trader joe’s – AT-AT Everywhere

Strawberry Frosting – Without Dyes or Artificial Flavors

As a companion to the White(ish) Layer Cake, I was looking for a recipe that didn’t require food coloring or strawberry puree and came across this one at Your Cup of Cake. This was the perfect addition to fill and cover the White(ish) Layer Cake. Recipe as follows:

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg (1.2 oz) of freeze-dried strawberries (I got mine from Trader Joe’s)
1 C unsalted butter, softened
3 t lemon juice, or milk
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
3 C powdered sugar, 1 C more if needed

DIRECTIONS:

Dump your freeze dried strawberries into a food processor. Be sure and take out the little white packet inside, this packet keeps out any moisture but it’s not edible. Finely crush the berries in your food processor or blender.
Trader Joe’s Dehydrated Strawberries
Pour into a sifter to remove any larger chunks, and discard what doesn’t go through the sifter.
Butter and Sifted Strawberries
In a stand mixer, beat sifted strawberries and butter until smooth.
Add lemon juice and vanilla extract and beat again.
Slowly add in powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. Cupcakes will need a stiffer frosting while a cake can be a little more soft. To check, I always pull out my spatula and swipe my finger through the frosting. If the frosting keeps it’s shape and doesn’t sink, you’re good to go!

I wanted to call this “Natural Strawberry Frosting”, but mother nature doesn’t freeze-dry strawberries. It’s probably the most natural you’ll get for really colorful frosting!

To avoid writing on the cake and possibly ruining it with my not-so-great frosting script, I topped the cake with some fresh strawberries that Kevin picked up from the farmer’s market. However, they were so juicy that they “leaked” a bit on the drive over to the potluck! Here’s a photo of the finished cake:

Strawberry Frosting - Without Dyes or Artificial Flavors — Strawberry Frosting – Without Dyes or Artificial Flavors

This frosting will definitely be a go-to for me. It wasn’t too sweet thanks to the lemon juice. You can always add more lemon juice to make it more tart too!

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Vanilla Roasted Pears

Kevin and I hosted a fun Saturday evening in Los Feliz for Tony and Julie a few weekends ago, basking in the warm afternoon sun cocktail in-hand on the outdoor patio of Katsuya at the Americana followed by a fun four-course homemade dinner courtesy of Kevin and yours truly.

Apologies in advance for the poor photo quality and plating, as I used my phone’s camera and only briefly had the food on a plate before we shoveled it down our throats. Classy bunch, I know. No time for fluff and positioning when there was food to be eaten!

First Course - Cheese & Charcuterie — First Course – Cheese & Charcuterie

To start, we put together a simple cheese and charcuterie board with Supreme brie (my fav), a gouda-cheddar blend, red wine (chianti) salami from Trader Joe’s, and a Trader Joe’s prosciutto (my absolut fav storebought prosciutto). We threw in some granny smith apple slices, and wheat and flax crackers. Tony apparently is a big chocolate beer guy, so Kevin decided to pick up a couple of chocolate stouts for the boys to try.

Second Course - Arugula Salad — Second Course – Arugula Salad

For the second course, we made a simple arugula salad topped with homemade candied walnuts, julienne fuji apple, and shaved (not grated!) parmesan cheese, all drizzled over with a homemade brown sugar balsamic vinaigrette (1/4 C balsamic vinegar, 1 chopped shallot, 1/2 C olive oil, 2 tsp brown sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp fine black pepper – whisked together and sitting for at least an hour).

I didn't remember to take a photo til midway through eating this dish... — I didn’t remember to take a photo til midway through eating this dish…

For the entree, we did a wheat rotini pasta dish with simple grilled shrimp, pan-friend kale, and Trader Joe’s sundried tomato. We also added a touch of Trader Giotto’s Organic Vodka sauce to add a little bit of moisture to the dish – Kevin’s genius idea.

And now for the real subject matter of this post – dessert! I wanted to make something that we could make and eat right away, rather than the types of things I typically make in advance (i.e., cupcakes, cookies, bars, etc.). Also, baking at Kevin’s means either needing to be self-sufficient as far as not needing the typical tools and machinery goes, or bringing all the machinery myself. We settled on a vanilla poached pear recipe (below) as adapted from one I found on Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients

1/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean
4-5 slightly-under-ripe, fragrant, medium pears, peeled if desired, halved though the stem and cored (I used Bosc)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Place the sugar in a small bowl. With a thin, sharp knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Stir the seeds into the sugar.

2. Arrange the pears in a large baking dish, cut-side up. Drizzle the lemon juice evenly over the fruit, then sprinkle with the sugar. Nestle the vanilla pod among the fruit (I first slit my halves lengthwise into quarters). Pour the water into the dish. Dot each pear with some butter.

Pears, Vanilla Sugar, and Butter - Easy! — Pears, Vanilla Sugar, and Butter – Easy!

3. Roast the pears for minutes brushing them occasionally with the pan juices. Turn the pears over and continue roasting, basting once or twice, until tender and caramelized, 25 to 30 minutes longer. A paring knife poked into the thickest part of one should meet with no resistance.

4. Serve warm, spooned with the caramelized pear drippings from the pan over vanilla ice cream.

I LOVED this recipe – it’s a nice light dessert that I could eat probably every day. When (not “if”) I make this again, I might substitute the white sugar for a little less than the same amount of brown sugar just to get a little more of a molassesy-sticky texture to the glaze. MMM

Thomas Keller’s “Ad Hoc at Home” Chocolate Chip Cookies

Alex, Lingie, and I made the trek up to the Pacific Northwest back in December to visit our beloved Andrew. The four of us, being the laid back yet eccentric group that we are, decided that the first bullet point on our itinerary was for us all to cook a meal together. Nothing else was planned til less than week before our departure date.

