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And let's not forget their tasting kiosks, and the Fearless Flyer newsletter ... informative, funny, and a worthwhile read.

Very much so! You can always purchase just one can or bottle from a six-pack or any multi-pack of drinks (alcoholic or non) and, as you said, return anything without question.

Then there's this book.

Service and a stong motivation to have happy and satisfied customers. In no particular order, you can return anyhing at any time, no questions asked. Tangentially, I was at the dairy case one day looking at something and unsure if I wanted it. One of the staff saw me, said that I should go ahead and try it, and if I didnt like it, it would be no problem. I didn't even have to pay for the item first. I was told thatTJ's wants people to try new-to-them items. They have some unique items, things you'll not see anywhere else. And their prices are lower than nearby markets, like Safeway. I can sometimes buy at Costco prices without having to buy Costco quantities. The staff is always happy to help and offer suggestions. I've never encountered a grumpy staff member. TJ's is a pleasant place to shop.

I love to watch when people are dexterous and elegant eating with fingers. I never learned that, so I don't try. I'm just a white Jewish old lady and did not grow up with South Asian or Ethiopian parents. Without untensils I eat the following: tacos, sandwiches, chicken wings and pizza if it usually pizza. Also I have a bad habit of grabbing the pope's nostrils off a hot roasted chicken. Nothing to brag about there.

We are back on the Cape for a few days, this time in Chatham. My husband booked a long weekend at Chatham Bars Inn because he has been wanting to stay here again for years and I have been dragging my feet. I used to have to come here every year for a multi day conference when I was working, and it was not fun. Being here as a tourist is a completely different experience, and much more enjoyable. Our room is in the spa building rather than the main inn. This part of the resort that is child free, so it is very quiet. The rooms are nice. The massive bathroom has a steam shower, a sauna, and a whirlpool tub that fills from the ceiling. There is a pool area just for the spa suites guests outside our room, but we probably won’t get there. Why sit by a pool when you can walk by the ocean? The resort is at peak capacity. My work events were always in early June, so I have never experienced crowds like there are here now. It’s crazy. We are afraid to move our car because we might never get another parking spot 😂. There are multiple weddings here this weekend, and the amount of flowers I have seen trucked in here for them defies belief. Last night we walked into town for dinner at Viera on Main. Drinks. Husband’s dirty martini and my phony negroni We shared some garlic clams and then husband had striped bass and I had a seafood pasta with clams, mussels, cod, and shrimp We skipped dessert at the restaurant in favor of hunting down some ice cream We chose coconut caramel swirl (way too rich, went uneaten) and heath bar peanut butter Friday nights are band concerts on the town green, so we stopped by for a bit. It’s a popular event! This morning we had breakfast on the veranda of the main inn. Scrambled eggs with avocado and asparagus on a smashed croissant and poached eggs with stracciatella cheese, speck, tomato, and greens After breakfast we took the resort boat shuttle over to North Beach Island, directly offshore from CBI. It was fairly uncrowded. Heading away from the CBI beach Lots of lobster and fishing boats doing their thing We ended up walking over six miles just while exploring the part of the island we got to. We are going back tomorrow to explore some more. Dinner was at Stars, the fine dining restaurant at Chatham Bars Inn. Menu Drinks. I had a non alcoholic amarena spritz, and husband had a cocktail with mezcal and strawberries. I forget the name of it. Amuse bouche of duck rillettes with cherries. I don’t like duck but husband said they were tasty. We shared some appetizers. Oysters. They were delicious, but very small! tuna and the peach burrata salad. These were both delicious I had the scallops and husband had the waygu with a lobster tail added Dessert menu I knew I wanted the berries and cream. It was really lovely. Husband got the coffee torte and regretted it after he tasted mine. Torte berries There was a complimentary parting dessert as well, but we had our server box it up for us to take to the room for tomorrow since we were both too full to eat anything else!

I like the book as well and need to pull it out more often. Some of her other books seem to assume you have a staff of prep cooks on retainer and this one is somewhat more restrained. Still, as you noted, it’s not exactly opening jars and poof - dinner!

