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.
Yup, that’s it, this has one ingredient. Just Corn. But what they’ve done to it here, is this has been “FIRE ROASTED”. In other works cooked enough to get a few almost burnt bits. In my picture below as you can see, its gotten a tiny bit blackened from the fire roasting. This of course is the famouse “Maillard” reaction food gets from cooking which concentrates and amplifies flavor. In this case it makes this corn taste even better for example than TJ’s regular frozen corn — which is still also great by the way (and costs a bit less).
You can make this fire roasted corn just on its own. It was delicious when I simply sautéed it in butter to make a simple side dish. If you want to get fancy, hit that with a squeeze of lime juice too!
Naturally this corn is fantastic used as an ingredient as well. For example, add some to corn bread. Add it to salsas, to soups, stews and of course any Mexican dish, like some Mexican style rice. Its great for that.
This Fire Roasted Corn is great to have on hand in the freezer. It’s $1.99$2.49 NOW $2.79 !(1 lb).
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
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.
” INSTRUCTIONS: Dip in water before use” (pretty funny, huh?!)
Made From Natural Vegetable Cellulose. Product of France. A pack contains 12 thick natural sponges squished completely flat. They blow up in water in two seconds and watching them pop up is like magic!
When I first saw these and looked at the price I immediately thought “wow that’s expensive”. A pack is $7.99. However I then “did the math” on them. Since there are 12., the cost of a sponge works out to about 67 cents each, right? A sponge may last a month. I thought if a sponge lasts a month (or hopefully, even more) the pack contains about a year’s supply or more, in which case they don’t seem quite as expensive over the long run. I decided to buy them and guess what? They turn out to be FANTASTIC sponges. They are high quality “natural” sponges. These blow up from a thin little sliver to a big sponge an inch thick almost magically the instant you put them in water. The sponge make tons of bubbles and quick work of dirty dishes. My wife thanked me for finally buying good sponges (as opposed to my dollar store ones) and made me promise to buy them again, hopefully in a year we think. End result is these are actually quite worth the 8 bucks (but really 67 cents each) and are a decent value for this quality. BTW every other week, I give a sponge a rinse in very diluted bleach (1:10) and soap. I squeeze it over and over and sponge gets a almost brand new refresh (the filthy water is shocking even when your sponge seems clean). Be sure to rinse it really really thoroughly after this with lots of water to get out all the bleach if you want it to last.
When you’re ready to use, soak one in water and watch it pop up before your very eyes into a Sponge about 4 inches wide, three inches long, and an inch high!
Pretty sure we can assume Trader Joe’s are calling these “Aloha Rolls” to reference the original’s, KING’S HAWAIIAN famous sweet breads. Of course these are similar.
These Trader Joe’s version “Aloha Rolls” are good. Small and pudgy, slightly sweet and with a really soft texture dinner rolls, great for many things and my-oh-my are these yummy!
We kept eating “just one more” as we were taste tasting them. Hard to stop. The rolls are small but pudgy and high. They were terrific just with some good butter as a dinner roll. They were great for making little sandwiches.
Actually I was looking for the mini hamburger buns I love… which I realized I haven’t seen them for some time, and I am now assuming TJs discontinued them (argh!)
So when I saw these little Aloha Rolls I was pretty sure these rolls could work for mini hamburgers / slider’s. Kind of my own version of White Castle burger (which I don’t eat actually). Yes they can. Check out my picture of the little mini burgers aka “Gourmet White Castle” slider’s. Granted there looks to be too much bread though it is so soft and it squishes right down and didn’t seem to bread-y in relation to the meat.
These mini hamburgers were so delicious we just scarfed them right down. Next time though I thought I should maybe trim a little bit of bread off the top of the buns? I used just under 2 oz of ground beef for each little mini burger with a lot of chopped sauteed onions and a little square of TJ’s sliced cheddar cheese melted over the tops. So good! OMG. They were so yummy, we ate three little sliders each!
Try making these sliders with these rolls, or just make some little sandwiches with them. Yes they will improve even more with a little warming up in toaster oven or in a pan as it says on the package. Any cute little sandwiches made with these rolls will be great, so let your imagination run wild. I am really thinking smoked salmon, cream cheese and arugula would be very good.
$2.99 a bag (12 oz / 12 rolls)
MINI SLIDERS NO-RECIPE RECIPE: I weighed out the ground beef into little balls and made each about 1.5-2 oz each. I sauteed a whole chopped onion in a cast iron pan for 5 minutes in olive oil until translucent. I spread them around the pan and put the burgers on top. Turned up the heat to high, cooked one side then turned them after 3 minutes and topped with little squares of sliced cheddar. Heated the buns meanwhile in the oven. If you want less bread you can try to slice off a bit of the top of the bun. Serve immediately with your favorite sides. We served these with mashed potatoes and green peas. Naturally this mini burger thing would work using something other than ground beef such as ground turkey, chicken, meatless impossible burgers or even Soy Chorizo I would guess….
I bet you they will be a big hit as they were for us.
