A decided MEH on these Cacio e Pepe cheese puffs. The partner snagged them from the work kitchen. They’re crunchier than my much beloved white cheddar puffs, and have a saltier, ‘tangy’ edge. They DO have a distinct black pepper note that lingers and is t unpleasant at all. They’re a little too much salt and msg heavy, and I don’t like the pepper note enough to make up for that. But that’s just my preference. They’re not bad by any means. Just not my thing. They were free, so that’s fine. Won’t be buying them.
Stir fried some beef (I know, traditionally braised shank, but it’s what I had), spread on some hoisin, garnished liberally with cilantro and boom. Homemade beef roll!!!
Ideally they’d be a little thinner for rolling, but folding em like a taco works just fine. A+, will buy again, at least til I’m motivated to try making them from scratch.
Yea: Chocolate Coffee Granola. This is basically little chocolate-oat clusters, made with both Dutch process cocoa and actual chocolate. Not something to have a bowl of with milk, but as a topping or snack. Good dark chocolate flavor, not too sweet, nicely crunchy. The coffee is very much in the background.
Yea: Slightly Coated Dark Chocolate Almonds. TJ’s regular dark chocolate-covered almonds aren’t my favorite, as I find the chocolate coating too thick and the ratio off for my taste. These are dry-roasted almonds with a thin and crisp chocolate coating, rolled in cocoa. The roasted almond flavor comes through well, and the ratio is more to my liking. (They also allegedly have sea salt and maple sugar, though neither are really detectable to me.)
The chili dried mangos are a forever yea for me, though there’s a reason I rarely buy them. Now I need to put them away and forget about them or they’ll be gone way too quickly.
I thawed then cooked at 400° bake in toaster oven along with coconut shrimp. To serve I dabbed some New Zealand butter and grey sea salt. The artichoke tasted like nothing.
What I meant was that they don’t taste like much on their own – they’re usually marinated, or made with garlic & herb breadcrumbs, dipped into lemon or garlic butter, or battered and fried, and so on. So maybe they need some treatment beyond salt.
YAY: Tiny hold the cone with coffee bean ice cream.
YAY: (I think) Silicone storage bags. Over a month ago I bought something similar, more $, from Amazon. I really do think they work, keep my baby cukes fresh longer, better than the Debbie Meyer green bags. A bit hard to zip closed but maybe it’s because they are new.
Is your experience that all silicon bags can be hard to close, or just these TJ ones? I’ve been thinking about trying silicon bags on and off for a while now, but have never taken the plunge.
