Steal These Valentines
02.13.07
Are you racing around like a lunatic looking for something unique to bestow upon your sweetie tomorrow? Well, it’s too late for gorgeous handmade jewelry from So Charmed (there’s always next year though!), but have you considered your local Trader Joe’s grocery store? No? What’s wrong with you?
After ignoring TJ’s for over a year I returned last weekend and was pleasantly surprised to find vast improvements in their offerings… the produce was WAY better and the gourmet prepared foods were fabulous, creative (eggplant parmesan with filo dough!) and will keep me happliy microwaving for the whole week. But what really hooked me were the unusual and remakably well-priced exotic treats that TJ’s is famous for, such as edible, sort of candied, dried Hibiscus flowers (shown above and below) which have a delicate cranberryish flavor that is truthfully nowhere near as exciting as the visuals… they seriously look like weird aliens. Even run of the mill strawberries were spectacular visually (lots of leafiness and some stems!) and produced a pop of crispy tart-juicy flavor when I finally finished photographing them and served them up for breakfast.
Molly and I have been late to school two mornings running now due to my “need” to photograph foods purchased last weekend at TJ’s. The least I could do was share, right? So, if you don’t have time to pick some up, or you are one of those poor unfortunates that doesn’t have TJ’s, Whole Foods, and an actual old-school Food Co-op fiercely competing for your food dollars, yank these photographic valentines off the blog and pass them on. But you better at least show up with chocolate in person… and I KNOW you have a drugstore nearby so get going, it’s slim pickin’s out there at this point.
