My wife picked up one of these tarts the other day at Trader Joe’s, and I’ve got to say I was pretty impressed just looking at it. This looks like something that camew from an upscale bakery and I would imagine might cost about $15 or more. At TJ’s it’s $7.99. Wow. But does it taste as good as it looks? OMG, yes. It’s delicious! It tastes as good as it looks like it was made in an upscale bakery. There are a ton of sliced apples that stil look like apples, not some mushy canned apple pie filling loaded with cornstarch that came from a can that even some store bought apple pies have in them. The apples in this tart still have a bit of texture, and it’s not overly sweet, nor overly thickened. The taste is just the way it looks like it is, apples. You can see the quality of the baking. We found this tart to be absolutely delicious especially when we served it, paired up with a spoon of French Vanilla ice cream, a match made in heaven. The crust is perfect too.
If you served this to guests, I’m sure you will get a ton of compliments and questions about where you bought it. Or even “did you make this?”
This is seriously good!
TRADER JOE’S FRENCH APPLE TART – $7.90 for a 1 lb, 4 oz tart
Trader Joe’s “Southern Greens Blend” Greens For Cooking” Cut, cleaned and Ready To Cook.
I think this is a fairly new product at TJ’s or at least I don’t recall seeing it until recently. It’s good. No, make that terrific. This Yankee boy is really digging Southern Greens.
TJ’s Southern Greens contains a blend of greens typical in Southern cooking, Mustard, Turnip, Collards and Spinach, ready to cook with. Kind of similar to TJ’s bags of prepped kale. There are a few recipes on the back of the bag which can give one a few ideas on how to use these greens. They take anywhere from about 15-30 minutes to cook. Of course you don’t need a use a “recipe”. You could just sauté the greens in some olive oil with some chopped garlic, covered on low-med heat with a touch of liquid (stock or water), season to taste and cook them for 10-30 minutes to your desired degree of greens “done-ness”. They start bright green and get darker and softer as they cook down. Taste them along the way and see how you like them best. Frankly I find myself throwing some greens now into whatever I’m cooking. I recently mixed some raw greens into a pot of Jasmine rice as I was cooking it and that worked really well (cook time was about 16 minutes total). I’m throwing some greens into many things I’m cooking to “green up” the dish.
Greens is good, and they are HEALTHY, and good for y’all ! Eat more dark green leafy vegetables easily using these Southern Greens. They are $2.99 a 1 lb bag. One thing, use it up pretty fast; cut leafy greens start to go bad fairly quickly; so use it in about 3 days. TIP: I poke a bunch of holes (tip of sharp knife) in bags of vegetables to let a little moisture out so they don’t rot quite as fast.
Trader Joe’s is selling these German traditional MarzipanStollen at the moment (post Thanksgiving / Holiday season). So a seasonal item. Stollen are a traditional German fruit filled bread or cake. These are Made In Germany by “KuchenMeister”, the same that TJ’s has carried in the past.
We found these Stollen to be really yummy. They are loaded with raisins and dried fruits like candied orange and lemon peel and are covered with powdered sugar. They look lovely and quite Xmas-y. There is a decent amount of tasty soft yellow marzipan in the center (it starts a few slices in when you cut into the cake). The cake was delicious served with coffee and tea. For $3.99, this is a great buy. One cake is just over a pound. These are just perfect for the holidays. Terrific for holiday gatherings and drop-ins. Pick up one or two for yourselves – and a few extra to have on hand and give to friends as presents. Personally I think I am going to buy a few of these for gifts and whatnot.
“KuchenMeister MarzipanStollen – A German sweet fruit filled bread that makes a great gift for friends and neighbors“
Trader Joe’s was carrying fresh Salmon Burgers for a while. However I haven’t seen them for some time, and I fear they’re discontinued. TJ’s does also sell frozen Salmon Burgers. Because they have a lot more ingredients listed, I was a bit reluctant to try them. However they were actually a bit better than I expected. I tried cooking them defrosted, which the package says not do. I found out why. They are so soft you can’t easily get them out of the plastic if they’re defrosted, they want to fall apart. So I cooked them again from frozen as recommended. The frozen burger puck was much easier to handle. The results cooking them both ways were actually about the same. I grilled them in a pan and they were pretty tasty. The Sodium level listed is not terribly high which is good. I would buy these again. They’re about $7 a package. Also available: Mahi-mahi burgers and shrimp burgers.
The combination of TJ’s Uncured Bratwurst with their natural Sauerkraut is pretty much a no-brainer.
