Posts Tagged ‘trader joe’s’
08/06/2017
Aug 6, 2017
With cold, or at least cool, weather just around the corner, soup is in season. This is a surprisingly good soup for those kinds of days, or really any kind of day.
The broth for this soup is very nice. There’s a slight sweetness to the broth, but also a bit of rebellion from green onions. As you work your way to the bottom of the bowl, where the white and black pepper settle out, the broth becomes more adventuresome. The broth has a medium consistency.
The wontons (dumplings) in the soup contain a chicken-based filling. While not as flavorful as the broth, the wonton filling is still good with noticeable vegetables interspersed throughout. If you can manage to cut a wonton in half, letting some broth seep in, the filling is even better. The package contains a caution to, cook thoroughly. If I had to guess, the soup is not precooked. It took the full five minutes in the microwave to reach the required 165 degrees.
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Tags:calories, chicken vegetable wonton soup, chinese, food, frozen entree, nutrition, price, review, reviews, soup, tj, tj's, trader joe's
Posted in Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | 4 Comments »
08/03/2017
Honestly, I picked these up just to see what they were. Popcorn chips, how could that be? That’s making a snack food out of a snack food. It ain’t right.
If you’ve ever had mini rice cakes, these are very close to that experience. The “chips” are airy in texture and dry in the mouth. There’s just a hint of salt and sweet for flavor. Aside from that, there’s not much to these – except some calories. And as much as these are unexceptional, the whole bag disappeared within a couple of hours. That’s what a snack food is.
Price $1.99 (4.5 ounce bag)
Calories 110 per ounce (28g, about 17 chips)
Tags:calories, food, nutrition, popcorn chips, price, review, snack, tj, tj's, trader joe's
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | Leave a Comment »
08/03/2017
August 3, 2017
This might have been the first Trader Joe coffee that made it to the trash bin before the can was empty. Right now I’m salvaging the coffee by grinding it 50/50 with my everyday Tarrazu coffee.
In the grinder there’s a beautiful aroma when the beans are freshly ground. If only that could transfer to the brewed coffee. Once brewed and in the cup, the beans turned into a very bitter cup of coffee. If bitter is what you’re looking for in a cup of coffee, this one’s for you. That experience isn’t for me. A shot of Irish cream or half-and-half subdued the bitterness to tolerable levels. But even then, there was still something about the coffee that wasn’t fully enjoyable.
As for the low acid claim on the label, without using a pH meter, we’ll just have to trust Trader Joe. I did not feel any burn at the back of the throat or have any acid reflux problems afterwards. Your reaction may be different.
The coffee beans are smaller than most. From the color and the small amount of oil on the beans, these are on the light side of a dark roast. There is no country or region of origin stated for the beans. The beans are labeled 100% Arabica, as are around 80% of coffee beans overall. Price $7.99 (13 ounce can)
Tags:coffee, food, low acid french roast, price, review, tj, tj's, trader joe's
Posted in coffee, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | Leave a Comment »
07/26/2017
July 26, 2017
Trade wars be damned, this is some really good cheese. So before the great northern wall is built, get some of this. If not, you’ll be making trips up to the wall under cover of darkness to catch packages of cheese wrapped in duct tape being thrown over. Or Monty Python might be channeled catapulting whole cows north to south, the cheese curdling and aging in flight. Don’t worry Canada, the cows will be quickly deported! Street graffiti artists, please hold your enthusiasm.
Wisconsin cheeseheads stand on guard (oops!). There’s some real competition coming south. Have the secret cheese recipes been hacked? Stop any bulls going north. That lovely smiling red-headed heifer waving her tail over the border is a trap. Keep the DNA in the USA!
And how is the cheese itself? It’s perhaps the best pure cheddar in the TJ refrigerator case. It has a great taste and mouthfeel. It’s sharp, but not pointy. It’s just on the verge of being crumbly. A few Gouda-like cheese crystals are spread throughout. Or maybe that was one of my fillings starting to break up? According to the label it’s aged two years. That two-year aging accounts for all the good stuff in the cheese. It’s also how often my dentist keeps refilling that tooth. Hmmm?
Calories 120 per ounce, price $8.99 per pound
Heifer photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, here. Author: Black Angus Girl
Tags:calories, Canadian cheese, cheese, extra-sharp-cheddar, food, nutrition, parody, price, review, reviews, satire, trader joe's
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | 3 Comments »
07/26/2017
July 26, 2017
The wine has a mild earthy and mildly strong aroma in the glass. The wine feels slightly dry in the mouth and is not fruity to the taste. It’s a little different flavor profile than experienced in the past from a California Cab, but still of the same genre. The second glass and thereafter has more of a California Cab experience. There’s nothing odd or off tasting. While mildly strong as a wine, the wine is also smooth to drink. This is a fairly good California Cab for people who might want to expand their tastes in that direction or for people who just want to chill after a hard day’s work without challenging themselves too much. The wine works well as a sipper. It didn’t pair well with some cheddar cheese. It paired much better with some mildly spicy Indian food, and some not so spicy Chinese garlic chicken. It was a matter of having enough food in the mouth to stand up to the wine.
