Suddenly *Not So* Single Journey

Happiness is Trader Joe’s Night…

Author: thenicknick

We talked about it for a long time.  We plotted.  We planned.  And it seemed that it would never happen.

Would our dream of eating our way through Trader Joe’s never come to fruition?

Oh, but it has.

Last night, the kids and I went to Trader Joe’s.  It was, after all, All You Can Eat Night at Bojangles.  That meant I didn’t even have to consider HIM for dinner.  Technically, he claims that I never have to consider him for dinner, but somehow I don’t have it in me to intentionally exclude him from something as social as a meal, something that is a true representation of my love and adoration like cooking.

And that is what has kept us from partaking in Trader Joe night thus far.

So, yesterday afternoon when I texted him about our date night, and he failed to respond…ever…I decided that I was making it Trader Joe’s Night.  And that was that.  I drove home from work, picked up the kids, and then we drove to our destination.

It isn’t a large store.  It doesn’t have a huge selection.  But the selection it does have is soooo wildly different from what we normally buy that I didn’t mind.

In the end, we decided to pick up Asparagus Risotto, Goat Cheese and Herb puffs, and finally, our main course of Ham and Cheese filo puffs.  It promised to be a great meal.

After discovering that the chocolate croissants from there needed to be thawed over night,  a lesson learned the hard way, we checked the instructions before leaving the store.  Nope.  It looked like dinner would be on the table in approximately twenty-five minutes.  Sweet!

Well, dinner was served, as promised.  And it was everything I had hoped for.

In fact, the meal inspired discussion about what we would be getting next week.  We’re thinking of going with a mushroom theme.  Yes, there were these filo pastries filled with wild mushrooms.  There was a foccaccia flat bread with cheese and wild mushrooms and black truffles.  There was wild mushroom risotto.

Yeah, I know.  It’s looking like another carb-tastic meal.  For the record, there was lots of green this last meal.  There was asparagus and herbs.  There were herbs.   And there was…did I mention herbs?  Okay.  Well, it was about the experience and the flavor and the soul, not the health benefits.

Please note, I was strong.  I refused to pick up dessert, much to the kids’ chagrin.  And, this incredible repast…just over ten dollars, including tax.  Yup.  We’re the best shoppers EVER.

It felt good, same as always, following through with something we said we were going to do.  It even gave us a leg up on some of our other plans for the year.

Rachel: This makes me want to have a party sooo bad.

And I kind of looked at her for a moment.

Rachel: You know, an adult party with lots of hors d’oeuvres and finger foods.  No kids.  Okay, Ashley.  But otherwise, no kids!

And she’s right.  Looking at our lists, we have at least one more party in us this year.  So, I guess you could argue that the Trader Joe nights serve not only as a new meal for me and the kids, but as research for future endeavors.  Yeah.  That’s it.

Trader Joe’s, my belly thanks you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 7:19 am and is filed under Happiness is.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.