Trader Joe's Products (2017–)

rotuts · January 28, 2022

If I can get 3 ft of snow taken care of

Ill look forward to a trip to TJ's Tuesday.

( no local fresh bread Monday )

besides my car won't be de-snowed until late Mon. )

Ill look ro the Pecan.

its quite true that the Kringle

has a significant amount of frosting.

sometimes , if Im patient , I pry some off before i

CSO my large slice.

Katie Meadow · January 28, 2022

4 hours ago, curls said:

@Katie Meadow too bad about the pecan kringle. What are your favorite items at Trader Joes?

What I buy regularly at TJ's:

Chocolate / hazelnut biscotti

Empire kosher chicken (They used have Empire kosher organic chicken, which was great but no longer)

unsweetened cherry juice

Valrhona dark chocolate bar 71% (at $2.99 it is a steal)

Tj"s maple syrup

House-made flour tortillas

Dark chocolate almonds w/ sea salt & turbinado sugar (not regularly since I eat too many of them)

Bulleit Rye (good with dark chocolate almonds late at night!)

Husband is opportunistic buyer of beer and Barbara's oat squares (oaty and aromatic when first opened, but in a few days they go south toward sawdust)

Seasonal: butter toffee pretzels (love/hate relationship, thank god they are not available year round)

What I would kill for them to bring back: Pane Guttiau Italian flatbread and chocolate coated sunflower seeds. Not eaten together, by the way.

rotuts · January 30, 2022

I got these @ my last Tj's visit :

im not sure why , I was moving fast and grabbed them.

I do recall that these and their cousins were demo'd

( remember Demo's ? )

a few years ago , heated up in a skillet pan , crunchy , greasy , w a salsa dip ?

pretty good then , if you were hungry !

the first two I tried were terrible.

they would have been ' fine ' CSO'd ) until crispy , hopefully still

a little greasy , w a hot salsa.

so I tried this :

two of them chopped up in Italian Wedding Soup Progessso

and , letting them soak a bit to rehydrate the corn tortillas

far better than I expected !

remember : 1 ) I had them 2 ) I was going to eat them

somehow.

P.S.: heated up un til the small cheese cubes melt

it was quite nice.

Odd , you might say

Edited January 30, 2022 by rotuts (log)

lemniscate · January 30, 2022

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

chopped up in Italian Wedding Soup Progessso

If you get a chance, try a can of Cento Italian Wedding soup. We used to like the Progresso, until we tried the Cento.

lemniscate · January 30, 2022

P.S. What you did looks a lot like Tortilla soup crossed with Albondigas Mexican soup, Italian fusion?

rotuts · January 30, 2022

Im keeping this combo

on my list.

brucesw · January 31, 2022

Looks good! Not familiar with Italian Wedding soup but I can see this in chicken broth or maybe tomato. With the former, corn (kernels or small sections of still on the cob as in Mexican caldos), cooked beans (pinto or black), and so on. I love all the onions and the carrots are appealing.

ETA: I gave up on the frozen taquitos (Delimex brand widely distributed here) and have never seen TJ's I will have to try this.

This has been a Winter of Soups at my house. Our chilly spells (only below freezing once so far I think) have lingered longer than they have in recent years.

Thanks.

Edited January 31, 2022 by brucesw (log)

cyalexa · January 31, 2022

I just tried the TJ dark russet potato chips and thought they were amazing. Made me think of my mother who loved Wise potato chips.

Maison Rustique · January 31, 2022

12 hours ago, cyalexa said:

I just tried the TJ dark russet potato chips and thought they were amazing. Made me think of my mother who loved Wise potato chips.

I love extra brown foods. These chips are great. If you haven't tried them, try Extra Toasted Cheez-its--either the real brand or the Aldi knock off. Both are good.

rotuts · February 2, 2022

blitz'd TJ's just now

gaps here and there

no kringle !

wraps missing several varieties , but

got wat I needed.

remember , Big Snow here revently

out of taquitos ( Ck )

so trying the black bean and cheese

the fresh bread was there and that's

what I really went for.

rotuts · February 2, 2022

forgot to mention :

got this :

https://traderjoesrants.com/2022/01/07/trader-joes-green-and-red-hatch-chile-flakes/

very very nice.

now if I only had a Deep Dish Chicago style pizza to sprinkle this on.

Edited February 2, 2022 by rotuts (log)

BeeZee · February 2, 2022

On 1/31/2022 at 9:11 AM, Maison Rustique said:

I love extra brown foods. These chips are great. If you haven't tried them, try Extra Toasted Cheez-its--either the real brand or the Aldi knock off. Both are good.

