Trader Joe’s Wine: Villa Carlotti Prosecco

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Trader Joe's Villa Carlotti Prosecco in cool blue bottle

Trader Joe's Villa Carlotti Prosecco in cool blue bottle

So it is July and I thought that it would be appropriate to share a Prosecco I found at Trader Joes.

Trader Joes had a Villa Carlotti Prosecco for around five dollars so I gave it a try. I tend to like Proseccos because, as the label states, it is a “Soft White Wine”. This slightly charged and bubbly wine was just perfect. The apple and pear flavors were balanced with a subtle dryness that made this Prosecco a great Trader Joe’s fine.

The cool blue bottle would make it a great hit for a 4th of July party. Or just a warm evening that you want to celebrate life…

The Prosecco would go nicely with anything you would serve a light white wine with, such as fish, chicken or a salad. I also like to have a little cheese with my white wine so I would recommend brie, smoked Gouda, and/or a little or rich, creamy Port-Salut. The great news is Trader Joes sells all of those cheeses so it can be a one stop entertainment shop.

By the way you will still need to remove the cork with a cork screw. Yes, this does seem strange for a bubbly wine, but these bubbles are not as strong as Champaign or Asti. In fact, there was not even a wire basket to hold down the cork, nor was there a “POP” when the cork came out. Oh yeah…. The bottle also states a certain type of cork screw is necessary, but we used our regular one, and everything was OK.

So go ahead have fun…celebrate life…and all of the wonders of your world,

Cheers,

Delaina

How to Make Pasta Salad

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Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad

One of the great things I love about summer is pasta salad. Now we could make them all year long, but there is something about the cold pasta and the different veggies that reminds me of a picnic. I guess I just don’t think about making and serving a pasta salad in November.

Anyway Pasta Salads can be easy to make and rather quick to put together too. Recently we were shopping at Trader Joe’s and we were talking about how many cool things that Trader Joe’s sells that could really make a pasta salad special.

There are a zillion ways to make pasta salad with any number of ingredients that you could add. Main ingredient is of course, the past! We like to use a smallish noodle, but we have also made yummy pasta salads with leftover spaghetti.

Next, we like to think about what veggies we would like to use (either buy or use up) like tomatoes, broccoli, diced zucchini, bell pepper stripes, peas, etc… We also like to include an “onion” item either sweet Vidalia Onions, Red Onions, or Green onions.  Next we think about a full-flavor or “special” item to pull the salad together. This might be pesto, or sundried tomatoes cut in small stripes, or some olives.

Well, all that planning for a pasta salad motivated us to make one today!

Ingredients:

  • Whole Wheat pasta (we used those little spirals called rotelle)
  • Cherry Tomatoes (in red and yellow, cut in 1/4)
  • Broccoli (cut up into small pieces)
  • Green Onions sliced thin
  • Trader Joe’s Pitted Kalamata olives (the “special” ingredient), chopped
  • Trader Joe’s Parmesan Cheese (a couple of spoonfuls)
  • Dressing: olive oil

What to do:

Cook pasta according to package directions. About ½ way through the cooking, add the broccoli pieces to the cooking water. Let the broccoli cook with the pasta until the pasta is finished cooking. Drain and rinse briefly in cool water then place in a mixing bowl.

Next add the rest of the vegetables, and toss lightly with olive oil. Season with your favorite spices – we used Trader Joe’s 21 Salute , garlic powder, salt and pepper along with the parmesan cheese.

Variations:

Here is where you can be creative. You can use up some cooked vegetables or add a can of garbanzo beans if you like. Trader Joe’s also sells a large selection of items that would really make a pasta salad special. These include artichoke hearts, tapenade (already chopped up olives)  or even brochette.

We were planning to tell you to leave the pasta salad in the refrigerator until cool but it looked so good that we had to “sample” it right away. Even warm it was just delish!

The next time you are at Trader Joe’s check out the isle with all the canned beans and olive oils and see how inspired you are. If you see anything that you are not sure about, leave us a note and we will try and help you out.

End of The Blog 30 Challenge: June 2010

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WOW another #blog30 Challenge has come to an end. The first challenge  was  started in May and now again for the month of June 2010 where we commit to writing one post a day for the 30 day period.  If you think it sounds like a lot of posting….YOUR RIGHT!

When I first heard about the blog challenge, I thought YES! That is what I need!

I recently started blogging and was not as committed to the whole process as much as I had hoped I would be. I was letting “life” get in the way of having fun and posting to my blog on a regular schedule. In addition it seemed as if there was a lot of new stuff to learn right away and I felt as if everyone else was blogging better/faster and knew a lot more than I did.

Now I see where everyone is getting their experience from: By Blogging regularly!

Now that I have joined in these two Blog Challenges and  made a commitment to posting on a daily basis, I can see how the regular experience has made the whole blogging experience more fun and easy to do. I am not as worried about the technology and all the new terms and techniques that I need to learn. I realize that as the months go on, I AM learning as I go, and some of the stuff will just take more time than I thought. So I have a new respect for regular blogging and will plan to stay regular with this blog!

Thanks to you also Dear Readers, as your support of this blogging journey has been much appreciated. I find I am thinking of you (and the blog) more and more frequently during my days, and especially when I am shopping at Trader Joe’s of course!

Please Please if you have a suggestion or comment or just want to say “hello” please drop us a note at the bottom of any post and let us know what recipes you would like to see, or what kind of products you would like reviewed etc….

We welcome all suggestions!

Cheers!

Kris

Trader Joe’s Organic Mint Melange Tea

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Trader Joe's Organic Mint Melange Tea

Trader Joe's Organic Mint Melange Tea

Are you searching for a great tasting, caffeine free tea, that has a little zip? Well we think we have found a winner here with Trader Joe’s Organic Mint Melange Tea.

We both just love tea! We enjoy all kinds of tea  but usually stick to a basic black tea (Trader Joe’s Irish Tea) for the majority of our tea drinking. But like everything, there comes a time when you want a change, or after a meal when you want some tea but do not want to drink any caffeine.

This is the perfect tea for you to try

This mint mélange tea is actually a blend or mixture of peppermint, lemon grass and spearmint, so it is not just a plain mint tea. Those folks at Trader Joe’s really must understand tea blending as well as tea drinkers because they created a winner here.

There is a nice blending of the flavors between the peppermint and the spearmint, with a sorta undertone of lemon flavor in there somewhere.  Now I love many kinds of mint products (gum, teas), but some of them (especially spearmint flavored items) seem too harsh for my tastes.

This is why I think the blending of the different mints and the lemongrass really makes this product a winner.

What are your favorite kinds of tea??