I’m just going to come right out and say it. I love Trader Joe’s. I love it so much that I want to live there.
If you don’t know what Trader Joe’s is, let me enlighten you. It’s heaven on earth. It’s the most succulent, fresh, unusual, delicious, clever, creative food, drink and goodies that you can find on this planet. And all from such good people. Click here for the Wikipedia entry.
My daughter and I took a road trip to California to see my dad for Christmas. It’s been over 10 years since the group of us have gotten together for the holidays and since Beverly just got her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Applied Archaeology (don’t ask ‘cause I have no idea what she’ll do with it), we thought this year would be a good time to go.
I love road trips. You get to sing badly in the car as loudly as you want to songs that you would never admit to anyone that you listen to, much less have a cd of. (Yeah, I know, it ended in a preposition) You get to visit small towns with great food and big towns with crappy motels. But I digress.
My father lives near the mother lode of Trader Joe’s… the hom
e office/store in Monrovia. We saved our trip to the store for our last night in California. It was ending the trip in Utopia. Pumpkin/pecan/chocolate tart-pie. Yogurt cheese (I had never heard of that!) Dark chocolate covered mixed nuts. Happy Face Shiraz. Organic produce. Fresh sushi. (not my favorite, but Beverly could eat it every meal). A “guacamole kit.” Lime rice from India. Nut butters. I can’t bear to go on. Everything that is good for you, and at prices that are as good as mainstream grocery stores, or better!
I want to live there.
I know, I know… what about the fact that I want to live at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago? Well, I have worked out a plan. I’ll live in the spring and the fall at the Palmer House, and the summer and the winter at Trader Joe’s.
More about the road trip in another post. In the meantime, I just got this release from iDrink.com and it looked like fun, so I thought I would re-post it. But before I do… I invite you to join us this week on A Closer Look. We’ll be chatting with Mary Ellen Psaltis about the twelve essential nutrients for well-being… a perfect way to start the new year! Click here to go directly to the Achieve Radio site. (you will not pass GO, nor receive $200, but you might find an interview or two that you want to listen to!)
From iDrink.com….
If you are planning to host a New Years party this year you might be looking for some help to make it extra special or at the very least more unique. A part of most New Years Eve parties is various alcoholic drinks. Instead of just providing (or having guests bring their own) the regular beer, wine, rum, vodka and rye, why not create a theme around the drinks available.
There are various cocktails and shooters that have a Holiday theme to their names or appearance. A quick visit to www.idrink.com/newyears.html shows more than 25 different recipe ideas with a Holiday theme. One idea is to setup a table with the various ingredients for the drinks with smallrecipe cards and the appropriate glasses so everyone can be their own bartender.
Here is a sample of some recipes to try:
North Pole Cocktail
1.0 dollop Whipped Cream
1.0 each Egg White
1.0 oz. Gin
0.5 oz. Lemon juice
0.5 oz. Maraschino
Shake all ingredients (except whipped cream) with ice and strain
into a cocktail glass. Top with whipped cream and serve.
Celebration
Click on photo to check out HostessWithMostess website!
1.0 oz Cognac
1.0 oz Cointreau
1.0 oz Lemon juice
1.5 oz Rum
Shake over ice and pour into cocktail glass. Garnish with orange peel.
Steaming Hot Holiday Punch Recipe
3.0 cups Apple Juice
1.5 teaspoons ground Cinnamon
3 sticks Cinnamon
0.75 teaspoon ground Cloves
6.0 cups Cranberry juice
0.75 cup Maple syrup
0.75 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
3.0 cups Orange juice
2.0 teaspoons powdered Sugar
Combine all the ingredients in a very large heavy pan, except
the cinnamon sticks. Bring to a boil and turn to simmer for
few minutes. You can put the ingredients in a crockpot after
it has boiled and keep warm over low heat.
After the party is over and you have lots of leftovers you can head on over to www.idrink.com again and enter the ingredients you have to find all the other drinks you can make with them. iDRINK has over 32000 cocktail recipes to experiment with. Have a happy holiday season, don’t over indulge and please drink responsibly.
Indeed. Till next time….
XX
P