Thanks. Won't make a special trip but will try them out when I happen to be nearby.

I can’t say they’d be worth a special trip, but if it’s on your way or a short detour at the right time of day…worse things could happen!

Interesting, never heard of this chain but there are two within 50 miles of my house. 🙂 Thank you @blue_dolphin.

Thanks tou you @blue_dolphin for enablement. I found a copy of Nancy Silverton's Twist of the Wrist for dirt cheap in great condition on eBay. I like it a lot. She has a very nice way of recommending specific ingredients and then letting you know what good options are available, and whether some of the ingredients can just be omitted. She's exacting and fairly practical at the same time. I will say this though, many of the recipes have lengthy ingredients lists and complex techniques, so I am not so sure all her shortcuts make things quick. Partly because, probably like you, I rarely use canned beans anymore. I'm trapped in RG quicksand . I look at canned beans and can't do it.

This id almost a reverse of the topic, but in the last few months I'm hearing the use of "cooked" on political blogs. Google definition below. But on these pods it is very specifically political. In modern slang, "cooked" primarily signifies thatsomeone is in a bad situation, facing trouble, or defeated. It can also be used to describe someone as extremely tired or affected by drugs.The term has roots in older slang and is frequently used on social media, particularly by Gen Z, to indicate a dire or hopeless circumstance.

My 2 cents is that TJ's is more of a niche market rather than a supermarket. They don’t carry everything one might want in their weekly shopping, though they keep getting closer. They never carried any fresh produce at all (maybe bananas and apples?) until a big grocery union strike here in SoCal (Oct 2003) shut down the chain supermarkets and TJ's picked up the slack. Costco, Target and other retailers also jumped into the fray but TJ's was the most nimble and it was a big turning point for them. Still no name brands. Lots of their own private label stuff. There are similarities to Aldi, though I find them quite different. Most of Aldi's private label stuff is packaged to be almost indistinguishable from the big name brands while TJ's tends to go for more trendy items than copycats though both sell at lower price points than their competitors.

I hold the roti in my right hand and use the fork with my left. I was brought up with the "fork stays in the left hand" school of eating. So it all makes sense and I assume it doesn't offend anyone. In a restaurant, I will usually order naan or garlic naan. I like the wholemeal chapatis but would have to make them myself. At home I get frozen roti from Aldi and use them for almost anything that calls for flat bread except Mexican, especially kabab since the bread at my local shop is pretty ordinary. We just get a meat pack and eat it with roti like it is Indian. I use my fork concave side up. Scooping onto the back of the fork baffles me. I hold my knife overhand and the English hold from below grip seems odd.

I have some cans of paint and some engine oil. Will that work?

Actually, that's a very good question. It isn't like "any other supermarket" but, having said that, I'll start the floundering about what makes it different. It's kind of a specialty grocery store, with their own product lines and not many from outside companies. Friends who have ready access find sometimes that they have to go to the main chain stores for certain household items...cleaning agents, for example. I think they focus on organically grown produce and humanely raised (and killed) animals. Their product labels typically don't require a chemistry dictionary. In my experience, they also must have excellent employee relations because I've never run across a grumpy or harrassed employee. As I've noted before, I don't often get to one so my experience is limited. And yes, Safeway is still a US supermarket chain. 😉 Okay, TJ's enthusiasts -- what have I missed? Let's help Ddanno understand Trader Joe's. Edited to add: their About Us writeup gives some explanation of why/how they're different from most US grocery store chains.

I was also sent this recipe as an example of a dump meal. Seven Can Chicken Taco Soup. That's right. Seven cans that you open and dump into a slow cooker. And they even include a video to show you how to open the cans. When they say dump meal they aren't kidding.

Pineapple ice. Brix was 13.1 and sweetness to my taste was perfect. If the presentation looks odd, I was adjusting the machine for different textures. I have another free trade organic pineapple waiting in my dining room.

