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Trader Joe’s Guide To Summer

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We had a pleasant surprise today when we went shopping at Trader Joe’s in Tucson: The Trader Joe’s Guide to Summer has arrived! See it here on the web at www.traderjoes.com

This June version of the Fearless Flyer is a trimmed down summer version, that includes a unique multiple folding system that took me a little time to figure out! I kept trying to make it into the  Fearless Flyer book, and instead this booklet was one long page folded up about 4 times.

Eeks! More Coffee!!

Anyway, this Guide to Summer illustrates a few of Trader Joe’s more Summer Friendly items. These include items to grill, snack on and drink to stay cool.

One item that we have to mention (as we have already finished off our first cup!) is the Avocado Salsa Verde. This is a wonderful “vibrant” (their wording here) tomatillo salsa verde (green salsa). It first caught our eye in the sample area, as they were combining the salsa with the Red, White and Blue Tortilla chips!

We both just loved the salsa- it was cool and had large chunks of avocado in it. At first it seemed to be very mild, but then … the heat (medium) came a few seconds later.

We brought this Avocado Salsa Verde home and enjoyed the salsa with eggs and tortillas – a sorta Ranchero dinner.

Another way to serve the Avocado Salsa Verde is the way they fixed the sample at Trader Joe’s: with tiny shrimp chopped and mixed in. This became a kind of mock Seviche (you know that fish dish that you sometimes see in Mexican Restaurants).

This brings me back to the Summer Guide. Pick up a copy today – in it you will find some great new products to help you stay cool this summer!

Trader Joe’s Sparkling Clementine Soda

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Trader Joe's Clementine Sparkler

Trader Joe's Clementine Sparkler

This is a delicious and refreshing soda to try on a hot day this summer. We are hitting 100 degree now on a regular basis here in Tucson (the norm for the first part of June) and so we are looking to try new, cool items when we brave the heat and go shopping at Trader Joe’s.

This product recently caught our eye on our recent visit and in the pages of the May, 2010 Fearless Flyer.

In the Fearless Flyer, the headline for this product –on the front page no less- read: Oh My Darlin’ This Clementine Sparkles! And for some strange, unknown reason, that title just caught our eye.

Now to be frank, we both love orange sodas, but find it a bit too sweet and bubbly for drinking on a regular basis.  This product solves our orange soda hang-ups by not being soo sweet, actually containing real fruit juice (an amazing 84% juice) and by being lightly carbonated. WOW you can’t get much better than that!

We were laughing and saying how much this drink reminds us of a Buck’s Fizz (Champaign and orange juice) but naturally without the “kick”.

BUT, along those lines, it would be a wonderful new item for a brunch- light and tasty and it looks beautiful in a glass.

Glass of Trader Joe's Clementine Sparkler

Glass of Trader Joe's Clementine Sparkler

Have you tried the Sparkling Clementine soda yet?  Please leave us a comment to tell us what you thought…

Trader Joe’s Wine: Grower’s Reserve Chardonnay 2009

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A wine moment with Delaina…the sipping continues….

After the success of the Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Zinfandel (yes this is another plug for that Zin), I decided to give the Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Chardonnay 2009 a try.

I was very impressed. Sometimes Chardonnays are just too dry for me. As a rule I like Chardonnays that have little bit of “oakieness” but not so much they lose their buttery smoothness. It is true I expect the same complexity from white wine as I do reds.

Too often I feel that white wines have little complexity. This is not, I repeat, not the case with Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Chardonnay.

This organic Trader Joe’s wine find has complexity, at least by my white wine standards. The label talks about this Chardonnay’s straw coloring and apple, pear, and melon flavor.  Personally I think it is the melon flavor that  gives this wine its complexity, but I might be biased.

Trader Joe’s Chardonnay is from ASV Wines out of San Martin, California (just like the Zinfandel).

This wine would pair nicely with salads, fish, lightly buttered pasta, and anything really that you would drink white wine with. In fact, depending on your own tastes, this could be one of the rare white wines that could be fancied/ drank  on its own. Alone there is a bit more of a bite but the bite is more like a nibble.

I hope you enjoy this wine as much as I did. Drop me a comment below to let me know what you thought of this wine…

Cheers!

Delaina

Trader Joe’s Cheesecake Brownie Bites

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Totally wonderful Cheesecake Brownie Bites

Totally wonderful Cheesecake Brownie Bites

These moist, fudgy brownies, topped with just a hint of cheesecake creamy goodness,  are truly a bite of sheer temptation. Trader Joe’s Brownie Bites are so good that you’ll wish you were not home alone with the container.

Seriously these brownies were just fantastic!

We purchased them to use for a meeting, and well, to be honest we sorta forgot them when we were running out the door to get to the meeting on time…. Oops!

So what else could we do, but try them ourselves –you know to make sure that they were good, just in case we would need to purchase them again for another meeting, right?

OK thinking only  for the research, we bit into them… WOW!

They are just as we said: rich, fudgy with wonderful chocolate flavor. They are just the right size too- about two bites each. But we tried to savor them and eat them slowly….

Truthfully, although we think that these brownies were just wonderful, we would like to make a request to the decision makers at Trader Joe’s. Please zap a bit more cheesecake onto each one of these little brownies, so that there is a bit more cheesecake flavor throughout the whole brownie.

Don’t let that little request put you off- these are just wonderful little bites and you would not go wrong to add them to your next cookie tray or to bring them in your next meeting….

That is IF you remember to bring them with you… 🙂

Trader Joe's Cheesecake Brownie Bites

Trader Joe's Cheesecake Brownie Bites