I'm a fan of "well done" also...I bought Aldi brand after seeing your post and I like them, although they aren't very "cheesy" tasting, they are good as crackers and don't leave orange dust on my fingers (a plus at work)!

**Shelby** · February 2, 2022

5 hours ago, rotuts said:

forgot to mention :

got this :

https://traderjoesrants.com/2022/01/07/trader-joes-green-and-red-hatch-chile-flakes/

very very nice.

now if I only had a Deep Dish Chicago style pizza to sprinkle this on.

Oooooooh!!! Nice!!!

Lindacakes · February 3, 2022

I love Trader Joe's.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Lindacakes
Made a mistake. (log)

blue_dolphin · February 3, 2022

19 minutes ago, Lindacakes said:

I still go back and run in and grab a few things and run back out: frozen shakshuka sauce, frozen chili cheese tamales, chicken soup with no noodles, sour cream, liquid French soap, taco seasoning.

Sounds pretty unpleasant 😢. Hope you can find subs for those items elsewhere. From that list, the only thing I’d touch is the sour cream 🤣 and yet, I'm a TJ's fan. Lotsa changes in the 40+ years I’ve been shopping there. Lotsa stuff I don’t buy but still getting the cheese, dairy, wine and nuts that sold me back then. Plus my new love, the frozen Taiwanese scallion pancakes!

26 minutes ago, Lindacakes said:

Children's foods with the devotees to match; the store is filled with running children.

In my area, the number of kids went way down during Covid. Used to be tons with parents combining school pick-ups with other errands. Not now.

28 minutes ago, Lindacakes said:

My local TJ's went corporate, any funkiness to it was wiped out through a complete reorganization in how the store was laid out.

I guess my TJ's have always been corporate since as long as I’ve been shopping there, they've completely rearranged their stores on a regular basis. I figured they wanted us to wander around lost and happen upon new stuff. I very much appreciate that none of the dozen or so stores in my area have done more than minor shifts of frozen foods during Covid so still relatively easy to find stuff.

44 minutes ago, Lindacakes said:

I buy skids of Kerry Gold butter from Costco rather than TJ. I wonder if it's me, but it doesn't matter, I want my food to taste like food . . .

Does the Kerrygold butter from Costco taste different from TJ's? Although I’ve never seen a skid of anything other than Two Buck Chuck in there so maybe that’s it?

heidih · February 3, 2022

As @blue_dolphin notes - the original TJ was nuts, wine, dairy. All the products came later. We found the original in Pasadena, Ca (lived in the area) and frequented it maybe starting 1979. Saw it grow and expand. I've always lived near one Th real boost around here came during a grocery store clerk strike at the big chains here. Picket lines; whole nine yards to extent of making walking into a store highly uncomfortable. Many many people said "nope" and began to use TJ as their main shop. Between Covid and my lack of driving it has been a couple years and there is little I crave. I do read the newsletter "Frequent Flyer" but it is more an indulgence or "that sounds interesting" thing. I will continue to browse there for certain things when circumstances change. I was at their headquarters in Monrovia, CA once - reqyired office attire - thse Hawaii shirts nd ore-Covid - not remote working - a "we are a family" culture.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ralphs-vons-albertsons-strike-vote-20190622-story.html

rotuts · February 3, 2022

i have not had rancid nuts , flavorless dried fruit , and there are no children tues 8 am,

its true that its changed over time . there used to be no fresh meat , except empire chickens.

now all sorts of other cuts.

the people are more or less the same , and friendly

their ( table ) wine selections are large enough that i can find

a few i like.

no problems here for Tj's.

they do have cakes , donuts etc.

no one put a gun to my head and said I had to buy any of it.

for me , it puts WF to shame.

RB40 ( the same bottle ) is 1/2 the price @ TJ's

Edited February 3, 2022 by rotuts (log)

weinoo · February 3, 2022

13 hours ago, Lindacakes said:

Children's foods with the devotees to match; the store is filled with running children.

If you're shopping at the Gowanus Whole Foods, you can't honestly say there aren't children running around in that nuthouse.

As well as privileged aholes leaving their carts all over the parking lot.

Maison Rustique · February 4, 2022

I got the Hatch chili flakes last time, too. We aren't super-spicy food eaters, so I seldom buy fresh peppers because I end up wasting 95% of them. I put the chili flakes in the last batch of chili I made and it was really good.

