When I was growing up in Los Angeles, we lived down the street from one of the very first Trader Joe's (Eagle Rock). My family moved up to Portland when I was nine and one of the things that we all missed most was Trader Joe's. My parents, sister and I were all thrilled when the expanded north to Portland. These days I am lucky to live three blocks from the Center City Philly Trader Joe's and do more than half of my grocery shopping there. I know that there are many folks out there who practically live at their local Trader Joe's and now there's a cookbook expressly for them. Written by Dana Gunn and Wona Miniati, Cooking with all Things Trader Joe's, offers more than 250 pages of recipes and photos in which all the dishes are made with ingredients from TJ's. Their theory is that we could all cook tasty and beautiful meals, if only we hand someone to help with the prep. Trader Joe's becomes your sous chef and these recipes makes it possible to create an array of dishes using just a few things straight off the shelves.
It's a fun book, with lots of big, colorful pictures and easy to understand recipes. It would make a great gift for a new cook or someone who doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook (most of the recipes come together really quickly). For those of you who are thinking about getting yourself a copy, the authors have a special deal to offer Slashfood readers. If you buy it from their website, you can get $5 off if you input the code SLASH5 when you're checking out (this offer is good through April 31st).
4-14-2008 @2:02PM doodoolemonque said... We live in Asheville, NC and have no Trader Joe's. This would seem to be an ideal market for them, as Asheville is often referred to as the Berkeley of the East. They recently opened in Charlotte, 2 hours away, thank goodness. But, Western North Carolina would be a gold mine for them. Anybody with any juice with TJs reading this? C'mon boys, get of the stick!! Ashevillians are waiting for you!
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4-14-2008 @2:28PM Mantelli said... Bad code, no biscuit! That link to the cookbook authors' site has an extraneous "%" in it. Please edit it.
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4-14-2008 @2:56PM KF said... Well, I note it's on sale, and with the slashie code, it MAY be worth it, but for some reason, I was unwilling to purchase this due to the high price. I'm a cookbook junkie and I've plunked down $40 before just because it looked pretty, but we're talking world class stuff here -- not Trader Joe's. Admittedly, I do more than half my shopping at TJ's as well, but something about spending $30 on a cookbook based on what I consider to be budget friendly foods, isn't budget friendly and is against the TJ's spirit. I dunno, the price just pissed me off. I'll consider it after I see someone's copy, first. I have to flip through it and say "oooh" alot before I'll plunk down that much.
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