Trader Joe's in Texas!

For the longest time I have been tracking the news awaiting the opening of Trader Joe's in Plano, TX. A Trader Joe's opened up in Fort Worth, TX earlier this year, but Mike and I never made the hour drive down there.  Well, the Plano location opened up in early September and I finally made it down there with a friend two weeks after the store opened.  We checked the store out on a Saturday afternoon and it was SUPER CROWDED! I guess I'll have to go back to the store during the week or after the newness of the store dies down. 

I love perusing grocery stores. I think Mike might have mocked this hobby of mine in a previous post, but I enjoy seeking out new products and trying them, and sometimes wondering how they were processed or who was the co-packer that produced the item. 
This SHELF-STABLE box of whipping cream was one of my finds.  I've seen UHT (ultra high temperature) processed milk before, but never heavy cream.  I haven't tried it out yet, but this is a perfect solution to my baking needs. Sometimes recipes call for whipping cream and I have to make a special trip to the market just for a carton of cream.  Now I can have it on hand in my pantry. 

I heard that Trader Joe's was selling a Speculoos Cookie Butter like the one we purchased in France.  I tried it the other day, and I cannot taste a difference.  My guess is that the company that manufactures the Biscoff Speculoos also packages this product for Trader Joe's. 

My all time favorite Trader Joe's cookies, their Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Don't get me wrong, most of Trader Joe's cookies are yummy, but these crunchy cookies do not last long in my house. 

Sliced Honey Roasted Almonds-This is a new item at the store. I bought this bag to put on salads, but the bag was empty before I could use it on a salad.  I'll be purchasing them again.

I bought this bag of fruit leather pieces for Mike and apparently he took the bag to work and ate it in three days.  I usually buy him the all fruit bars, but this bag contains the extra "scrap" (well that's my guess).  It's still just like the fruit bars, but the "ugly" pieces.  If the process of making the bars produces a lot of scrap, this is a great way for a company to make a little extra profit.  This is assuming that the processing and packaging equipment is already available and adds extra cost to the product.

Olive Bread-I thought the bread was tasty.  It's full of a bunch of kalamata olives and you can eat it plain.  Mike must have liked this bread too because it quickly disappeared from our kitchen counter. 

 

I cannot wait to go back to Trader Joe's to try other new items. Mike and I have to clean out our freezer a bit more so that I can stock our freezer with different frozen foods from Trader Joe's.