The wine seems to be generally available at other outlets for a similar price, sometimes even a little less and sometimes a little more. The wine receives average to slightly above average reviews by others. Price $8.99.
Tags:2014, Bogle Cabernet Sauvignon, price, review, reviews, tj, tj's, trader joe's, wine
Posted in Trader Joe's, Wine | Leave a Comment »
07/14/2017
July 14, 2017
Musical beans? That’s what they are. Whether scooping these out from the bag, or dropping them into the measuring glass, or even in the grinder, these beans had a clear almost bell-like ring to them. That’s very interesting and something either not noticed or not experienced in the past with any coffee beans. And in the cup, that smooth mellow music continues.
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Tags:coffee, ecuador, food, price, review, tj, tj's, trader joe's, vilcabamba
Posted in coffee, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | Leave a Comment »
07/10/2017
July 10, 2017
This was a much better experience than the last Trader Joe’s brie I tried. This brie had a much firmer, but still soft, texture. It was sliceable and didn’t run off the knife. The taste was mild with a touch of tartness. Overall the taste was a pleasant experience. The texture was melt-in-the-mouth. There was a kind of velvety mouth feel to the cheese.
For the lovers of stronger cheeses, you won’t be offended by this, but you also may not be satisfied. For the brie lovers out there, this is probably a winner.
Price $5.99 per pound
Calories 100 per ounce
If you’re looking for double plus one creamy brie,
try here.
Tags:brie, calories, cheese, double cream brie, food, nutrition, price, review, tj, tj's, trader joe's
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | 2 Comments »
07/04/2017
July 4, 2017
This is not a great eggplant parmigiana, but a pretty good eggplant as an eggplant.
This is another one of the seemingly endless variations of Trader Joe’s “eggplant with tomato sauce and melted cheese” products. This one features eggplant which are “grilled”. Now I suspect the grilling was done on one of those industrial strength machines that moves a conveyor belt of eggplant slices through some kind of flame. But the pieces had grill marks on them, so who are we to quibble about the method.
While I usually have no patience for waiting on an oven to cook these kinds of entrees, this time I followed the oven directions. Instead of large slices of eggplant, these are actually smaller pieces of a slice. That makes it somewhat easier to eat without needing a knife to cut through the usual slices. The tomato sauce was not very flavorful. Much of the mozzarella seemed to have melted into the sauce instead of forming a nice cover for the eggplant. The result was a somewhat watery tomato/cheese sauce without much flavor intermixed with a few small islands of melted cheese. As a parmigiana, it was disappointing.
However as just eggplant, the eggplant was pretty good. The best bits and tastiest, were those with the skin on – more flavor and more chew. The pieces without skin we’re still tasty, but no as much. Being grilled, there was no breading on the eggplant as is often done with fried eggplant slices. Overall I liked this, but not because it was a good eggplant parmigiana, but because it was good eggplant.
Price ??? (lost receipt) Calories 270 per container (1 serving)
Tags:calories, eggplant parmigiana, food, frozen entree, italian, nutrition, price, review, reviews, tj, tj's, trader joe's
Posted in Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | 5 Comments »
06/20/2017
June 20, 2017
This is the first item I’ve ever seen marked down at Trader Joe’s. But that’s not why I picked it up. I picked it up because an Amancay red I had a few weeks ago was an okay and interesting wine. This purchase didn’t fare as well.
The wine has a clear pale yellow color. There’s a brief fruity aroma on first opening which soon disappears. In the mouth the wine is earthy and tart with something of the taste of concentrated unripe green grapes. The wine worked surprisingly well with an anchovy pizza. The wine balanced the strong tastes from the pizza, especially the saltiness from the anchovy. The pizza balanced out the acidity from the wine.
This is not a white wine for me. It’s too harsh. The wine is better with food than by itself, especially stronger tasting foods. Chilling helps the wine some. A few days in the refrigerator sealed after opening seemed to help the wine mellow some. Balancing out the negatives is the very low price (marked down). Price $3.99.
Tags:2014, amancay, argentina, price, review, reviews, tj, tj's, torrontes, trader joe's, white wine
Posted in Trader Joe's, Wine | Leave a Comment »
06/03/2017
June 3, 2017
There are only three questions to ask of a curated coffee: how long has it been on the shelf, has anyone blown off the dust, and are there still overdue fines? It seems we’ve come a long way from curating book collections to curating bulk produce.
While claimed to be a 50/50 blend of light, Colombian Morales, and medium, Ethiopian Limu, roasted coffee beans, all the beans in the can looked the same. Judging by the color and the amount of oil on the beans, I’d call them a medium roast. When the beans were removed from the can, and compared side by side, there was a mix of small and medium size beans.
Aside from the marketing hype, this is a nice coffee. In the can and ground, the beans had a nice aroma. Brewed and in the cup, the coffee had a nice taste. There was a little bitterness, but nothing exceptional. Overall this is a smooth drinking medium roast coffee. Price $8.99 (13 ounce can).
Tags:coffee, colombia, Ethiopia, food, price, review, select harvest curated coffee, tj, tj's, trader joe's, whole bean coffee
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | Leave a Comment »
Aug 6, 2017
Ain't Found A Good Title Blog 