Here’s what we came up with!

Andrew's Salmon Prep — Andrew’s Salmon Prep

Andrew taught us how to do a pan-fried salmon, and Lingie helped prep. We liked the recipe so much, we made it again the next night.

Ain't Nobody Got THYME Fo Dat... — Ain’t Nobody Got THYME Fo Dat…

Andrew also made a linguini vongole with bacon lardons.

We all contributed to a salad consisting of julienne pink lady apples, grated pecorino, and candied walnuts all topped with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Salad with Grated Pecorino, Julienned Pink Lady Apples, and Candied Walnuts

At the request of our gracious host, I made a batch of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc Chocolate Chip Cookies in Andrew’s oven, which had convection capabilities at the flip of a switch (which I used, obvi). I live quite an exciting life. Alex helped me with the cookies.

I liked these cookies because they used two kinds of dark chocolate, so they weren’t too sweet (which is my issue with most chocolate chip cookies).

However, if I made these again, I would use the organic chocolate I’ve recently discovered at Trader Joe’s. It’s deliciously 85% dark and cocoa buttery smooth. It’s also quite bitter… like me! You are what you eat, right?

Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home" Chocolate Chip Cookies — Thomas Keller’s “Ad Hoc at Home” Chocolate Chip Cookies

We paired the cookies hot out of the oven with pints (yes, PINTS) of Ben and Jerry’s “Pistachio Pistachio” ice cream, and I used the dust remnants of the chocolate I chopped to sprinkle over the ice cream.

Not going to lie – pistachio and dark chocolate were made to be together. The beauty of pistachio ice cream with any form of dark chocolate (bars, warm cake, cookies, anything!) brings me tears of joy every time.

This recipe was also my inspiration for what I ended up baking yesterday in preparation for Valentine’s Day… which I probably won’t post about for another 3 months at this rate. More to come on that front!

Ingredients – Notice the Seattle Specialty Dark Chocolate!

Pan-Fried Salmon with Sauteed Swiss Chard

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Chicken Sausage and Brussels Sprouts (Dinner à la Trader Joe’s)

I love Trader Joe’s. I have lived walking distance from aforementioned lover ever since I finished college. It’s the perfect place for people who don’t have time to cook, don’t know how to cook, and/or don’t want to cook. They have lovely niche items, as well as your every day staples – all at great prices. There are a handful of items that I now purchase exclusively from Trader Joe’s not just due to their great prices and bountiful array of healthy options, but also because I’ve found that the TJ brand just tastes better than competitive brands (i.e., sun-dried tomatoes, butternut squash ravioli, beets, dark chocolate, almond butter, etc.).

Nothing hurts my soul more than a market-meanderer. Those people set up camp in the aisles with no purpose other than to double the time my trip to the store is supposed to take. They walk right in front of me and then stop to add nothing to their cart, staring longingly at the cheese puffs. I can be pretty patient with situations like these, but after waiting longer than what’s fair, I always intercede the wretched chicken stock-blocker with an “Excuse me, can I get by? PS – don’t buy the cheese puffs. You are fat.” Okay, maybe that last part is just what goes through my head.

One mistake you never want to make is to go to a grocery store before you’ve eaten dinner without a list or idea of what you want to eat. You’ll end up buying way too much stuff and be one of those aisle-cloggers I so detest. I did exactly this last week (sans aisle-clogging), and decided to try to make my hoard somehow work.

I wanted to make something with the TJ butternut squash triangoli (super low in fat and calories for what it is, btw) and brussels sprouts. But what? I ‘ve paired bacon with brussels sprouts many a time, so I decided to try it with chicken sausage. However, chicken sausage generally isn’t as sweet as bacon and I didn’t want to get something as sweet as a chicken apple sausage which would compete with the sweetness of the triangoli. Being obsessed with the California sun-dried tomatoes from Trader Joe’s as it is, I got a package of those and then went with the sun-dried tomato chicken sausage.

Ingredients - all from TJ's — Ingredients – all from TJ’s

Cooking the brussels sprouts in the chicken sausage grease (I know – it sounds so gross) gave the otherwise pretty bitter brussels some great flavor.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts, Onions, and Garlic

Here’s my original “recipe”.

Ingredients:

1 package Trader Joe’s Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Sausage, sliced
3 cloves garlic*, minced
1 small Vidalia (sweet) onion*, diced
1 bag of Trader Joe’s brussels sprouts (16-oz), halved
1 tbsp Trader Giotto’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning
Handful of Trader Joe’s California Sun-Dried Tomatoes – Julienne Cut
1 package Trader Giotto’s Butternut Squash Triangoli, cooked
Grated parmesan cheese* (optional)

*also purchased from Trader Joe’s

Directions:

Heat a nonstick skillet to medium-high heat. Slice and cook sausage til brown. Transfer sausage to a plate covered wtih a paper towel, without losing any of the drippings. There won’t be very much as it is.
Heat olive oil in the same skillet, and cook the onion and garlic until the onions become soft, scraping up the bits of the sausage drippings that have now browned. Add about 4-6 turns of the Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning.
Add brussels sprouts and cook until slightly softened but crunchy, about 10-15 minutes.
While the brussels sprouts are cooking, prepare the triangoli according to package directions.
Toss everything together, add some the sun-dried tomatoes and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
EAT.