Had to upload it to youtube this time!
At least his bedding will be clean soon, even if he isn't....
I'm not that familiar with these things, but I've got a feeling that these lattice-style pastries might belong in the domain of desserts... Still, I decided to have a go at it, with this savory pie. It is essentially a quiche: eggs. With a few other things of course — some grated cheddar cheese, chopped scallions, even some finely diced lettuce (yeah, lettuce — quiches regularly feature spinach, so why not?), and various other things I came across.
Reasons I Am Buying Less At Trader Joe's
or
Items Trader Joe's Has (Apparently) Discontinued
in no particular order other than the most heartbreaking is first (also you might notice a theme)
- Mexican Hot Cocoa Cookies--I told the cashier last year that I loved these so much I wanted to marry them. Then I wrote Trader Joe's and told them that, and they said they were a seasonal item. And they didn't bring them back this season. I want to punch them in the face for this alone.
- Pierogies--these had become rather a staple for me over the last year or 2. I'm not sure if they have been discontinued but I haven't seen any in a few months.
- Hot chocolate mix in the round blue can--okay, they have the sipping chocolate which is good, and this one I can live without but still, just another turn of the thumbscrew.
- Chocolate yogurt--the kind with the real cocoa in the bottom that you mixed up and it was all delicious and shit, not that Eurotrash crap in the smaller container they try to shove off on you.
- Cookies with Perks--the chocolate chip cookes with espresso chips (or espresso flavored cookies with chocolate chips?). Haven't seen them since probably last winter or spring. Bastards.
- Milk chocolate cocoa almonds (are you getting the theme yet?)--now they have the black cocoa almonds, and they are pretty good, though unless you eat them with a spoon or chopsticks it's like you just read 100,000 newspapers (okay, newspapers that taste like chocolate, but still, it's messy!) Now---90% of the time I prefer dark chocolate, but this is one of the few exceptions (one of the others is the milk chocolate covered McVitie's digestive biscuits which I haven't had in years but I would probably sell a kidney for a packet right about tomorrow). Would it be SO WRONG to have both?
- I didn't check for it this time because I bought some at the regular supermarket since I couldn't find it at Trader Joe's the last couple times, but if they have discontinued their frozen broccoli florets I'm gonna bust up the joint.
- I don't think they have discontinued them (YET) but their sea salt brownies were really delicious until they lightened up on the sea salt. Now they are just bland.
- I didn't see the little chocolate mint cookie clusters. They were so good that I can't even remember what they were. They were in a brown and dark pink round container, like a pint of ice cream, like Thin Mints or something, all crumbled up and covered in chocolate, maybe?
- Also I haven't seen the dark chocolate toffee squares I've become rather addicted to, in a while. I bought some in September to bring on vacation. I have one left in front of me.
There are probably other things but it's probably like regular food that doesn't stand out in my mind like chocolate stuff. I will add things as I recall them. I know my neighbor was pissed about some croissants they discontinued, maybe almond croissants.
They are discontinuing stuff I like but not replacing them with anything as good or better. Are my tastes that eclectic? Do all the rest of the Trader Joe's customers have bland ass taste?
Oh--the first thing I ever had from Trader Joe's, before I lived near one, were these little chocolate animal cracker type cookies (my sister had them at her house when I was babysitting once and I wanted to eat the whole thing). They weren't chocolate covered or anything, they were like chocolate butter cookies that melted in your mouth. And they replaced them with something BLAND.
I seriously was planning on buying 10 boxes of those Mexican Hot Cocoa Cookies. And next trip I would have bought 10 more. I'm completely serious. I was going to stock up so I could have them at least through the spring. Or till New Year's. Or till I OD'ed on them, or at least till I vomited.
Quit breaking my heart, Trader Joe. You are getting to be evil and sadistic, getting me hooked on this stuff and then yanking them out from under me, without warning, before I can stock up and buy out every store in the area.
Well this is an extremely artistic and clever picture — I am a very creative and artistic kind of a a guy. And clever. But not clever enough to actually operate this camera. Gah. Heh, it does look kinda good, though...
Salmon fillets, skinned and diced, dipped in seasoned flour, egg and finally seasoned panko bread crumbs. I used an Indian style curry seasoning. 'Twas pretty damn tasty, I must say.
I thought this was kind of neat.
The Beatles Complete on Ukulele (recorded in Shabby Road Studios in Brooklyn!)
I was just looking again at a newsletter I got in October from Spottiswoode & His Enemies and noticed it mentioned at the bottom. Well, Spottiswoode does a cool version of Within You Without You which I downloaded for free. Yep, all of the songs are free to download. They are doing a song a week for 185 weeks till the catalog is complete. And if you happen to be in Brooklyn this weekend, they are doing a Benefit Concert for Yoko Ono. Last year it was a benefit for Warren Buffett, so I don't think it's like Yoko's broke and needs bone marrow transplants or anything.
Sunday December 6, 2009, from noon to midnight at Brooklyn Bowl, 61 Whythe Avenue, between N. 11th and N. 12th Streets, Brooklyn 11211.
more info here.
No, kitty — this is my chicken pot pie!
Sautéed, grated onions were mixed into the meat along with salt and pepper. The patties were grilled over high heat on a charcoal grill, and the white potato bread was toasted. Lettuce, pickles, tomatoes and Thousand Island dressing. I've started to appreciate the simplicity a bit more, with bison meat — I want to actually taste the meat, not just the accouterments.
These suckers were stuffed with cilantro and basted with an oil and lime juice mixture, but it had absolutely no flavor impact at all. Grilling things can severely reduce the potency of the flavoring agents you add to your protein, but this really did catch me by surprise. I love grilling whole trouts, and I'll definetely do it again — but I've got to find a better way to infuse flavor into the thing.
The other bit is an improvised idea: Dutch Stamppot (mashed potatoes with root veggies such as carrots, turnips, and swedes) and Irish Colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale, and ham). Mashed potatoes and carrots, with spinach, scallions and garlic.
It would have been excellent — except I over salted it. I hate doing that. It's such a damn trivial mistake. You can always add salt at the table. Adding too much salt during the cooking process is a damn stupid thing to do, and I really get upset when I do it. I'm seriously considering putting a label on the stove that just saying "SALT," to help me keep this simple notion in mind when I'm cooking.
Was going to use commercial puff pastry, but ended up with puff pastry cups, rather than sheets... So I had to make my own faux puff pastry. It has been a while since I've done this, and I ended up mixing it too much, grinding the butter down too much. So it wasn't nearly as puffy as it should have been. But it was still fairly decent.
The recipe calls for sliced red onions and garlic to be cooked in a separate pan, and then mixed in with fresh herbs. The suggested herbs were, specifically: basil, thyme and parsley. I can't grow parsley, but basil and thyme, yeah — we've got that. So that's it.
At least I sorta figured out why the camera's flash wasn't going off. Heh.
This was actually supposed to be a red curry (ie., with a stew-like consistency) but I had to improvise quite a bit since I ran out of certain ingredients. It was supposed to use only red curry paste, but I had to supplement it with some green paste, which is much, much hotter. Then I had to adjust with additional coconut milk and also water, and a prolonged cooking period to reduce the hotness. Very improvised, and a bit embarrassing. But it did taste great.
I think I've seen recipes that combines the red and green pastes, and that I might have cooked a dish like that. Whether I have or not, those two pastes actually creates a really interesting taste.
