To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme, post a photo that you (or a friend of family member) have taken. Then leave a direct link to your post on West Metro Mommy. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
Part of living the way I want my life to turn out (see my post from Thursday), means enjoying treats that I want in my future too. So I have no problem buying these mini croissants from Trader Joe's and letting them rise overnight.
They're so tiny when I lay them on my battered cookie sheet the night before. The next morning they've risen so high.
I brush beaten egg onto the risen croissant then bake them.
Yum, they're delicious with homemade strawberry jam or honey.
That's it. Pumpkin products have "jumped the shark."
I mean, there was a time when pumpkin could be bought in just a few forms, the whole pumpkin for jack o lantern carving or the pre-made pie. Sure, you could get pumpkin in a can to make your own pie or pumpkin bread, but then somewhere along the line the products exploded.
I'll admit that a few weeks ago at Trader Joe's I did buy Grace some pumpkin spice coffee along with a box of pumpkin fruit and grain bars. I thought they were both rather exotic.
The next week, Earl and I sampled the pumpkin risotto. That was tasty too.
But when I went to Trader Joe's on Saturday, my senses exploded with pumpkin.
Pumpkin cream cheese
Pumpkin macarons
Pumpkin and cranberry crisps
Pumpkin Croissants
Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin body butter (I wonder if you can eat it too?)
Pita crisps with cranberries and pumpkin seeds
Pumpkin biscotti
Pumpkin butter (in a jar like peanut butter)
Pumpkin chocolate mousse cake
The guy at the check out lane admitted they had about 16 new pumpkin products this week. Yes, I did buy the pumpkin croissants, but only because Grace is home this weekend on mid-semester break.
I found a blog post where the writer taste tested many pumpkin products from Trader Joe's last year and graphed them according to most pumpkin-y to least pumpkin-y. You can find her blog at Serious Eats. This year, she would have even more products to sample.
I feel strongly that pumpkin has gone too far.
Gotten too big for its britches, if you will.
It's like the former pep squad member who is suddenly crowned homecoming queen. This can only end in disappointment.
Meanwhile, the pumpkin croissants are rising on the stove and I'll let you know how those taste -- later.
Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Wine is another one of those items we always bring home from France. Our friend Michel usually accompanies Earl to a wine store, a magasin de vin, and they pick out six bottles for us to take home, three in each of our suitcases. Some time in our travels we determined this was the allowable amount and we never declare them, although now I read that we are only allowed one liter of wine per person without paying customs charges of 3%. Oops. Good wine is so much less expensive in France.
Earlier this year, I was thrilled to find a wine I liked at Trader Joe's. I'm a sweet wine drinker and the Moscato d'Asti was sweet and sparkling and cost about $10 per bottle. That made me happy until our anniversary in June. That's when Earl went to the basement and brought up a bottle of our French wine. It was a dessert wine, so it was sweet too, and so much richer than the Moscato d'Asti.
Here's a comparison between the bottle I
bought this weekend and a regular bottle.
Later in the week when I tried to go back to the moscato, it tasted like sparkling Kool Aid. I looked at the bottle and realized the alcohol content was only 4.5%. The French anniversary wine had an alcohol content of 13.4%.
This weekend, as I stood in front of the wine section at Trader Joe's, I decided to splurge a little. Earl was leaving for a week-long camping trip, so I picked up a tiny bottle of Sauternes wine for $20.
I also threw in a bouquet of flowers to enjoy this week too, giving myself a little stay-cation.
Grace was home briefly this afternoon and I decided that we should open the wine. I probably used an entirely wrong kind of wine glass, but I thought these shorter glasses went well with the tiny bottle of wine.
Mmmmmm. It lived up to my expectations.
Sweet and rich, with 14% alcohol, so it didn't remind me of Kool Aid or pop.
I still think the wine is a little expensive, but I suppose it's less expensive than flying to France to buy some more wine. Although I'd prefer, to fly over and pick out my own.
Oh, Trader Joe's, why do you tempt me?
I bought this bottle of wine just because of the bottle shape and the lovely golden color.
When Tucker walked in from school, he was immediately drawn to the bottle too. "What is this?" he asked.
"Wine,"I said.
"Can I open it?" he asked. Of course, he's too young to drink, but he said he didn't want to taste it, he was just drawn to open it.
There's something definitely alluring about this bottle and the color.
I let him open it and as the cork slipped out it popped. The moscato d'asti apparently has bubbles!
I poured a little bit in a glass to taste it and sealed it. I hope it's still good when Earl gets home tonight. I'd hate to have to drink it all alone.
As if the tempting wine was not enough, around the next corner at Trader Joe's, I found these holiday favorites: shortbread cookies covered with chocolate.
To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend
or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's
blog At Home
With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long
as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give
in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you
find online.
After my run this morning, I visited Trader Joe's to stock up on milk, fruits, vegetables and cheeses. I like visiting Trader Joe's early on Saturday mornings because it isn't as busy. I also like that it gives me a sampler breakfast.
This morning, slices of baguette with butter and boysenberry jam. Yum.
Then I moved a foot to the left and poured myself a shot of coffee with a little cream. This tiny cup of coffee was perfect to get me through my shopping trip until I could get home and find a regular-sized cup of coffee.
The photos aren't too creative, but they were tasty.
When Grace came back from France in December, she brought an array of delicately scented soaps that she bought for 1 Euro each in the market in Aix en Provence.
We cherished each one. The olive oil soap bathing our dry winter skin. The lemon verbena with its sharp scent waking us in the mornings. The lavender soap soothing us with its calming fragrance. Those soaps are long gone now, so while walking through Trader Joe's, I stopped at the soap section and debated. The oatmeal soap was inexpensive. So was the honey soap, but I was lured in by the blue soap with bits of lavender added. $3.99 seemed a little pricey for 1 bar of soap, but I figured it was cheaper than a flight to France and visit to the market in Provence. So I bought it.
I did not anticipate the complaints from the men in my house. Little pieces of lavender left in the bathtub or that they needed to rinse off their bodies afterward apparently annoyed them. One of them even called the soap, "Hairy." So I stopped buying the lavender soap and switched to the honey or oatmeal.
Then Grace and I were at Trader Joe's yesterday, looking at soaps again. I looked longingly at the lavender soap, even picking it up to read the label "Bisous de Provence" which means kisses from Provence. Then I reluctantly replaced it on the shelf.
"I love that soap," I said.
"Me too," Grace said.
"Wait, I thought you hated it."
"No, that's just Dad and the boys. I say we get it and let them deal with it."
And we did. Now my morning shower involves the sweet scent of lavender, and an extra rinse at the end to remove the hairiness.
It's one way to bring a little of southern France to my life everyday -- without the expensive flight.
I'm always on the lookout for a new pasta shape. Those Italians, or those marketers, whoever come up with the different shapes, intrigue me.
I found a bag I'd never seen before at Trader Joe's. The pasta was called orecchiette. I've heard this pasta advertised at The Olive Garden and they say something like or-uh-k-etty. The word, I guess, means ear and I could see these as little ear shaped pasta, until I cooked them.
The little cup shaped pastas stacked up and stuck together to form long columns. And from the top, they looked like circumcised penises.
From the side, they still looked like the top of circumcised penises.
When I was searching for pasta to make pasta salad for the graduation party, Trader Joe's was out of the farfalle I wanted to buy. The woman at the register suggested I try the orecchiette.
"Oh, no," I said. "I've tried those before."
When I told her my opinion on the shape, she just laughed and suggested I had too many boys in my life.
Now that's a true statement.
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