Butter--have I mentioned before the TJ's cultured butter from Brittany? OMG! It is so good. I am really hooked on it.

I wish they would open a store closer to us. It is just far enough that I can't but frozen foods unless it is really cold weather. Even though I rake a cooler, the frozen stuff just doesn't stay frozen in warm weather months. I need to make a trip next week and get some of those scallion pancakes.

I always enjoy using my ancient TJ's bags when I go. Since they only opened stores here a few years ago, my bags from 30-40 years ago are like collectibles. The cashiers often say, "Oh! Where did you get that TJ bag? I've never seen that one!" 😄

palo · February 4, 2022

51 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:

I wish they would open a store closer to us. It is just far enough that I can't but frozen foods unless it is really cold weather. Even though I rake a cooler, the frozen stuff just doesn't stay frozen in warm weather months.

Bag in bag!

I have a couple of insulated freezer bags I use in the summer - place frozen items in one which is then placed in the other which is finally placed in the cooler - the trick is to remove as much air as possible from the bags and to use a cooler that is just big enough for your needs - filling any excess space in the cooler with newspaper or some such will make a big difference.

p

Annie_H · February 4, 2022

^Yes, newspaper and cardboard are great insulators. Foil bags with re-freezable ice packs---I keep mine in zip-locks in case of leaks. Frozen foods in the bottom of your cooler with ice packs and top with a couple layers of cardboard. Then any cheeses, veg...not frozen stuff but needing fridge temps above the layers of cardboard. Ice packs just under a layer of cardboard will keep all that fridge cold.

I can travel three days with frozen and fridge foods in a cooler. (a bit more planning but can be done).

I keep insulated bags in my car for my shopping bags. If I have multiple errands I toss in a few ice packs.

*Walden local meat share are recycling their canvas insulated bags again but all 2020 they did not want them back. Before covid I purchased a couple similar on Amazon.

I save the foil pack bags from Misfits and deliveries that use them. We have had whole chickens, a turkey, and various meats arrive solid frozen delivered fed-x. Sometimes two days in transit.

The last pastured raised chicken from Misfits took three more days to thaw in the fridge after delivery.

We have been off our homemade bread game for about a year now. I'm not a TJ shopper for many reasons but really want the scallion pancakes!. I have a good recipe but at that price, yum.

Maison Rustique · February 4, 2022

23 minutes ago, Annie_H said:

^Yes, newspaper and cardboard are great insulators. Foil bags with re-freezable ice packs---I keep mine in zip-locks in case of leaks. Frozen foods in the bottom of your cooler with ice packs and top with a couple layers of cardboard. Then any cheeses, veg...not frozen stuff but needing fridge temps above the layers of cardboard. Ice packs just under a layer of cardboard will keep all that fridge cold.

I can travel three days with frozen and fridge foods in a cooler. (a bit more planning but can be done).

I keep insulated bags in my car for my shopping bags. If I have multiple errands I toss in a few ice packs.

*Walden local meat share are recycling their canvas insulated bags again but all 2020 they did not want them back. Before covid I purchased a couple similar on Amazon.

I save the foil pack bags from Misfits and deliveries that use them. We have had whole chickens, a turkey, and various meats arrive solid frozen delivered fed-x. Sometimes two days in transit.

The last pastured raised chicken from Misfits took three more days to thaw in the fridge after delivery.

We have been off our homemade bread game for about a year now. I'm not a TJ shopper for many reasons but really want the scallion pancakes!. I have a good recipe but at that price, yum.

That is amazing. One of the reasons I cancelled Misfits and Imperfect was that the meat/fish were defrosted by the time I got them and I had to throw them out. I use ice packs in my cooler, but things just don't stay frozen if it is in the 90s. Maybe I need a new cooler.

rotuts · February 5, 2022

this has become one of my favorite products @ TJ's :

when I( first got this , quite some time ago , I thought it wasn't spicy.

but it is . Micro for a fw minutes

the chicken is juicy and not dry , the white and wild rice is very very nice

and it is a little spicy , like SW seasonings.

very nice.

Maison Rustique · February 6, 2022

Last time at TJ's I got a package of the Cacio e Pepe ravioli. We had it last night. I made a chicken, asparagus., mushroom blue cheese/alfredo-type sauce to go with. It was delicious. Fast food.

rotuts · February 9, 2022

this AM :

No taquitos. No Chicken . No Bean .

they did have Pecan Kringle !

store seemed well stocked.

Dairy and Eggs section : Full .

just no taquitos .

Edited February 9, 2022 by rotuts (log)

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