I did warn you in my intro post about stoopid questions. What is Trader Joe's exactly? Searching online just pegs it to any other supermarket, but you folk seem to be pretty enthusiastic about it - hence this entire thread - so there must be something I am (once again) missing. What's different about it from err.. I dunno, Safeway?( that's still a US supermarket right?)

I just received an email that had four recipes and three of them have names that just set my teeth on edge. The first one was Neiman Marcus bars, yeah sure they are. The second was million dollar chicken. That's right up there with the million dollar oatmeal recipe that they sent last time. And the last one was dump cake. For someone who is old enough to remember taking things to the dump and remembering how it smells, that cake really appeals to me.

I'm eating some of the chicken mole right now. It's certainly easy. Pull the package out of the cardboard sleeve, poke a few holes in the plastic covering, microwave a couple of minutes. remove the plastic altogether, microwave more, and serve. Here it is (crummy photo, sorry) before I started dishing it up. @BeeZee, note that this is not a standalone dish. It's only the chicken in sauce, and it has to be served with or over something. That may matter for your purposes. In light of JAZ's comment above, I loaded it atop some salad greens and topped with chopped cabbage. I tried loading it into a taco shell, but although the taco package was unopened it was over a year old. Stale. Those taco shells are going out into the woods. Per the photo on the package cover, I then added chunks of avocado, and a squeeze of lemon. Knowing my own tastes, I also added sour cream. Eh. I'll be able to eat it, but I won't buy it again. It has more heat than I like, although the sour cream tones it down. Once I've diluted the heat I pick up some sweet notes and maybe fruity notes that I'm not crazy about. Someone may love this, but I'm not that someone. Looking at the ingredient list, I see that sugar is 4th on the list of ingredients. That accounts for the sweetness I dislike here. It reminds me of my experience, way back here in 2005, making Mole Poblano during our Mole Cook-Off. It was a messy adventure, and I'm glad I did it once, but I never repeated it. My darling and thought it was okay, but neither of us clamored for me to repeat the experience.

Hi, yes I have purchased beef from this same farmer. He does finish his beef on grain for the last five months and they are still grazing for that whole time as well. The beef has been good. I'm very focused on the quality of food that I eat, to the point where I am am willing to rely more on cooking techniques, added fat, and seasoning. It's ok. The improvements in my health are worth any sacrifice, and really, this GFB is not really much of a sacrifice. I'm not ready to add SV to my cooking routines at this time. There have been a lot of changes to my diet over the last three months and I'm still getting used to all of it. After things settle down and I get into more of a routine, then I can think about adding SV or other cooking techniques. Thank you for your input. Greg

Salmon with corn risotto (made with corn stock)

Thank you for the welcome everyone. I hope it's ok, but I'd like to post my own new thread about my half cow experience. The one from 2010 was posted in Kitchen/Cooking and that's where I'll post mine. Greg

@haresfur yes, we mix the sloppy bits with the rice. We may or may not have a piece of meat or vegetable in the portion we bring to our mouth. When we eat rice, we use our fingertips, and the palm remains clean. My grandfather from Tamil Nadu, the state just to the East, would use his whole hand. Other people form balls of rice and gravy before passing food to their lips. The action to form the balls by tossing and rolling the semi-solid amalgam of rice and curry is something we don't see much in the west in any context and is difficult to explain. There is a lot of variation across India and even within Kerala. Chappathi is North Indian but completely normal in Kerala. I've never had naan in Kerala. Parottas in Kerala are not paratha of N India, although similar. With all of these, we'd scoop up the gravy and maybe grab a piece of meat to pop in our mouth. Licking your fingers after eating - variable acceptability! Naturally, everyone thinks their way is the right way. @haresfur do you hold the roti in your right hand or left when you load it with a fork? Right hand- many Indians would do this if they're eating at a restaurant when abroad. Left hand- no one is judging you; thank you for your custom. I hold the roti in my left hand... I know I'm being judged. Equally, I'm sure the Chinese waiter doesn't give a hoot how cack-handedly I hold my chopsticks! On the other hand, we're all pretty judgemental about how someone holds their knife and fork, aren't we? Are we?