $5 or the calories.  Skip it and get something better.

*        Trader Joe’s corporate – grammar alert on this box.  Misplaced apostrophe.

 

Price - $4.99

Rating – 1.75