Christmas Crack

Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Joe-Joe's are dangerous. You only have a few options when confronting these Oreo, Thin Mints, and peppermint bark hybrids.

Abstinence
Yeah, right!

Moderation
Only for those with a very strong will and non-addictive personality.

Fiendish Hoarding
These cookies are seasonal. Stave off withdrawal symptoms by hoarding. Twelve to twenty boxes should do you until this time next year. (Buy hundreds if you are a street corner entrepreneur.)

This is the face of an addict. It could happen to any one.

Trader Joe's Find

While dodging mean-eyed moms at Trader Joes this weekend, my eyes landed on boxes of frozen, individual, chocolate chip cookie dough. I’ve never seen them at Trader Joes, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been around. (They’re famous for having products go M.I.A. for long stretches.)

These insta-cookies are great for late nights, watching bad TV, and when you have, um…those unexplained cravings. Just pop a few in the oven, and 15 minutes later you have warm, sweet, greasy (yes, I found them greasy) love. Now, I don’t think these are any better than the Pillsbury refrigerated, I’m-a-lazy-parent cookies (in the lazy department), but somehow TJ’s convinces you that their products are as good as expensive lines (TJ’s cookie dough is made from natural ingredients and taste good, unlike Pillsbury), yet you’re getting them for a steal. I’m guilty of falling for their marketing, so I grabbed the cookie dough. What can I say? I like lazy, cheap, warm, sweet, greasy love. Mmm.

Trader Joe's Frozen Mac 'n Cheese

I spied a new TJ's product the other day – frozen mac ‘n cheese. Ya know I picked it up to give it the ol’ chew and review!

The visible cheese hunks in the picture on the box look enticing, and the ingredient list is simple: macaroni, milk, Cheddar cheese, Havarti cheese, Gouda cheese, Swiss cheese, flour, butter, rice starch, salt, and spices.

The recommended 25-minute bake time at 375º won’t cut it. At 20 minutes, I poked my head in and the dish looked almost identical to it’s frozen state – pale pasta and cheese not thoroughly melted. So, I cranked the oven up to 500º for the last 5 minutes. This made the cheese bubble and the pasta crispy around the edges. 1 or 2 additional minutes on broil to brown the top, and you’ve got something that looks homemade.

How did it taste? Pretty damn good! It has real cheese that you can see, and the four-cheese blend was strong enough to bring zing to the pasta. Portions are right on – two good-sized portions per box. I, of course, ate both! If I were jonesin’ for mac and cheese, I’d definitely buy this for a quick fix.

Green Tea Cake

I just TJ-hoarded…again! That’s what one must do when one fears the demise or long absence of a product at Trader Joe’s. And the sad thing is that I hoarded without even knowing if the product was going to be good. Luckily the green tea cake mix I just found on the “New Items” end cap turned out to be good.

Always check the “New Items” end cap to see interesting new arrivals. (Like the dried hibiscus flowers that I’ve yet to use.) These items may make it into the regular rotation, or TJ’s may make it walk the plank.

My intuition tells me that this is not going to be a smashing hit with the general public, and will disappear when the initial lot is sold. Ppsh, the general public does not know what is good for me! I love green tea flavored anything. My survival instincts kicked in and I hoarded.

The mild green tea flavored cake would be excellent with ginger sour cream frosting. The cake looks greener than the picture on the box and the picture I took, so would be excellent for a funky cake.

Ice Cream Hoarding

You know what goes really well with those papaya-coconut cupcakes?

Green Tea ice cream!

I picked up 5 pints this weekend from Trader Joes. No, I’m not a pig. I’m just hoarding.

I once read that if you like something at Trader Joes, you better stock up on it because it may disappear.

Pishaw! That won’t happen to me.

Then, it did!

A few weeks after posting about my addiction to Lucky Country Aussie Red Licorice, it went missing from the shelves and still has not appeared.

The ready to eat udon noodles and frozen gorgonzola and pear pizza have been missing since winter, the bite size cheesecakes (great for parties) make an appearance about twice a year, the gummi candies and frozen vegetarian bean burritos have been missing for a few months, and the Kashi cereal I get was gone last week.

Gelato Classico’s Green Tea flavored gelato is my favorite. They also make a ginger flavored gelato that’s neck and neck in the favorite race. These two can go missing for months before I see it again. I hadn’t seen either flavor in a few months and was afraid it wasn’t coming back, so I grabbed all that was left when it appeared this weekend.

Hopefully, with a little control, those pints will get me most of the way through summer.