Here’s what the TJ website says:
“Light, fluffy, and perfect for sopping up all the leftover gravy goodness on your Thanksgiving plate, we love Trader Joe’s Sweet Pull Apart Aloha Rolls because they’re both tasty and time-saving. They come loosely attached to one another in a convenient, three-by-four-roll rectangle, which can be pulled apart (hence the name) and eaten as-is, or given a quick warm-up in the oven just before serving. Their sweet, simple flavor profile and soft, easy-going texture pair brilliantly with a touch of Cranberry Sauce or a drag through a puddle of savory Turkey Flavored Gravy. And aside from their usefulness at the holiday dinner, proper, they also make a great base for sandwiches. Leftover turkey sliders anyone? We’re selling each 12-ounce bag of 12 Sweet Pull Apart Aloha Rolls for $2.99, every day. Look for them on our bread racks.”
Trader Joe’s Trail Mix Crackers with mung beans, seeds, cashews, raisin, and cheese.
OMG. Crispy, crunchy, nutty, cheesy, raisin-y, sweet and salty… Just outstanding and a very original cracker. Each cracker supposedly is fixed up by hand, to place a cashew nut on it. These are seriously delicious. So much so that I promise you they will go fast, they just seemed to evaporate into thin air (ok more like your mouth). Plus you don’t get that many in a bag, so a little expensive, but very wonderful. Oh, and while delicious as-is right out of the bag there is no law that says you can’t top these with something to boot…like maybe a thin slice of CHEDDAR? Some peanut butter perhaps? About $2.50 a bag (4.5 oz).
UPDATE 1: Went MIA for months but eventually it came back.
(UPDATE 2 SEPT 2025) Once again, MIA. In this case with 5 countries involved there may be a new wrinkle with TARIFFS of course.
UPDATE 3 (End Sept 2025) The front desk staff looked it up for me and told me it is not discontinued and is coming back in a few months; sure enough she said the delay on shipment was likely due to tariffs.
Trader Joe’s Organic Fair Trade FIVE COUNTRY ESPRESSO blend, whole bean, dark roast coffee
If you want espresso or dark roast coffee the options at Trader Joe’s are a little more limited compared to the light and medium roast coffees. Now don’t get me wrong, light and medium roast coffees are wonderful. They’re a terrific choice for most coffee lovers, especially those who make coffee using a drip, pour-over or French press method. However if you make espresso, either with an espresso machine or even use a Moka pot (as I have started doing recently for Moka Pot “espresso”) then you likely want whole beans in a nice dark roast. Or maybe even if you make drip or pour over, your taste preferences just like a darker roast.
These beans are from FIVE different countries….El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Sumatra, Indonesia (wow!).
Best is to grind the beans just before you make the coffee for maximum aroma and flavor…you know, the way any typical coffee geek will do (count me in). I promise you grinding these whole espresso beans fresh will release an intense, heavenly aroma in your kitchen. And you don’t need a $300 burr grinder. A $20 grinder can do fine.
TJ’s FIVE COUNTRY ESPRESSO whole bean is a very good coffee for espresso, moka pot and all dark roast coffee lovers. It’s especially terrific when you first open up the can, when you’ll get the maximum aroma and see super shiny beans just glistening with oil, which is what fresh roasted espresso beans looks like. Once the beans get exposed to air they’ll look less shiny, in about 3-5 days however they will still taste pretty good. TIP: you can parcel up the beans in a number of small ziplock bags, freeze them, and take out bags as needed.
FIVE COUNTRY ESPRESSO WHOLE BEAN COFFEE; $8.99 (13 oz)
MOKA POT – Moka pots may not be “true espresso” but they make a great cup of java. If you are interested in getting one, there’s a link below to one of the more inexpensive Moka Pots (Primula) on Amazon. The original Bialetti Moka Pot is excellent of course but it is a bit pricey. (note: “cups” in this case refer to a tiny espresso cup with just 2-3 oz liquid) I like the “9 cup” Moka Pots for doing Cafe Con Leche for 2 people who love coffee. You can get a “Moka 9” for just over $20, not a bad deal at all. Every Italian kitchen has one or more Moka’s and 60 million Italians can’t be wrong.
Trader Joe’s ROSEMARY SFOGLIETTE, Thin and Crunchy, Italian Rosemary Crackers
Not too fancy, a bit even on the plain side which is sometimes just what you want in a cracker to set up whatever topping you are putting on the cracker. I really like these. Product of Italy. Delicate rosemary flavor. Top these with TJ’s Rosemary Ham and a slice of Rosemary Asiago cheese and I don’t know about you but that puts me in heaven. A bargain too at $1.69 a package.
“Our Italian supplier makes thin, hexagonal biscuits using wheat and rice flours, along with a combination of olive and sunflower oils. The crackers are seasoned with dried rosemary & sea salt and baked until they possess the ideal crunch. They’re thin and crisp, but not overly fragile. And they present the wonderful aroma and flavors of rosemary and olive oil. As you could imagine, Rosemary Sfogliette make great snack crackers—with or without cheese. They’re also a formidable companion for your favorite bowl of soup!”
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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