Trader Joe's in Williamsburg is opening December 10!

 I guess I will buy capers and nuts and buttermilk and gorgonzola more often.

Trader Joe's Williamsburg outpost will officially open Friday, Dec. 10, the store announced Thursday. https://t.co/TfEsO0UJhZ

— Brooklyn Paper (@brooklynpaper) December 3, 2021

This price of mussels is a disgrace! My blog is a scam.

 I just tweeted about potato salad, which led to linking to my blog, so I came here. And what do I see?

That is a scam! 2 pounds of mussels should be about $3.

Here's the tweet:

I made one of the top 3 best potato salads I've made in my life this weekend. I covered the potatoes with tapenade, some chopped up hot cherry peppers, and more capers (besides what was in the tapenade). Pungent potato salad!

— Mike Cherepko (@mikecherepko) July 19, 2021

Trader Joe's on the Lower East Side

I went there tonight. I wanted to get 3 things: a jar of capers, a bag of peanuts, and gorgonzola. I got 10 things. I also got 2 bags of orzo for $0.99/each, a box of water crackers, a bag of frozen brussels sprouts, a quart of buttermilk, a 2 lb bag of sweet potatoes, and a can of cannellini beans. I spent $17.42.

It was my first time at this store. It's pretty new. It's in the basement of a new building, so I didn't have cell phone service. I dislike that, but New York's zoning code forces retail into basements. The store was vast! Too vast! I had to walk all over the place. There's an almost empty corridor from the frozen section to the regular groceries. Once I made it to the nut area, I would definitely not walk back for something I might have forgotten early.

It was pretty empty and the line was short at 9:15, and it's right over the Williamsburg Bridge, so I'll go back. I just thought it was too big.

Pumpkin Pasta using Trader Joe's Ingredients

I just invented a new pasta dish. I'm not even done eating it yet. As I was making it, I realized almost all my ingredients were from Trader Joe's. It's pretty good. Here's the recipe.

1 lb (1 bag) whole wheat penne $1.39
1/2 can pumpkin (1 can is $1.99)
1/2 stick of butter
a bunch of diced onion
a bunch of capers (a jar is $3.69 at Trader Joe's)
oregano ($1.99 for a jar at trader joe's)
grated parmesan (parmesan is $6.49/lb)
15 oz (1 can) cannelini beans (optional. $0.89)

Melt the butter and cook the onions until you can smells them. You can add salt and pepper and oregano at this point. Then add the pumpkin and capers. Beans if you want them. I like adding beans to pasta because the same things that make pasta taste good make beans taste good and beans are healthy. Add some of the pasta water to thin the sauce out a little. (Dip a coffee mug in that pot, pour it in the sauce pan.) Once you mix it all together, grate some cheese into it and stir it, then grate some more on top of your plate when you serve it.

I like whole wheat for this because it's nuttier than regular. I don't ever really want to eat whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, but it's great for this pumpkin sauce. Likewise, I like parmesan over pecorino romano for this because it's nuttier. Romano is my go to cheese, but parmesan's better here.

Ok, time for another bowl.

Tomatoes

It's tomato time. They are $0.99/lb at any store that wants you to buy tomatoes. They are more than that at farmers' markets where they are better and more than that at grocery stores that don't care if you buy tomatoes. (Just like how Associated, Food Bazaar, and Western Beef never care if you buy pasta from them. Some stores just aren't interested. You have to get pasta from C-Town or Key Food. Whole wheat pasta from Trader Joe's.)

Since Friday, I learned how to make panzanella. I had heard of it, but before I looked on wikipedia before making it Friday, I thought it might be soup. It is a salad. It's a salad of stale bread, tomatoes, cumbers, red onions, basil, olive oil, and whatever. I made it Friday and I thought "this is going to be the kind of thing people ask me to make more." And then Agnes loved it so I was right

On Sunday, I had some more stale bread but not much more inclination to cook besides missing my panzanella, so I went to get more ingredients. C-Town's circular said it had plum tomatoes for $0.99/lb and diet Mug Root Beer for some good price I don't remember (but it was probably 3/$4).

When I went there, I found slicing tomatoes for the same discounted price. I like plum tomatoes for sandwiches, but for a food that you want a bunch of extra juice to soak your stale bread, these were better. (The cashier rang them up as plum tomatoes. Maybe their inventory will be off, though the price was the same.) Basil was $2.59 or so, which is absurd ($1 at Jesus, $2 at Food Bazaar) so I improvised my recipe using herbes de provence. It was good.

Tonight I had a leftover tomato and still half a cucumber ($0.50 at C-Town. Off and on I see them cheaper, but it's not worth shopping around. I was happy with that price.) so I diced them and put them with a can of chick peas (probably $0.80 at Western Beef) with some olive oil that I am now out of. And capers ($3.49 for a big jar at Trader Joe's. No one can touch that price.) That was a good dinner.

It's the height of tomato season now, so I should find a famers' market to buy some. I thought I was living ok with tomatoes until 2 years ago when I ate a tomato my cousin grew. Tomatoes are supposed to taste great! I would pay $3/lb for a great tomato (I would only buy 1) but I would be jealous that my cousin gets them for free. And so does my brother by visiting him. He also grows basil. And dill. I never want to move, but sometimes I wish I could have tomatoes and basil and dill. And mint.