Maybe the only question is whether you warm up the sauerkraut with your bratwurst – or just serve it on the side, cool, so its crunchier. You can make an easy and terrific lunch or dinner if you team up these made for each other items with a few more TJ items…. put the Bratwurst on some bread (BRIOCHE?) or TJ’s Brioche Hot Dog Buns. The mustard of your choice (Dijon with mustard seeds or Spicy Brown?).
Here I went with sautéed potatoes cooked up with the Bratwurst and sauerkraut on the side. These all made for a super dinner combo.
RECIPE: Sauteed Pan fried Potatoes – Cut up a few Yukon Golds into cubes and par-boil them 5 minutes or so in salted water. Add the drained potatoes to a nonstick pan with oil and butter and toss in a sliced onion. Cook for 15-20 minutes on medium heat stirring occasionally until the potatoes are done and golden brown. Make room in the pan, and add your bratwurst around the 10 minute mark and cook on both sides until browned. You can put shallow slashes to score them before cooking which will open up as they cook. Garnish with chopped parsley or arugula for color. Serve with sauerkraut and mustard. Serving Options: beer and bread (brioche hot dog buns or chewy sourdough)
Thin slices of pickles and onions in a sweet and spicy brine. Emphasis on spicy. You have to try these, they are just terrific.
Now when Trader Joe’s calls these “spicy” on the label, in this case they are not kidding! They are quite hot and seriously SPICY! Containing “capsicum oleoresin”. However they are Spicy Delicious. With a hamburger these were particularly terrific. For me these pickles are just one more amazing TJ Wow Product, something that’s unique and special. I’m even a bit addicted and once I start eating them I keep going back for more. While they are Seriously Spicy if you just eat them their own, when you add them as as ingredient and eat them say on top of a hamburger or tucked into a sandwich, you will get a moderated amount of the heat. These are about $2.70 a jar.
That’s it. One ingredient. However what they’ve done is they FIRE ROASTED it. See it blackened up? Doing that to it makes it taste even better than TJ’s regular frozen corn, which is terrific by the way. You can use this fire roasted corn on its own. It was delicious sautéed in some butter as a simple side dish. But of course you can use as an ingredient with things, for example, corn bread, add add it to salsas, soups, stews and of course any Mexican dish. This Fire Roasted Corn is great to have on hand in the freezer. It’s $1.99 for a 1 lb bag and well worth trying.
These are simply incredible, a must try for chocoholics. They are spectacularly delicious chocolate bars made with Belgian dark chocolate with a liquid-y center of yummy salted caramel. They come in a pack of 3 individually wrapped bars of 25gm each for $1.99. Imported from Belgium. SUPER WOW
Is there anyone who would not enjoy smoked salmon on top an everything bagel shmeared with cream cheese? So Trader Joe’s had a decent idea when they decided to combine their wildly successful Everything seasoning and smoked salmon to come up with this great combo as part of the popular “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning blend family.
I found Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel SMOKED SALMON to be quite good. The everything seasonings do not overpower the (cold smoked) Atlantic salmon. They add a nice accent to the mild farm raised salmon which has a nice buttery texture. I tried the salmon two ways. The first was the classic Sunday breakfast, Smoked salmon on a bagel. A spread of cream cheese, a little pickled red onion and a squeeze of lemon, all on a fresh Artisan everything bagel, with a slice of this EBTB Salmon….it was perfect and delicious!
The second way we enjoyed this EBTB smoked salmon was using the salmon in some “Temaki sushi (hand rolls)”. We made sushi rice and ate the rice topped with pieces of smoked salmon, avocado and cucumber nestled in Trader Joe’s seaweed treats for small sushi hand roll bites. This was incredibly tasty and made an easy and super yummy dinner.
$5.49 now $5.99 for a (4 oz) package and yes the four slices inside go quickly! But is an affordable splurge, this smoked salmon is a decent value and certainly worth trying. FYI at Zabar‘s counter, sliced smoked salmon goes for $50 a pound right now! (winter 2021)
Popular in Indian cuisine “Ghee” is butter that has slowly cooked to separate its milk solids from the fat so it doesn’t burn when cooking and can stay unrefrigerated. This is a Vegan “ghee” a blend of coconut and avocado oil. Now I’m not vegan myself, but just wanted to check out this product. It’s OK to cook with, neutral in taste. I think I would just prefer regular Coconut Oil which does impart a little coconut flavor. But if you are vegan this might be an option.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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