Trader Joes

I live in an area of the city where I have an abundance of stores to shop at. One of them is Trader Joes which is about a year old now. I find that there are a number of products that I like to purchase from them. One of them is a newly arrived item... a tofu veggie burger.

My wife is a vegetarian and for years I have sampled every burger type of product on the market in addition to testing a number of recipes. Nothing has passed mustard with her. She got back from an overnight business trip to California yesterday and we went up on the deck for dinner. A tofu burger with lettuce, tomato and red onion, kettle chips, dill pickles and lemon cake for dessert. A nice bottle of white wine also. SUCCESS... she liked it.

Not very gourmet but I am not a gourmet cook. I did not start cooking till I was around forty or fifty and I started from not only scratch but lower than scratch. So most, if not all of my food items will be somewhat simple. But I only cook for the two of us so what matters is how we feel about what we are doing. Grimod once commented that my cooking efforts were pathetic... LOL... he was pretty much on target.

In any case, life goes on.

Tim

[Jenise]

Tim, if you're taking the time to cook at home when you had no skills there whatsoever and are tackling the additional challenge of looking for ways to make your vegetarian wife happy, then by my definition no matter what shows up on the plate you are far from pathetic!

You learn a bit with every meal, don't you find?

Have you tried Trader Joe's tamales? Presuming your wife is not vegan, they make a green chile/cheese tamale that's quite good. And tamales make a great lunch food when plated with a chopped tomato salad (thinking of your other post)--just dice the tomato and toss with (hopefully you both like it) some chopped cilantro, a bit of diced onion and small amounts of oil, vinegar, salt and papper. You're basically creating a pico de gallo. If she likes beans, Trader Jose might make a vegetarian canned bean with Mexican flavor enhancements that would turn your lunch plate into a dinner plate.