Trader Joe's Outside-In Stuffed Gnocchi

Finally, it's officially fall. The afternoons are still quite warm here in the midwest, but it was nice and cool yesterday morning, so we were craving something hot and somewhat hearty for lunch. We'd normally do pierogies on that kind of day, but lacking those, we opted for gnocchi. Similar, right? Heated in the skillet with butter and/or oil, potatoes, cheese... I mean, they're not exactly the same, but a pierogi craving could certainly be curbed with gnocchi, no?

I fired up the stove top, took a couple product pics for the blog, and tore open the bag. And then...I followed the heating instructions exactly.

What resulted was nothing resembling pasta or dumplings, but little balls of mashed potatoes with bits of cheese and tomato sauce inside. I mean, "mushy" would be an understatement. The taste was perfectly fine. What's not to like about the taste of potatoes, mozzarella cheese, and something vaguely reminiscent of marinara sauce? Nothing. Delish.

The texture was another story. The gnocchi would often rupture or disintegrate as I stirred them. You can see one specimen in the pic is showing its tomatoey insides there where I accidentally punctured it during the heating process. I took a few bites, somewhat disappointed with the uber-soft squishiness of my gnocchi...but then I discovered a piece that had not been stirred properly. It had sat right in one spot for more than six minutes. It was a deep brown on its underside, nearly burnt. It was perfect! The outer shell was firm, chewy, nearly crispy. 

So...I simply heated the uneaten portion a bit longer. And by "a bit longer," I guess I mean a lot longer. I stopped looking at the clock and just watched the food. Once the gnocchi were all nicely browned, I turned off the burner. After that, these little guys made a great warm lunch on a cool day.

The gnocchi are super-filling and dense. They are indeed like pierogies, but still significantly softer, even when cooked extra long, and their shells are actually potato based, rather than pasta filled with potato. The cheese and sauce are pretty tasty, although there's not quite enough of either. One blurb on the bag states, "The sauce is on the inside!" Farther down in the heating instructions, it says to add your own favorite sauce. Smh. Which is it? Stop sending mixed messages, Mr. Joe.

We ate ours without extra sauce, and we liked them just fine, although Sonia would have preferred a lot more of the tomato-based topping and would have added more if we had it. 

Three and a half stars a piece on this one. $2.99 for a pound. Pretty darn good value if you ask me.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Maple Ginger Cookie Swirl Ice Cream

If you're ever in the area of Waterbury, VT, you'll likely stop by the Ben & Jerry's Factory for at least a scoop of ice cream. Or...you can be like my family and attack a Vermonster as a gang tackle. But regardless, you're likely gonna stop, simply because it's Ben & Jerry's. It's ice cream. It's iconic. It's kinda just what you do without asking.

This doesn't mean that Ben & Jerry's is the best ice cream in Vermont.

Sure, it's the most famous....but you can also buy it anywhere. For an even better ice cream experience, and to miss the occasional hour long wait for a scoop, drive just a little further down Route 100 towards Stowe to Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Or make a quick jaunt to Morse Sugar House right outside Montpelier. Or stop at any other maple shack or cider mill or any cute little country store where you see the magic words "maple cremee," and extra bonus points if you get maple sugar sprinkled atop. Even my kids liked them more than Ben & Jerry's. Take that, Unilever.

It's not quite the same, but man, Trader Joe's Maple Ginger Cookie Swirl Ice Cream is pretty dang good in its own right.

How to begin? Oh man. Just rip off the lid and take a long, deep whiff. Mmmmm. Maple. *drool*. There's no mistaking the scent. It's like a Yankee Candle, but even better, it's okay to eat it!

And eat it you will. Don't even need a scoop and bowl. Just let your spoon slide into the soft ice cream base and navigate around the small ginger cookie dough nibbles interspersed here and there. Let it glide into your mouth and slowly melt over your tongue and let the maple flavor seep in. It's rich and creamy and unbelievably sweet but in an authentic manner. It's real maple syrup used here, probably Grade B as there's unmistakable deep maple taste and plenty enough sugar from the ice cream base to sweeten the whole deal. Ooooooooo.

My only really small nitpicky oh-goodness-why-am-I-even-mentioning-this comment is the ginger cookie swirl. There's plenty enough of it, don't get me wrong. But...it's not gingery enough. I really wanted a ginger bite to play off the maple sweetness and maybe just remind me a little of my favorite TJ's ice cream that has shuffled off this mortal coil. Surprisingly, it's triple ginger snap cookie dough listed on the ingredients...I see that but I don't taste it. There's still some of the pint to go, so maybe I just haven't mined the proper ginger ore quite yet.

The pint cost $3.99 which is about the going rate for a ice cream of this quality. Good thing they printed the nutritional facts for the whole shebang, otherwise I'd be tempted to just plow my way through. Absolutely delicious. No complaints at all from the Mrs, it's plenty enough maple even for her which says a lot. I'll stand by my ginger comment for now, but believe me, we'll be buying this as long as TJ's lets us.

Bottom line: Trader Joe's Maple Ginger Cookie Swirl Ice Cream: 9 out of 10 Golden Spoons